It cannot be overstated how exceptional 2021 has been for Luxembourg’s cinema. Let us mention, in no particular order the (Samsa Film) on Netflix, the César award for “Deux” by Filippo Meneghetti (Tarantula Luxembourg), the Oscar and Bafta nominations for (Samsa Film), "Wolfwalkers" (Melusine Productions) and "Deux", the Cannes selections of "Where is Anne Frank" (Samsa Film) and "Les Intranquilles" (Samsa Film), the presence of Vicky Krieps in one of the main roles of a number one film at the American box-office ("Old" by M. Night Shyamalan), not forgetting the Golden Bear received at the Berlin Festival by (Paul Thiltges Distributions).

And to end 2021 on a high note, the Paul Thiltges Distributions film was once again praised. After devoting a page in its last August, the New York Times has placed “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” among its films of 2021.

In second place

The American daily newspaper usually lets its journalists and cultural critics publish their top 10 of the year individually. In the case of films, the two main critics are Manohla Dargis and Anthony Oliver Scott. And the latter did not hesitate to place Romanian director Radu Jude's production in second place among his films of the year. It landed behind the magnificent documentary “Summer of Soul” (now available on the Disney+ platform) about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, where Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone and Sly & the Family Stone played. But ahead of Jane Campion's “The Power of the Dog”, Céline Sciamma's “Petite Maman” or Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story".

This is what A. O. Scott writes about the Luxembourg co-production: “From its hardcore opening to its tumultuous conclusion, this style-defying Romanian film almost too well captures the desperate, angry and exhausted mood of our time. A Bucharest schoolteacher (the brilliant and fearless Katia Pascariu) finds her job endangered after a sex tape she made with her husband goes semi-viral. Meanwhile, the Covid pandemic and culture war hostilities turn daily life into a theatre of grievance and anxiety. Managing to bring all this together in the same work is down to Jude's intellectually abrasive direction and the rage that fuels his mockery.”

Vicky Krieps and Rolling Stone Magazine

Alongside “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” (which can still be seen on Luxembourg screens), another Luxembourg production appears in the NY Times critic's top 10, “Bergman Island” by French director Mia Hansen-Love, in which Vicky Krieps has the female lead, ranks sixth.

Finally, it should be noted that “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” is also included in the top 10 best films of 2021 by another American cultural institution, Rolling Stone magazine. There, it even ranks sixth.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.