Tuesday, March 05, 2013

'85

Hey, here's another list ... top ten films from 1985.

The Blind Director (Alexander Kluge)
Chain Letters (Mark Rappaport)
Détective (Jean-Luc Godard)
Dreamchild (Gavin Millar)
Fandango (Kevin Reynolds)
Himatsuri (Mitsuo Yanagimachi)
Ran (Akira Kurosawa)
Steaming (Joseph Losey)
Treasure Island (Raúl Ruiz)
Vagabond (Agnès Varda)

Honorable mentions - After Hours (Scorsese), The Emerald Forest (Boorman), Rendez-vous (Téchiné), Police (Pialat), Heaven Help Us (Dinner), 'Je se vous salue, Marie' (Godard), Lost in America (Brooks).

Might have missed a few films, there are surely a few key ones I still haven't seen (two that spring to mind are Come and See and Return of the Living Dead), and I might make a few changes were I to revisit many of these, but otherwise ... here it is.

5 comments:

Yusef Sayed said...

Thanks for sharing your list Zach. In 1985 Friedkin gave us To Live and Die in LA!! My favourite from that year. Plus, I recommend you check out John Huckert's little-known oddity, The Passing, from the same year (you can pick up copies for 1p on Amazon UK) which I like. I really need to see Lost in America again soon.

ZC said...

I'd forgotten about To Live and Die in LA - to be honest I wouldn't put it among my favorite Friedkins (a heretical thought for Friedkin admirers?), but I would be interested in taking another look at it.

Thanks for the tip on The Passing, I'll see about getting ahold of it!

Anonymous said...

A heretical thought for Friedkin admirers...?

F-Yeah! Time to watch it again. It's the best, most actualized Michael Mann movie ever.

Anonymous said...

Great list! Some other major films from '85 that spring to mind: Hou's 'The Time to Live and the Time to Die', de Oliveira's 'The Satin Slipper', Garrel's 'Elle a passé tant d'heures sous les sunlights...', Duras' 'Les Enfants', Alan Clarke's 'Contact', and of course 'Shoah'.

All well worth seeking out if you haven't yet seen them.

ZC said...

Thanks for the suggestions - the Hou had slipped my mind, in fact I was planning on taking another look at it soon. The others are all on my to-see list: Shoah and The Satin Slipper of course require huge commitments of time and, I presume, emotional investments. Waiting for the day.