TOP-TEN NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILMS OF THE EIGHTIES
Aug 21 '04 (Updated Dec 23 '04)
The Bottom Line Continuing my series of Top Non-English Language Films by decade, here's a Top Ten for the eighties as well as twenty-one additional four or five-star films.
After the low point in foreign-film production during the 1970’s, the eighties witnessed the beginning of a recovery, though still a far cry from either the golden era of the fifties and sixties or the strong recovery and diversification of the 1990’s. This is a subjective list – i.e., my personal favorites. It is not intended to represent critical consensus. I hope you find something here that piques your interest and turns into a rewarding viewing experience.
TOP-TEN NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILMS OF THE EIGHTIES:
#1. Cinema Paradiso (1988)___Country: Italy___Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
This film exists in America in two lengths, called the “old version” and the “new version”, the latter being akin to a director’s cut, restoring about 51 minutes of material. This is one rare instance where the additional footage changes the “meaning” of the film to a significant extent. The main plot is the same either way, but the new version greatly strengthens what is a subplot in the shorter version and introduces greater complexity of interpretation. The main story is about a young lad growing up in Italy who falls in love with the cinema, under the tutelage of the man who operates the projection booth for the only movie theater in town. Cinema Paradiso is often listed first on lists of favorite foreign films by critics and fans alike.
#2. Ran (1985)___Country: Japan___Director: Akira Kurosawa
This tragic masterpiece, based on Shakespeare’s King Lear, effectively blends East and West in both cultural derivation and cinematographic techniques. The intricately choreographed battle scenes of Ran are a sight to behold, requiring some 1400 extras and 250 horses. Ran received the Oscar for best costumes and there are plenty of bright golds and reds. The battle scenes are shot in a delicate mix of broad battle panoramas and close-ups.
#3. Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources (1986)___Country: France___Director: Claude Berri
Claude Berri gambled in generating this pair of films as a two part release, separated by just six months. The film Manon des Sources is effectively the second half of the film Jean de Florette, though either can be enjoyed, to an extent, as a solo film. Jean de Florette tells of the mistreatment of an outsider in a small rural community while Manon des Sources provides the poetic justice. Set in the beautiful French countryside, the cinematography and the performances are both superb.
#4. The Official Story (1985)___Country: Argentina___Director: Luis Puenzo
This 1985 winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film relates to a brutal campaign of torture and murder waged by Argentina’s right-wing military regime against “subversives” following the disastrous Falkland Island War. The story is made highly personal by centering on Alicia (Norma Aleandro), an upper middle class wife, mother, and history teacher, whose husband is a well-connected business man in Buenos Aires, with ties to the military dictatorship. Alicia gradually becomes aware that her daughter, adopted five years earlier, may have been stolen from a victimized mother. Her heart wants to deny it, but her brutal honesty forces her to seek the truth, bringing her into conflict with her husband’s secrets.
#5. Come and See (1985)___Country: Russia___Director: Elem Klimov
This wrenching film depicts the ugly reality of a brutal genocide perpetrated by occupying Nazi forces in Byelorussia in 1943 as seen through the eyes of a fourteen year-old boy. The difficult subject matter is rendered tolerable, however, by the film’s remarkable visual poetry. The film’s color palette is composed of browns, grays, dark greens, and deep golds and this film is as much an exploration of light and color as it is of human depravity.
#6. Wings of Desire (1987)___Country: Germany___Director: Wim Wenders
Very few films attempts to deal with deep philosophical issues of existence, much less through language that is highly poetic, relying on complex imagery, metaphor, and analogy, but this one does. It does so in the context of a romance between an angel and a trapeze artist. The magnificent cinematography also adds to the ability of this film to appeal to the senses and the spirit. This film was remade by Hollywood as City of Angels, starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, but the remake is terribly dumbed-down.
#7. Diva (1981)___Country: France___Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix
Set in a highly stylized Paris, this film mixes a bit of mystery, action, romance, comedy, suspense, high culture, and punk to yield a delectable confection. Jules (Frederic Andrei), a moped courier, is an adoring fan of a talented black American opera star, Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez). Ms. Hawkins refuses to make recordings, however, and Jules will do anything to obtain one. Jules is soon being pursued not only by thugs from an Asian recording company that hopes to produce a pirated recording but also finds himself in the thick of police corruption scandal.
#8. Babette’s Feast (1987)___Country: Denmark___Director: Gabriel Axel
What happens when a small community of devout protestants living in a remote coastal village in Denmark, who faithfully believe in the virtuousness of sober austerity, suddenly find themselves in attendance at a once-in-a-lifetime feast that includes the finest wines and epicurean delights imaginable, served as it would be at the famous Café Anglais in Paris? Don’t try to watch this film on an empty stomach!
#9. Veronico Cruz (1987)___Country: Argentina___Director: Miguel Pereira
In the remote Charcán Northwest of Argentina, Veronico Cruz (Gonzalo Morales) is born into a life of poverty from which there is no escape – until a stranger appears, a school teacher (Juan José Camero), who will provide Veronico with the vision and means to escape. Or will the circle of fate be unbreakable after all?
#10. La Chèvre (1981)___Country: France___Director: Francis Veber
This film features writer/director Francis Veber and the Laurel-and-Hardy-like comedy duo of Gérard Depardieu and Pierre Richard. “La Chèvre” means “The Goat” and it refers to the practice of setting out a tethered goat as bait for a wolf. When the accident-prone daughter of a wealthy man is kidnapped and disappears, a psychologist gets the bright idea of sending the most accident-prone person he can find to aid the ace detective who is looking for the lost woman – on the assumption that he’ll “accidentally” end up in the same unlucky circumstances.
OTHER FOUR OR FIVE-STAR FILMS FROM THE EIGHTIES:
Coup de Torchon (1981)___Country: France___Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Das Boot (1981)___Country: Germany___Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Mephisto (1981)___Country: Hungary___Director: István Szabó
Fanny and Alexander (1982)___Country: Sweden___Director: Ingmar Bergman
Fitzcarraldo (1982)___Country: Germany___Director: Werner Herzog
Entre Nous (1983)___Country: France___Director: Diane Kurys
Camila (1984)___Country: Argentina___Director: Maria Luisa Bembert
Dangerous Moves (1984)___Country: Switzerland___Director: Richard Dembo
El Norte (1984)___Country: U.S.___Director: Gregory Nava
A Year of the Quiet Sun (1984)___Country: Poland___Director: Krzysztof Zanussi
The Assault (1986)___Country: Netherlands___Director: Fons Rademakers
Au Revoir les Enfants (1987)___Country: France___Director: Louis Malle
Pelle The Conqueror (1987)___Country: Denmark___Director: Bille August
Red Sorghum (1987)___Country: China___Director: Yimou Zhang
Wedding in Galilee (1987)___Country: Israel___Director: Michel Khleifi
Yeelen (1987)___Country: Mali___Director: Souleymane Cissé
Decalog (1988)___Country: Poland___Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Landscape in the Mist (1988)___Country: Greece___Director: Theo Angelopoulos
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)___Country: Spain___Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Freeze Die (1989)___Country: Russia___Director: Vitaly Kanevski
Ju Dou (1989)___Country: China___Director: Zhang Yimou
Please check out my other decade lists:
Top-Ten Non-English Language Films of the Thirties and Forties
Top-Ten Non-English Language Films of the Fifties
Top-Ten Non-English Language Films of the Sixties
Top-Ten Non-English Language Films of the Seventies
Top-Ten Non-English Language Films of the Nineties
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
metalluk
|
 - Top 100 |
|
Location: Saunderstown, RI, USA
Reviews written: 930
Trusted by: 231 members
About Me:
Five ... Four ... Three ... Two ... One ...
Blastoff!
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.