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The introduction to film critic Andrew Sarris's best-films list for 2005, published in The New York Observer on January 11, 2006:

As far as I can determine, 2005 seems to have been neither the best nor the worst year for movies, at least as far as the proportion of good (low as always) to bad (high as always) is concerned. Of course, the technology keeps changing often to the consternation of the Luddites among us and there s also that mindless nostalgia for an idyllic past, in which all the bad movies have been mercifully expunged from memory. After all, I ve been in the year-end 10-best business since 1958, when Jonas Mekas graciously allowed me to share his Movie Journal column in The Village Voice with my own 10-best list, which I m now ashamed to remember failed to include both Alfred Hitchcock s Vertigo and Orson Welles Touch of Evil but that was 48 years ago, and I very much doubt that I will be around 47 years from now to second-guess my top-10 lists for 2005. So, with little fear of afterthought, and without further ado, here are my considered preferences for the past year, which, by my count at least, accounted for 480 releases in New York theaters[.]

The introduction to Andrew Sarris's best-films list for 2004, published in the Observer on January 10, 2005:

As far as I can determine, 2004 seems to be neither the best nor the worst year for movies, at least as far as the proportion of good (low, as always) to bad (high, as always) is concerned. Of course, the technology keeps changing — often to the consternation of the Luddites among us — and there's also that mindless nostalgia for an idyllic past, in which all the bad movies have been mercifully expunged from memory. After all, I've been in the year-end 10-best business since 1958, when Jonas Mekas graciously allowed me to share his "Movie Journal" column in The Village Voice with my 10-best list, which I'm now ashamed to remember failed to include both Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo and Orson Welles' Touch of Evil. But that was 46 years ago, and I very much doubt that I will be around 46 years from now to second-guess my Top 10 lists for 2004. So with little fear of afterthought and without further ado, here are my considered preferences for the year past[.]

In fairness, Sarris opens this year's piece with what one would mistakenly think was simply some musing: "While I was trying to decide how I would introduce my customary list of the past year s achievements and non-achievements, I consulted what I wrote last year — and I was struck by how applicable it was to this year." Indeed.

[Via Stu VanAirsdale's The Reeler.]

Andrew Sarris Now Officially Repeating Himself [The Reeler]
At the Movies [NYO]