1981-1990

  • Pina Bausch – Die Klage der Kaiserin AKA The Plaint of the Empress (1990)

    1981-1990ArthouseExperimentalGermanyPina Bausch

    Quote:
    This first film by choreographer Pina Bausch reflects her method of working as developed with the Wuppertal Theatre of Dance during the 1973/74 season. The film does not tell a story, but is made up of various scenes put together as a collage with scenes set in different locations, such as the woods and fields around Wuppertal, the city centre, the suspension railway, a carpet shop, a greenhouse and the rehearsal room. The futility of human activity and the search for love make up the film’s central theme set against the strains of a Silician funeral march. Filmed on location in Wuppertal, Germany, between October 1987 and April 1989.Read More »

  • René Allio – L’heure exquise (1981)

    1981-1990ArthouseDocumentaryFranceRené Allio

    Synopsis
    Documentary about Marseille in the 20s, filtered through the director’s childhood memories.Read More »

  • Theodoros Angelopoulos – Athina, epistrofi stin Akropoli AKA Athens, Return to the Acropolis (1983)

    1981-1990DocumentaryGreeceTheodoros Angelopoulos

    Synopsis
    Angelopoulos was born and grew up in Athens. The Athens that starts from the Acropolis and extends to the small Byzantine churches of the old quarter, the remains of the neo-classical homes, the quiet squares, the apartment buildings, the narrow streets, the vehicles, the pedestrians. It is not a city but the stage on which a drama is being played out, as, of course, is the rest of Greece in the films of Angelopoulos. More specifically, a tragedy made up of treasured memories, stories and personal experience. The poetry of George Seferis, a favourite of the director, supplies the words while the paintings of Tsarouchis provide the images.Read More »

  • Robert Altman – Fool for Love [+extras] (1985)

    1981-1990DramaRobert AltmanUSA

    Fool for Love is a 1985 American drama film directed by Robert Altman. The film stars Sam Shepard, who also wrote both the original play and the adaptation’s screenplay, alongside Kim Basinger, Harry Dean Stanton, Randy Quaid and Martha Crawford. It was entered into the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. It was filmed in Eldorado and Las Vegas, New Mexico.Read More »

  • Jaime Chávarri – Las bicicletas son para el verano AKA Bicycles Are for the Summer (1984)

    1981-1990DramaJaime ChávarriSpain

    In Madrid, the family of Don Luis, his wife Dolores and their children, Manolita and Luisito, share the daily life of the Civil War with their maid and neighbours. Despite having failed his exams, Luisito wants his father to buy him a bicycle. However, the situation forces them to delay the purchase and the delay, like the war itself, is to last much longer than expected.

    The movie, and the book it was drawn from, show how daily life was conducted during the war. Unexpected things happen, but people find ways to survive. Above all, it is a story of survival and adaptation.Read More »

  • David Gladwell – Memoirs of a Survivor (1981)

    1981-1990David GladwellDramaSci-FiUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis: Based on a novel by Doris Lessing, MEMOIRS OF A SURVIVOR stars the luminous Julie Christie as D, a woman struggling to survive in a violent post-apocalyptic world. Traumatized by both the war she’s lived through and the regular atrocities that each day bring, D retreats from reality into a bizarre Victorian dream world within herself. However, when she takes in a teenage girl, D is drawn back into the harsh reality of her crumbling city and its feral street gangs. Desperate for some kind of salvation, D becomes convinced that her fantasy world of the past holds may hold the key to a better future.Read More »

  • Mark Zakharov – Formula lyubvi AKA Formula of Love (1984)

    Comedy1981-1990Mark ZakharovRomanceUSSR

    Quote:
    A young aristocrat, Aleksei Fedyashev, is languishing in his family’s country estate, spending his days reading poetry and confessing his love… to a statue. Upon hearing that famous Count Cagliostro is touring Russia and has created quite a buzz in high society with his “magic”, he decides to ask the Count to bring the statue to life…Read More »

  • Muscha – Decoder (1984)

    1981-1990ExperimentalGermanyMuschaSci-Fi

    Quote:
    FM (FM Einheit of Einstürzende Neubauten) has discovered something incredible in the monotonous ‘muzak’ played through the fast food restaurant H Burger’s speaker system: the tracks are laced with subliminal messages designed to ensure complacency and consumerism. Experimenting with his discovery, FM soon realizes that by changing the type of music played, he can manifest a whole range of emotional responses and stir up the populace from their consumerist subordination. But as the diners are emotionally awakened, they become more and more prone to rioting and general social unrest, which puts FM in an increasingly dangerous position, especially when the sinister and mysterious organization behind the the plot to keep the public complacent takes an interest in finding and stopping him…Read More »

  • Marc Lobet – Meurtres à domicile AKA The Apartment Murders (1982)

    France1981-1990Marc LobetMysteryThriller

    Synopsis:
    ‘Based on the novel “Hotel Meuble” by Thomas Owen, this suspense thriller has a female police inspector Aurelia Maudru living in a baroque apartment house in Brussels, the site of a nasty murder. All the inspector’s neighbors are suspects in the case, and she is hard-put to ferret out the reasons for the foul deed from among the building’s strange inhabitants, including a death-obsessed undertaker and an aging photographer. As the suspense builds to the final scenes, the solution to who did it is as unusual as the residents of the building.’
    – Eleanor MannikkaRead More »

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