1. Dolgaya schastlivaya zhizn / Long Happy Life (1966, Gennady Shpalikov) #BONUS 5.5/10
2. Club de femmes / Girls' Club (1936, Jacques Deval) 6/10
3. Jofroi / Ways of Love (1933, Marcel Pagnol) 8/10
4. Junk Head (2017, Takahide Hori) #BONUS
5. The World Beyond (1978, Noel Black) #BONUS
6. Two for the Seesaw (1962, Robert Wise) #BONUS
7. Le monte-charge / Paris Pick-Up (1962, Marcel Bluwal) #BONUS
8. Divá Bára / Wild Barbara (1949, Vladimír Cech)
9. Undir trénu / Under the Tree (2017, Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson) #BONUS
10. Une infinie tendresse / An Infinite Tenderness (1970, Pierre Jallaud)
11. Skhvisi shvilebi / Somebody Else's Children (1958, Tengiz Abuladze)
12. El silencio de otros / The Silence of Others (2018, Almudena Carracedo, Robert Bahar) #BONUS
13. Himeanôru / Himeanole (2016, Keisuke Yoshida) #BONUS
14. Cockroach (2020, Ai Weiwei) #BONUS
15. L'annonce faite à Marie / The Tidings Brought to Mary (1991, Alain Cuny)
16. Ningyo densetsu / Mermaid Legend (1984, Toshiharu Ikeda ) #BONUS
17. Tristan et Iseult (1972, Yvan Lagrange)
18. Rajio no jikan / Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald (1997, Kôki Mitani) #BONUS
19. Ne okreci se sine / My Son Don't Turn Round(1956, Branko Bauer)
20. Femina ridens / The Laughing Woman (1969, Piero Schivazappa) #BONUS
21. Mga kuwentong barbero / Barber's Tales (2013, Jun Lana) #BONUS
22. Yunhui-ege / Moonlit Winter (2019, Dae Hyung Lim) #BONUS
23. Pao dao zhong dian / The End of the Track (1970, Tun-Fei Mou)
24. La femme publique / The Public Woman (1984, Andrzej Zulawski) #BONUS
25. Tænk på et tal / Think of a Number (1969, Palle Kjærulff-Schmidt) #BONUS
26. Il bandito / The Bandit (1946, Alberto Lattuada)
27. Yoru no henrin / Shape of the Night (1964, Noboru Nakamura)
28. Le désordre et la nuit / The Night Affair (1958, Gilles Grangier)
29. Mok-gyeok-ja / The Witness (2018, Kyu-Jang Cho) #BONUS
30. Tenten / Adrift in Tokyo (2007, Satoshi Miki) #BONUS
31. Kuuma kissa? / Hot Cat? (1968, Erkko Kivikoski) #BONUS
32. Iluzija / Mirage (2004, Svetozar Ristovski) BONUS
33. La vérité sur Bébé Donge / The Truth of Our Marriage (1952, Henri Decoin) #BONUS
34. Dance Me to My Song (1998, Rolf de Heer) #BONUS
35. Étoile / Ballet (1989, Peter Del Monte) #BONUS
36. Broken (2012, Rufus Norris) #BONUS
37. The Fool Killer / Violent Journey (1965, Servando González) #BONUS
38. Shitô no densetsu / Legend of a Duel to the Death / A Legend, or Was It? (1963, Keisuke Kinoshita)
39. Los peces rojos / Red Fish (1955, José Antonio Nieves Conde)
40. Tainstvennaya stena / The Mysterious Wall (1967, Irina Povolotskaya, Mikhail Sadkovich) #BONUS
41. Suna no ue no shokubutsu-gun / Plants from the Dunes / Flora on the Sand (1964, Kô Nakahira)
42. La sapienza / La Sapienza (2014, Eugène Green)
43. Nunta de piatra / Stone Wedding (1973, Dan Pita, Mircea Veroiu)
44. J'entends plus la guitare / I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar (1991, Philippe Garrel)
45. La Baule-les-Pins / C'est la vie (1990, Diane Kurys)
46. Gavaznha / The Deer (1974, Masud Kimiai)
47. L'espoir / Days of Hope(1940, André Malraux, Boris Peskine)
48. Kaiser: The Greatest Footballer Never to Play Football (2018, Louis Myles) #BONUS
49. Litan (1982, Jean-Pierre Mocky)
50. Il grido della terra / The Land Cries Out (1949, Duilio Coletti)
51. Coeurs / Private Fears in Public Places (2006, Alain Resnais)
52. Aujourd'hui / Tey (2012, Alain Gomis)
53. Khake Sar Beh Mohr / The Sealed Soil (1977, Marva Nabili)
54. Miejsce urodzenia / Birthplace (1992, Pawel Lozinski)
55. Code Blue (2011, Urszula Antoniak) #BONUS
56. Goya en Burdeos / Goya in Bordeaux (1999, Carlos Saura)
57. O lipotaktis / The Deserter (1970, Christos Kefalas) #BONUS
58. En el balcón vacío (1961, Jomí García Ascot)
59. Terumae romae (2012, Hideki Takeuchi) #BONUS
60. Sódóma Reykjavík / Remote Control (1992, Óskar Jónasson) #BONUS
61. Scissere (1982, Peter Mettler)
62. 2/dyuo / 2/Duo (1997, Nobuhiro Suwa)
63. On Approval (1944, Clive Brook)
64. Maya Darpan / Mirror of Illusion (1972, Kumar Shahani)
65. Mein langsames Leben / Passing Summer (2001, Angela Schanelec)
66. O Céu de Suely / Love for Sale (2006, Karim Ainouz)
67. Crazy Love (1987, Dominique Deruddere) #BONUS
68. Kundskabens træ / Tree of Knowledge (1981, Nils Malmros)
69. Viajo Porque Preciso, Volto Porque te Amo / I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You (2009, Karim Ainouz, Marcelo Gomes)
70. Cien niños esperando un tren / One Hundred Children Waiting for a Train (1988, Ignacio Agüero)
71. Three Minutes: A Lengthening (2021, Bianca Stigter) #BONUS
72. Golos travy / The Voice of the Herbs (1992, Natalya Motuzko) #BONUS
73. Rosen blühen auf dem Heidegrab / Rape on the Moor (1952, Hans H. König)
And there we are, the end of the challenge.
As always this was one of my cinematic highlights of the year, and I managed to push myself far more than expected. My goal was to manage to get to 50 films, somehow I ended up reaching 80 ...
I was planning on reaching one more bonus film to nominate Berliner Ballade, but as the final days started to slip away and people were focusing in on the biggest priorities they had left I decided to do the same.
I want to thank Beavis in particular for some great last-minute recommendations, everyone who watched my nominees, all the participants who make this such a fun project and of course Angel and zzzorf for hosting the poll and challenge respectively.
74.
La corruzione (1963, Mauro Bolognini)
This film is worth it for the opening speech alone, with the principal of a boarding school instructing the graduating class of bourgeoisie students that the world only offers a choice between catholicism and Marxism. In a way, it is a curious film, with the central premise arguably being the incompatibility of Catholicism and Capitalism. Jacques Perrin is solid as always, with his face so filled with innocence and longing for entering the priesthood, granted, as we learn early, for uncertain reasons he can not really explain. Meanwhile, his business-owning father, played Alain Cuny, can not have his son surrender his legacy. The clash between them, and the father's wish to "corrupt" his son drives the tension, while the cinematography is stunning and the themes are intriguing, making it quite the full package, even if the edges are a little soft. 8/10
75.
La naissance de l'amour / The Birth of Love (1993, Philippe Garrel)
Garrel doing what Garrel does best: Stripped-bare, dialogue-driven dramas shot in stark black and white. Dysfunction is on display, as are crushed dreams, and the motif of the 68 generation, here over aging radicals who have arguably given up, is a topic he would keep sinking his teeth into. The hardly likable characters do however feel a little too under-developed as the film progresses and I would have liked a little more from them, especially from Lou Castel. Jean-Pierre Léaud gives far more depth to his character. The cinematography is on point, stripping down warmth and often being just functional to the existentialist themes, though the shots of streets at night are particularly stunning. A thoroughly good film I just wish had a slightly stronger kick. 7/10
76.
Komitas (1989, Don Askarian)
Another visually stunning film from Don Askarian, who could be described as the Armenian counter to Parajanov, just more abstract. There's shades of Tarkovsky in how he "paints" a scene too. I love the textures on display, play with water and the colours in general. This film is also more centred than my previous encounter with him, Avetik, in centring on a real-life figure, though mainly presented in a more abstract and obfuscated way. My main issue with the film is that it often feels like it just lingers too long. It doesn't have the tension or drive as the films of the directors I would compare him to, and could almost be seen as postcardism, as he sets up tables and just stay on them. Generally beautiful visuals are all I need to really get into a film, but here it just felt a little too slight overall. 6.5/10
77.
Lourdes (2009, Jessica Hausner)
Opening in a lunch hall as guests arrive into the unmoving image, one by one, wonderfully choreographed, some in wheelchairs, some in nurses uniforms, and some even actual uniforms, we slowly learn that we are following a pilgrimage to Lourdes where the sick seek to get well. This restrained, stylized and softly minimalist style may remind us of a less formally stilted Roy Andersson or a less misanthropic Ulrich Seidl, as this world of hope is not mocked, pitied or despised, rather, it is the possible grey areas of miracles and the question of faith we start to explore as one of the wheelchair-bound pilgrims starts to regain movement. It is a work of restraint, the occasional softly comedic tones, occasionally something blunter, but it is the faith, hope, and possibility the film wishes to explore, with how we end up seeing the film perhaps depending on where we stand on theological questions. The film is simultaneously complex and simple, the style slowly giving way to our lead character and capturing rather strong emotions along the way. An excellent work. 8/10
78.
Medium Cool (1969, Haskell Wexler)
A diamond in the rough, but a diamond all the same. Medium Cool is the only feature film directed by the renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler, who among other works had already shot America, America for Kazan and on the opposite end of the spectrum, Faces by Cassavetes. It is a truly remarkable film, conceptually and visually. It feels like it achieves something real, or faux-real. It moves and feels like a free-flowing documentary, and what is depicted often feels genuine. It is in many ways an attempt at breaking away from all norms of Hollywood storytelling, and for good or bad, feels like a compilation of conceptual scenes, with a somewhat slim story and characters tying it together, as we follow a journalist up towards the notorious 1968 Democratic Convention.
As a film it very much seeks to deconstruct and question what journalists choose to show, opening with black-as-night dark comedy, and lingering a semi-sarcastic, sly wink as we experience the realities of 1968, from the building tension and anger with the people to the preparations of the police and the lack of interest by those depicting it. One of the most unique things about Medium Cool is how it shows the militarisation of the police and just lingers on the scenes, living in the image of that reality rather than coming right out and saying what it wishes to convey. It is arguably "just" a documentation of the temperature of US society, that continues to hit decades later, but its visceral power is really something different and it manages to weave together a very complex set of juxtapositions into a rather powerful film.
However, I did say it was a diamond in the rough, and the way Wexler simply lingers within scenes and places is both a strength and a weakness, the latter of which is that it can lose its drive and just run out of steam a little, even feeling a little disconnected, especially before the ideas starts coming together. Another rather big issue is the audio, especially the dialogue, which is often low and hard to make out compared to the sounds around them. This does tie into the almost documentarian, and certainly cinema verité style, and can be appreciated, but it is also a little frustrating at times. While it does lean into a few of the general missteps of cinematographers trying their hand at directing for the first time, i.e. leaning heavily on the visual, but the result is in so many ways magical, and Wexler's sense of conceptual ideas is something special. This is an important and unique film that deserves a large audience. 8/10
79.
Pelnia / Full Moon (1979, Andrzej Kondratiuk)
Full Moon is a low-key dialogue-driven drama in solid black and white, focused on an intellectual escaping into rural life. It is nothing too exciting in terms of plot, characters or visuals, but it is intriguing enough and even dares some rather blunt critique of those with power. 6.5/10
80.
What Happened Was... (1994, Tom Noonan)
First dates can be unnerving, even scary, and with What Happened Was ... Tom Noonan manages to build an incredibly unnerving atmosphere as a man and a woman awkwardly make small talk. Each time they open their mouth, the awkward pauses and looks from the other makes it seem like they are getting disappointed, worried and even scared. The balance between excellent dialogue, strong performances and a foreboding atmosphere make this single-location film feel alive. It could have felt like a play, but it is wonderfully cinematic, raw and exciting from beginning to end. 8/10
Well, thanks for watching anyway.
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I didn't get through nearly as many short films as I had intended to with the bonus challenge constantly readjusting my priorities, but I might watch a few more in June and try to squeeze in some more ratings before Angel begins rolling out the results.
Okay, I'm done. 
