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RESULTS

If you are reading this sentence, you are eligible to participate in our forum's latest decades list project exploring the films of the 1980s. If you know anyone adventurous enough--on or off the forum--that you think would also enjoy participating, feel free to invite them as well.

Please PM me your list of what you believe are the top 50 films from this decade toward the end of the project. I will send confirmation that I have received your list after I have tabulated it. If you haven't heard from me within a day, you should follow up with me to make sure that I received your list. You may feel that you could compile a list of 50 favorite films from this decade much earlier than the deadline, but it's still highly recommended that you engage in the discussions here. Don't keep your favorites a secret, and always be open to suggestions from others!


THE RULES

1) Each individual list is to comprise no more or less than 50 films, ranked in your order of preference (with no ties). If you haven't yet seen 50 films from this decade that you think are genuinely great (or even if you have), please take advantage of the resources listed below and participate in the ongoing discussions to find films that you can be proud to put on your list.

2) Anyone participating in this project should plan to submit a list by the Round 1 deadline. After this point, I will publish some preliminary results that will not reveal how each film has performed, but will at least make it apparent which films are orphans (i.e. those that have received only one vote, and so receive no points in the tabulation process). During the month that follows (Round 2) all those who are interested in participating further may seek out the orphaned films (or anything else they didn't fit in before the Round 1 deadline) and make revisions to their lists as they see fit, up until the Round 2 deadline. After this point, I will publish the results.

3) Any feature film, documentary, experimental film, short film, music video, TV miniseries, TV movie, TV special, or isolated episode from an anthology TV series released in the 1980s (1980-1989) should be eligible. In addition, any multi-year release starting in the 1980s should also be eligible. Year of release is established in my database for SNAPSЖOT and also summarized by year as follows:

1980 / 1981 / 1982 / 1983 / 1984 / 1985 / 1986 / 1987 / 1988 / 1989

If a film is not listed here, please bring it up so I can add it to the database.

Some films that are eligible for the 1980s: Begotten, Chameleon Street, Histoire(s) du cinéma (entire series), Visions in Meditation (entire series), Poto and Cabengo, The Falls, New York Portrait II, Confidence, Build a House Plant a Tree, The Fog, The Beyond, Breaker Morant, Pièce touchée, Ilha das Flores, Darkness Light Darkness, The Runner, The Horse Thief, Merry-Go-Round, Tongues Untied, Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Architecture of Doom, Korova, Bashu the Little Stranger, The Hill Farm

Some films that are not eligible for the 1980s: Gates of Heaven, Siberiade, Grass Labyrinth, Buffet froid, Autumn Marathon, Tale of Tales, S'en fout la mort, Sink or Swim, The Guard, Cabeza de Vaca, A Intrusa, Only Yesterday, Chiedo asilo, Northwest Passage (Twin Peaks pilot), L'Enfant secret, How to Live, In the Shadow of the Sun, Lucifer Rising, Warsaw Bridge, Arrebato, Freeze Die Come to Life, Agony

4) In certain cases, it may be appropriate for films that are technically separate to be combined, or for films that are technically combined to be separated. In such cases, you may vote for either a part or the whole, but bear in mind that all votes will be competing against each other (e.g. a vote for only I Am Curious: Yellow would not count toward the vote for the two parts of I Am Curious combined). Generally, if multiple films are allowed to be combined for voting purposes, you should probably vote for them that way unless you are strongly opposed to doing so. The most common cases:

• Single-director multi-part films for which each segment was released separately (e.g. Feuillade's serials, Lang's two-part epics) may be considered as a single film. Films included in trilogies may not be combined.

• Variant edits: For films that exist in multiple versions (e.g. Welles' Mr. Arkadin, Rivette's Out 1), all votes that don't specify a "secondary" version will be counted toward the "primary" version.

• Portmanteau films: Each of the individual segments and the film as a whole are all separately eligible.

We may occasionally need to make a special case. If you are seriously considering including a film on your list that you have a question about in this regard, bring it up in this thread and we'll iron it out. However, I will not make any further exceptions during the last week of the project.

For more details about rules and procedures, please refer here.


RESOURCES

Past Forum Discussions
Discussion from the Forum's Prior 1980s Project
Discussion from the Forum's Genre List Projects
Discussion from the Forum's Shorts List Project

Guides Within This Decade's Threads
Do you feel you have an especially informed opinion about the work during this decade from a particular director, country, genre, etc.? Many people here would greatly appreciate your taking the time to prepare a guide for navigating through all that's available. (Though they do not necessarily need to be comprehensive.) Guides are especially welcome for extremely prolific directors/movements, or to summarize availability for films (such as shorts) that are often hidden away on releases for other films or only available on the web. Past examples: Director Guide, Country Guide, Genre Guide, DVD Availability Guide

brundlefly on Indian cinema from 1981 / 1982
Mr Sausage on Patrick Tam

External Resources

AWAITING SUGGESTIONS

Recommended Reading

AWAITING SUGGESTIONS


THE MATRIX R. SCHMATRIX HONORARY SPOTLIGHT SECTION

Remember that part in the movie Spotlight where all the reporters sat around and said "Hey, you hold your nose and watch this movie that you wouldn't otherwise want to watch and I guess I'll do the same for you"? Oh wait, that's not how it happened at all. No, those reporters went out and put all their heart into their work and gave long important speeches about it. In honor of their garrulousness, this section is now reserved for links to any and all posts on a particular film that are 500 words or longer. Why 500 words? Because when I used to be in the biz, I remember my editor throwing that number around a lot. Sorry folks, but we're living in a post-Spotlight world now, and the old ways just aren't going to cut it anymore.

Choose Me (Alan Rudolph) (John Cope)
Creator (Subhash Ghai) (brundlefly)
Gandhi (Richard Attenborough) (brundlefly)
The Meaning (Mahesh Bhatt) (brundlefly)
Sickness of Love (Raj Kapoor) (brundlefly)
Silsila (Yash Chopra) (brundlefly)
Sorekara (Yoshimitsu Morita) (yoshimori)

***Please PM me if you have any suggestions for additions to/deletions from this first post.***

One of the major discoveries I made this year was Patrick Tam, pretty much all of whose work falls in this decade. I wrote up the bulk of it here and here. But I want to give a special recommendation to the one in that second link, The Sword (1980). It's a remarkable film in context, a marriage of the wildness of Hong Kong wuxia with a level of art house sophistication that Hong Kong movies rarely were interested in. Hong Kong movies could be ravishing and beautiful, but there was often a tossed-off quality to it, a casual extravagance. Tam, rather than having beauty rush by as part of an overall wild creative energy, centres the emotional palette on it. The framing and camera movements are careful, alive to small movements, and knowing just when to capture stillness and quiet. The emotions are muted, but full of longing and melancholy, much being communicated by small glances and a lovely score. Because these are emotionally stilted people, their emotions only get a full expression during the fights, which break out in a wild frenzy of movement in sharp contrast to the careful, meditative pace of the interpersonal scenes. The movie is a push and pull between the uneasy calm of stifled emotions and interiority, on the one hand, and exuberant physical expression on the other. It all builds into this wonderful sense of people caught in a whirlwind of emotions that can only ever find an outlet in cruelty and violence even as they wish they could expend their passions on the love and romance that situation and context always seems to deny them. It's a very fine movie. Highly recommended.

I don't really need to plug many films on my list, but La Petite Bande needs a wider audience here. It's a wordless, Tati-esque The Goonies where a group of kids play hooky from school and wild adventures, chaos, etc. ensues. I don't want to spoil all the genres Michel Deville embraces in this humble spectacle, but he hits just about all of them, and the film's strong commitment to its elastic but concentrated internal logic is something to behold. A children's movie that adults can love by watching passively, or analytical cinephiles can study all the sight gags for like in a Tati pic. Or if you're just looking to lose yourself in a Zazie dans le Métro vibe, you can do that too.

People can start PMing me lists at any time. Please make note of the deadlines and rules in the first post of this thread

Managed a couple of nice shorts. What’s Under My Bed? is Sporn at his best taking a fairly simple story and turning it into this low rent fantasia of visual pleasure. It’s probably his most daring on that account. Just as much a pleasure is Clarke’s domestic dance A Visual Diary.

knives wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2024 9:03 pm Just as much a pleasure is Clarke’s domestic dance A Visual Diary.

I'm surprised to learn the Milestone releases weren't exhaustive. Anyway, this is available on Criterion Channel and is worth watching

It opens with a Milestone logo which is the weird thing.

Friendly reminder that the Round 1 deadline is in less than 2 weeks, on Jan 5

Friendly reminder that the Round 1 deadline is this Sunday, Jan 5

Final reminder: the Round 1 deadline is today. Please review the first post for more details

It seems a lot of people have been having problems logging onto the forum the last few days, and I don't know if that's kept anyone from submitting their lists. I think I'll wait several more hours before tabulating, just in case. In other words, if you'd like to contribute a list and I haven't posted results yet, you still have time. Maybe PM me if you intend to submit a list and need a little more time to prepare it

ROUND 2: ORPHAN RESCUE

Thanks everyone for your participation so far! Below I will present some preliminary results from voting. If anything you see here prompts you to defend your picks, to watch some more films, and/or to revise your list in any way, go ahead and do that, by the end of the month. If you did not submit a list yet and have since decided that you do want to participate, go ahead and do that, by the end of the month. If you have no interest in revisiting your list or changing anything, go ahead and do nothing. I will count all lists submitted so far including any changes or new lists submitted in the final tally.

Orphans (by director)

(Note: The number listed after each film is its ranking on the sole list it appeared on.)

അനന്തരം [Anantaram] [Monologue] (Adoor Gopalakrishnan, 1987) 17
Bittere Ernte [Angry Harvest] (Agnieszka Holland, 1985) 15
Tras el cristal [In a Glass Cage] (Agustí Villaronga, 1986) 17
Leningrad Cowboys Go America (Aki Kaurismäki, 1989) 34
For All Mankind (Al Reinert, 1989) 7
Le Choix des armes [Choice of Arms] (Alain Corneau, 1981) 13
Visages perdus [Lost Faces] (Alain Mazars, 1983) 44
Fame (Alan Parker, 1980) 49
Santa sangre (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1989) 48
Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984) 15
Alphabet City (Amos Poe, 1984) 18
The Slumber Party Massacre (Amy Holden Jones, 1982) 30
Les Possédés [The Possessed] (Andrzej Wajda, 1988) 49
Na srebrnym globie [On the Silver Globe] (Andrzej Żuławski, 1988) 38
달마가 동쪽으로 간 까닭은? [Dalmaga dongjjok-euro gan ggadakeun] [Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?] (Bae Yong-kyun, 1989) 15
Diner (Barry Levinson, 1982) 48
The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987) 41
Tenue de soirée [Ménage] (Bertrand Blier, 1986) 48
Variety (Bette Gordon, 1983) 35
Angustia [Anguish] (Bigas Luna, 1987) 20
Comrades (Bill Douglas, 1986) 23
Gregory's Girl (Bill Forsyth, 1980) 48
Victor/Victoria (Blake Edwards, 1982) 14

Dressed to Kill (Brian De Palma, 1980) 3
The Untouchables (Brian De Palma, 1987) 8

Society (Brian Yuzna, 1989) 48

Breaker Morant (Bruce Beresford, 1980) 8
Tender Mercies (Bruce Beresford, 1983) 15

Carmen (Carlos Saura, 1983) 37
Toute une nuit [All Night Long] (Chantal Akerman, 1982) 11
My Brother's Wedding (Charles Burnett, 1983) 37
A Fish Called Wanda (Charles Crichton, 1988) 28

黃土地 [Huang tu di] [Yellow Earth] (Chen Kaige, 1984) 31
孩子王 [Hai zi wang] [King of the Children] (Chen Kaige, 1987) 5

Jean de Florette (Claude Berri, 1986) 24
Masques [Masks] (Claude Chabrol, 1987) 32
Die Reise nach Lyon [Blind Spot] (Claudia von Alemann, 1981) 32
Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood, 1985) 5
Bao giờ cho đến tháng mười [When the Tenth Month Comes] (Đặng Nhật Minh, 1984) 33

Inferno (Dario Argento, 1980) 29
Opera (Dario Argento, 1987) 12

Hoosiers (David Anspaugh, 1986) 39
聖誕奇遇結良緣 [Sing daan kei yue git leung yuen] [It's a Drink! It's a Bomb!] (David Chung, 1985) 31
Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, 1988) 19

Top Secret! (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams & Jerry Zucker, 1984) 47
Ruthless People (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams & Jerry Zucker, 1986) 42

Surviving Edged Weapons (Dennis Anderson, 1988) 25
The Land Before Time (Don Bluth, 1988) 10
Desert Hearts (Donna Deitch, 1985) 21
کلید [Kelid] [The Key] (Ebrahim Forouzesh, 1987) 39
Heimat – Eine deutsche Chronik [Homeland: A Chronicle of Germany] (Edgar Reitz, 1984) 5
海灘的一天 [Hai tan de yi tian] [That Day, on the Beach] (Edward Yang, 1983) 21
Ishtar (Elaine May, 1987) 18

La terrazza [The Terrace] (Ettore Scola, 1980) 50
Che ora è? [What Time Is It?] (Ettore Scola, 1989) 3
Splendor (Ettore Scola, 1989) 23

ผีเสื้อและดอกไม้ [Peesua lae dokmai] [Butterfly and Flowers] (Euthana Mukdasanit, 1985) 20
A Dry White Season (Euzhan Palcy, 1989) 42

La città delle donne [City of Women] (Federico Fellini, 1980) 13
E la nave va [And the Ship Sails On] (Federico Fellini, 1983) 37
Ginger e Fred [Ginger and Fred] (Federico Fellini, 1986) 38
Intervista [Interview] (Federico Fellini, 1987) 27

Carmen (Francesco Rosi, 1984) 6

One from the Heart (Francis Ford Coppola, 1982) 47
The Outsiders (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983) 45

La Femme d'à côté [The Woman Next Door] (François Truffaut, 1981) 13
Lady in White (Frank LaLoggia, 1988) 45
Little Shop of Horrors (Frank Oz, 1986) 35
Babettes gæstebud [Babette's Feast] (Gabriel Axel, 1987) 18

爆裂都市 バースト・シティ[Bakuretsu toshi bāsuto shiti] [Burst City] (Gakuryū Ishii, 1982) 43
逆噴射家族 [Gyaku-funsha kazoku] [The Crazy Family] (Gakuryū Ishii, 1984) 38

Wênd Kûuni [God's Gift] (Gaston Kaboré, 1982) 10
Weather Diary 1 (George Kuchar, 1986) 40
Mad Max 2: The Road Runner (George Miller, 1981) 21
Spoorloos [The Vanishing] (George Sluizer, 1988) 13
Mrs. Soffel (Gillian Armstrong, 1984) 38
The Girl in a Swing (Gordon Hessler, 1988) 39
എസ്തപ്പാൻ [Esthappan] [Stephen] (Govindan Aravindan, 1980) 30
El Norte [The North] (Gregory Nava, 1983) 29
The Unbelievable Truth (Hal Hartley, 1989) 23

風の谷のナウシカ [Kaze no tani no naushika] [Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind] (Hayao Miyazaki, 1984) 43
天空の城ラピュタ [Tenkuu no shiro laputa] [Castle in the Sky] (Hayao Miyazaki, 1986) 49

O Beijo da Mulher Aranha [Kiss of the Spider Woman] (Héctor Babenco, 1985) 47
'ليلى والذئاب [Leila wa al ziap] [Leila and the Wolves] (Heiny Srour, 1984) 25
十手舞 [Jittemai] [Death Shadows] (Hideo Gosha, 1986) 30
アントニー・ガウディー [Antonio Gaudí] (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1984) 46

冬冬的假期 [Dong dong de jia qi] [A Summer at Grandpa's] (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1984) 32
戀戀風塵 [Lian lian feng chen] [Dust in the Wind] (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1986) 19
尼羅河的女兒 [Ni luo he de nu er] [Daughter of the Nile] (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1987) 9
悲情城市 [Bei qing cheng shi] [A City of Sadness] (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1989) 31

짝코 [Jagko] [Pursuit of Death] (Im Kwon-taek, 1980) 50
만다라 [Mandala] (Im Kwon-taek, 1981) 34

Bizalom [Confidence] (István Szabó, 1980) 41
Mephisto (István Szabó, 1981) 30
Oberst Redl [Redl ezredes] [Colonel Redl] (István Szabó, 1985) 33

警察故事 [Ging chaat goo si] [Police Story] (Jackie Chan, 1985) 24
A計劃續集 [A gai wak xu ji] [Project A Part II] (Jackie Chan, 1987) 41

Une chambre en ville [A Room in Town] (Jacques Demy, 1982) 47
American Dreams (Lost and Found) (James Benning, 1984) 7
A Room with a View (James Ivory, 1986) 49
Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983) 36
Mužné hry [Virile Games] (Jan Švankmajer, 1988) 22
Sweetie (Jane Campion, 1989) 35
The Name of the Rose (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1986) 27

Détective (Jean-Luc Godard, 1985) 49
King Lear (Jean-Luc Godard, 1987) 24

Trop tot/trop tard [Too Early, Too Late] (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet, 1981) 29
Troop Beverly Hills (Jeff Kanew, 1989) 26
Christmas Vacation (Jeremiah Chechik, 1989) 13
Austeria [The Inn] (Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1982) 4
Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch, 1989) 17
The Big Easy (Jim McBride, 1986) 26
Recordações da Casa Amarela [Recollections of the Yellow House] (João César Monteiro, 1989) 38

Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1984) 30
The 'Burbs (Joe Dante, 1989) 38

The Fog (John Carpenter, 1980) 22
Big Trouble in Little China (John Carpenter, 1986) 3

The Dead (John Huston, 1987) 28
Into the Night (John Landis, 1985) 46
Predator (John McTiernan, 1987) 43
Conan the Barbarian (John Milius, 1982) 16
The Little Mermaid (John Musker & Ron Clements, 1989) 14
Eight Men Out (John Sayles, 1988) 10
Polyester (John Waters, 1981) 30
The Singing Detective (Jon Amiel, 1986) 47
Married to the Mob (Jonathan Demme, 1988) 42
El bosque animado [The Enchanted Forest] (José Luis Cuerda, 1987) 43
The Stepfather (Joseph Ruben, 1987) 50
Бал на води [Bal na vodi] [Hey Babu Riba] (Jovan Aćin, 1985) 31
Vabank [Hit the Bank] (Juliusz Machulski, 1981) 44
एक दूजे के लिए [Ek Duuje Ke Liye] [Made for Each Other] (K. Balachander, 1981) 49
శంకరాభరణం [Sankarabharanam] [The Jewel of Shiva] (K. Viswanath, 1980) 14
The French Lieutenant's Woman (Karel Reisz, 1981) 40
Hollywood (Kevin Brownlow & David Gill, 1980) 34
Dekalog, cztery [The Decalogue: Four] (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1988) 36
Constans [The Constant Factor] (Krzysztof Zanussi, 1980) 49
Mitt liv som hund [My Life as a Dog] (Lasse Hallström, 1985) 44
The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, 1983) 32
Den offentlige røst [The Public Voice] (Lejf Marcussen, 1988) 19
Boy Meets Girl (Leos Carax, 1984) 49
Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (Les Blank, 1980) 46
Testament (Lynne Littman, 1983) 46
秋天的童話 [Chau tin dik tung wa] [An Autumn's Tale] (Mabel Cheung, 1987) 41
सतह से उठता आदमी [Satah Se Uthata Aadmi] [Arising from the Surface] (Mani Kaul, 1980) 46
Francisca (Manoel de Oliveira, 1981) 47
Świadkowie [Witnesses] (Marcel Łoziński, 1987) 39
Hôtel Terminus (Marcel Ophuls, 1988) 16
Storie di ordinaria follia [Tales of Ordinary Madness] (Marco Ferreri, 1981) 5
Napló gyermekeimnek [Diary for My Children] (Márta Mészáros, 1984) 32

Loulou (Maurice Pialat, 1980) 48
Sous le soleil de Satan [Under the Sun of Satan] (Maurice Pialat, 1987) 19

Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino, 1980) 37
Year of the Dragon (Michael Cimino, 1985) 32

Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1989) 26
Manhunter (Michael Mann, 1986) 29
The Peanut Butter Solution (Michael Rubbo, 1985) 50
Working Girl (Mike Nichols, 1988) 46
খারিজ [Kharij] [The Case Is Closed] (Mrinal Sen, 1982) 24
戦場のメリークリスマス [Senjō no merī kurisumasu] [Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence] (Nagisa Ōshima, 1983) 20
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, 1982) 32
Eureka (Nicolas Roeg, 1983) 25
Очи чёрные [Oci ciornie] [Dark Eyes] (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1987) 45
Magdalena Viraga (Nina Menkes, 1986) 26

A Soldier's Story (Norman Jewison, 1984) 48
In Country (Norman Jewison, 1989) 43

Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986) 48
Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone, 1989) 17

森の伝説 [Mori no densetsu] [Legend of the Forest] (Osamu Tezuka, 1987) 19
Miami Connection (Park Woo-sang, 1987) 50
L'Ange [The Angel] (Patrick Bokanowski, 1982) 4
名劍 [Ming kim] [The Sword] (Patrick Tam, 1980) 48
Eating Raoul (Paul Bartel, 1982) 50
Enemies, a Love Story (Paul Mazursky, 1989) 29
Patty Hearst (Paul Schrader, 1988) 21

Spetters (Paul Verhoeven, 1980) 41
De vierde man [The 4th Man] (Paul Verhoeven, 1983) 34

¡Átame! [Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!] (Pedro Almodóvar, 1989) 40
Oro, plata, mata [Gold, Silver, Death] (Peque Gallaga, 1982) 1

The Falls (Peter Greenaway, 1980) 44
The Draughtsman's Contract (Peter Greenaway, 1982) 40
A Zed & Two Noughts (Peter Greenaway, 1985) 11
The Belly of an Architect (Peter Greenaway, 1987) 36

New York Portrait: Chapter II (Peter Hutton, 1981) 15

The Year of Living Dangerously (Peter Weir, 1982) 28
Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir, 1989) 18

What's Out Tonight Is Lost (Phil Solomon, 1983) 26
Remains to Be Seen (Phil Solomon, 1989) 29

Golem (Piotr Szulkin, 1980) 38
Wojna światów, następne stulecie [The War of the Worlds: Next Century] (Piotr Szulkin, 1981) 44
O-bi, o-ba, koniec cywilizacji [The End of Civilization] (Piotr Szulkin, 1985) 39

Mammame (Raúl Ruiz, 1986) 18
L'Île au trésor [Treasure Island] (Raúl Ruiz, 1986) 39

Gandahar (René Laloux, 1988) 49
Lethal Weapon (Richard Donner, 1987) 32
The Times of Harvey Milk (Rob Epstein, 1984) 40

Stand by Me (Rob Reiner, 1986) 17
The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987) 39

HealtH (Robert Altman, 1980) 36
Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Robert Altman, 1982) 38
Tanner '88 (Robert Altman, 1988) 15
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (Robert Altman, 1988) 40

Nadine (Robert Benton, 1987) 41
The Hitcher (Robert Harmon, 1986) 42
Ordinary People (Robert Redford, 1980) 35

The Killing Fields (Roland Joffé, 1984) 10
The Mission (Roland Joffé, 1986) 20

Sherman's March (Ross McElwee, 1985) 15
ツィゴイネルワイゼン [Tsigoineruwaizen] [Zigeunerweisen] (Seijun Suzuki, 1980) 39

ამბავი სურამის ციხისა [Ambavi suramis tsikhisa] [The Legend of Suram Fortress] (Sergei Parajanov, 1985) 45
აშიკ-ქერიბი [Ashik kerib] (Sergei Parajanov, 1988) 30

Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984) 9
楢山節考 [Narayama bushikō] [The Ballad of Narayama] (Shōhei Imamura, 1983) 43
मंडी [Mandi] [Market Place] (Shyam Benegal, 1983) 21
The Entity (Sidney J. Furie, 1982) 36
Prince of the City (Sidney Lumet, 1981) 39
Yeelen [Brightness] (Souleymane Cissé, 1987) 31
Petrijin venac [Petria's Wreath] (Srđan Karanović, 1980) 44
The Garden of Earthly Delights (Stan Brakhage, 1981) 40
Dangerous Liaisons (Stephen Frears, 1988) 41
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Steven Spielberg, 1984) 19
Smithereens (Susan Seidelman, 1982) 50

Spacy (Takashi Itō, 1981) 8
Thunder (Takashi Itō, 1982) 4

その男、凶暴につき [So no otoko kyōbō ni tsuki] [Violent Cop] (Takeshi Kitano, 1989) 43
Death and Transfiguration (Terence Davies, 1983) 50
Fright Night (Tom Holland, 1985) 50
The Hunger (Tony Scott, 1983) 27
刀馬旦 [Do ma daan] [Peking Opera Blues] (Tsui Hark, 1986) 28
Uçurtmayı Vurmasınlar [Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite] (Tunç Başaran, 1989) 30
Un amour de Swann [Eine Liebe von Swann] [Swann in Love] (Volker Schlöndorff, 1984) 50
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension (W.D. Richter, 1984) 21
Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981) 47
Der Rosenkönig [The Rose King] (Werner Schroeter, 1986) 48
A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984) 37
Der Stand der Dinge [The State of Things] (Wim Wenders, 1982) 46
Zelig (Woody Allen, 1983) 8
天云山传奇 [Tian yun shan chuan qi] [Legend of Tianyun Mountain] (Xie Jin, 1980) 2
सिलसिला [Silsila] [Continuation] (Yash Chopra, 1981) 35
遙かなる山の呼び声 [Haruka naru yama no yobigoe] [A Distant Cry from Spring] (Yōji Yamada, 1980) 9

の・ようなもの [No yōna mono] [Something Like It] (Yoshimitsu Morita, 1981) 39
ときめきに死す [Tokimeki ni shisu] [Deaths in Tokimeki] (Yoshimitsu Morita, 1984) 22
それから [Sorekara] [And Then] (Yoshimitsu Morita, 1985) 4

Journeys from Berlin/1971 (Yvonne Rainer, 1980) 44

Media (Zbigniew Rybczyński, 1980) 49
Steps (Zbigniew Rybczyński, 1987) 25

Лепота порока [Lepota poroka] [The Beauty of Vice] (Živko Nikolić, 1986) 13

New Votes

The following films received no votes during the last round of the lists project but currently have two or more votes. Perhaps they were not on your radar before...

Mississippi Burning (Alan Parker, 1988)
The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg, 1983)
Maine Océan (Jacques Rozier, 1986)
Histoire(s) du cinéma (Jean-Luc Godard, 1988-1998)
Vengeance Is Mine (Michael Roemer, 1984)
So Is This (Michael Snow, 1982)
La Petite Bande [The Little Gang] (Michel Deville, 1983)
Moonstruck (Norman Jewison, 1987)
Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson, 1989)
O.C. and Stiggs (Robert Altman, 1985)
ションベン・ライダー [Shonben raidā] [P.P. Rider] (Shinji Sōmai, 1983)
Lonesome Dove (Simon Wincer, 1989)
Visions in Meditation (Stan Brakhage, 1989-1990)
Miracle Mile (Steve De Jarnatt, 1988)
家族ゲーム [Kazoku gēmu] [The Family Game] (Yoshimitsu Morita, 1983)

Thanks swo! I’m kinda surprised by some of these omissions— how many lists were submitted?

18

I received another list. These are new orphans:

Pink Floyd: The Wall (Alan Parker, 1982) 44
Birdy (Alan Parker, 1984) 50
Careful, He Might Hear You (Carl Schultz, 1983) 42
Brideshead Revisited (Charles Sturridge & Michael Lindsay-Hogg, 1981) 48
Hombre mirando al sudeste [Man Facing Southeast] (Eliseo Subiela, 1986) 11
The Store (Frederick Wiseman, 1983) 37
Eyes on the Prize (Henry Hampton, 1987-1990) 6
Raggedy Man (Jack Fisk, 1981) 49
Maurice (James Ivory, 1987) 7
Medea (Lars von Trier, 1988) 9
Apartment Zero (Martin Donovan, 1988) 29
Coal Miner's Daughter (Michael Apted, 1980) 35
Roger & Me (Michael Moore, 1989) 30
Dance with a Stranger (Mike Newell, 1985) 39
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, 1989) 31
Prick Up Your Ears (Stephen Frears, 1987) 17

And these are no longer orphans:

The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987)
El Norte [The North] (Gregory Nava, 1983)
A Room with a View (James Ivory, 1986)
Mitt liv som hund [My Life as a Dog] (Lasse Hallström, 1985)
A Zed & Two Noughts (Peter Greenaway, 1985)
The Times of Harvey Milk (Rob Epstein, 1984)
The Killing Fields (Roland Joffé, 1984)
Zelig (Woody Allen, 1983)

Hazzuh on someone else voting on Milk. It’s a film I talk about regularly just for how well it is structured.

Certainly a surprise to see Heaven's Gate and City of Sadness, and to some degree Sherman's March, on the list. I thought it more likely my other Hou would be orphaned.

One other I'd like to highlight is Leila and the Wolves by Heiny Srour. I haven't seen Srour's better-known documentary debut, The Hour for Liberation has Arrived. But it'd have to go some to match this narrative feature, which I thought blended the personal and the political to rare effect: the temporal shifts, the use of reenactments and archive footage, and just the general conceit (if you want to call it that) are extremely well done. The film tries to privilege oral history, or at least raise it up to the level of more prominent narrative structures, and Srour finds a way to make that work thematically. There's a power to the individual vignettes as well; the wedding scene in particular.

Very much recommended if you come across it. I note Ashley Clark included it on his 2022 S&S list so who knows, it may even end up with Criterion one day.

As a reminder, there is just a week left to submit a new or revised list for this decade, or to champion your orphans in the hopes of them finding new fans

I will now attempt to defend my orphans, in the hopes that one or more of you will see fit to adopt some of them so that they can live with you now instead. Is that how this is supposed to work?

Thunder (Takashi Itō, 1982)
Spacy (Takashi Itō, 1981)

What the world needs now is more stability, not hyperkinetic camera tricks that call into question our shared spatial reality. But the people of the '80s presumably had a stronger stomach for such things. Spacy shows time repeatedly folding in on itself within the confines of an eerily empty school gymnasium. Meanwhile Thunder (pictured) manufactures a web of haunted hallways through patient and creative use of a flashlight. Both of these films are available, along with a wealth of other great shorts, on the Takashi Itō Film Anthology DVD, which is unfortunately only available on the secondhand market for $50+, but worth it at any price.

New York Portrait: Chapter II (Peter Hutton, 1981)

Kelly Reichardt handpicked this and a few other films to support Wendy and Lucy on Oscilloscope's Blu-ray. I wouldn't necessarily otherwise connect these two filmmakers, except perhaps for a common knack for capturing indelible images without being overly flashy. This would have fit in and worked just about as well as an art exhibition or a magazine spread, but I'm grateful it's a film, with the added dimension of motion and the greater public exposure the medium allows. Organic, epic, stately.

Mammame (Raúl Ruiz, 1986)

As far as I'm aware, this is only readily available in poor YouTube/VHS quality. And while I can't fault anyone for wanting to wait until a better version comes along, I dunno, life is short, and I assure you the film still holds many pleasures in this version. The original modern dance performance being filmed here is probably of some interest on its own, but Ruiz adds his signature wildly stylistic compositions to produce a singular work that's most certainly a highlight among a career of highlights.

Den offentlige røst [The Public Voice] (Lejf Marcussen, 1988)

If you think Mona Lisa's smile is mysterious, wait until you see the entire universe of oddities hiding inside it (or the tip of her nose, to be more precise). Marcussen slowly zooms out revealing one surreal painting after another, each hiding inside the last at a molecular level, which is just about the most surreal you can get before they make you pay for a subscription. Speaking of which, I know so little of Marcussen outside of this film--just a couple of scraps you can find on YouTube. You would think there would have to be a lot more where this came from.

Mužné hry [Virile Games] (Jan Švankmajer, 1988)

This is available on BFI's complete shorts set. Alice and Dimensions of Dialogue probably get most of the attention this decade, but Virile (or Manly) Games' relative obscurity is not for lack of trying. The most blunt of Švankmajer's playful provocations, it probably requires the least amount of consideration to ascertain any subtext--if you think people that play sports should have their clay faces mutilated in a number of bizarre ways, here is a film where that happens. If you do not, you can watch Hoosiers or something. No big deal either way.

Steps (Zbigniew Rybczyński, 1987)

Just as stair steps have many levels, this film works on, well, like three. First, as a playful exercise in film compositing and editing, using an endearingly crude and dated approach that doesn't suffer at all for technology having developed by leaps and bounds in the interim. Second, as homage to one of cinema's early landmarks (the Odessa Steps sequence from Battleship Potemkin). And third, as a commentary on American entitlement, commercialization, imperialism, and perhaps more, which finds the stereotypical tourists of the Eisenstein film profoundly missing the point of their environment and putting their own self-interest above the suffering to a comical degree. (See for example a proto-Radio Raheem character accidentally dropping his boom box in the baby carriage and then chasing it down the steps shouting "My box! My box!")

Magdalena Viraga (Nina Menkes, 1986)

There is supposedly a strong feminist reading to this, Menkes' feature debut, though I won't attempt to expound on that. I just like films like this (which are much harder to come by than it may sound) that appear uniquely amateurish on first glance but are made with real sincerity and defiantly burrow into your brain despite any initial misgivings. This is available as part of a mostly comprehensive Menkes Blu-ray set from Arbelos.

Remains to Be Seen (Phil Solomon, 1989)

I actually only discovered this recently due to one of your recommendations, and now I'm the one left defending it as an orphan, which is how these things work sometimes. This looks, feels, and sounds like a lost home movie or something that disintegrated in a fire and then somehow, magically, had its ashes reassembled in the ether. These are remains that demand to be seen.

Golem (Piotr Szulkin, 1980)

With all due respect to Radiance's excellent Szulkin set, I feel like they left out his best film (a wrong which Second Run will be righting next month). It's the most claustrophobic of the tetralogy, with the most well-defined scenario, and the most convincing depiction of an actual apocalypse. Which is to say, it most resembles our modern world, when some among us might have a difficult time arguing in a court of law that they are in fact themselves.

Świadkowie [Witnesses] (Marcel Łoziński, 1987)

This can be found on the Polish Documentary School set devoted to the director, which is sadly hard to find now outside of a few copies on eBay. Witnesses seems at first like a rather unassuming Holocaust documentary, limited in scope and in size (clocking in at under 30 minutes) but eventually reveals its villain as something that cannot so easily be written off as only coming from a certain time and place, long ago and far away, and so having nothing to do with us now. Which is not something that you need me or this movie to tell you in 2025. But I digress.

Visages perdus [Lost Faces] (Alain Mazars, 1983)

You can sample 30 seconds of this film starting about a minute into this trailer. This is perhaps a more violent version of the analogy I presented for Remains to Be Seen--the lost faces here are trapped in the absence of time and fighting furiously to escape it, a task which proves difficult without arms and legs. This film is available on Re:voir's excellent first Mazars collection, which I'd say is a cut above your standard experimental fare.

Der Stand der Dinge [The State of Things] (Wim Wenders, 1982)

You're probably familiar with Wenders' two arthouse behemoths this decade, but consider also this gonzo B-side, made concurrently with the same cast and crew as Ruiz's O Territorio (plus Sam Fuller, Roger Corman, and Robert Kramer) and taking down the film industry with a punk indifference so detached as to not really care that much if it actually takes the industry down, and so inevitably gets taken down itself. Or something. The soundtrack of repetitive doom jazz is a silver lining to the world being in a state of ending. You can sample it in this trailer.

Society (Brian Yuzna, 1989)

This is not a great film, but there are a lot of not great films, and this one is exactly like them, only more so.

Media (Zbigniew Rybczyński, 1980)

Is there commentary to be made here about how modern media treats the world as a plaything, bouncing it around without a thought for how removal from its usual orbit might impact its inhabitants? And are the only continents left on this play planet South America and Antarctica? What happened there? Unsurprisingly, this media personality is keeping all the answers to himself. What I can say, however, is that both this and Steps can be found on DVD here.

Miami Connection (Park Woo-sang, 1987)

This is what #50 slots were designed for. Yes, there are ninjas and bikers and cocaine deals that go wrong. But how many films of this ilk also bother to devote significant time to the psychology of adult orphans? Or to incisive lyrics about the merits of friendship and the travails of being a tough guy? And lest you question the sincerity and ambition of the filmmakers, the stated aim of the film as per a title card is nothing less than the achievement of world peace. Miami connection indeed

swo17 wrote: Sun Jan 26, 2025 8:01 pm New York Portrait: Chapter II (Peter Hutton, 1981)
Kelly Reichardt handpicked this and a few other films to support Wendy and Lucy on Oscilloscope's Blu-ray. I wouldn't necessarily otherwise connect these two filmmakers, except perhaps for a common knack for capturing indelible images without being overly flashy. This would have fit in and worked just about as well as an art exhibition or a magazine spread, but I'm grateful it's a film, with the added dimension of motion and the greater public exposure the medium allows. Organic, epic, stately.

The connection being that, after being impressed by Old Joy, Hutton brought Reichardt to Bard college, where they were colleagues and friends until his death in 2016 and where she still teaches. She has spoken of him and his influence on her work pretty frequently in interviews, and First Cow is dedicated to him.

Oh cool, I wasn't aware

Final reminder: All lists or revisions to lists are due at the end of the day

I'll actually have a cohesive/correct list for you tonight. writing this post here so I remember to do it

Unfortunately, I'm still not organized enough to keep up with you all throughout the project, but I enjoy reading the discussion and I just sent in a list that will add votes for several of the orphans mentioned above. It's not in contention, but I'll throw in a link to a three-minute entertainment just for fun anyway: Record Players by Christian Marclay which joins Moullet's Barres in the ranks of the great, stoned slapstick this decade.

Red Screamer wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 7:47 pm Unfortunately, I'm still not organized enough to keep up with you all throughout the project, but I enjoy reading the discussion and I just sent in a list that will add votes for several of the orphans mentioned above.

Thanks for contributing, and to anyone else in the same boat: your list would certainly be welcome!