Here is the current (but occasionally updated) list of my favorite films from 1997.
In order to understand the purpose and meaning of this list, please read my introduction to the Looking Closer Favorite Films lists here.
Red = Treasures
Purple = Favorites
Blue = Achievements
Gray = Decent/Noteworthy
Green = Unseen or Undecided
* = This film was discovered after the year in question and added in a list revision.
•
1997
- Fast, Cheap & Out of Control
- The Apostle
- The Ice Storm
- Princess Mononoke*
- Henry Fool
- L.A. Confidential
- Good Will Hunting
- Grosse Pointe Blank
- The Fifth Element
- The Sweet Hereafter
- A Taste of Cherry*
- The Children of Heaven
- Boogie Nights
- The Butcher Boy
- Gattaca
- Men in Black
- Donnie Brasco
- Face/Off
- Breakdown
- Chasing Amy
- Life is Beautiful
- The Spanish Prisoner
- The End of Violence
- Mrs. Brown
- Jackie Brown
- The Boxer
- Titanic
- Mrs. Dalloway
- Ulee’s Gold
- Fairytale: A True Story
- Amistad (review)
- Eve’s Bayou As Good as It Gets
- Wag the Dog
- Deconstructing Harry
- Affliction
- The Game
- Men with Guns
- Open Your Eyes
- Sunday
- Insomnia
- Career Girls
- Cop Land
- Anastasia
As-yet Unseen or Unratable Films of 1997
4 Little Girls
A Merry War (Robert Bierman)
Affliction
Afterglow (Alan Rudolph)
Barbara (Nils Malmros)
Blue Moon
Brother (Alexei Balabanov)
Character
Commingled Containers (Stan Brakhage)
Critical Care (Sidney Lumet)
Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Deja Vu
Destiny
Docteur Chance (François-Jacques Ossang)*
Double Team (Tsui Hark)
East Side Story
Event Horizon (Paul W.S. Anderson)
Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano)
Funny Games
Gallivant
Genealogies of a Crime (Raul Ruiz)
Green Fish (Lee Chang-Dong)
Gummo (Harmony Korine)
Hamsun (Jan Troell)
Happy Together (Wong Kar-Wai)
In the Company of Men
Kiss or Kill (Bill Bennett)
Kundun (Martin Scorsese)
La Vie de Jesus (Bruno Dumont)
Lawn Dogs (John Duigan)
Le Septieme Ciel (Benoit Jacquot)
Litle Shots of Happiness (Todd Verow)
Live Flesh (Pedro Almodovar)
Lolita
Lost Highway (David Lynch)
Love and Death on Long Island
Ma Vie en Rose (Alain Berliner)
Mother and Son (Aleksandr Sokurov)
Nil by Mouth
Nowhere (Gregg Araki)
Office Killer (Cindy Sherman)
Ossos (Pedro Costa)
Pronto (Jim McBride)
Public Housing
Riding the Rails
Same Old Song (Alain Resnais)
Sue (Amos Kollek)
Suzaku (Naomi Kawase)
The Castle (Michael Haneke)
The Eel (Shohei Imamura)
The Eye of God (Tim Blake Nelson)
The Hanging Garden
The Long Way Home
The Prince of Homburg (Marco Bellochio)
The Revenge – A Visit From Fate (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
The Revenge – The Scar That Never Fades (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
The River (Tsai Ming-Liang)
The Second Civil War
The Tango Lesson
The Thief
TwentyFourSeven
Uncle Sam (William Lustig)
Under the Skin
Washington Square (Agnieszka Holland)
Xiao Wu (Jia Zhang-Ke)
Yours
Looking Closer
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