1. Vortex.
   (Gaspar Noé)
2. De uskyldige. (The Innocents)
   (Eskil Vogt)
3. Nr. 10. (No. 10)
   (Alex van Warmerdam)
4. Licorice Pizza.
   (Paul Thomas Anderson)
5. Flux Gourmet.
   (Peter Strickland)
6. Animals.
   (Nabil Ben Yadir)
7. Earwig.
   (Lucile Hadzihalilovic)
8. EO.
   (Jerzy Skolimowski)
9. Triangle of Sadness.
   (Ruben Östlund)
10. Mad God.
    (Phil Tippett)
    
    
    Would not have been misplaced in my top 10 either:
    Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.
    (Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson)
    R.M.N.
    (Cristian Mungiu)
    The Tragedy of Macbeth.
    (Joel Coen)
    La Nuit du 12. (The Night of the 12th)
    (The Night of the 12th)
    Inexorable.
    (Fabrice Du Welz)
    L’Événement. (Happening)
    (Audrey Diwan)
    Incroyable mais vrai. (Incredible But True) + Fumer fait tousser. (Smoking Causes Coughing)
    (Quentin Dupieux)
    Canción sin nombre. (Song Without a Name)
    (Melina León)
    Masking Threshold.
    (Johannes Grenzfurthner)
    Zabij to i wyjedz z tego miasta. (Kill It and Leave This Town)
    (Mariusz Wilczyński)
    Petrovy v grippe. (Petrov’s Flu)
    (Kirill Serebrennikov)
    Atlantis.
    (Valentyn Vasyanovych)
    Ultrasound.
    (Rob Schroeder)
    Boiling Point.
    (Philip Barantini)
    After Yang.
    (Kogonada)
    Ich bin dein Mensch. (I’m Your Man)
    (Maria Schrader)
    Le otto montagne. (The Eight Mountains)
    (Felix van Groeningen & Charlotte Vandermeersch)
    Drii Winter. (A Piece of Sky)
    (Michael Koch)
    L’Empire du silence. (Empire of Silence)
    (Thierry Michel)
    The Batman.
    (Matt Reeves)
    BARDO, Falsa crónica de unas cuantas verdades. (BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths)
    (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
    Tori et Lokita. (Tori and Lokita)
    (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
    À plein temps. (Full Time)
    (Eric Gravel)
    Red Rocket.
    (Sean Baker)
    Un autre monde. (Another World)
    (Stéphane Brizé)
    Sundown.
    (Michel Franco)
    Jaddeh Khaki. (Hit the Road)
    (Panah Panahi)
    Heojil kyolshim. (Decision to Leave)
    (Park Chan-wook)
    Competencia oficial. (Official Competition)
    (Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn)
    Rimini.
    (Ulrich Seidl)
    Falcon Lake.
    (Charlotte Le Bon)
    “Sr.”.
    (Chris Smith)
    
    
    Not bad either / of interest:
    RRR (Rise Roar Revolt) (S. S. Rajamouli)
    Nightmare Alley. (Guillermo del Toro)
    Saint Omer. (Alice Diop)
    Holy Spider. (Ali Abbasi)
    Enys Men. (Mark Jenkin)
    Große Freiheit. (Great Freedom) (Sebastian Meise)
    Rien à foutre. (Zero Fucks Given) (Emmanuel Marre & Julie Lecoustre)
    Poulet Frites. (For a Fistful of Fries) (Yves Hinant & Jean Libon)
    Cow. (Andrea Arnold)
    De humani corporis fabrica. (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)
    Baradaran-e Leila. (Leila’s Brothers)(Saeed Roustaee)
    Les Amandiers. (Forever Young)(Valeria Bruni Tedeschi)
    Bones and All. (Luca Guadagnino)
    Crimes of the Future. (David Cronenberg)
    Men. (Alex Garland)
    A Chiara. (Jonas Carpignano)
    As bestas. (The Beasts) (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)
    Zillion. (Robin Pront)
    M3GAN. (Gerard Johnstone)
    Duyster. (Thomas Vanbrabant & Jordi Ostir)
    Beurokeo. (Broker) (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
    Silent Night. (Camille Griffin)
    Viens je t’emmène. (Nobody’s Hero) (Alain Guiraudie)
    Żeby Nie Było Śladów. (Leave No Traces) (Jan P. Matuszyński)
    La Mif. (Fred Baillif)
    Walad Min Al Janna. (Boy from Heaven / Cairo Conspiracy) (Tarik Saleh)
    En même temps. (Benoît Delépine & Gustave Kervern)
    Guermantes + Le Lycéen (Winter Boy) (Christophe Honoré)
    Yi miao zhong. (One Second) (Zhang Yimou)
    The Stranger. (Thomas M. Wright)
    Top Gun: Maverick. (Joseph Kosinski)
    Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. (Sam Raimi)
    Wendell & Wild. (Henry Selick)
    The Northman. (Robert Eggers)
    Doraibu mai kâ. (Drive My Car) (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
    Clara Sola. (Nathalie Álvarez Mesén)
    Feathers. (Omar El Zohairy)
    The Wonder. (Sebastián Lelio)
    Funny Pages. (Owen Kline)
    La dernière tentation des belges. (The Last Temptation of the Belgians) (Jan Bucquoy)
    Zeria. (Harry Cleven)
    The Buke. (Roger Michell)
    Ambulance. (Michael Bay)
    En corps. (Rise) (Cédric Klapisch)
    Une jeune fille qui va bien. (A Radiant Girl) (Sandrine Kiberlain)
    Les Passagers de la nuit. (The Passengers of the Night) (Mikhaël Hers)
    L’Innocent. (The Innocent) (Louis Garrel)
    Coupez!. (Final Cut) (Michel Hazanavicius)
    Don’t Worry Darling. (Olivia Wilde)
    Lamb. (Valdimar Jóhannsson)
    Mes frères et moi. (Yohan Manca)
    L’Ennemi. (Stephan Streker)
    Les Cinq diables. (The Five Devils) (Léa Mysius)
    Fire of Love. (Sara Dosa)
    Close. (Lukas Dhont)
    White Noise. (Noah Baumbach)
    Corsage. (Marie Kreutzer)
    Avatar: The Way of Water (3D). (James Cameron)
    Les Promesses. (Thomas Kruithof)
    Hytti Nro 6. (Compartment No. 6) (Juho Kuosmanen)
    After Blue. (Paradis sale) (Bertrand Mandico)
    C’mon C’mon. (Mike Mills)
    Maigret. (Patrice Leconte)
    Belfast. (Kenneth Branagh)
    Peter von Kant. (François Ozon)
    Bigbug. (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
    
    

1. Possessor.
   (Brandon Cronenberg)
2. First Cow.
   (Kelly Reichardt)
3. Dau. Degeneration.
   (Ilya Khrzhanosky, Ilya Permyakov)
4. Annette.
   (Leos Carax)
5. The French Dispatch.
   (Wes Anderson)
6. The Card Counter.
   (Paul Schrader)
7. The Last Duel.
   (Ridley Scott)
8. Petite Fille. (Little Girl)
   (Sebastien Lifshitz)
9. David Byrne’s American Utopia.
   (Spike Lee)
10. Un Monde. (Playground)
    (Laura Wandel)
    
    Would not have been misplaced in my top 10 either:
    Ham on Rye.
    (Tyler Taormina)
    Never Rarely Sometimes Always.
    (Eliza Hittman)
    The Power of the Dog.
    (Jane Campion)
    Nuevo orden. (New Order)
    (Michel Franco)
    The Green Knight.
    (David Lowery)
    Metri Shish’o Nim ( Just 6.5 / La Loi du Téhéran)
    (Saeed Roustayi)
    Jallikattu.
    (Lijo Jose Pellissery)
    É stata la mano di Dio. (The Hand of God)
    (Paolo Sorrentino)
    Europa.
    (Haider Rashid)
    Titane.
    (Julia Ducournau)
    Benedetta.
    (Paul Verhoeven)
    Les Intranquilles. (The Restless)
    (Joachim Lafosse)
    Serre Moi Fort. (Hold Me Tight)
    (Mathieu Amalric)
    Stump the Guesser.
    (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson & Galen Johnson)
    Dune (3D).
    (Denis Villeneuve)
    Saint Maud.
    (Rose Glass)
    Pieces of a Woman.
    (Kornél Mundruczó)
    Gharheman. (A Hero)
    (Asghar Farhadi)
    Neptune Frost.
    (Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman)
    The Suicide Squad.
    (James Gunn)
    Pretend It’s a City.
    (Martin Scorsese)
    The Assistant.
    (Kitty Green)
    City Hall.
    (Frederick Wiseman)
    White Cube.
    (Renzo Martens)
    Azor.
    (Andreas Fontana)
    Don’t Look Up.
    (Adam McKay)
    No Sudden Move.
    (Steven Soderbergh)
    Shiva Baby.
    (Emma Seligman)
    Music Hole.
    (Gaëtan Lekens, David Mutzenmacher)
    Fils De Plouc. (Mother Schmuckers)
    (Lenny & Harpo Guit)
    Retfaerdighedens ryttere. (Riders of Justice)
    (Anders Thomas Jensen)
    Onoda – 10,000 Nights in the Jungle.
    (Arthur Harari)
    Pesar-Madar. (Son-Mother)
    (Mahnaz Mohammadi)
    Pig.
    (Michael Sarnoski)
    Pleasure.
    (Nina Thyberg)
    Sheytan vojud nadarad. (There is No Evil)
    (Mohammad Rasoulof)
    The Velvet Underground.
    (Todd Haynes)
    
    Not bad either / of interest:
    The Souvenir: Part II. (Joanna Hogg)
    La Civil. (Teodora Ana Mihai)
    Last Night in Soho. (Edgar Wright)
    Satoshi Kon, l’Illusionniste. (Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist) (Pascal-Alex Vincent)
    Les Prières de Delphine. (Delphine’s Prayers) (Rosine Mftego Mbakam)
    Le Monde après Nous. (The World after Us) (Louda Ben Salah-Cazanas)
    France. (Bruno Dumont)
    Babardeala cu bucluc sau porno balamuc. (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn) (Radu Jude)
    Lapsis. (Noah Hutton)
    Quoi Vadis, Aida? (Jasmila Zbanic)
    Médecin de Nuit. (The Night Doctor) (Elie Wajeman)
    The Nighthouse. (David Bruckner)
    Les Choses Humaines. (The Accusation) (Yval Attal)
    Slow Machine. (Paul Felten, Joe Denardo)
    Tantas Almas. (Valley of Souls) (Nicolás Rincón Gille)
    Mandibules. (Quentin Dupieux)
    Druk. (Another Round) ( Thomas Vinterberg)
    Vredens verste menneske. (The Worst Person in the World) (Joachim Trier)
    The Lost Daughter. (Maggie Gyllenhaal)
    The King’s Man. (Matthew Vaughn)
    Let Them All Talk. (Steven Soderbergh)
    Spencer. (Pablo Larraín)
    Malmkrog. (Cristi Puiu)
    Dear Comrades! (Andrei Konchalovsky)
    Tout s’est bien passé. (Everything Went Fine) (François Ozon)
    Mon Légionnaire. (Our Men) (Rachel Lang)
    Petite Maman. (Céline Sciamma)
    Gunda. (Viktor Kossakovsky)
    Sputnik. (Egor Abramenko)
    Gunpowder Milkshake. (Navot Papushado)
    Zack Snyder’s Justice League. (Zack Snyder)
    Nomadland. (Chloé Zhao)
    Nobody. (Ilya Naishuller)
    West Side Story. (Steven Spielberg)
    Spider-Man: No way Home. (Jonn Watts)
    Illusions Perdues. (Lost Illusions) (Xavier Giannoli)
    Ghasideyeh gave sefid. (Ballad of a White Cow) (Behtash Sanaeeha, Maryam Moghaddam)
    Cette musique ne joue pour personne. (Love Song for Tough Guys) (Samuel Benchetrit)
    Passing. (Rebecca Hall)
    Undergods. (Chino Moya)
    Kom hier dat ik u kus. (Becoming Mona) (Niels van Koevorden, Sabine Lubbe Bakker)
    tick, tick…BOOM! (Lin-Manuel Miranda)
    The Beatles: Get Back. (Peter Jackson)
    No Time to Die. (Cary joji Fukunaga)
    Phèdre ou l’Explosion des Corps Confinés. (Phèdre against Covid) (Méryl Fortunat-Rossi)
    The Man Who Sold His Skin. (Kaouther Ben Hania)
    Re Granchio (The Tale of King Crab) (Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis) (last 3rd of the film)
    Slalom. (Charlène Favier)
    Gagarine. (Fanny Liatard, Jérémy Trouilh)
    Ha’berech. (Ahed’s Knee) (Nadav Lapid)
    In the Earth. (Ben Wheatley)
    Wrath of Man. (Guy Ritchie)
    Les Olympiades. (Paris, 13th District) (Jacques Audiard)
    Playlist. (Nine Antico)
    Sweat. (Magnus von Horn)
    Promising Young Woman. (Emerald Fennell)
    Sing 2. (Garth Jennings)
    Sound of Metal. (Darius Marder)
    Bakolo Music international. (Benjamin Viré, Tom Vantorre)
    Totem. ( Fred de Loof)
    Une Vie Démente. (Madly in Life) (Raphaël Balboni, Ann Sirot)
    L’Origine du Monde. (Dear Mother) (Laurent Lafitte)
    Bergman Island. (Mia Hansen-Love)
    Dealer. (Jeroen Perceval)
    Madres Paralelas (Parallel Mothers) & The Human Voice. (Pedro Almodóvar)
    Le Lion Belge. (Nimetulla Parlaku)
    Délicieux. (Delicious) (Éric Besnard)
    Undine. (Christian Petzold)
    Army of the Dead. (Zack Snyder)
    SpaceBoy. (Olivier Pairoux)
    Cool Abdoul. (Jonas Baeckeland)
    Tre Piani. (Three Floors) (Nanni Moretti)
    House of Gucci. (Ridley Scott)

1. A Hidden Life.
   (Terrence Malick)
2. I’m Thinking of Ending Things.
   (Charlie Kaufman)
3. À l’abordage. (All Hands on Deck)
   (Guillaume Brac)
4. Bergmál. (Echo)
   (Rúnar Rúnarsson)
5. Samurai Marathon.
   (Bernard Rose)
6. Small Axe: Lovers Rock & Education.
   (Steve McQueen)
7. La Fille au Bracelet. (The Girl with the Bracelet)
   (Stéphane Demoustier)
8. Lynn + Lucy.
   (Fyzal Boukifa)
9. La Cravate. (The Tie)
   (Etienne Chaillou & Mathias Théry)
10. Gretel & Hansel.
    (Oz Perkins)
    
    
    Would not have been misplaced in my top 10 either:
    Uncut Gems.
    (Josh & Benny Safdie)
    The Devil All the Time.
    (Antonio Campos)
    Effacer l’hisorique. (Delete History)
    (Benoît Delépine & Gustave Kervern)
    Adoration.
    (Fabrice Du Welz)
    Swallow.
    (Carlo Mirabella-Davis)
    1917.
    (Sam Mendes)
    Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets.
    (Turner Ross & Bill Ross IV)
    Mank.
    (David Fincher)
    Ghost Tropic.
    (Bas Devos)
    La Gomera. (The Whistlers)
    (Corneliu Porumboiu)
    Chained for Life.
    (Aaron Schimberg)
    Babyteeth.
    (Shannon Murphy)
    Monos.
    (Alejandro Landes)
    Mother.
    (Kristof Bilsen)
    The Day After I’m Gone.
    (Nimrod Eldar)
    Mijn Rembrandt. (My Rembrandt)
    (Oeke Hoogendijk)
    Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.
    (Gu Xiaogang)
    Nabarvené ptáče. (The Painted Bird)
    (Václav Marhoul)
    Berlin Alexanderplatz.
    (Burhan Qurbani)
    Ema.
    (Pablo Larraín)
    A Girl Missing.
    (Kōji Fukada)
    Favolacce. (Bad Tales)
    (Damiano & Fabio D’Innocenzo)
    Lara.
    (Jan Ole Gerster)
    On the Rocks.
    (Sofia Coppola)
    Un Pays qui se tient sage. (The Monopoly of Violence)
    (David Dufresne)
    
    
    Not bad either/of interest:
    Om det oändliga. (About Endlessness) (Roy Andersson)
    La Vérité. (The Truth) (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
    House of Hummingbird. (Kim Bora)
    Overseas. (Sung-a Yoon)
    The Lost Okorishi. (Abba Makama)
    Vivarium. (Lorcan Finnegan)
    Little Monsters. (Abe Forsythe)
    Systemsprenger. (System Crasher) (Nora Fingscheidt)
    Light of My Life. (Casey Affleck)
    Madre. (Mother) (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)
    The Forty-Year-Old Version. (Radha Blank)
    Beanpole. (Kantemir Balagov)
    Adieu les cons. (Bye Bye Morons) (Albert Dupontel)
    Les choses qu’on dit, les choses qu’on fait. (Love Affair(s)) ( Emmanuel Mouret)
    A Russian Youth. (Alexandr Zolotukhin)
    Deux. (Two of Us) (Filippo Meneghetti)
    Widow of Silence. (Praveen Morchhale)
    Rocks. (Sarah Gavron)
    Un Fils. (A Son) (Mehdi M. Barsaoui)
    Seules les Bêtes. (Only the Animals) (Dominik Moll)
    Adam. (Maryam Touzani)
    Fin de Siglo. (The end of the Century) (Lucio Castro)
    The Wild Goose Lake. (Diao Yi’nan)
    Bad Boys for Life. (Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah)
    Onward. (Dan Scanlon)
    The Grudge. (Nicolas Pesce)
    Escape from Pretoria. (Francis Annan)
    Emma. . (Autumn de Wilde)
    The Hunt. (Craig Zobel)
    Des Hommes. (Home Front) (Lucas Belvaux)
    Été 85. (Summer of 85) (François Ozon)
    The Boys in the Band. (Joe Mantello)
    Öndög (Egg) (Wang Quan’an)
    Birds of Prey. (Cathy Yan)
    The Invisible Man. (Leigh Whannell)
    All of Us. (Willem Wallyn)
    The Farewell. (Lulu Wang)
    Matthias & Maxime. (Xavier Dolan)
    Little Women. (Greta Gerwig)
    Richard Jewell. (Clint Eastwood)
    Un Divan à Tunis. (Arab blues) (Manele Labidi)
    Pinocchio. (Matteo Garrone)
    Jumbo. (Zoé Wittock)
    Soul. (Pete Doctor)
    Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. (George C. Wolfe)
    The Trial of the Chicago 7. (Aaron Sorkin)
    Wasp Network. (Olivier Assayas)
    Muidhond. (Tench) (Patrice Toye)
    Pompei (Anna Falguéres & John Shank)
    Filles de joie. (Anne Paulicevich & Frédéric Fonteyne)

A list of my favorite films of the decade (2010-2019) in alphabetical order. I’ve limited myself to 50 films and to one film per director.

Amour
(Michael Haneke, 2012)

Anomalisa
(Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman, 2015)

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
(Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)

Blue Ruin
(Jeremy Saulnier, 2013)

Când se lasa seara peste Bucuresti sau metabolism
(When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism)
(Corneliu Porumboiu, 2013)

Christine
(Antonio Campos, 2016)

Climax
(Gaspar Noé, 2018)

A Cure for Wellness
(Gore Verbinski, 2016)

L’Ecume des Jours (Mood Indigo)
(Michel Gondry, 2013)

Elle
(Paul Verhoeven, 2016)

Evolution
(Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2015)

A Field in England
(Ben Wheatley, 2013)

Des filles en noir (Young Girls in Black)
(Jean-Paul Civeyrac, 2010)

Le Gamin au Vélo (The Kid with a Bike)
(Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2011)

Der Goldene Handschuh (The Golden Glove)
(Fatih Akin, 2019)

The Grand Budapest Hotel
(Wes Anderson, 2014)

Holy Motors
(Leos Carax, 2012)

The House that Jack Built
(Lars von Trier, 2018)

Hugo (3D)
(Martin Scorcese, 2011)

Inside Llewyn Davis
(Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)

In Time
(Andrew Niccol, 2011)

Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross)
(Dietrich Brüggemann, 2014)

Laurence Anyways
(Xavier Dolan, 2012)

The Lobster
(Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)

The Lost City of Z
(James Gray, 2016)

Manchester by the Sea
(Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)

The Master
(Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)

Meek’s Cutoff
(Kelly Reichardt, 2010)

Michael
(Markus Schleinzer, 2011)

Mon Ange (Angel)
(Harry Cleven, 2016)

A Most Violent Year
(J.C. Chandor, 2014)

The Neon Demon
(Nicholas Winding Refn, 2016)

No
(Pablo Larraín, 2012)

Rabot
(Christina Vandekerckhove, 2017)

Réalité (Reality)
(Quentin Dupieux, 2014)

Reality
(Matteo Garrone, 2012)

La Región Salvaje (The Untamed)
(Amat Escalante, 2016)

The Rider
(Chloé Zhao, 2017)

Saul fia (Son of Saul)
(László Nemes, 2015)

The Souvenir
(Joanna Hogg, 2019)

Srpski Film (A Serbian film)
(Srdjan Spasojevic, 2010)

Stoker
(Chan-wook Park, 2013)

Teret (The Load)
(Ognjen Glavonic, 2018)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
(Tomas Alfredson, 2011)

Le Tout Nouveau Testament (The Brand New Testament)
(Jaco Van Dormael, 2015)

The Tree of Life
(Terrence Malick, 2011)

Under the Silver Lake
(David Robert Mitchel, 2018)

Vénus Noire (Black Venus)
(Abdellatif Kechiche, 2010)

Vita Brevis
(Thierry Knauff, 2014)

Vivre sa mort
(Manu Bonmariage, 2016)

1. Der Goldene Handschuh. (The Golden Glove)
   (Fatih Akin)
2. The Favourite.
   (Yorgos Lanthimos)
3. Koko-di Koko-da.
   (Johannes Nyholm)
4. The Souvenir.
   (Joanna Hogg)
5. Peterloo.
   (Mike Leigh)
6. An Elephant Sitting Still.
   (Hu Bo)
7. Holiday.
   (Isabella Eklöf)
8. One Cut of the Dead.
   (Shinichiro Ueda)
9. Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bod Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese.
   + The Irishman (: A Frank Sheeran Story by Martin Scorsese).
   (Martin Scorsese)
10. In Fabric.
    (Peter Strickland)

    Would not have been misplaced in my top 10 either:
    Ahlat Agaci. (The WIld Pear Tree)
    (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
    Vox Lux.
    (Brady Corbet)
    Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood.
    (Quentin Tarantino)
    J’Accuse. (An Officer and a Spy)
    (Roman Polanski)
    Domestik (Domestique)
    (Adam Sedlák)
    Joker.
    (Todd Phillips)
    The Lighthouse.
    (Robert Eggers)
    Ray & Liz.
    (Richard Billingham)
    So Long, My Son.
    (Wang Xiaoshuai)
    Styx.
    (Wolfgang Fischer)
    La Casa Lobo.
    (Joaquín Cociña & Cristóbal León)
    Pájaros de verano. (Birds of Passage)
    (Ciro Guerra & Cristina Gallego)
    Ayka.
    (Sergei Dvortsevoy)
    Dolor y Gloria. (Pain and Glory)
    (Pedro Almodóvar)
    Ang Hupa. (The Halt)
    (Lav Diaz)
    Étangs Noirs.
    (Pieter Dumoulin & Timeau De Keyser)
    Oleg.
    (Juris Kursietis)
    High Life.
    (Claire Denis)
    The Mountain.
    (Rick Alverson)
    Il Traditore. (The Traitor)
    (Marco Bellocchio)
    Varda par Agnès. (Varda by Agnes)
    (Agnès Varda)
    Dragged Across Concrete.
    (S. Craig Zahler)
    Parasite.
    (Bong Joon-ho)
    Night Comes On.
    (Jordana Spiro)
    Tommaso.
    (Abel Ferrara)
    Le Daim. (Deerskin)
    (Quentin Dupieux)
    Le Jeune Ahmed. (Young Ahmed)
    (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
    Bacurau.
    ( Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles)
    A Vida Invisível. (The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão)
    (Karim Aïnouz)
    J’ai perdu mon corps ( I Lost My Body)
    (Jérémy Clapin)
    The Two Popes.
    (Fernado Meirelles)
    First Love.
    (Takashi Miike)
    Midsommar
    (Ari Aster)
    Ad Astra.
    (James Gray)
    Pahokee.
    (Patrick Bresnan & Ivete Lucas)
    La Cordillera de los sueños. (The Cordillera of Dreams)
    (Patricio Guzmán)
    Torpedo.
    (Sven Huybrechts)

    
    Not bad either/of interest:
    Light as Feathers. (Rosanne Pel)
    Mid90’s (Jonah Hill)
    The Current War. (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)
    Ne croyez surtout pas que je hurle. (Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream) (Frank Beauvais)
    At Eternity’s Gate. (Julian Schnabel)
    Temblores. (Tremors) (Jayro Bustamante)
    Lillian. (Andreas Horvath)
    Chambre 212 (On a Magical Night) (Christophe Honoré)
    Sympathie pour le Diable. (Sympathy for the Devil) (Guillaume de Fontenay)
    Killing. (Shinya Tsukamoto)
    Us. (Jordan Peele)
    Ash is the Purest White. (Jia Zhangke)
    We the Animals. (Jeremiah Zagar)
    Abrakadabra. (Luciano & Nicolás Onetti)
    Piercing. (Nicolas Pesce)
    Thunder Road. (Jim Cummings)
    Celle que vous croyez. (Who You Think I Am) (Safy Nebbou)
    Touch Me Not. (Adina Pintilie)
    Mitten. (Gerard-Jan Claes & Olivia Rochette)
    Les Misérables. (Ladj Ly)
    Napszállta. (Sunset) (László Nemes)
    Upgrade. (Leigh Whannell)
    Aniara. (Pella Kågerman & Hugo Lilja)
    Santiago, Italia. (Nanni Moretti)
    It Must Be Heaven. (Elia Suleiman)
    Dronningen. (Queen of Hearts) (May el-Toukhy)
    Sorry We Missed You. (Ken Loach)
    Serenity. (Steven Knight)
    Glass. (M. Night Shyamalan)
    3 Tage in Quiberon. (3 Days in Quiberon) (Emily Atef)
    Eight Grade. (Bo Burnham)
    On va tout péter. (Blow it to Bits) (Lech Kowalski)
    Coureur. (Kenneth Mercken)
    Sophia Antipolis. (Virgil Vernier)
    Das Schweigende Klassenzimmer (The Silent Revolution) (Lars Kraume)
    Grâce à Dieu. (By the Grace of God) (François Ozon)
    Tel Aviv on Fire. (Sameh Zoabi)
    God Exists, Her Name is Petrunija. (Teona Strugar Mitevska)
    Fête de Famille. (Happy Birthday) (Cédric Kahn)
    Atlantique. (Atlantics) (Mati Diop)
    The Report. (Scott Z. Burns)
    Nuestras Madres. (Our Mothers) (César Díaz)
    Toy Story 4. (3D) (Josh Cooley)
    Triple Frontier. (J.C. Chandor)
    The Dead Don’t Die. (Jim Jarmusch)
    Dumbo. (3D) (Tim Burton)
    Luz. (Tilman Singer)
    Donbass. (Sergey Loznitsa)
    La Belle Époque. (Nicolas Bedos)
    Cleo. (Eva Cools)
    Double Vies. (Non-Fiction) (Olivier Assayas)
    Gräns. (Border) (Ali Abbasi)
    Shazam! (David F. Sandberg)
    The Highwaymen. (John Lee Hancock)
    Marriage Story. (Noah Baumbach)
    Leto. (Kirill Serebrennikov)
    Knives Out. (Rian Johnson)
    John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. (Chad Stahelski)
    The King. ( David Michôd)
    El Árbol de la Sangre. (The Three of Blood) (Julio Medem)
    Werk ohne Author. (Never Look Away) (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
    Duelles (Olivier Masset-Depasse)
    Apollo 11 (IMAX) (Todd Douglass Miller)
    La Terra dell’abbastanza. (Boys Cry) (Damiano & Fabio D’Innocenzo)
    La Paranza dei Bambini. (Piranhas) (Claudio Giovannesi)
    El Camino. (Vince Gilligan)
    Les plus belles années d’une vie. (The Best Years of a Life) (Claude Lelouch)
    Chanson Douce (Perfect Nanny) (Lucie Borletau)
    De Patrick. (Patrick) (Tim Mielants)
    Au Nom de la Terre. (Édouard Bergeon)
    Papicha. (Mounia Meddour Gens)
    Lola vers la Mer. (Laurent Micheli)
    The Nightingale. (Jennifer Kent)
    Motherless Brooklyn. (Edward Norton)
    Lucky Day. (Roger Avery)
    A Rainy Day in New York. (Woody Allen)
    Adults in the Room. ( Costa-Gavras)
    Zombi Child. (Bertrand Bonello)
    High Flying Bird / The Laundromat. (Steven Soderbergh)
    If Beale Street Could Talk. (Barry Jenkins)
    The Mustang. (Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre)
    The Beach Bum. (Harmony Korine)
    Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. (3D) (J.J. Abrams)
    Dolemite is My Name. (Craig Brewer)
    Little Joe. (Jessica Hausner)
    Portrait de la jeune fille en feu. (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) (Céline Sciamma)
    Avengers: Endgame. (3D) (Anthony & Joe Russo)

    And probably the single most painful viewing experience of my life:
    Domino. (Brian De Palma)

1. Climax.
   (Gaspar Noé)
2. Phantom Thread.
   (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
   (Joel & Ethan Coen)
4. The Rider.
   (Chloé Zhao)
5. Teret. (The Load)
   (Ognjen Glavonic)
6. Rabot.
   (Christina Vandekerckhove)
7. Under the Silver Lake.
   (David Robert Mitchel)
8. Les Garçons Sauvages. (The Wild Boys)
   (Bertrand Mandico)
9. Anon.
   (Andrew Niccol)
10. Transit.
    (Christian Petzold)
    
    Would not have been misplaced in my top 10 either:
    The House that Jack Built.
    (Lars von Trier)
    The Beauty and the Dogs.
    (Kaouther Ben Hania)
    Girl.
    (Lukas Dhont)
    First Reformed.
    (Paul Schrader)
    A Ghost Story.
    (David Lowery)
    Kuso.
    (Flying Lotus)
    Human, Space, Time and Human.
    (Kim Ki-duk)
    The Disater Artist.
    (James Franco)
    Lucky.
    (John Carroll Lynch)
    Ce Magnifique Gâteau! (The Magnificent Cake)
    (Emma De Swaef & Marc James Roels)
    Lazzaro Felice. (Happy as Lazzaro)
    (Alice Rohrwacher)
    The Nutcracker and the Four Realms 3D.
    (Lasse Hallström & Joe Johnston)
    Roma.
    (Alfonso Cuarón)
    Call Me By Your Name.
    (Luca Guadagnino)
    The Florida Project.
    (Sean Baker)
    Hannah.
    (Andrea Pallaoro)
    Game Night.
    (John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein)
    Sollers Point.
    (Matthew Porterfield)
    Cold War.
    (Pawel Pawlikowski)
    The Shape of Water.
    (Guillermo del Toro)
    Wildlife.
    (Paul Dano)
    The Death of Stalin.
    (Armando Iannucci)
    Mandy.
    (Panos Cosmatos)
    The Sisters Brothers.
    (Jacques Audiard)
    Beast.
    (Michael Pearce)
    A Ciambra.
    (Jonas Carpignano)
    A Prayer Before Dawn.
    (Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire)
    Le Temps où les Arabes dansaient. (When Arabs Danced)
    (Jawad Rhalib)
    First Man.
    (Damien Chazelle)
    Outlaw King.
    (David Mackenzie)

    Not bad either:

    Woman at War. (Benedikt Erlingsson)
    Sweet Country. (Warwick Thornton)
    Shoplifters. (Hirokazu Kore-Eda)
    McQueen. (Ian Bonhôte & Peter Ettedgui)
    Twarz. (Mug) (Malgorzata Szumowska)
    Ceres. (Janet Van den Brand)
    The Greenaway Alphabet. (Saskia Boddeke)
    3 Faces. (Jafar Pahani)
    Ni Juge, ni soumise (So Help Me God) (Yves Hinant, Jean Libon)
    Capharnaüm. (Nadine Labaki)
    Hereditary. (Ari Aster)
    Lowlife. (Ryan Prows)
    Au Poste! (Keep an Eye Out) (Quentin Dupieux)
    Wajib. (Annemarie Jacir)
    Foxtrot. (Samuel Maoz)
    Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. (Martin McDonagh)
    Isle of Dogs. (Wes Anderson)
    Hostiles. (Scott Cooper)
    Ralph Breaks the Internet. (Phil Johnston & Rich Moore)
    Der Hauptmann. (The Captain) (Robert Schwentke)
    Caniba (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel)
    RBG. (Julie Cohen & Betsy West)
    Breathless. (Daniel Lambo)
    Jusqu’à la Garde. (Custody) (Xavier Legrand)
    Red Sparrow. (Francis Lawrence)
    Nos Batailles. (Our Struggles) (Guillaume Senez)
    Beautiful Boy. (Felix van Groeningen)
    Gueule d’ange. (Angel Face) (Vanessa Filho)
    A Star is Born. (Bradley Cooper)
    Private Life. (Tamara Jenkins)
    Plaire, aimer et courir vite. (Sorry Angel) (Christophe Honoré)
    Brawl in Cell Block 99. (S. Craig Zahler)
    Ant-Man and the Wasp 3D. (Peyton Reed)
    Frères Ennemis. (Close Ennemies) (Daniel Oelhoffen)
    Gutland. (Govinda Van Maele)
    De chaque instant. (Nicolas Philibert)
    When the Day Had No Name. (Teona Strugar Mitevska)
    A mon âge je me cache encore pour fumer. (I Still Hide to Smoke) (Rayhana Obermeyer)
    The Day After. (Hong Sang-Soo)
    Los Silencios. (Beatriz Seigner)
    Before We Vanish. (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
    Burning. (Lee Chang-dong)
    Unsane. (Steven Soderbergh)
    Happy New Year, Colin Burstead. (Ben Wheatley)
    As Boas Maneiras (Good Manners) (Marco Dutra, Juliana Rojas)
    I, Tonya. (Craig Gillespie)
    Revenge. (Carolie Fargeat)
    The Endless. (Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead)
    Mon Ket. (Dany) (François Damiens)
    Le Jeu. (Nothing to Hide) (Fred Cavayé)
    In den Gängen. (In the Aisles) (Thomas Stuber)
    Insyriated. (Philippe Van Leeuw)
    Fahrenheit 11/9 (Michael Moore)
    Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot. (Gus Van Sant)
    Wonder Wheel (Woody Allen)
    Lady Bird. (Greta Gerwig)
    Pour Vivre Heureux. (For a Happy Life) (Salima Glamine & Dimitri Linder)
    Nico, 1988. (Susanna Nicchiarelli)
    Apostle. (Gareth Evans)
    Lean on Pete. (Andrew Haigh)
    Hold the Dark. (Jeremy Saulnier)
    Hymz. (Insect) (Jan Svankmajer)
    Avengers: Infinity War 3D. (Anthony & Joe Russo)
    Molly’s Game. (Aaron Sorkin)
    Bad Times at the El Royale. (Drew Goddard)
    Patser (Gangsta) (Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah)
    Todod lo saben. (Everybody Knows) (Asghar Farhadi)
    Les Confins du Monde (To the Ends of the World) (Guillaume Nicloux)
    The Insult. (Ziad Doueiri)
    En guerre. (At War) (Stéphane Brizé)
    Loro. (Paolo Sorrentino)
    The Man Who Killed Don Quixote)
    The Post. (Steven Spielberg)
    Pupille. (In Safe Hands) (Jeanne Herry)
    Amin. (Philippe Faucon)
    A Simple Favor. (Paul Feig)
    Kin. (Jonathan & Josh Baker)
    Overlord. (Julius Avery)
    The Commuter. (Jaume Collet-Serra)
    Downsizing. (Alexander Payne)
    Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. (Andy Serkis)
    BlacKkKlansman. (Spike Lee)
    Disobedience. (Sebastián Leilo)
    Le Monde est à Toi. (The World is Yours) (Romain Gavras)
    Dogman. (Matteo Garrone)
    Le Grand Bain. (Sink or Swim) (Gilles Lellouche)
    They Shall Not Grow Old. (Peter Jackson)
    Benzinho. (Loveling) (Gustavo Pizzi)
    Amanda. (Mikhaël Hers)
    Un Amour Impossible. (An Impossible Love) (Catherine Corsini)
    L’amour Flou. (Romane Bohringer & Philippe Rebbot)
    The Reports on Sarah and Saleem. (Muayad Alayan)
    Un Ange. (Angel) (Koen Mortier)
    Leave No Trace. (Debra Granik)
    Ramen Shop (Eric Khoo)
    Early Man. (Nick Park)
    Utøya 22. juli. (Erik Poppe)
    Den Skyldige. (The Guilty) (Gustav Möller)
    The Night Comes for Us. (Timo Tjahjanto)
    Mission : Impossible – Fallout 3D. (Christopher McQuarrie)
    Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. (Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey & Rodney Rothman)
    Deadpool 2. (David Leitch)
    Black Panther 3D. (Ryan Coogler)
    Bumblebee 3D. (Travis Knight)
    En Liberté. (The Trouble With You) (Pierre Salvadori)
    Widows. (Steve McQueen)
    Mortal Engines 3D. (Christian Rivers)
    Suspiria. (Luca Guadagnino)
    The Wife. (Björn Runge)
    Kursk. (Thomas Vinterberg)
    Niet Schieten. (Stijn Coninx)
    Mademoiselle de Jonquières. (Emmanuel Mouret)
    24 Frames. (Abbas Kiarostami)
    Katie Says Goodbye. (Wayne Roberts)
    Manifesto. (Julian Rosefeldt)
    The Happy Prince. (Rupert Everett)
    Halloween. (David Gordon Green)
    Venom 3D. (Ruben Fleischer)
    Ready Player One 3D. (Steven Spielberg)

1. The Lost City of Z.
   (James Gray)
2. A Cure for Wellness.
   (Gore Verbinski)
3. La Región Salvaje. (The Untamed)
   (Amat Escalante)
4. Mon Ange. (Angel)
   (Harry Cleven)
5. Lerd. (A Man of Integrity)
   (Mohammad Rasoulof)
6. Manchester by the Sea.
   (Kenneth Lonergan)
7. The Eyes of My Mother.
   (Nicolas Pesce)
8. Krotkaya. (A Gentle Creature)
   (Sergei Loznitsa)
9. Le Fidèle. (Racer and the Jailbird)
   (Michaël R. Roskam)
10. Happy End.
    (Michael Haneke)

    Would not have been misplaced in my top 10 either:
    Good Time.
    (Benny & Josh Safdie)
    Nelyubov. (Loveless)
    (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
    Lumière!, l’aventure commence.
    (Thierry Frémaux)
    Un Beau Soleil Intérieur. (Let the Sun Shine In)
    (Claire Denis)
    You Were Never Really Here.
    (Lynne Ramsay)
    On Body and Soul.
    (Ildikó Enyedi)
    Laissez Bronzer les Cadavres. (Let the Corpses Tan)
    (Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani)
    The Greasy Strangler.
    (Jim Hosking)
    Swiss Army Man.
    (Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert)
    Grave. (Raw)
    (Julia Ducournau)
    The Love Witch.
    (Anna Biller)
    American Honey.
    (Andrea Arnold)
    Sieranevada.
    (Cristi Puiu)
    Wiener-Dog.
    (Todd Solondz)
    Safari.
    (Ulrich Seidl)
    Stranger in Paradise.
    (Guido Hendrikx)
    Everybody Wants Some!!!
    (Richard Linklater)
    The Killing of a Sacred Deer.
    (Yorgos Lanthimos)
    David Lynch: The Art Life.
    (Jon Nguyen, Rick Barnes & Olivia Neergaard-Holm)
    Marquis de Wavrin, du manoir à la Jungle. (Marquis de Wavrin, From the Manor to the Jungle)
    (Grace Winter & Luc Plantier)
    Visages Villages. (Faces Places)
    (JR & Agnès Varda)
    Félicité.
    (Alain Gomis)
    Anchiporuno. (Antiporno)
    (Sion Sono)
    Burning Out.
    (Jérôme Le Maire)
    Atomic Blonde.
    (David Leitch)
    Dunkirk.
    (Christopher Nolan)
    Patti Cake$.
    (Geremy Jasper)
    The Square.
    (Ruben Östlund)
    Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
    (Matthew Vaughn)
    Brimstone.
    (Martin Koolhoven)

    Not bad either:
    Magallanes. (Salvador del Solar)
    Cartas da Guerra. (Letters from War) (Ivo Ferreira)
    Logan Lucky (Steven Soderbergh)
    Message from the King. (Fabrice du Welz)
    Even Lovers Get the Blues. (Laurent Micheli)
    Powidoki. (Afterimage) (Andrzej Wajda)
    El Color del Camaleón. (Anders Lubbert)
    Home. (Fien Troch)
    Sobytie. (The Event) (Sergei Loznitsa)
    120 Battements par minute. (BPM) (Robin Campillo)
    Estiu 1993. (Summer of 1993) (Carla Simón)
    Thelma. (Joachim Trier)
    Dog Eat Dog. (Paul Schrader)
    Prevenge. (Alice Lowe)
    Moonlight. (Barry Jenkins)
    Get Out. (Jordan Peele)
    John Wick: Chapter 2. (Chad Stahelski)
    I’m Not Your Negro +Le jeune Karl Marx (The Young Karl Marx) (Raoul Peck)
    Au-revoir là-haut. (See You Up There) (Albert Dupontel)
    Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford)
    Coco. (Lee Unkrich & Adrian Molina)
    War Machine. (David Michôd)
    La La Land. (Damien Chazelle)
    Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki. (Juho Kousmanen)
    War for the Planet of the Apes. (3D) (Matt Reeves)
    L’ amant Double. (François Ozon)
    My First Highway. (Kevin Meul)
    78/52. (Alexandre O. Philippe)
    Tarde para la ira. (The Fury of a Patient Man) (Raúl Arévalo)
    The Nile Hilton Incident. (Tarik Saleh)
    Mobile Homes. (Vladimir de Fontenay)
    I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore. (Macon Blair)
    L’échange des princesses. (Marc Dugain)
    Como Nossos Pais. (Just Like Our Parents) (Laís Bodanzky)
    Lady Macbeth. (William Oldroyd)
    The Party. (Sally Potter)
    Noces. (Stephan Streker)
    Jalouse. (David & Stéphane Foenkinos)
    All the Money in the World. (Ridley Scott)
    Neil Stryker and the Tyrant of Time. (Rob Taylor)
    The Founder. (John Lee Hancock)
    Food Coop. (Thomas Boothe & Maellanne Bonnicel)
    Que Dios nos perdone. (May God Save Us) (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)
    The Other Side of Hope. (Aki Kaurismäki)
    Beyond the Mountains and the Hills. (Eran Kolirin)
    Petit Paysan. (Boody Milk) (Hubert Charuel)
    Paris Pieds Nus. (Lost in Paris) (Dominique Abel & Fiona Gordon)
    El Bar. (The Bar) (Álex de la Iglesia)
    Corporate. (Nicolas Silhol)
    Paddington 2. (Paul King)
    Thor: Ragnarok (3D) (Taika Waititi)
    Spielberg. (Susan Lacy)
    The Beguiled. (Sofia Coppola)
    Blade Runner 2049 (3D) (Denis Villeneuve)
    Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. (3D) (Rian Johnson)
    Free Fire. (Ben Wheatley)
    Baby Driver. (Edgar Wright)
    Wind River. (Taylor Sheridan)
    Logan. (James Mangold)
    Wonder Woman. (3D) (Patty Jenkins)
    Una Mujer Fantástica. (A Fantastic Woman) (Sebastián Lelio)
    Tueurs. (Jean-François Hensgens & François Troukens)
    Why Him? (John Hamburg)
    Je suis resté dans les bois. (Michaël Bier, Erika Sainte & Vincent Solheid)
    Loving Vincent. (Dorota Kobiela)
    Le Redoutable. (Michel Hazanavicius)
    Die göttliche Ordnung. (Petra Volpe)
    D’après une histoire vraie. (Based on a True Story) (Roman Polanski)
    Split. (M. Night Shyamalan)
    Wonderstruck. (Todd Haynes)
    The Woman Who Left. (Lav Diaz)
    Battle of the Sexes. (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris)
    Borg McEnroe. (Janus Metz)
    The Wall + American Made. (Doug Liman)
    Fai Bei Sogni + Sangue del mio Sangue. (Sweet Dreams + Blood of My Blood) (Marco Bellocchio)
    The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected). (Noah Baumbach)
    L’atelier. (The Workshop) (Laurent Cantet)
    Spider-Man: Homecoming (3D) (Jon Watts)
    El ciudadano ilustre. (The Distinguished Citizen) (Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn)
    The Autopsy of Jane Doe. (André Øvredal)
    Seven Sisters. (Tommy Wirkola)
    Les Gardiennes. (The Guardians) (Xavier Beauvois)
    Okja. (Bong Joon-ho)
    Laavor et hakir. (The Wedding Plan) (Rama Burshtein)
    Mother! (Darren Aronofsky)
    Hidden Figures. (Theodore Melfi)
    Tschick (Goodbye Berlin) (Fatih Akin)
    Bushwick (Cary Murnion & Jonathan Milott)
    Alive in France (Abel Ferrara)
    Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. (Ang Lee)
    Alien: Covenant. (3D) (Ridley Scott)
    Le Sens de la Fête. (C’est la vie!) (Olivier Nakache & Eric Toledano)
    La Promesse de l’aube. (Promise at Dawn) (Eric Barbier)
    It Comes at Night. (Trey Edward Shults)
    Suburbicon (George Clooney)
    It: Chapter One. (Andy Muschietti)
    Het Tweede Gelaat. (Control) (Jan Verheyen)
    T2 Trainspotting (Danny Boyle)
    The Big Sick (Michael Showalter)
    Silence. (Martin Scorsese)
    Detroit. (Kathryn Bigelow)
    The Snowman. (Tomas Alfredson)
    Song to Song. (Terrence Malick)

Ben Wheatley is one of the (not just) British directors to keep an eye on. Up to High-Rise (2015) he had completed 4 feature films on micro to low budgets and on each occasion had performed miracles with the limited means at his disposal.
His debut Down Terrace (2009) was a kitchen sink gangsterdrama that was literally made in and around the childhood home of co-writer and star Robin Hill in 8 days. His 2nd film Kill List (2011) starts of as a thriller about some hit men and somewhere midway shifts into an occult horror film, as if Nicolas Roeg’s Performance (1970) fell under the spell of Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973).
Next up was Sightseers (2012), a sort of comical horror version of Mike Leigh’s Nuts in May (1976) written by the co-leads Alice Lowe and Steve Oram which was selected for the ‘Quizaine des Réalisateurs’ in Cannes. They play a couple that go on a caravan road trip leaving a bloody trail along their way. Not unlike High-Rise class differences are at the center of the film. Wheatley has since executive-produced Oram’s feature debut Aaaaaaaah! (2015) -via his production company Rook Films- a film with an even more primitive dissection of what happens when that thin coat of varnish called civilisation is scratched away.
A year later Wheatley made A Field in England (2013), shot on a micro budget in only 12 days. Set in the 17th century during the English Civil War, 3 deserters meet each other and some hallucinogenic mushrooms in (well yes) a field in England. As if Peter Watkin’s
Culloden (1964) and Ken Russel’s Altered States (1980) were put in a blender and the result felt like one of the best cinematic cocktails you ever have the pleasure to put down the hatch.

This film gave Wheatley some cloud to attempt a (financially) more ambitious film project, an adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s (author of Crash, Empire of the Sun which were brought to the big screen by respectively David Cronenberg and Steven Spielberg) 1975 dystopian novel High-Rise.
Dr. Robert Laing (played by rising star Tom Hiddleston in perhaps his best performance to date) has recently moved into a new luxury apartment which is part of 5 High-Rises of which only the first one has has been completed, the remaining four are still under construction. The architect Royal (Jeremy Irons) has come up with a rather unique concept. The five tower blocks are shaped like the five fingers of an open hand, the lake is to become its palm. The upperclass occupy the top floors of the buildings, the lower income families live in the lower ones. Your wealth determines your level (or floor). The occupants have access to a swimming pool, a gym, a supermarket and even a primary school. Besides going to work there is little reason for the residents to leave the building, gradually they become trapped like the bourgeoisie in a Buñuel film.

Initially the occupants are soothed by the fact that “the building is still settling” but when the infractures many failures become more apparent the tensions between the upper and lower floors start to erupt. The opening scenes -a short of flash forward of things to come- of the film however immediately clearly show that the architect’s social experiment is doomed to fail. The film is set in the index finger of the so-called open hand, the writer obviously wanted to point out a few things about (British) society. It woud have been less subtle to have the action take place in the middle finger although towards the end director Ben Wheatley inevitably presents one to Margaret Tatcher.

Besides Hiddleston and Irons you will recognise Sienna Miller as a single mother of a bastard son of one of the upper class men, who has a fling with Dr. Laing, Luke Evans as Richard Wilder, a frustrated lower class man whose married with Helen (played by Elisabeth Moss mostly known for her role as Peggy Olson in the popular HBO series Mad Men) who is about to give birth to yet another addition to their family and Stacy Martin (Lars von Triers’ Nymphomaniac) as a cashier in the supermarket.

All the dialogue in the film in one way or another is indicative of the class difference (“You’ve built all this?” “Dreamt, conceived, I hardly pulled up my sleeves”) and is often hilariously funny in a subtle -or often less subtle- very British sort of way (“You can’t put him over the edge, he still owes me a game of squash”).
Notable is the use of the famous ABBA song S.O.S. featuring during a fancy dress party (evoking Greenaway’s The Draughtman’s Contract & Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon?) being held in the penthouse -composer Clint Mansell (Requiem for a Dream) had it arranged for strings for the occasion- and later on in a brilliant cover version by Portishead.

Among the films many highlights there’s sequence of a man jumping of the building to his death landing on the bonnet (or hood if you perfer) of a car, a scene that would make Richard Donner -who specialises in these type of ‘drop shots’- jealous.
Visually the film peaks with a brilliantly stunning shot that shares us a point of view as seen through a kaleidoscope. I’ve prepared the below montage of potential reference points culminating in the said kaleidoscope shot.
The clip starts of with some shots from Martin Scorsese’s Kundun (1998) in which a young Dalai Lama is peaking through a big looking glass to his subordinates below. When Scorsese cuts to the POV the sequence has some typical Scorsese/Thelma Schoonmaker dissolving along the axis type of editing. There’s a similar shot from Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence (1993) where a character played by Richard E. Grant is looking through some theater binoculars down at the conductor of an orchestra over to a charater arriving in an opposite opera box. Here also Scorsese tries to visually convey the speed of the eye movement by skipping frames combined by dissolves along the axis.
There’s not really a direct connection with Wheatley’s kaleidoscope shot. So why include them any way? Well Scorsese was so impressed by A Field in England that he offered to produce Wheatley’s next film, and so he did. As High-Rise was already under way this would become the upcoming Free Fire.
Thematically you could say there is a bond between Kundun, The Age of Innocence and High-Rise as they are Scorsese’s most class conscious films. Kundun is a film about a society that at a certain stage gives its absolute power in the hands of a child and The Age of Innocence portays New York’s high society in the late 19th century and its strict social rules and customs which ruin the love affair between the two main characters. Scorsese even called this his most (emotionally) violent film.
The next 2 clips do have a direct link with High-Rise in my opinion. There’s a clip from Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976) featuring the “they’re all gonna laugh at you” kaleidoscope shot from that film’s celebrated prom sequence. And finally a shot from John Boorman’s Zardoz ( 1973) showing a fractured mirror shot including Sean Connery. Wheatley has expressed his admiration for Boorman’s Zardoz on many occasions including the 16 minute plus appreciation to be found on Arrow Film’s UK Blu Ray release + in his video clip for the band Editors ‘Formaldehyde’ which has references to both Sergio Corbucci’s Django (1966) as well as Zardoz. Even the picture on Wheatley’s Twitter profile (@mr_wheatley) features the giant stone head from this film.

The kaleidoscope shot is perhaps also linked with one of the many hilarious lines from the film. At a certain stage when the servants are no longer preparing the meals for their masters one of the rich men is wondering who cooked the food they’re eating to which one of the characters replies it’s now op to their wifes: “the women are rotating”. There’s a chance the montage I’ve prepared can’t be played in the UK (as per a message I’ve received from Youtube) so just in case I’ve uploaded it via WordPressvideo as well.

I was lucky enough to see the film in march of this year at the Offscreen film festival in Brussels in attendance of Ben Wheatley where it had the honour of closing the festival and I’ve since see it again when it was released in Belgium in June. The film even played better the second time round. When you watch the film for the first time there’s a chance you may need some time to adjust to the films chaotic opening, it’s definitely a busy film but Wheatley and Jump have certainly found the right tone for putting J.G Ballard’s novel to the screen. It’s nice to see that despite the bigger budget he did not have his vision muddled with. Can’t wait to see Free Fire.

Jan Bollen