An evolving list of ★★★★ / ★★★★★ films released during the 1980’s. The following are my awards (as they currently stand):

Hutch d’Or (Best Film): 
Wings of Desire (Director: Wim Wenders)

Best Director (tied):
Krzysztof Kieslowski for The Decalogue,
Wim Wenders for Wings of Desire, and
Akira Kurosawa for Ran

Best Actor:
Robert de Niro for Raging Bull and The King of Comedy

Best Actress:
Juliette Binoche for Mauvais Sang and The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Best Screenplay:
Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz for The Decalogue

Best Cinematography:
Takao Saito, Shoji Ueda and Asakazu Nakai for Ran 

Best Original Score:
Toru Takemitsu for Ran

Best Soundtrack:
The Shining

Best Documentary (tied):
Burden of Dreams (Director: Les Blank)
God’s Country (Director: Louis Malle)

Best Animation and Best Short:
The Street of Crocodiles (Director: The Brothers Quay)

Best Debut:
Withnail and I (Director: Bruce Robinson)

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A Brief Review of the Decade:

Twelve ★★★★★ films - of which, seven are in my top 25 of all time and one, Wings of Desire, is my all time favourite film. 

My interest in cinema exploded during the 90’s. At that time art house cinemas were abundant and would often play films in repertory giving access to many world cinema titles from the 80’s, which were still fresh and influential. 

Looking at my top films from the decade it is striking how few are from the US, and even of those how few have backing from the Hollywood studio system. Indeed, there are no big Hollywood productions in my list, unless you count something like Raging Bull.  All of the films have independent roots and around half of my favourites are foreign language from Germany, Sweden, Poland, France, Japan, Russia, the former Yugoslavia and Italy. 

So I associate the films of the 80’s with diversity. The films that resonated with me did so because they were breaking new ground, exploring the world, opening up new ways of telling stories, and experimenting with what cinema is capable of. Yes, I know there were films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future and The Empire Strikes Back being made, and these were fun, but they were an all you can eat popcorn deal next to the fine dining of the best world cinema at that time.

Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire is the film of my life, and so features strongly in my awards. In my mind it is perfect cinema: poetic, philosophical and transcendental. It is about the human condition, about suffering and love, about the passage of life and time and the importance of the smallest moment. And it is thoroughly cinematic in its telling and so imaginative and surprising in its charms that I fell in love with it instantly and continue to cherish it after countless rewatches. 

Wenders also made the great Paris, Texas during the ‘80s, and it is one of my biggest cinematic disappointments that after that he lost his way. But other directors were coming through who would go on to make fantastic films. Krzysztof Kieslowski reached an early pinnacle of his career with his masterful Decalogue - 10 hour-long films made for television, but belonging in the cinema. The collection is built from an extraordinarily ambitious and accomplished script, and Kieslowski’s direction is sensitive and penetrating. The series also resulted in two spin-off feature length films, the best of which A Short Film About Killing is a near perfect example of the power of cinema to touch both the heart and the mind and influence real world change for good.

Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro’s partnership reached their apotheosis with Raging Bull, with De Niro giving one of the greatest performances you’re ever likely to see. And yet they weren’t done yet. Only two years later they were back with The King of Comedy, showing a completely different side to their brilliance. Whilst not matching De Niro’s intensity, Juliette Binoche arrived on the scene and immediately made her mark as one of the greatest actresses of the modern era. She was one of those actors that stands out from the crowd, but without fanfare or affectation. Her early works immediately showcased her subtlety and range that few can match. There were plenty of other fine and memorable performances over the course of the decade. Ones that stand out for me include: Denis Lavant in Mauvais Sang, Sandrine Bonaire in Vagabond, Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duval in The Shining, and a particular favourite of mine, Richard E. Grant in the delicious cult classic, Withnail and I. 

Other fine performances of a more theatrical nature could be found in Akira Kurosawa’s masterful epic Ran. Tatsuya Nakadai, Pita and Mieko Harada all stood out. But what was perhaps most outstanding about Ran was its directorial vision and its outstanding cinematography and music. Music also played an indelible role in Kubrick’s The Shining. As he’d shown before in 2001 A Space Odyssey, Kubrick was simply the best at combining classical music with moving images. 

Werner Herzog put madness to the method in creating the great Fitzcarraldo. But it was left to one of the best films about a film in Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams to explain just how nuts the production was. Equally extreme, though at the opposite end of the spectrum, was the intimate world created with puppets and stop-motion animation by the brothers Quay. They curated a dark and wonderful tale based on Bruno Schulz’s intoxicating novel The Street of Crocodiles. And back in the real world, Louis Malle crafted a bitter-sweet paean to small town America in God’s Country that still resonates to this day. 

As the 80’s drew to a close it truly felt like anything was possible in world cinema. There were many great filmmakers pushing boundaries and hopes were high that the last decade of the first century of cinema might just be the greatest yet.

Best of the 1970's <<< >>> Best of the 1990’s