On Demand Weekly's Top 10 Movies On Demand 2011

On Demand Weekly’s Top 10 Movies On Demand 2011 - Part IDecember 29, 2011

Sundance Selects

So many movies and so many movie lists of 2011. How could you watch or read them all and yet so many are so similar. Do you need affirmation of the films you may have seen in the theaters already? How about learning about the best films of 2011 you may have missed?

On Demand Weekly's Cynthia Kane and Chris Claro offer their Top 10 Movies On Demand of 2011. Tell us what you think of the their lists or what your #1 movie of 2010 is HERE.

Part I - Cynthia's is below.
Part II - Chris's is HERE.

10. HOUSE OF PLEASURES
What is it that attracts us to the 19th century romanticist notion that whorehouses were more than just that… that they were houses of pleasure, houses of love, places where notorious acts of the flesh could, if only, turn into quixotic love? Haunting and visually stunning…

9. MY DOG TULIP
I’m a dog lover in the best way…and I despise silly sentimentality - This film made me cry and laugh and then go back and watch it all again. Yet put that all aside: this is a love story like no other.

8. SECRET SUNSHINE
Finding salvation in the senseless of what life has offered the central character, this is an extraordinary and such a finely crafted film with many subtleties, twists, turns and challenging surprises. Watching it is like spending time with a great novel, how the story infuses and gets under the skin before one is aware of it.

7. HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER
This Israel’s 2010 Oscar contender is a quiet masterpiece with subtle comic undertones. Based on the acclaimed novel, “A Woman in Jerusalem” by A.B. Yehoshua.

6. SUBMARINO
Whatever happened to Thomas Vinterberg? He’s back and on track with the story of two brothers trapped by a past they share. I was haunted by this… and stunned by the superb performances.

5. QUEEN TO PLAY
Here’s Kevin Kline speaking French and giving a beautiful and subtle performance. Matched perfectly by the superb Sandrine Bonnaire and stunning backdrop of Corsica.

4. PRINCESSE DE MONTPENSIER
Bertrand Tavernier is one of those filmmakers that makes French historical drama alive sensually and vividly. After this you’ll be searching for the novella by the celebrated Madame de Lafayette or looking for other films set in the same period of the Catholic/Protestant Wars, such as QUEEN MARGOT.

Cynthia's Top 3 of 2011...

3. WHITE MATERIAL
Claire Denis revisits Africa – but an Africa rife with conflict and violence. Isabelle Huppert is at her best… Anything these two women collaborate on is worth seeing in my opinion.

2. MEEK’S CUTOFF
If you want a film to transport you to another place and time, this is it. And we find ourselves in the earliest days of the Oregon Trail by the most original, artful, thought-provoking filmmaker now on the American scene.

1. CARLOS
A brilliant retelling of Carlos the Jackal’s tale… After premiering at Festival de Cannes 2010 in its 330-minute version, IFC Films and Sundance Channel picked up this gem.

- Cynthia Kane

Cynthia Kane reviews documentaries for On Demand Weekly. She is a writer and Sr Programming Manager for [ ITVS], overseeing the International Initiative for funding in their SF office. Prior she’s had many incarnations from actor to writer to producer. She co-created DOCday on Sundance Channel.