This year’s Pusan International Film Festival, still scheduled to go on Oct. 8-16 despite other festivals being cancled due to H1N1 fear,  will have a record 355 films from 70 countries, 98 of which will be world premieres. The One One Four has compliled a list of the top 10 most anticipated film of this years line-up. Also if you haven’t seen TAXI DRIVER or BONNIE AND CLYDE or the other films of the New Hollywood retrospective in theatres, this is a great opportunity. Part of the fun of a festival is checking out things you would never see otherwise, so I encourage viewers to participate in some “cold” screenings as well.

10. SORUM (Yoon Jang-Chan, 2001)

A Korean horror-thriller that was a last minute addition to the festival, part of a tribute to the late actress Jang Jin-Young. This is one I have been intrigued by for awhile, and getting a chance to see it in a theatre with an audience will provide a nice genre break from the more heavy art-house fare that will dominate my overall experience.

9. BRIGHT STAR (Jane Campion, 2009)

The new film from Campion, best known for THE PIANO and other explorations of the female psyche. The plot centers on the romance between the great Romantic poet John Keats and his neighbour, Fanny Brawne. Campion is almost always worth watching for her images alone, and the reports coming out of the Toronto Film Festival have been positive.

8. BLACK HAIR (Lee Man-hee, 1964)

A new restoration of one of the classics of Korean cinema. Along with Kim Ki-young, Yu Hyun-mok, and Shin Sang-ok, Lee Man-hee is considered among the giants of Korean film from this era. Like Kim’s THE HOUSEMAID last year, BLACK HAIR has been restored, with lost scenes added. A rare chance to see Korean cinema from this era.

7. AIR DOLL (Kore-eda Hirokazu, 2009)

The newest film from the highly regarded Kore-eda, the most critically acclaimed Japanese filmmaker of the last decade. His last film, 2008′s STILL WALKING, is now receiving a limited release to great praise in North America. The story of AIR DOLL centers around an blow-up sex doll that comes to life and develops a soul. Looking forward to finally seeing one of Kore-eda’s movies, especially in the setting of a festival screening.

6. THE DUST OF TIME (Theo Angelopoulos, 2008)

Angelopoulos stands alongside Abbas Kiarostami, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Bela Tarr as the most often noted examples of the greatest living filmmaker. But among these directors, Angelopoulos is the least well-known, even amongst hard-core cinephiles. His reputation is one of extreme austerity, and even his victory at Cannes in 1998 with ETERNITY PLUS A DAY did not open up his work to art-house audiences. One of those cinematic mountains we should want to climb.

5. PERSECUTION (Patrice Chereau, 2009)

Chereau is perhaps even more famous for his work in the theatre than in cinema, but he has been one of the few filmmakers to consistently explore sexuality explicitly in his film career. His 2001 film INTIMACY broke with most art cinema erotic dramas by featuring real sex, and his most recent film looks like another examination of the difficult if not impossible idea of the erotic couple.

4. WHITE MATERIAL (Claire Denis, 2009)

Claire Denis debuted over 20 years ago with the great CHOCOLAT (not the Johnny Depp film) and since that time has been producing one of the finest bodies of work in French cinema since the heyday of the New Wave. Her newest film finds her returning to subject matter similar to her first: the relationship between France and its colonies.

3. FACE (Tsai Ming-Liang, 2009)

Tsai is often lumped together with the other directors of the New Taiwanese cinema or with the style of Asian minimalism generally. But there is no more distinctive filmmaker living today. What is most curious is that Tsai creates worlds that center around severe alienation, and yet always creates at least one or two scenes in every movie which are so strange, unique and often disturbing that they never leave you. In a world full of pseudo-provocative auteurs, Tsai is the genuine article.

2. AN AIMLESS BULLET (Yu Hyun-Mok, 1961)

This movie is often cited as the greatest film in Korean history. Like another “greatest film”, CITIZEN KANE, this is likely due to a confluence of vivid realism, modernist technique, and a brief period of relaxed censorship. Unfortunately, this film is little known outside of the country and has not been easily avaliable. A must-see for anyone interested in both Korean and world cinema.

1. THE WHITE RIBBON (Michael Haneke, 2009)

Without question, Michael Haneke is my favorite European filmmaker of the past two decades, from his first theatrical feature THE SEVENTH CONTINENT (1989) to his last French film CACHE (2005). As the moral prophet of the current cinema, Haneke has taken up the mantle passed down from the late Robert Bresson. His latest was awarded the Palme d’Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Haneke can be a divisive figure, but few of his detractors seem to be saying anything negative about this recent work. For me, this one alone is worth the trip to Pusan.

The PIFF time schedule should be released soon, with tickets available for opening/closing tickets starting on September 21st (5:00pm) and for general screenings September 23rd (9:00am). Further details can be found at the PIFF website.

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