Monday, August 4, 2008

1980s

The Green Ray/Summer (1986)
1980
1. Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
2. Bronco Billy (Clint Eastwood, United States)
3. Melvin and Howard (Jonathan Demme, United States)
4. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, United States)
5. Loulou (Maurice Pialat, France)
6. Mon oncle d'Amérique (Alain Resnais, France)
7. Every Man for Himself (Jean-Luc Godard, France/Austria/West Germany/Switzerland)
8. Germany, Pale Mother (Helma Sanders-Brahms, West Germany)
9. Used Cars (Robert Zemeckis, United States)
10. Gregory's Girl (Bill Forsyth, United Kingdom)

1981
1. Francisca (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
2. The Aviator's Wife (Eric Rohmer, France)
3. Blind Chance (Krzysztof Kieslowski, Poland)
4. Modern Romance (Albert Brooks, United States)
5. Mandala (Im Kwon-taek, South Korea)
6. Man of Iron (Andrzej Wajda, Poland)
7. Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
8. Orderly or Disorderly (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)
9. Thief (Michael Mann, United States)
10. The Prodigal Son (Sammo Hung, Hong Kong)

1982
1. Une chambre en ville (Jacques Demy, Italy/France)
2. Passion (Jean-Luc Godard, France/Switzerland)
3. Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden/France/West Germany)
4. A Good Marriage (Eric Rohmer, France)
5. Le Pont du Nord (Jacques Rivette, France)
6. Dimensions of Dialogue (Jan Svankmajer, Czechoslovakia)
7. Danton (Andrzej Wajda, France/Poland/West Germany)
8. Losing Ground (Kathleen Collins, United States)
9. Burden of Dreams (Les Blank, United States)
10. Moonlighting (Jerzy Skolimowski, United Kingdom/West Germany)

1983
1. L'Argent (Robert Bresson, France)
2. Three Crowns of the Sailor (Raoul Ruiz, France)
3. Sudden Impact (Clint Eastwood, United States)
4. Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, France)
5. À nos amours (Maurice Pialat, France)
6. Pauline at the Beach (Eric Rohmer, France)
7. Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky, Italy/France/Soviet Union)
8. El Sur (Victor Erice, Spain/France)
9. Razia Sultan (Kamal Amrohi and G. P. Pawar, India)
10. My Brother's Wedding (Charles Burnett, United States)

1984
1. Love Streams (John Cassavetes, United States)
2. Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch, United States)
3. A Summer at Grandpa's (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
4. Yellow Earth (Chen Kaige, China)
5. Full Moon in Paris (Eric Rohmer, France)
6. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, Italy/United States)
7. My Friend Ivan Lapshin (Aleksei German, Soviet Union)
8. Long Arm of the Law (Johnny Mak, Hong Kong)
9. A Sunday in the Country (Bertrand Tavernier, France)
10. Streets of Fire (Walter Hill, United States)

1985
1. Taipei Story (Edward Yang, Taiwan)
2. The Time to Live and the Time to Die (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
3. Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, France)
4. The Satin Slipper (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
5. Lost in America (Albert Brooks, United States)
6. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader, United States/ Japan)
7. No End (Krzysztof Kieslowski, Poland)
8. Vagabond (Agnès Varda, France)
9. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, United States)
10. Typhoon Club (Shinji Sômai, Japan)

1986
1. The Green Ray/Summer (Eric Rohmer, France)
2. The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, Sweden/United Kingdom/France)
3. Blue Velvet (David Lynch, United States)
4. Mélo (Alain Resnais, France)
5. Dust in the Wind (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
6. Peking Opera Blues (Tsui Hark, Hong Kong)
7. The Horse Thief (Tian Zhuangzhuang, China)
8. Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch, United States/West Germany)
9. Terrorizers (Edward Yang, Taiwan)
10. Mon cas (Manoel de Oliveira, France/Portugal)

1987
1. Boyfriends and Girlfriends (Eric Rohmer, France)
2. Where is the Friend's House? (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)
3. Yeelen (Souleymane Cissé, Mali/Burkina Faso/France/West Germany)
4. Daughter of the Nile (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
5. The Dead (John Huston, United Kingdom/Ireland/United States)
6. King of the Children (Chen Kaige, China)
7. Hope and Glory (John Boorman, United Kingdom)
8. Under the Sun of Satan (Maurice Pialat, France)
9. Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, West Germany/France)
10. Housekeeping (Bill Forsyth, United States)

1988
1. Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies, United Kingdom)
2. My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
3. Damnation (Béla Tarr, Hungary)
4. Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, Canada/United States)
5. Landscape in the Mist (Theo Angelopoulos, Greece/
France/Italy)
6. Ariel (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)
7. The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, United States)
8. A Short Film About Love (Krzysztof Kieslowski, Poland)
9. Rouge (Stanley Kwan, Hong Kong)
10. A Tale of the Wind (Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan, France/West Germany/United Kingdom/Netherlands)

1989
1. A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
2. The Decalogue (Krzysztof Kieslowski, Poland)
3. The Asthenic Syndrome (Kira Muratova, Soviet Union)
4. Gang of Four (Jacques Rivette, France/Switzerland)
5. The Killer (John Woo, Hong Kong)
6. Recollections of the Yellow House (João César Monteiro, Portugal)
7. O Sangue (Pedro Costa, Portugal)
8. Revenge (Ermek Shinarbaev, Soviet Union)
9. Joan of Arc of Mongolia (Ulrike Ottinger, West Germany/France)
10. Notebook on Cities & Clothes (Wim Wenders, West Germany/ France)

A City of Sadness (1989)
The Decade's Ten Best (in alphabetical order): L' Argent (Bresson), Berlin Alexanderplatz (Fassbinder), Un chambre en ville (Demy), A City of Sadness (Hou), Distant Voices, Still Lives (Davies), Francisca (Oliveira), The Green Ray/Summer (Rohmer), The Sacrifice (Tarkovsky), Shoah (Lanzmann), Taipei Story (Yang).

4 comments:

Peter said...

Hi Michael,
My favorite film from 1987 is Elaine May's "Ishtar".
Cheers
Peter

Remy Auguste Spencer Korea said...

have you seen the 1985 war film "come and see", michael? just a little bit surprised it's not here.

gabriel tan said...

Good selection, but surprised not to see 'Paris, Texas' here.

Unknown said...

Michael, I appreciate your opinions and rankings. But what do you think of the following Eastwood films: "Honkytonk Man" (1982), "Tightrope" (1984, which he directed, uncredited), "Pale Rider," (1985), and especially "Bird" (1988)? "Tightrope" is one of his best cop films in my estimation and "Honkytonk Man" and especially "Bird" (which earned Eastwood a Golden Globe for Best Director) are two of his best overall.