Screenhead

Welcome to the first in a series in which Screenhead takes a look back over the last decade of cinema. It’s been a dramatic decade by any standards, with major worldwide events, from terrorism to economic recession, affecting us all. Even the movies and shows we watched to either deal with or ignore the world around us. But we also saw great developments, such as digital film-making and mp3 players in entertainment, the awareness of global warming throughout the world, and so on. During the next two weeks we’ll be looking at each individual year of the beloved noughties, examining trends both apparent and subtle, recalling major events and movies, remembering those who passed away, and listing some of the years’ best films.

For all the years, click to visit the articles: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 (and The Future…)

So to start….

2000

The Asian Invasion

It was the start of a decade of hope. With Y2K being as lethal as a platoon of irate turtles, the world was looking forward to achieving the goal of peace and economic prosperity. Indeed, broadly speaking much of Asia was experiencing an economic growth, and it’s no surprise that this carried through to the world of cinema, in which the Western World was rocked by some truly exceptional movies. The most successful was of course Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee’s Mandarin masterpiece. It incorporated some of the best “floating” martial arts techniques of Chinese cinema, but it also had a philosophical side, not to mention a great understand of depth of character (something Lee had already demonstrated in Eat Drink Man Woman and The Ice Storm). The film made $128 million in the US alone, and it still remains the biggest grossing (living- The Passion of the Christ’s ancient Aramaic beat it) foreign language film there. Not only did the film open the floodgates for Asian cinema to enter US multiplexes (Hero, House of Flying Daggers), but its effects were replicated in countless Hollywood action films since.

But it wasn’t just Asian martial arts movies that were making their mark over this side of the planet. 2000 saw the release of Japanese horror film Ringu in the UK, and it became an instant cult classic. It was the first horror film in years to effectively create an atmosphere of creepiness and dread, as a young journalist attempts to uncover the mystery of a video tape that, once watched, will somehow render the viewer dead one week later. Word of mouth, and positive reviews, spread fast and soon the film became such a phenomenon that a Hollywood remake emerged. But it’s the final scene of the original that is a work of genius, a sublime scare that is not only creepy in itself but it’s a scene that also ironically tears down the boundary between viewer and movie. While the Ringu films only got a DVD release in the US, their Hollywood remakes went on to generate over $200 million. Its success saw a spate of American adaptations of Asian horror films, such as The Eye and The Grudge, sadly none of them living up to the uneasiness of the original.

Unsimulated Cinema

Let’s face it, despite the almost infinite amount of information the internet offered us going into the new millennium, it was still porn that clogged up the majority of bandwidths. And with the accessibility of porn came a greater sense of de-sensitivity towards sexuality in general. And so this decade saw an increasing liberation of sexuality on screen, and specifically, unsimulated sex scenes. In 2000 France banned the film Baise-Moi, a video-nasty in which two underprivileged women go on a murderous rampage (partly prompted by a rape), screwing and killing whomever they pleased. The sad part is that sexuality was still portrayed in a rather seedy, negative light, such as the British film Intimacy, or even the controversial 9 Songs (which implicitly linked the pleasure of sex to the pleasure of narcotics, not to mention linking female sexuality with psychosis). Yet there were some examples in which this taboo was broken in truly artistic ways, and shown as a positive part of human relations (e.g. Sex and Lucia or Shortbus).

The Rise of Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller may have been well known in the 90’s due to his presence on Saturday Night Live, his own TV show, and directing indie films like Reality Bites, but it was this decade that saw him propelled to star status. 2000’s Meet the Parents was a huge success, and Stiller proved that he could play the likeable everyman while also being able to display excellent comic timing. The following year saw him direct and star in the spoof Zoolander, which did not make a box office splash (partly because of the impact of the 9/11 attacks) but became quoted by many years on. Stiller went on to make several high-earning comedies, including Tropic Thunder which he directed and co-wrote, and even added some weight to the great cast of indie hit The Royal Tenenbaums.

Actress’ Lib

Despite women’s right being supposedly assured, we entered the new millennium with many high-power women still earning less than their male counterparts, even in Hollywood’s acting elite. But 2000 saw the ladies of cinema climb the ladder of equality a little more. Already a huge star, Julia Roberts became the first actress to earn $20million for a single flick, the drama Erin Brokovich. The film was a huge success, earning over $250 million worldwide, and securing an Oscar for Roberts. And while her career has become relatively quiet as of late, numerous other starlets have gunned for the position of highest-paid actress, including Cameron Diaz who earned $20 mil for Charlie’s Angels 2, and Reese Witherspoon who supposedly banked $29 million for the upcoming Our Family Trouble. Yet despite these figures the highest-paid actors still earn roughly twice as much. Tsk… men!

We Said Goodbye to: Alec Guinness

Alec Guinness (an anagram for “genuine class”, no less) was one of England’s greatest actors. Guinness established his career on the stage in the 20’s and 30’s, working alongside fellow legends such as John Gielgud and Lawrence Olivier. But after the war Guinness associated himself the Ealing film studio, producers of some classic examples of black comedy. In the exceptional Kind Hearts and Coronets, Guinness played eight characters in the film, as well as starring in several other of their films. Guinness deservedly won an Oscar for his role in Bridge on the River Kwai, in which he plays a British Colonel stuck in a Japanese POW who decides to continue fighting the war by sabotaging the very bridge that he’s supposed to be building. Guinness was also a notorious drunk, most notably in Lawrence of Arabia, where he and Peter O’Toole were rarely sober during production.

Most modern audiences remember Guinness as Obi Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars, a film he learned to dislike due to the obsessive fans. Guinness claimed that it was his idea to kill off Kenobi, not for pathos, but because he was sick of the script’s “mumbo jumbo”. Guinness continued acting until the mid 90’s, and he eventually succumbed to prostate cancer.

Films of the Year

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Memento
In the Mood for Love
Requiem for a Dream
High Fidelity

By Eoin O’Faolain

Future Years: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

Anything you think we’ve missed? Anything you disagree with? Let us know on the comments below!

Popularity: 1% [?]