1980s

  • Claude Sautet – Un mauvais fils AKA A Bad Son (1980)

    1971-1980Claude SautetDramaFrance

    Quote:
    The conflict between the generations is a recurring theme in the cinema of Claude Sautet. Often as not, it is peripheral to the main drama, but in Un mauvais fils it is absolutely central, the lightning conductor in a raging emotional thunderstorm. The fraught relationship between a middle-aged father and his estranged son Bruno is mirrored by one of a gentler hue, that between a gay bookshop owner and his attractive employee Catherine, who is his adopted daughter in all but name. Bruno appears to have more in common with Catherine, a perfect stranger, than with his father, and so whilst one relationship withers, another flourishes.Read More »

  • Victor Erice – El sur AKA The South (1983)

    1981-1990DramaSpainVictor Erice

    Quote:
    Ten years after making his mark on Spanish cinema with The Spirit of the Beehive, Víctor Erice returned to filmmaking with this adaptation of a novella by Adelaida García Morales, which deepens the director’s fascination with childhood, fantasy, and the legacy of his country’s civil war. In the North of Spain, Estrella grows up captivated by her father, a doctor with mystical powers—and by the enigma of his youth in the South, a near-mythical region whose secrets haunt Estrella more and more as time goes on. Though Erice’s original vision also encompassed a section set in the South itself, scenes that were never shot, El Sur remains an experience of rare perfection and satisfaction, drawing on painterly cinematography by José Luis Alcaine to evoke the enchantments of memory and the inaccessible, inescapable mysteries of the past.Read More »

  • Don Askarian – Komitas (1989)

    1981-1990ArmeniaArthouseDon AskarianDrama

    The film is dedicated to the Armenian monk and genius composer Komitas, and the 2 million victims on his people in Turkey in 1915. The final 20 years of Komitas life were spent in various mental hospitals. The destiny of Komitas? This is the magic beauty of Armenian culture and the abhorrent brutality of Armenian history. A cultural and artistic world that was slaughtered with a curved knife. A humanity that doggedly advances towards an apocalyptic catastrophe, that does not recognize its own original purpose, eradicates its own memory, its final roots.Read More »

  • Ishmael Bernal – City After Dark AKA Manila By Night (1980)

    1971-1980AsianDramaIshmael BernalPhilippines

    Quote:
    The hidden nightlife of ordinary people living in Manila unveils. Lovers and families’ conflicts are radically pitted against each other as they live in the night streets rampant with drugs and prostitution. The outstanding narrative explicitly unravels the various characters and episodes. This landmark film of Ishmael Bernal depicts the darkness of city life so vividly that it was once prohibited to use the word ‘Manila’ on its title.Read More »

  • Bob Chinn – Baby Cakes (1983)

    1981-1990Bob ChinnEroticaUSA

    Now you can have your cake and eat it, too! Vivacious Rhonda Jo Petty joins two of her gorgeous and oversexed girlfriends on a fun-filled and very erotic bicycle trip. But it’s more than just a vacation. It’s a pleasure hunt that takes their bodies into orgy after orgy as they travel. From the mountains to the sea, every curve leads to another intensely satisfying sexual encounter, as they give their magnificent bodies over and over again to a pleasantly surprised audience of eager studs and wildly passionate girls. This is one trip you’ll enjoy over and over again…if those bicycle seats could only talk!Read More »

  • Bob Chinn – Goddess of Love (1986)

    1981-1990Bob ChinnEroticaUSA

    Athena becomes bored with life in the heavenly realm and decides to have a little fun playing tricks on a mortal couple. When she accidentally breaks the couple up, she enlists the aid of another immortal in setting things right again.Read More »

  • Konstantin Lopushanskiy – Pisma myortvogo cheloveka AKA Dead Man’s Letters (1986)

    1981-1990ArthouseKonstantin LopushanskiySci-FiUSSR

    Wikipedia wrote:
    Dead Man’s Letters (Russian: Письма мёртвого человека, romanized: Pis’ma myortvogo cheloveka), also known as Letters from a Dead Man, is a 1986 Soviet post-apocalyptic drama film directed and written by Konstantin Lopushansky. He wrote it along with Vyacheslav Rybakov and Boris Strugatsky. It marks his directorial debut.

    The film was screened at the International Critics’ Week section of the Cannes Film Festival in 1987 and received the FIPRESCI prize at the 35th International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg.Read More »

  • Bob Chinn – Sadie (1980)

    1971-1980Bob ChinnEroticaUSA

    1971. Brassy and beautiful prostitute Sade (a delightfully sassy and sultry performance by luscious blonde Chris Cassidy) lives on an island during the Vietnam War. Sadie’s life gets turned topsy turvy with the arrival of devout Christian Senator Daniels (a perfectly uptight and robust portrayal by Joseph Darling), who makes it his mission in life to save Sadie’s wicked soul.Read More »

  • Franco Zeffirelli – Otello AKA Othello (1986)

    1981-1990Franco ZeffirelliItalyMysteryRomance

    Based on Shakesphere’s play, Verdi’s opera depicts the devastating effects of jealousy, “…the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds upon”. Believing Otello has promoted the fast-rising Cassio over himself, Iago plots to destroy both Cassio and Otello. Iago convinces the jealous Otello that his beautiful wife Desdemona is unfaithful, and that Cassio is her lover. Jealousy is followed by tragedy, then retribution, “Has Heaven no more thunderbolts?”Read More »

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