1980s

  • Stjepan Cikes – Daleko nebo AKA Distant Sky (1982)

    1981-1990ActionDramaStjepan CikesYugoslaviaYugoslavian Cinema under Tito
    Daleko nebo (1982)
    Daleko nebo (1982)

    Here’s interesting comment from imdb’s user dima-12:
    Yugoslav Top Gun made five years prior to Tony Scott’s

    ‘Daleko nebo’ is a film by Stjepan Cikes who is mostly known for documentaries. Cikes was employed by Yugoslav Army Film Company and his field of work were aviation documentaries. Thus it comes as no surprise that he directed ‘Daleko nebo’ a film that can easily be described as ‘Top Gun’ before actual ‘Top Gun’. This is a propaganda piece about a young MiG-21 pilot who experiences a traumatic flight and the tension triggers memories of his lifelong fascination with flight. Among other things this memories include clashes with his mother who tried to prevent him from entering Yugoslav Air Force School in Mostar since his father died as a Yugoslav Army pilot. Afterwards, in school he faces other pressures coming from the fact that his father is a legend among Yugoslav Army pilots. ‘Daleko nebo’ essentially threads the same path like ‘Top Gun’. Read More »

  • Babbar Subhash – Disco Dancer (1983)

    1981-1990Babbar SubhashCultIndiaMusical
    Disco Dancer (1982)
    Disco Dancer (1982)

    Quote:
    Disco Dancer is a 1982 Bollywood movie starring Mithun Chakraborty. It is notable for having been popular in both India and the Soviet Union during the 1980s. The film tells the rags-to-riches story of a young street performer. Today, the movie has become a cult phenomenon among many generations of Indians who grew up in the 80s and remember the classic I am a Disco Dancer song. The movie was a musical blockbuster and cemented music director Bappi Lahiri’s talents in Bollywood.Read More »

  • Penelope Spheeris – The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)

    USA1981-1990DocumentaryPenelope Spheeris
    The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)
    The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)

    The Los Angeles punk music scene circa 1980 is the focus of this film. With Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Germs, and X.Read More »

  • Lino Brocka – Bona (1980)

    Lino Brocka1971-1980DramaPhilippines
    Bona (1980)
    Bona (1980)

    Quote:
    Bona, released in 1980, is perhaps his best–regarded work. The title character is a young, starstruck schoolgirl (played by Nora Aunor) who falls in love with an ageing actor (Phillip Salvador) and becomes his servant. She waits on him loyally in his decrepit shack, receiving nothing for her labors but the privilege of being his slave. When the actor decides he has had enough of her and attempts to toss her aside, Bona retaliates in a wholly unexpected, utterly justified fit of violent rage. As with many of his other independently made films, Bona reveals Brocka’s uncanny ability to join the personal and the political, to locate the overarching social statement in an intimate, deeply individualized gesture. Read More »

  • Jim Sharman – Shock Treatment (1981)

    1981-1990CultJim SharmanMusicalUSA
    Shock Treatment (1981)
    Shock Treatment (1981)

    Quote:
    Following on from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, this musical is set several years later in Brad and Janet Majors’ hometown – which has become a giant TV station; residents are either participants or viewers. They are married now, but their romance has fallen on the rocks. Ostensibly to fix their marriage, Brad is imprisoned on the program “Dentonvale” (the local mental hospital) while Janet is conscripted to become a new star. As Janet is entranced by the high life, she forgets Brad. Who is trying to woo her away?Read More »

  • Aleksandr Sokurov – Odinokiy golos cheloveka aka The Lonely Voice Of Man (1987)

    1981-1990Aleksandr SokurovDramaUSSR

    Sokurov’s first full-length feature film, filmed in 1978 and restored in 1987 at Lenfilm. The plot is based on the motives of Andrey Platonov’s works “The Potudan River” and “The Origin of the Master”.
    The picture has become today a film classics, but in 1978 Sokurov was not allowed to defend his diploma at VGIK. Moreover, the film was sentenced to destruction by the cinematographic authorities. The authors miraculously managed to save the negative. In this picture, Sokurov formed an alliance with screenwriter Yuri Arabov and cameraman Sergei Yurizditsky.Read More »

  • Jim Jarmusch – Permanent Vacation (1980)

    Jim Jarmusch1971-1980DramaUSA
    Permanent Vacation (1982)
    Permanent Vacation (1982)

    Jim Jarmusch’s first full length film “Permanent Vacation”, is a day in the life of a ‘beat-down’ young fellow, interested in Charlie Parker. He wanders the streets of Manhattan, engaging in detached conversations with likes of his girlfriend, strangers, and his mentally feeble mother. Using lots of long takes, the film takes it time wandering, giving it a humerous candid feel. With a soundtrack and cameo by John Lurie playing a ” vibrating bugged-out” versison of ‘Over the Rainbow’ giving it a jadded ‘beat-jazz’ feel.Read More »

  • Nagisa Ôshima – Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)

    Drama1981-1990Nagisa OshimaQueer Cinema(s)United Kingdom
    Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)
    Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)

    Quote:
    Here’s a movie that is even stranger than it was intended to be. “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” is about a clash between two cultures (British and Japanese) and two styles of military service (patriotic and pragmatic). That would be enough for any movie, and there are scenes when it is enough, and the movie works pretty well.Read More »

  • Jorge Fons – Rojo amanecer AKA Red Dawn (1989)

    1981-1990Jorge FonsMexicoPoliticsThriller
    Rojo amanecer (1989)
    Rojo amanecer (1989)

    A Claustrophobic experience which involves a Mexican middle class family into the atrocities made by wild and heartless army forces whose main objective seems to be students who do not permit the 1968’s Olimpic games’ to develop normally.Read More »

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