Chlotrudis Looks at Films Focused on Geography

Recently a new Chlotrudis member, Philip, posed a question on the Chlotrudis discussion list for a friend who wanted to know if there were any films focusing on geography, either documentary or narrative. He is pursuing his graduate degree in Geography and Geographic Information Systems. Aside from the Stellar Cartography scenes in the Star Trek TNG films, Philip couldn't think of anything off-hand, but when posed with this challenge, Chlotrudis members came back with several suggestions. We thought it might be nice to provide the list for any curiosity seekers who might wonder the same thing. Here they are... films about geography!

• Berlin: Die Symphonie der Großstadt (Berlin: Symphony of a City) (doc; Walter Ruttmann)


• David Thompson: the Great Mapmaker (narrative short; Bernard Devlin)


• Encounters at the End of the World (doc; Werner Herzog)


• Fata Morgana (narrative; Werner Herzog)


• Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (The Gleaners & I) (doc; Agnes Varda)


• An Inconvenient Truth (doc; Davis Guggenheim)


• Keep the River on your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale (doc; David and Laurie Shapiro)


• La Soufriere (doc/short; Werner Herzog)


• Lektionen in Finsternis (Lessons in Darkness) (doc; Werner Herzog)


• Manhatta (doc/short; Charles Sheeler/Paul Strand)


• Chelovek s kino-apparatom (The Man with the Movie Camera) (doc; Dziga Vertov)


• Map of the Human Heart (narrative; Vincent Ward)


• The Mapmaker (narrative; Johnny Gogan)


• Manufactured Landscapes (doc; Jennifer Baichwal)


• My Winnipeg (doc/narrative; Guy Maddin)


• Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea (doc; Chris Metzler; Jeff Springer)


• À propos de Nice (doc/short; Jean Vigo)


• Regen (doc/short; Mannus Franken/Joris Ivens)


• Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time (doc; Thomas Riedelsheimer)


• Tuvalu (narrative; Veit Helmer)


• Winged Migration (doc; Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats)

Can you think of anymore? Add to this list by posting in the comments.

Chris Kriofske's Top Ten of 2007

I made a much more detailed, rambling post on my blog, but here's the gist:

1. There Will Be Blood
2. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
3. Away From Her
4. I'm Not There
5. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
6. Persepolis
7. Day Night Day Night
8. The Host
9. No Country For Old Men
10. Brand Upon the Brain!

Honorable Mentions: Autism the Musical, Climates, The Golden Door, I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, In The Shadow of the Moon, Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, Linda Linda Linda, The Lives of Others, Red Road

Best Festival Films (w/out US distribution): Audience of One, The Banishment, Monkey Warfare

Best Chlotrudis non-eligible: Ratatouille, Sweeney Todd, Superbad, Zodiac

Top Films of 2007: The Members Start to Speak

Every year around this time, Chlotrudis members report in on their Top 10's (or whatever) of the previous year. We're a little behind the press because our Nominating Committee meeting is usually the third week of January, and members try very hard to see as many films from the previous year as possible, so they hold off on their top films until they feel they've seen everything they can.

Member Peg Aloi is the first to send in her Top 10, so here it is!

Peg's Top Ten List for 2007 (not necessarily in order)

1. THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY (Ken Loach's most ambitious and stunning film to date.)


2. PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER (Gorgeous, disturbing, epic literary adaptation from Tom Tykwer)


3. ATONEMENT (Joe Wright's sumptuous adaptation Ian McEwan's smoldering love story. Drop-dead beautiful cinematography, wonderful editing and fine acting)


4. THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY aka LE SCAPHANDRE ET LE PAPILLON (Julian Schnabel creates half-formed visionscapes of color and light to tell the story of a jet-setting French magazine editor who suffers "locked-in syndrome" after a stroke; ostensibly a world-view via one eye-lid's movement, this film can irrevocably alter any viewer's perception of life, movement, fear, love, memory and regret.)


5. LADY CHATTERLEY aka LADY CHATTERLEY ET L'HOMME DES BOIS (A satisfyingly erotic adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's novel, first made for French television by Pascale Ferran: authentic, rustic, arousing.)


6. LA VIE EN ROSE aka LA MÔME (Marion Cotillard is white-hot and astonishing as the hard-living, self-destructive singing sensation Edith Piaf in Olivier Dahan's beautifully-rendered biopic.)


7. I'M NOT THERE (Todd Haynes' five-chambered non-linear fantasy is huge, lush and eminently watchable, with a playfully surreal approach to what is being called a biopic but is more accurately a wishful memoir: my favorite Dylan is the Richard Gere Dylan.)


8. GLASTONBURY (Julian Temple directs this freewheeling documentary about England's famous long-running music festival. It’s not England's Woodstock, it's England's attempt to consistently capture a time of passionate, angry innocence.)


9. FACTORY GIRL (George Hickenlooper directs Sienna Miller as Edie Sedgwick, and her performance is luminous and raw. As a biopic it is sometimes cock-eyed and treacly, but worthwhile, especially considering Guy Pearce's portrayal as the best Andy Warhol ever.)


10. HOT FUZZ (Every corny cop movie ever made is referenced in this hilarious, brilliant action-horror flick. I can't wait to see what the team of Pegg, Frost and Wright does next, because it isn't likely another genre-based parody will work three times running.)

Honorable Mentions:

THE CASE OF THE GRINNING CAT aka CHATS PERCHÉS(Chris Marker's sweet, funny, quirky documentary, about a painted cat who pops up in neighborhood graffiti and on posters at protest rallies, is a quietly triumphant paean to the underdog, or in this case, undercat.

AFTER THE WEDDING aka EFTER BRÖLLOPE (Director Susanne Bier draws excellent performances from Mads Mikkelsen and Rolf Lassgård; this drama of family secrets and revelations is a roller-coaster of emotion that is thoughtful, depressing and, ultimately, uplifting.)

28 WEEKS LATER (No one expected a sequel to match the intensity and originality of Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's original, but this one works surprisingly well, successfully combining British and American cultural -isms to paint a scarily realistic picture of post-plague, martial-law-ruled London.