The 1980 Mini-List

[therewillbeblus]

My external hard drive crashed at the start of the month, so I wasn't able to watch a few choice titles that confidently would've made my list.. but I'm with both knives and domino - weirdest list yet, and not too enthused about it.

However, I usually stay one list ahead in my word doc, and '81 is shaping up to have my most passionate top ten since '60, so that's promising

[swo17]

I feel like this is all my fault. Sorry for not writing these up sooner:

Architecture (Al Jarnow)

Jarnow's Sesame Street shorts from around this time provoke a unique and vivid nostalgia in me, as I may very well have been like 2 years old when I first saw them, with prolonged repetition, at the same time I was developing motor skills or whatever. Films you grew up with can take you back to the time when you saw them, but I can't think of any others that take me back this far. Of Jarnow's shorts from this year, this one is the most ambitious.

The Fly (Ferenc Rófusz)

This won the Oscar for Best Animated Short. I can't vouch for the accuracy of its portrayal of the fly experience, but it sure looks like my preconceived notion of that experience, and isn't that what the movies are all about?


There's some good discussion of this film in its Second Run thread. Don't miss it!

Bridge (John Woodman)

I've just given away half the film but if you enjoy the simple pleasures of nature, especially distorted reflections of objects passing in rippling water, lock yourself indoors and give this short a look!

Golem (Piotr Szulkin)

I hope people have still been able to see this in the absence of a Second Run release.

The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)

The silliest film Shelley Duvall starred in this year, but major points for the entire Scatman Crothers subplot.

Media (Zbigniew Rybczyński)

I've just given away half the film.

Ski Scenes with Franz Klammer (Zbigniew Rybczyński, Gerald Kargl & Bogdan Dziworski)

Another wonderfully weird non sequitur-filled Polish documentary short. You might recognize Kargl as director of the cult film Angst (shot by Rybczyński), and of course Dziworski's involvement guarantees that some winter sports will be featured, but there are a lot more than just ski scenes here.

Split Enz: One Step Ahead (Noel Crombie)
Talking Heads: Crosseyed and Painless (Toni Basil)

My picks for the best music videos of the year. The videos themselves go beyond what most others were doing at the time, but it also doesn't hurt that both songs are killer. The Split Enz video seems like a precursor to the great video for "Message to My Girl," not all shot in one take but nonetheless featuring the boys out on a stroll. I may be wrong but some of the movements feel a little uncanny, like they were choreographed to be shot backwards and then played in reverse. Then the Talking Heads video is very interesting for not featuring the band members at all, but rather, various street dancers handpicked by David Byrne. And lest anyone accuse this of not being a "film" it has a long, drawn-out credits sequence at the end

[therewillbeblus]

Golem's all I've seen so far from Szulkin, but it's fantastic - might crack my top ten

[brundlefly]

Architecture (Al Jarnow)
Bridge (John Woodman)

Enjoyed these shorts as well. Plus Jarnow's “River." The Jarnows are great at neat, pleasurable communication. Also found the intimate charms of Mekas’ “Robert Haller’s Wedding” and Tony Buba’s “Washing Walls With Mrs. G” worthwhile.

Would appreciate it if you could make these late additions to the list:



Satah Se Uthata Aadmi [Arising from the Surface](Mani Kaul)

While Paul Schrader was awkwardly grafting Bresson onto his neo-noir, half a world away Bressonian acolyte Kaul was capably assembling his own Man in a Room film. Woven from stories, poems, and essays by Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh (with whom I’ve no familiarity), it centers on an author contemplating matters of art, politics, spiritualty. It is dense with ideas, may be nigh impenetrable even with more cultural context and better executed fansubs.

The film opens looking out a window; the shutters close. A lot of talk wonders at engagement. There is so much framing throughout done by windows and doorways. Does the world – its events, its sensations, its people – lift you up or drag you down? How much can you be a part of something without losing yourself, how much can you hide yourself away without disappearing? When does life enter and leave an idea? A text? At one point it devolves (or comes together) to three minutes of on-screen text (untranslated) over the sound of machinery. (A printing press, perhaps.) When not in a compatible mindset it may seem solipsistic twaddle, as useless as it openly fears it may be.

Yet it’s captivating. The filmmaking thrills. Kaul’s confidence in both doing and trying things was evident from the start; this is his fourth solo feature and his visual certainty grounds ambivalence and ambiguity. It’s tempting to tune out talk and luxuriate in shots as pure and satisfying as this one:

No Spoiler, Just a Long GIFShow

Or stop to parse the way this works:

No Spoiler, Just a Long GIFShow

There are showier sequences and images, but the emphasis is usually on control. He uses time so well. We do see the author outside his room, in his real life, and he has friends who go to the world and bring back stories. Because visual space is established as mental space – there’s a lot of Tarkovsky in this, as well – Kaul can move seamlessly through Muktibodh’s work. (I suppose it should be noted that Muktibodh’s faithful readers did not like the film (section 1.1), and that it’s said Satah Se Uthata Aadmi all but disappeared after appearances at in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and a few other screenings.)

Kaul’s short documentary ”Arrival” (no English subs, but it is mostly wordless; it does include slaughterhouse scenes) is also from that year. It resists obviousness and has some sublime sequences. Won a National Film Award for "Best Experimental Film ("For searing imagery and outstanding soundtrack.")



Simon (Marshall Brickman)

You see a world set upon by pettiness and mediocrity. You are convinced things could be better. That you could make things better. You are convinced you are special. What do you do? You become an assistant professor of psychology.

You are a team of brilliant scientists who operate a think tank with infinite resources and zero oversight. You are of mischievous spirit and have time on your hands. What do you do? You convince an assistant professor of psychology that he is very, very special.

This is the first feature Brickman wrote and directed himself after co-writing Annie Hall, Manhattan, and, most relevantly, Sleeper. Gene Siskel cattily said Simon is about half as funny as any of those, and I wouldn’t try to convince anyone (other than, perhaps, Simon) that this is a great film. The satire is middling, a second half that should escalate deliriously instead treads water, and Brickman’s too busy listing grievances to build the embrace of normalcy that would make his ending land.

But I have an inordinate amount of affection for it. Alan Arkin is a joy, of course. There’s an A+ gaggle of nerds: Wallace Shawn, Max Wright, Judy Gaubart (of The Electric Company), Louise Lasser. The naughty child gleam in Austin Pendleton’s eye does the snatch, the clean and jerk. (Madeleine Kahn, too glam for the room, is mostly wasted.) There are a preponderance of lines you’ll want to pocket for future use. “I am not going to discuss complex scientific ideas with someone from the music department!” For instance.

“What I am going to do is not write a book,” is something I say all the time. More people should.



Albert Pinto ko Gussa Kyon Aata Ha [Why Does Albert Pinto Get Angry?] (Saeed Akhtar Mirza)

Not something that will make my list, but I found some things about it worthwhile and others may enjoy it better. This won the Critics’ nod at that year’s Filmfare Awards.

Albert is an exceptional mechanic in a repair shop that caters to high-end customers who drive foreign cars. He values the status and pay bump his abilities have given him more than the camaraderie of his co-workers. He sets himself apart from them. Aspirational, he tries to spend more time with his wealthy clientele. Listening to their opinions. Echoing them. Punching down.

Albert Pinto starts with a bracing cynicism. Characters dispirited about the state of India cast erroneous eye backward (“The British era was fantastic!”) and envious eye elsewhere. There’s complacency in complaint, a pervasive feeling of being cheated, of an absence of morality. People only argue as to who's to blame. Sounds familiar! But this is a story of Albert’s awakening and radicalization, its lean and destination prescribed from the start. Mirza does some things to save it from total obviousness. Long driving scenes show a Mumbai bound together. Documentary (or at least doc-style) elements are worked in. Albert’s not always wrong, which preserves some gray area and helps explain an odd-fit relationship. I’m sure there are far more sly bits than the ones I noticed.

Pains are taken to show a gradual coming ‘round, but it still felt to me like a switch gets flipped. And the results are not cathartic. The title may be referring to feelings throughout, and progress should put action before rage, but when Albert’s outburst does come, it’s in a place that won’t win him cinephilic friends.

That crass, literal call to truth in the cinema is less enjoyable than some of Albert Pinto’s other media criticism. Albert’s girlfriend is not a Bollywood fan, and Mirza takes time in his modest parallel cinema drama to drop a trio of brief, casual musical numbers. All work songs, in a way: In the garage, a squad of mechanics can't afford to stop working on a Mercedes while they sing about its price tag (nearby, a co-worker naps on a derelict lemon); Albert’s layabout brother strums criticisms tossed at him into a sunny impromptu tune; and best of all, during a heist, playful social criticism sneaks out among thieves in spoken word whisper so as to not alert the authorities. Those are fun enough that I'm hoping Mirza has a big, decadent masala film later in his filmography.

[swo17]

I've added those

[ryannichols7]

I submitted but this is the least enthused I’ve been about a year’s releases since we started. Hopefully the 80s look up as we go

honestly not looking forward to this decade at all, but I will be trucking through it and hope to be surprised. definitely has impacted my involvement, as I was going through 2023 discs for our Other Label Awards thread, but have to make sure I do some here too. February has been very busy for me but I did tackle Gregory's Girl and plan to fit in Golem, Melvin and Howard, and Confidence all in one day! won't write them up in time (aside from GG in its dedicated thread) for the results, but hopefully for the end of decade poll I'll have everyone covered with my thoughts on some of these

[TechnicolorAcid]

Golem's all I've seen so far from Szulkin, but it's fantastic - might crack my top ten

If that’s all you’ve seen prepare yourself because Szulkin’s filmography only grows stronger throughout this decade and 1981 contains another genuine Szulkin masterpiece and his superior literature adaptation, War of the Worlds: Next Century which I’ll discuss once we get to it.

[Toland's Mitchell]

I'm much looking forward to this decade, though I'm in the same boat as others here about 1980 in particular. I don't think I can participate in this yearly mini-list, simply because I don't have ten movies I feel very strongly towards. FWIW, it's not for lack of trying. I had nine first-time watches from '80 this month, but I didn't rate a single one higher than 7/10. Meanwhile, I haven't seen most of my 8/10 (or higher) ratings in years, so not sure how they hold up. I'm very curious to see these results and pull some recs, cause '80 might be the thinnest year in my movie diary post-WWII.

[TMDaines]

Could you add Signum laudis (Martin Hollý) and Postav dom zasaď strom (Juraj Jakubisko)?

Would love a one day extension so I could watch Scola's La terrazza tomorrow night that just arrived from Finland!

[swo17]

These two shorts are perhaps B-sides from great directors, but if you think this year is light then maybe that makes them relative A-sides?

The Fall of the House of Usher (Jan Švankmajer)


Zig-Zag, ou le Jeu de l'oie [Snakes and Ladders] (Raúl Ruiz)

[swo17]

Could you add Signum laudis (Martin Hollý) and Postav dom zasaď strom (Juraj Jakubisko)?

Would love a one day extension so I could watch Scola's La terrazza tomorrow night that just arrived from Finland!

Added. And I suppose I'm open to a one-day extension this month, as that would even out the number of days between February and March

[ryannichols7]

Could you add Signum laudis (Martin Hollý) and Postav dom zasaď strom (Juraj Jakubisko)?

Would love a one day extension so I could watch Scola's La terrazza tomorrow night that just arrived from Finland!

Added. And I suppose I'm open to a one-day extension this month, as that would even out the number of days between February and March

is this definite? I'm in for it, definitely let's me space things out a little

[swo17]

Sure, why not

[therewillbeblus]

1980 deserves a short February, very nice of you

[ryannichols7]

1967 is the only year I can recall being less enthused honestly. but hey, it's paid off, I'll easily have 10! this extension did work cause I really enjoyed Melvin and Howard and Confidence and will be hitting Golem (which is VERY easy to find, for anyone curious). will record thoughts shortly, the Szabó in it's dedicated thread. maddening that Melvin and Howard hasn't been rescued by anyone aside from TT, it really should be

[therewillbeblus]

'67 rips

[brundlefly]

At some point people are going to start slipping swo a mickey so he'll sleep late and they can squeeze in one last title.

My first reaction was, sure, let's spend even longer on the year that inspired Kael's "Why Are Movies So Bad?" column. Always more to see! I certainly haven't gotten to everything I'd meant to, so cool.

Golem (which is VERY easy to find, for anyone curious)

Vinegar Syndrome released it this year. But I think it's also safe to link to the 35mm stream, which has English subs.

[TMDaines]

At some point people are going to start slipping swo a mickey so he'll sleep late and they can squeeze in one last title.

I pretty much already abuse the fact he is 7 (I think) hours behind me, to always do my lists on the morning of the 1st.

I wouldn't have asked for an extension, but literally my parcel arrived from Finland last night, but I wouldn't have had time to watch the lengthy film. I only ordered La terrazza from Finland after my wife was playing around with ChatGPT for work and we asked it to recommended an Italian film from 1980; it recommended that and Cannibal Holocaust! I completely forgot it was out on Blu-ray in Finland, despite having responded to the post on the forum about it.

[swo17]

The 1980 List



##. Film (Director) points/votes(top 5 placements, aka likely votes in decade list)/highest ranking

01. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick) 316/16(8)/1(x3)
02. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese) 237/11(8)/1(x4)
03. Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) 212/9(8)/1(x4)
04. Stardust Memories (Woody Allen) 194/11(5)/2(x3)
05. The Elephant Man (David Lynch) 184/10(5)/1
06. American Gigolo (Paul Schrader) 146/9(1)/4
07. Sauve qui peut (la vie) [Every Man for Himself] (Jean-Luc Godard) 142/7(4)/1(x2)
08. The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner) 129/8(3)/3
09. The Big Red One (Samuel Fuller) 124/8(3)/2
10. Inferno (Dario Argento) 117/9(1)/3
11. The Long Good Friday (John Mackenzie) 99/6(2)/3
12. Hollywood (Kevin Brownlow & David Gill) 97/4(4)/1
13. Atlantic City (Louis Malle) 95/6(2)/3
14. 影武者 [Kagemusha] (Akira Kurosawa) 94/5(1)/4
15. Popeye (Robert Altman) 91/6(1)/5
16. The Falls (Peter Greenaway) 89/6(2)/2
17. Gregory's Girl (Bill Forsyth) 86/5/7(x2)
18. Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino) 84/7(1)/3
19. Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper) 82/6(1)/5
(tie) Airplane! (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams & Jerry Zucker) 82/6(1)/5
21. Constans [The Constant Factor] (Krzysztof Zanussi) 77/4(3)/2
(tie) Mon oncle d'Amérique (Alain Resnais) 77/5(1)/1
23. Melvin and Howard (Jonathan Demme) 74/5(1)/3
24. Ordinary People (Robert Redford) 69/5(1)/4
25. Bad Timing (Nicolas Roeg) 64/4(1)/3
26. Aus dem Leben der Marionetten [From the Life of the Marionettes] (Ingmar Bergman) 61/4(1)/3
(tie) Dressed to Kill (Brian De Palma) 61/4/8
28. The Blues Brothers (John Landis) 53/4/7
(tie) Gloria (John Cassavetes) 53/4/10
30. Golem (Piotr Szulkin) 50/4(1)/4
31. La città delle donne [City of Women] (Federico Fellini) 46/3(1)/5
32. Altered States (Ken Russell) 44/3/7
33. The Changeling (Peter Medak) 43/5/8
34. The Fog (John Carpenter) 42/2(1)/4
35. Une semaine de vacances [A Week's Holiday] (Bertrand Tavernier) 41/3(1)/5
36. Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (Les Blank) 38/2/7(x2)
(tie) Coal Miner's Daughter (Michael Apted) 38/3/10
38. Willie & Phil (Paul Mazursky) 37/3/9
39. Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges) 35/2(1)/4
40. The Ninth Configuration (William Peter Blatty) 34/2(1)/3
(tie) Bizalom [Confidence] (István Szabó) 34/2(1)/5
(tie) Personal Problems (Bill Gunn) 34/2(1)/5
(tie) ツィゴイネルワイゼン [Zigeunerweisen] (Seijun Suzuki) 34/2/6
44. Murder Psalm (Stan Brakhage) 33/2(1)/1
45. Terror Train (Roger Spottiswoode) 30/3(1)/5
46. Robert Haller’s Wedding (Jonas Mekas) 29/2/8
(tie) The Stunt Man (Richard Rush) 29/3/8
48. Le Dernier Métro [The Last Metro] (François Truffaut) 28/2/10
49. Zig-Zag, ou le Jeu de l'oie (une fiction didactique à propos de la cartographie) [Snakes and Ladders] (Raúl Ruiz) 26/2/11
50. Maniac (William Lustig) 25/2(1)/5

ALSO-RANS

सतह से उठता आदमी [Satah Se Uthata Aadmi] [Arising from the Surface] (Mani Kaul) 24/2/7
第一類型危險 [Di yi lei xing wei xian] [Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind] (Tsui Hark) 24/2/14(x2)
짝코 [Jagko] [Pursuit of Death] (Im Kwon-taek) 23/2/6
Return of the Secaucus Seven (John Sayles) 20/2/12
Architecture (Al Jarnow) 18/2/14
Bridge (John Woodman) 17/2/11
Hopscotch (Ronald Neame) 17/2/16
Loulou (Maurice Pialat) 14/2/13
Alligator (Lewis Teague) 10/3/22(x2)

ORPHANS

Film (Director) highest ranking

Fame (Alan Parker) 22
La verdad sobre el caso Savolta [The Truth on the Savolta Affair] (Antonio Drove) 18
Where the Buffalo Roam (Art Linson) 10
Barnes & Barnes: Fish Heads (Bill Paxton & Rocky Schenck) 2
Bronco Billy (Clint Eastwood) 3
9 to 5 (Colin Higgins) 22
The Final Countdown (Don Taylor) 10
La terrazza (Ettore Scola) 4
A légy [The Fly] (Ferenc Rófusz) 12
Babylon (Franco Rosso) 20
Model (Frederick Wiseman) 11
आक्रोश [Aakrosh] [Outrage] (Govind Nihalani) 5
എസ്തപ്പാൻ [Esthappan] [Stephen] (Govindan Aravindan) 10
Caddyshack (Harold Ramis) 25
Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco (Héctor Babenco) 6
Private Benjamin (Howard Zieff) 14
Manila by Night (Ishmael Bernal) 11
師弟出馬 [Shi di chu ma] [The Young Master] (Jackie Chan) 25
El nido [The Nest] (Jaime de Armiñán) 19
The Gods Must Be Crazy (Jamie Uys) 14
Zánik domu Usherů [The Fall of the House of Usher] (Jan Švankmajer) 20
Le Jardin des délices de Jérôme Bosch (Jean Eustache) 23
La Nuit des traquées [The Night of the Hunted] (Jean Rollin) 13
Poto and Cabengo (Jean-Pierre Gorin) 24
Honeysuckle Rose (Jerry Schatzberg) 25
Postav dom, zasaď strom [Build a House, Plant a Tree] (Juraj Jakubisko) 11
శంకరాభరణం [Sankarabharanam] [The Jewel of Shiva] (K. Viswanath) 9
Motel Hell (Kevin Connor) 20
The Metaphor (King Vidor) 9
Kontrakt [The Contract] (Krzysztof Zanussi) 22
萬人斬 [Wan ren zan] [Killer Constable] (Kuei Chih-hung) 25
Carabosse (Larry Jordan) 9
최후의 증인 [Choehuui jeungin] [The Last Witness] (Lee Doo-yong) 24
Strangulation Blues (Leos Carax) 7
බද්දේගම [Beddegama] [Village in the Jungle] (Lester James Peries) 13
You Better Watch Out [Christmas Evil] (Lewis Jackson) 23
Simon (Marshall Brickman) 21
Signum laudis [The Medal] (Martin Hollý) 7
Le Voyage en douce (Michel Deville) 10
Grown-Ups (Mike Leigh) 9
Split Enz: One Step Ahead (Noel Crombie) 23
Spetters (Paul Verhoeven) 24
Forbidden Zone (Richard Elfman) 18
HealtH (Robert Altman) 5
Night of the Juggler (Robert Butler) 12
Xanadu (Robert Greenwald) 3
鬼打鬼 [Gui da gui] [Encounter of the Spooky Kind] (Sammo Hung) 17
翔んだカップル [Tonda kappuru] [The Terrible Couple] (Shinji Sōmai) 7
Ko to tamo peva [Who's Singing Over There?] (Slobodan Šijan) 15
Petrijin venac [Petria's Wreath] (Srđan Karanović) 4
Der Kandidat [The Candidate] (Stefan Aust, Alexander Kluge, Alexander von Eschwege & Volker Schlöndorff) 12
Madonna and Child (Terence Davies) 9
Ο Μεγαλέξανδρος [O megalexandros] [Alexander the Great] (Theo Angelopoulos) 9
Talking Heads: Crosseyed and Painless (Toni Basil) 15
地獄無門 [Dei yuk mo moon] [We're Going to Eat You] (Tsui Hark) 23
Москва слезам не верит [Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears] [Moskva slezam ne verit] (Vladimir Menshov) 9
Lightning Over Water (Wim Wenders & Nicholas Ray) 21
巴山夜雨 [Ba shan ye yu] [Evening Rain] (Wu Yigong) 23
天云山传奇 [Tian yun shan chuan qi] [Legend of Tianyun Mountain] (Xie Jin) 1
遙かなる山の呼び声 [Haruka naru yama no yobigoe] [A Distant Cry from Spring] (Yōji Yamada) 2
Лісова пісня. Мавка [Lisova pisnya. Mavka] [The Forest Song: Mavka] (Yuri Ilyenko) 19
Journeys from Berlin/1971 (Yvonne Rainer) 6
Media (Zbigniew Rybczyński) 3
Sceny narciarskie z Franzem Klammerem [Ski Scenes with Franz Klammer] (Zbigniew Rybczyński, Gerald Kargl & Bogdan Dziworski) 6
Csontváry (Zoltán Huszárik) 20

18 lists submitted

[therewillbeblus]

Thanks swo! Top Ten + Orphans

1. The Shining
2. Stardust Memories
3. Berlin Alexanderplatz
4. Sauve qui peut (la vie)
5. HealtH
6. Journeys from Berlin/1971
7. Strangulation Blues
8. Robert Haller’s Wedding
9. Golem
10. Le voyage en douce

23. Le jardin des délices de Jérôme Bosch
25. Killer Constable

Surprised to have more orphans in my top ten than the back end, but I expected at least a handful more which all made the tail-end of the master list. As an MA resident during an election year, it's nice to see those votes make a difference!

[knives]

Thanks so much Swo. Also thanks to the people who made sure I only had six orphans. I wasn’t sure if the Mazursky or Brakhage would get any other votes.

[domino harvey]

Thanks swo! I voted for all of one of the films in the top 5, but I believe I also ended up having no orphans. So does that mean I’m basic or y’all are?

[knives]

Not the Allen?

[domino harvey]

Never been a fan. Revisited it a few years ago and felt the same

[therewillbeblus]

Berlin Alexanderplatz it is