1980s

  • Jirí Barta – Krysar AKA The Pied Piper (1986)

    Jirí Barta1981-1990AnimationCzech RepublicHorror

    THE PIED PIPER (KRYSAŘ), 1986, Czechoslovakia, 53 min. Director Jiří Barta’s stop-motion animated masterpiece, based on The Pied Piper of Hamelin, is set in a dark and twisted medieval village of narrow streets and weird Gothic arches, half-CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI and half-Jan van Eyck. The money-obsessed citizens, carved out of wood blocks and speaking in an onomatopoeic babble, are like George Grosz caricatures, literally spouting coins from their mouths instead of words. The rats are far more organic and sympathetic, made of real fur and whiskers, constantly tunneling and burrowing under the towering arches and cobblestone streets above. (In one of the film’s many surreal moments, a rat emerges from a gargoyle’s gaping maw.) Fans of fellow Czech animation legend Jan Švankmajer and the Brothers Quay will adore Barta’s eerie, Expressionist gem, recently restored for its first-ever U.S. Blu-ray release through Krátký Film Praha, Deaf Crocodile and Comeback Company. “Barta’s mastery of all aspects of filmmaking are evident: staging, production design, lighting, animation, editing, sound and music combine into dark worlds of repression and revolt with ironic conclusions.” – Phil Tippett (MAD GOD).Read More »

  • Dariush Mehrjui – Shirak (1988)

    Dariush Mehrjui1981-1990DramaIran

    Quote:
    Set against the stunning landscape of rural Iran, Shirak is a symbolic rural drama centered on a young boy who lives in a small agricultural village that is being terrorized by wild boars. When his father is mauled to death by the boars during an attack on one of the village fields, Shirak suddenly finds himself the head of the household. Determined to hunt down the dangerous animals and kill them, he picks dates in order to be able to purchase a watchdog from one of the local villagers. Together, Shirak and his dog confront the beasts when they attack the village. While filming Shirak in 1988, his eleventh film, Mehrjui observed, ‘I can remark that this film is different from my other works. Read More »

  • Dariush Mehrjui – Ejareh-Nesheenha AKA The Lodgers (1986)

    Dariush Mehrjui1981-1990ComedyDramaIran

    Two brothers are involved in a dispute over a house in urban Tehran. It is only through a series of adventures with the tenants that they are able to settle their differences.Read More »

  • Dariush Mehrjui – Hayate Poshti Madreseye Adl-e-Afagh AKA The School We Went To (1980)

    Dariush Mehrjui1971-1980DramaIran

    The School We Went To based on a story by Fereydoon Doostdar and Dariush Mehrjui and starring Ali Nassirian. Plot Summary: At the Justice on the Horizons School everything turns on bullying and threats from the school principal. The students are unhappy about this situation and they complain about it in the Wall newspaper. The principal is frightened about the opening of the eyes and ears of the students and he shuts down the Wall. The students protest and with the cooperation of the literature teacher they persuade the principal to agree to the remounting of the Wall newspaper. Some people have seen the film as an allegory for the 1978 Iranian revolution while others have criticized it as propaganda driven more by the Islamic regime than by Mehrjui.Read More »

  • Euthana Mukdasanit – Peesua lae dokmai AKA Butterfly and Flowers (1986)

    Euthana Mukdasanit1981-1990DramaThailand

    Time Out Film Guide wrote:
    An exceptionally beautiful movie set among Thailand’s Muslim minority in villages near the Malaysian border, and centering on a bright teenage kid forced to drop out of school and support his family by turning small-time smuggler. Impossible to convey its qualities without falling back on turn-off words like ‘charm’ and ‘sensitivity’, but the fact is that it succeeds in evoking the trials, terrors and excitements of childhood with an immediacy that’s both sweet and tough. There’s an eye-opening blend of universal and local elements: trouble with punks at a rock concert, daredevil feats on the roof of a moving train. And it offers the joy of seeing a director in full control of his medium. (Tony Rayns)Read More »

  • Ramón Fernández – La muerte ronda a Mónica aka Death Haunts Monica (1980)

    1971-1980GialloRamón FernándezSpain

    This Spanish Giallo/ thriller was distributed in the United States as Death Haunts Mónica, an apt enough title until one realizes how much else is haunting the poor broad. Murder, mayhem, kinky Sapphic encounters, and risqué bathing behavior are just a few of the elements in Ramon Fernandez’s off-the-wall romp, which features no fewer than three European beauties.Read More »

  • Cristián Sánchez – El zapato chino (1980)

    1971-1980ChileCristián SánchezDrama

    A taxi driver meets Marlene, a girl from the provinces who´s lost in a brothel. He immediately decides to protect her and let´s her stay in his house. Slowly his fatherly instincts give way to a strange hidden passion. Finally he gives up living in the trunk of his taxi while Marlene states that she wants to live with him forever.
    El zapato chino is the first long feature by Christian Sanchez. It was made during the Pinochet dictatorship and tries to capture the surreal and confusing atmosphere of that period. It was realized i in a clandestine way, but it is said that Pinochet himself wanted to see the film after it´s completion.Read More »

  • Joseph W. Sarno – Dirty Blonde (1984)

    1981-1990EroticaJoseph W. SarnoMysteryUSA

    When a ladies’ man disappears, a string of beautiful women go looking for him, including his ex-wife, his new fiancée and a sexy private eye.Read More »

  • Algimantas Puipa – Amžinoji šviesa AKA Eternal Light (1987)

    1981-1990ArthouseDramaLithuania

    Quote:
    “Eternal Light” (“Amžinoji šviesa”) (1988) – Lithuanian feature film, one of the most remarkable cinema works of the country during the last decade. In the story of Rimantas Šavelis the film director Puipa returns to the village, roots, to the end of fifties – the period, traditional in the Lithuanian cinema. Here, contrary to the films of such type, Puipa shows the post-war period not in a publicistic, but a lyrical and subtle way. Though weapons can be seen in the hands of the characters, shots are not resounding here, and the general plot is limited to the emotional relationship among four main characters. A land-surveyor Anicetas (actor Vidas Petkevičius) has an aversion to his persecutor Pranė (actress Daiva Stubraitė) and marries the loved Amilė (actress Virginija Kelmelytė) from the other village.Read More »

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