The 1984 Mini-List

[swo17]

ELIGIBLE TITLES FOR 1984

VOTE THROUGH JUNE 30

Please post in this thread if you think anything needs to change about the list of eligible titles.

[yoshimori]

Thanks, kind sir.

1984 films I'll vote for that are missing from the list (and from snapshot):

Oguri, Kayako no tameni
Bellocchio, Enrico IV
Zulawski, La femme publique

For everyone: I'll also especially recommend folks add to their "to view" lists Morita Yoshimitsu's Tokimeki ni shisu [Death in the Throes of Ecstasy]. Iwai Shunji (All About Lily Chou-chou, Love Letter) says he wore out his VHS tape of this, his favorite movie, back in the day.

I'd also recommend, as a delightfully fun diversion, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. My college roommate's uncle wrote both it and (surprisingly) New York, New York.

[domino harvey]

Please add La Diagonale du fou, the Michel Piccoli playing chess thriller that includes at one point a mystical guru face-off so outrageous that of course it was based on a real thing that actually happened!

Also two Jessica Lange movies are missing: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Rip Torn giving an incredible Big Daddy as only he can; and Country, where hers was one of three (!) Best Actress nominees for farmers this year. And also MIA is Racing With the Moon, with what is surely Elizabeth McGovern's most adorable perf

[domino harvey]

And it's listed but of course everyone should see the singular the Annunciation, wherein the history of mankind is enacted wholly by children. More thoughts on the film here

[swo17]

I've added all of yoshimori and domino's suggestions, thanks!

[domino harvey]

Can you also please add Les ripoux (and its sequel Ripoux contre ripoux for 1990) (and Racing with the Moon still doesn't show up for me)

[swo17]

Racing with the Moon still doesn't show up for me

Sorry, missed that, should be there now

[domino harvey]

[martin]

La Pirate (Jacques Doillon)
I learned about this film probably much more than a decade ago when someone - possibly David Ehrenstein - was praising it on this very forum. It could have been in a gay-themed thread but I’m not sure about that. I’ve searched for the post with no luck though.

First of all, it’s a very complicated film, riddled and hard to fully grasp in one viewing. It’s not a very realistic or naturalistic film and the characters show big emotions, often changing from one extreme to the other within the same scene. And there are some theatricals, for instance in how a knife is used as a prop. The interviewer on one of the Blu-ray supplements likens La pirate to an opera which makes some sense. But the small cast (basically five characters played by Jane Birkin, Maruschka Detmers, Philippe Léotard, Andrew Birkin, Laure Marsac) all play their heart out. It was a riveting viewing and I enjoyed it. The most mercurial character is the child – played by Laure Marsac who was probably 13 at the time. She won a newcomer César for her performnce, by the way. She’s an instigator, stirs things up and drives the events forward, somehow reminding me of Shakespeare’s Puck.

Huge spoilerShow

There’s something unearthly about the Laure Marsac character. Is she an angel, a fairy, the devil, God or simply a concept or an idea? One character notices how she never seems to sleep. She drives a car, smokes, carries a gun and shoots two of the main leads (the Jane and Andrew Birkin characters) in the dramatic finale.

[knives]

A few recommendations for additions all of which I’m seriously considering voting for.

Paul Newman is seriously in consideration for greatest director of all time in my opinion and his Harry and Son is a prime example. It’s a pair with Sometimes a Great Notion as it deals with a new youth that Newman’s patriarch can’t figure out and whose attempt to do so only hurts his loved ones. It exchanges Kelsey’s poetry with an observational style allowing for an emotional sort of storytelling.

Makk’s Lily in Love won’t be mistaken as his absolute best work, but I find it a fun return to the style of Lubitsch and Stefan Zweig.

The Snowdrop Festival is one of Menzel’s best hangout movies as it just floats around this bizarre little village.

Ken Burns’ early film on the shaker religious sect is his most fascinating early documentary to me because of the dynamic themes that he is forced to engage with which he usually shied from during these years.

[swo17]

All added, thanks!