{"id":722,"date":"2017-02-04T18:22:13","date_gmt":"2017-02-04T23:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/l-stires.com\/thinking-slowly\/?p=722"},"modified":"2017-02-11T13:23:13","modified_gmt":"2017-02-11T18:23:13","slug":"the-dirty-dozen-of-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/l-stires.com\/thinking-slowly\/the-dirty-dozen-of-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dirty Dozen of 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>Cancelled For Lack of Interest<\/strong>For the first time, I am unable to offer\u00a0my usual list of the best films of the previous year. I attribute this to a combination of poorer quality films in 2016 and the decline of Pittsburgh\u2019s film culture.\n

The main factor in\u00a0Pittsburgh\u2019s\u00a0decline is the financial distress of Pittsburgh Filmmakers.\u00a0The Three Rivers Film Festival, which they sponsored, was\u00a0dropped\u00a0from its traditional 15 days to 9 days in 2015, and to 5 days in 2016. Management of the festival has been handed off to Film Pittsburgh, formerly JFilm, sponsors of the JFilm Festival, a showcase for films of Jewish interest. Meanwhile, the three theaters owned by Pittsburgh Filmmakers are scheduling fewer foreign and independent films. It\u2019s not unusual to find them showing movies that are simultaneously playing at suburban shopping malls, presumably as a strategy to maximize revenue. The selection of films shown in Pittsburgh in 2016 was really not very different from those shown in rural areas of the country.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve only seen three films that I considered worthy of inclusion in my Dirty Dozen. Two of them,\u00a0Manchester By the Sea<\/em> and\u00a0Moonlight<\/em>, are nominated for the Academy Award and are probably familiar to most of you. The third was my frontrunner for film of the year.<\/p>\n

The Measure of a Man (La loi du marche)\u00a0<\/em>is a 2015 French film which had a limited release in this country last Spring. Vincent Lindon plays a 50-something factory worker who loses his job. The first half of the film follows him through the many humiliations of his long job search. When he finally gets a position, it turns out to be one of the worst possible\u2013as a security worker in a big box store who is required not only to apprehend shoplifters, but also to inform on his fellow employees. The film portrays\u00a0conditions among\u00a0Europe\u2019s working class which are unfortunately becoming similar to those in this country.<\/p>\n

You may also be interested in reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Dirty Dozen of 2015<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"