On the other side of my content filled posts for Sound on Sight, I manage a semi-popular Tumblr blog called Obscure and Offbeat Cinema. There is virtually no written content and the vast majority of what I present are screenshots taken from films that I’m watching or planning to watch. Though a popular film will sneak in now and then, the focus remains on films that are off the beaten path. With over 3000 images posted in 2012, I thought it would be interesting to single out my favourite shots seen for the first time this year and share them with you. This link is quite obviously unique to my own cinematic experience of 2012, as well as my own personal quirks and aesthetic obsessions, so you might not agree with all of the choices. I also warn, this list may not be Safe for Work and in the case of objectionable material; I have linked the image rather than posted it. So without further ado…
Glissements Progressifs du Plaisir (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1974)
Arabian Nights (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1974)
Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009)
The Chasers (Erik Lochen, 1959)
Heroic Purgatory (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1970)
Girl on a Motorcycle (Jack Cardiff, 1968)
Liberation of Mannique Mechanique (Steven Arnold, 1971)
Fascination (Jean Rollin, 1979)
Landscape in the Mist (Theo Angelopoulos, 1988)
Dragao da Maldade Contra o Santo Guerreiro (Glauber Rocha, 1969)
Outcasts of the Island (Carol Reed, 1952)
Hour Glass (Haile Gerima, 1971)
Niagara (Henry Hathaway, 1953)
The Outsiders (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983)
Jess + Moss (Clay Jeter, 2011)
Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangari, 2010)
The Great White Silence (Herbert G. Ponting, 1924)
Gap-Toothed Women (Les Blank, 1987)
Marguerite de la nuit (Claude Autant-Lara, 1955)
Crash (David Cronenberg, 1996)
Holy Motors (Leos Crax, 2012)