1981-1990

  • John Huston – Under the Volcano (1984)

    Drama1981-1990John HustonUSA

    Quote:
    Against a background of war breaking out in Europe and the Mexican fiesta Day of Death, we are taken through one day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin, a British consul living in alcoholic disrepair and obscurity in a small southern Mexican town in 1939. The Consul’s self-destructive behaviour, perhaps a metaphor for a menaced civilization, is a source of perplexity and sadness to his nomadic, idealistic half-brother, Hugh, and his ex-wife, Yvonne, who has returned with hopes of healing Geoffrey and their broken marriage.Read More »

  • Eldar Ryazanov – Vokzal dlya dvoikh AKA Railway Station For Two (1983)

    1981-1990DramaEldar RyazanovRomanceUSSR

    Summary:
    Platon Ryabinin, a pianist, is traveling by train to a distant town of Griboedov to visit his father. He gets off to have lunch during a twenty minute stop at Zastupinsk railway station. He meets Vera, a waitress, after he refuses to pay her for the disgusting food he doesn’t even touch and misses his train due to police investigation of the incident. His passport is then accidentally taken away from him by Andrei, Vera’s fiancé, and his money is stolen as he waits for the next train to Griboedov. Vera learns that Platon is about to get sentenced and sent to prison in the Far East for a car accident he isn’t guilty for. During the few days that Platon has to spend in Zastupinsk he and Vera develop feelings for each other…
    – Written by Denis ChebikinRead More »

  • Agnieszka Holland – Europa Europa (1990)

    1981-1990Agnieszka HollandDramaPolandWar

    Quote:
    As World War II splits Europe, sixteen-year-old German Jew Salomon (Marco Hofschneider) is separated from his family after fleeing with them to Poland, and finds himself reluctantly assuming various ideological identities in order to hide the deadly secret of his Jewishness. He is bounced from a Soviet orphanage, where he plays a dutiful Stalinist, to the Russian front, where he hides in plain sight as an interpreter for the German army, and back to his home country, where he takes on his most dangerous role: a member of the Hitler Youth. Based on the real-life experiences of Salomon Perel, Agnieszka Holland’s wartime tour de force Europa Europa is a breathless survival story told with the verve of a comic adventure, an ironic refutation of the Nazi idea of racial purity, and a complex portrait of a young man caught up in shifting historical calamities and struggling to stay alive.Read More »

  • Richard Viktorov – Kometa AKA A Comet (1984)

    1981-1990ComedyRichard ViktorovSci-FiUSSR

    In a small coastal town,in the middle of the summer,the beaches are overcrowded,every piece of land occupied by tents and the cars of the tourists.A small group of filmmakers decide to shoot here a “masterpiece” by putting on a fake bank a ship.Suddenly,the crowd spreads the rumor that a comet will fall to the Earth very soon.At the last moment the most savvy vacationers decide to save themselves from a certain death by making some last minute unexpected changes in the script…Read More »

  • Richard Stanley – Voice of the Moon (1990)

    1981-1990ArthouseDocumentaryRichard StanleyUnited Kingdom

    Voice of the Moon isn’t that much of a documentary. It’s more of a 30 minute series of images Stanley recorded while he was in Afghanistan in the late 80’s with some Mujahadin rebels [and also the late war journalist Carlos Mavroleon (1958- 1998), who worked as a producer]. Voice follows the their daily attempts to survive in a country being torn to pieces by the Russian invasion. Originally made for UNICEF, children’s charity, and to be aired by BSB. The broadcaster passed the film due to its lack of any actual narration aside from a Sufi poem. Instead, the images are accompanied by Simon Boswell’s score, bringing the whole thing closer to a music video.Read More »

  • Jean-Jacques Beineix – 37°2 le matin AKA AKA Betty Blue [Director’s Cut] (1986)

    1981-1990DramaFranceJean-Jacques BeineixRomance

    Quote:
    When the easygoing would-be novelist Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade) meets the tempestuous Betty (Béatrice Dalle, in a magnetic breakout performance) in a sunbaked French beach town, it’s the beginning of a whirlwind love affair that sees the pair turn their backs on conventional society in favor of the hedonistic pursuit of freedom, adventure, and carnal pleasure. But as the increasingly erratic Betty’s grip on reality begins to falter, Zorg finds himself willing to do things he never expected to protect both her fragile sanity and their tenuous existence together. Adapted from the hit novel 37°2 le matin by Philippe Djian, Jean-Jacques Beineix’s art-house smash—presented here in its extended director’s cut—is a sexy, crazy, careening joyride of a romance that burns with the passion and beyond-reason fervor of all-consuming love.Read More »

  • Frantisek Vlácil – Stín kapradiny AKA The Shadow of the Ferns (1986)

    1981-1990ArthouseCzech RepublicDramaFrantisek VlácilQueer Cinema(s)

    Synopsis
    Somewhat reminiscent of Fassbinder, in particular QUERELLE, with characters appearing as the Angels of Death, this film could be titled HANSEL AND HANSEL. The story comes from the novel by Josef Capek, and is one of Vlacil’s wordiest, more philosophical films, as two young men are caught in the woods by the gameskeeper killing a deer So they kill him as well, still another senseless act, and spend the rest of the film running away, hiding in the woods, plagued by their crimes. The two talk incessantly, pledge to never leave one another, and enter into a homosexual bond which is never actually realized, as they rarely even touch, but they can’t exist without one another. As they get deeper in the woods, memories, fantasies, and hallucinations appear more prevalent.Read More »

  • Mika Kaurismäki – Jackpot 2 (1982)

    1981-1990FinlandMika KaurismäkiSci-FiShort Film

    Quote:
    Three young people, two boys and a girl, meet on a Friday evening in an urban post-disaster setting which has brought Helsinki to ruins. The boys’ sole purpose of life is to play a Flip-Flop pinball machine.Read More »

  • Francis Veber – La chèvre AKA The Goat AKA Knock on Wood (1981)

    France1981-1990ComedyCrimeFrancis Veber

    Synopsis:
    When the accident-prone daughter of a French businessman disappears in Mexico and the detective sent down to find her returns empty-handed, the businessman’s company psychologist comes up with an unusual plan – send someone equally accident-prone to find her. Despite detective Campana’s objections and disbelief in bad luck, he and Francois Perrin, the accident-prone man in question, are teamed up and head back down to Mexico to pick up the girl’s trail.Read More »

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