Tag: 1988

Director: John Erman
Stars: Bernadette Peters, John Glover, Dan Lauria
Genre: Drama
Country: USA

The true story of David Rothenberg whose disturbed father set him on fire.

Director: Chris Blum
Stars: Tom Waits, Michael L. Blair, Ralph Carney
Genre: Documentary, Music
Country: USA

Bringing his unique sense of humor to this bizarre and original piece of moviemaking, Tom Waits takes the audience through a musical journey with his jazzy, quirky, bluesy tunes presented as you would never, ever, ever expect.

Director: Claire Denis
Stars: Isaach De Bankolé, Giulia Boschi, François Cluzet
Genre: Drama
Country: France | West Germany | Cameroon

A French woman returns to her childhood home in Cameroon – formerly a colonial outpost – where she’s flooded by memories, particularly of Protée, her servant.
EN

Director: Béla Tarr
Stars: Miklós Székely B., Vali Kerekes, Gyula Pauer
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Hungary

A lonely barfly falls in love with a married bar singer.

Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Stars: Turo Pajala, Susanna Haavisto, Matti Pellonpää
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Romance
Country: Finland

A Finnish man goes to the city to find a job after the mine where he worked is closed and his father commits suicide.

Director: István Szabó
Stars: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Erland Josephson, Ildikó Bánsági
Genre: Drama, History
Country: Hungary | West Germany | Austria

A man’s story parallels Hitler’s rise. Austrian Klaus Schneider, wounded in World War I, recovers in the care of Dr. Emil Bettleheim. Bettleheim discovers that Schneider possesses powers of empathy and of clairvoyance, such that could aid suicidal patients. After the war, with one friend as his manager and another as his lover, Schneider changes his name to Eric Jan Hanussen and goes to Berlin, as a hypnotist and clairvoyant performing in halls and theaters. He always speaks the truth, which brings him to the attention of powerful Nazis. He predicts their rise (good propaganda for them) and their violence (not so good). He’s in pain and at risk. What is Hanussen’s future?

Director: Lars von Trier
Stars: Udo Kier, Kirsten Olesen, Henning Jensen
Genre: Drama
Country: Denmark

Medea is in Corinth with Jason and their two young sons. King Kreon wants to reward Jason for his exploits: he gives the hand of his daughter, Glauce, to Jason as well as the promise of the throne. In exchange, Medea and the boys are to be banished. Jason explains that his actions ensure a rich future for Medea and her sons. She asks that she be allowed to stay; Kreon refuses. She asks for one more day, and begs Jason to seek the king’s permission to allow their sons to stay in Corinth. Jason agrees and Medea prepares a gift for her sons to give to Glauce. Will Medea leave peacefully?

Director: Ömer Kavur
Stars: Osman Alyanak, Aytaç Arman, Orhan Basaran
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey

A confused script writer takes refuge in the ruins of a Byzantine church at a remote village while looking for locations for his next film.

Director: Giacomo Battiato
Stars: Anthony Quinn, Stefania Sandrelli, Valérie Kaprisky
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: Italy | France

As a boy the orphan Antonio Stradivari heard for the first time in his life the sound of a violin and he was fascinated by its voice. He tried to construct a violin and attracted the attention of Niccolò Amati, a famous lutist of Cremona. Antonio became apprentice in his bottega (workshop). Grown up, he fell in love for Francesca and he succeeded in marrying her. Afterwards he became more and more famous for his violins and he was granted a diploma from the king of Spain. After the death of his wife he was almost forced to marry again. He was chosen by Antonia Maria and it will be a happy marriage. In the background we have a look at the history of Northern Italy during the seventeenth century.

Director: Aleksandr Sokurov
Stars: Aleksei Ananishnov, Eskender Umarov, Irina Sokolova
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Soviet Union

Days of Eclipse is filmed in a psychedelic manner close to stream of consciousness using unusual cinematographic techniques. The action is set in Middle Asia.

Director: Léa Pool
Stars: Matthias Habich, Johanne-Marie Tremblay, Michel Voïta
Genre: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Canada | Switzerland

A war photographer returns home to Montréal to discover that his two partners have left him to be together. Alone in the city, he photographs what he sees, trying to heal both his war memories and a broken heart.

Director: Tony Collingwood
Stars: Nigel Hawthorne, Michael Gough, Ronnie Stevens
Genre: Animation, Short, Fantasy
Country: UK

The inhabitants of the strange and wonderful land of Rarg discover their world is no more than just the dream of a man.

Director: Jean-Claude Brisseau
Stars: Vincent Gasperitsch, María Luisa García, François Négret
Genre: Drama
Country: France

This drama depicts the misery of neglected children in big cities. 13 years old Bruno is of a good family, but since the death of his grandmother he spends most of his time alone, in a phantasy world, while his mother is away at work. But then he befriends the violent Jean-Roger, who’s from a severely disturbed family, where nobody cares what he’s doing. In school Jean-Roger drives their teacher into despair just for fun. To separate the two boys, she starts to stimulate Bruno’s interests by giving him extra lessons. When Jean-Roger fears loosing his one and only friend, he becomes even more aggressive.

Director: Andrzej Wajda
Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Jutta Lampe, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu
Genre: Drama
Country: France

In 1870 Russia, a group of young and idealistic anarchists plots to overthrow the established order through violent means.

Director: Vasili Pichul
Stars: Natalya Negoda, Andrey Sokolov, Yuriy Nazarov
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Soviet Union

A teenage girl, who has just finished school feels trapped and aimless in her ordinary Russian family, supported by an alcoholic father, in a dull industrial town.

Director: Jan Troell
Stars: Ingvar Carlsson, Tage Erlander, Rollo May
Genre: Documentary
Country: Sweden | West Germany

When the daughter Johanna is born in 1983, Jan Troell tells the story about his childhood Sweden and how things were when he grow-up in the land of fairy tales and potential prosperity.

Director: Ken Burns
Stars: David McCullough, Charles McDowell, Barbara Fields
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA

The U. S. Congress is one of the country’s most important and misunderstood institutions. Ken Burns tells the story behind this branch of government.

Director: Dennis O’Rourke
Stars: n/a
Genre: Documentary
Country: Australia

When tourists journey to the furthermost reaches of the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea, is it the indigenous tribespeople or the white visitors who are the cultural oddity? This film explores the difference (and the surprising similarities) that emerge when “civilized” and “primitive” people meet. With dry humor and acute observation CANNIBAL TOURS explodes cultural assumptions as it provides a pointed look at a fabulous phenomenon.

Director: Bruce Weber
Stars: Chet Baker, Carol Baker, Vera Baker
Genre: Documentary, Biography, Music
Country: USA

Documentary on the life of jazz trumpeter and drug addict Chet Baker. Fascinating series of interviews with friends, family, associates and lovers, interspersed with film from Baker’s earlier life and some modern-day performances.

Director: Vladimir Tarasov
Stars: Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, Vasiliy Livanov, Aleksandr Pashutin
Genre: Animation, Short, Sci-Fi
Country: Soviet Union

A starship crashed on an uninhabitate planet and its crew had to abandon it. Years later the survivors and their children try to return to the ship and send a distress signal. But for that they must go through a very dangerous mountain passage.

Director: Miguel Pereira
Stars: Leopoldo Aban, Juan José Camero, Guillermo Delgado
Genre: Drama, War
Country: UK | Argentina

A rural teacher in Jujuy, establishes a friendly relationship with the inhabitants of Chorcán, a small Andean village. Circumstances in EEE Outbreak of War of the Malvinas and one of his students, Verónico Cruz, is called for a Fight, running a Join the crew of the ARA General Belgrano, sunk on May 2, 1982.

Director: Jan Svankmajer
Stars: Miroslav Kuchar
Genre: Animation, Short, Comedy
Country: Czechoslovakia

The film stars the same actor in every role. He plays a guy at home watching a soccer game, the players on the field AND the referee. However, this game ain’t normal in any sense!

Director: Dusan Makavejev
Stars: Camilla Søeberg, Alfred Molina, Simon Callow
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA

In a small European country, the king is scheduled to visit a small, quiet and “safe” village. It turns out that while the village may indeed be small, it’s neither as quiet nor as safe as it’s expected to be.

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Stars: Tchéky Karyo, Bart the Bear, Youk the Bear
Genre: Adventure, Family, Drama
Country: France | USA

An orphan bear cub hooks up with an adult male as they try to dodge human hunters.

Director: Claude Chabrol
Stars: Isabelle Huppert, François Cluzet, Marie Trintignant
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: France

A housewife in Nazi-occupied France struggles to make ends meet when her husband returns home after being wounded in the war.

Director: Raymond Depardon
Stars: n/a
Genre: Documentary
Country: France

Documentary filmed in the psychiatric ward of the Hôtel-Dieu, a large hospital in Paris. The patients arrive on their own, or with considerable help from the police, but all of them are in need of medical attention.

Director: Krsto Papic
Stars: Davor Janjic, Alma Prica, Miodrag Krivokapic
Genre: Drama
Country: Yugoslavia

It’s the end of the 1980s, and Martin is being asked from his dying uncle Stipan to bury him with the presence of priest. Martin remembers the way they lost the contact in 1951 – Stipan informed on him when he wrote a composition in the school, expressing doubts about the land reform. He had got a bullet in the groin by accident; his pregnant wife fled to Trieste and then to Australia where she gave a birth to their son John.

Director: Ken Burns
Stars: Henry Adams, Matthew Baigell, Earl Bennett
Genre: Documentary, Biography
Country: USA | Canada

Thomas Hart Benton’s paintings were energetic and uncompromising. Today his works are in museums, but Benton hung them in saloons for ordinary people to appreciate.

Director: Margarethe von Trotta
Stars: Fanny Ardant, Greta Scacchi, Valeria Golino
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: France | Italy | West Germany

Roberto and his three sisters don’t know what to do with their lives.

Director: Agnès Varda
Stars: Jane Birkin, Mathieu Demy, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: France

Mary-Jane, a lonely mother in her fourties, get absorbed in a sentimental affair with a 14 years old boy.

Director: Stephen Frears
Stars: Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA | UK

A scheming widow and her manipulative ex-lover make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married woman.

Director: Stan Brakhage
Stars: Bearthm Brakhage, Neowyn Brakhage, Rarc Brakhage
Genre: Short
Country: USA

Phrases of Stephen Foster, set to music by Joel Heartling, are set to film in this autobiographical piece: a solitary female voice, occasionally joined by a chorus, sings phrases of sorrow as we watch a solitary man in shadows in an unadorned house: he stretches out, he picks his feet, he walks across a room, he rocks in a chair. Occasionally he watches two young children at play; the film sometimes speeds up. Handwritten words, like “dark void” and “waiting longing,” cross the screen. Film and phrases often come in short bursts. Outdoor it looks gray and cold.

Director: Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay, Weiser Quay
Stars: n/a
Genre: Animation, Short
Country: UK

Oscillating hands each hold a pen; a man made of wire has a malevolent look and an oscillating eye as he pokes at a bump on his forehead.

Director: Claude Sautet
Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Sandrine Bonnaire, Jean-Pierre Marielle
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance
Country: France

Martial’s mother owns a chain of supermarkets. He had spent some years in a mental hospital because of pervasive indolence. Hoping that an active task may improve his condition, he is sent to inspect one of the supermarkets. The manager had taken a large loan of money belonging to the firm. When exposed he expects to lose his job. Instead friendship develops between him and Martial who remitted the debt.

Director: Eli Cohen
Stars: Gila Almagor, Kaipu Cohen, Eli Cohen
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: Israel

A ten year old girl spends her summer with her overly protective mother, a mentally scarred holocaust survivor, while hopefully trying to find her real father in the newly established state of Israel.

Director: Ludmil Staikov
Stars: Max Freeman, Rousy Chanev, Ivan Krystev
Genre: Drama
Country: Bulgaria

In the 17th century, a Bulgarian Christian region is selected by the Ottoman rulers to serve as an example of conversion to Islam. A Janissary who was kidnapped from the village as a boy is sent to force the reluctant inhabitants to convert. The Turkish governor seeks a peaceful solution, but ultimately torture, violence, and rebellion break out.

Director: Andrzej Zulawski
Stars: Andrzej Seweryn, Jerzy Trela, Grazyna Dylag
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Poland

A team of astronauts land on an inhabitable planet and form a society. Many years later, a single astronaut is sent to the planet and becomes a messiah.

Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Stars: Grazyna Szapolowska, Olaf Lubaszenko, Stefania Iwinska
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Poland

An innocent virgin spies on his frontal neighbor and falls in love with her, thus starts using tricks on her which he hopes will lead to them meeting.

Director: Todd Haynes
Stars: Merrill Gruver, Michael Edwards, Melissa Brown
Genre: Short, Biography, Drama
Country: USA

Karen Carpenter’s battle with anorexia nervosa and the cultural influence of the Carpenters in the 70s.

Director: Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay, Weiser Quay
Stars: n/a
Genre: Animation, Short
Country: UK | Canada | USA

A magnet moves on a floor. A moth beats against a window. A doll child watches the magnet; threads of metal filings gather around the magnet. The doll, who’s sitting at a table, looks in a bowl that’s on the table. In it are more threads, looking like breakfast cereal. He needs a spoon; spoons appear. The fixed smile on the doll’s face is rewarded.

Director: Thomas Schlamme
Stars: Spalding Gray, Bonnie Crotty, Ron Dunham
Genre: Comedy
Country: USA

In this comedic monologue, Spalding Gray talks about impulse-buying an old cabin in the woods and the various, constant upkeep required.

Director: Paul Grimault, Jacques Demy
Stars: Paul Grimault, Anouk Aimée, Mathieu Demy
Genre: Animation, Biography, Comedy
Country: France

While working at his editing table cartoon maker Paul Grimault is visited by a little clown, the star of his movie “Le Roi et l’Oiseau”. Paul, who is delighted, shows his guest several clips of his other films. Later on, they are joined by other animated characters created by Grimault until Anouk Aimée finally appears, in the flesh this time.

Director: Aleksandr Proshkin
Stars: Valeriy Priyomykhov, Anatoliy Papanov, Viktor Stepanov
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Soviet Union

Former political inmates Sergei and Nikolai live as exiles in a remote Siberian village. After the general Soviet gulag amnesty of 1953 8 pardoned common criminals terrorize the inhabitants.

Director: Claude Lelouch
Stars: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Richard Anconina, Lio
Genre: Drama, Adventure, Comedy
Country: France | West Germany

A successful entrepreneur in his fifties decides to abandon his loved ones and the empire he has built to find the liberty he yearns for, unaware that the itinerary of one’s life often changes in the funniest of ways.

Director: James Dearden
Stars: Ben Kingsley, Charles Dance, Kevork Malikyan
Genre: Drama
Country: UK

1908: Basil Pascali (Sir Ben Kingsley), a spy for the Sultan, sends reports to Istanbul that nobody reads. His suspicions are roused when a British archeologist appears, who may not be quite what he seems.

Director: Mira Nair
Stars: Shafiq Syed, Hansa Vithal, Chanda Sharma
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: UK | India | France

The boy Krishna is abandoned by his mother at the Apollo Circus and she tells him that he can only return home when he can afford 500 rupees to pay for the bicycle of his brother that he had trashed. Krishna is left behind by the circus and he takes a train to Bombay. Krishna is called Chaipau by the street children of Bombay and he works delivering and selling tea for Chacha, who owns a street bar. Krishna befriends the heroin addicted Chillum that sells drugs for the drug dealer and caftan Baba Golub, and the girl Manju Golub, who is the daughter of Baba with the prostitute Rekha Golub.

Director: George A. Romero
Stars: Jason Beghe, John Pankow, Kate McNeil
Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: USA

A quadriplegic man has a trained monkey help him with his paralysis, until the little monkey begins to develop feelings, and rage, against its new master.

Director: Agnès Varda
Stars: Jane Birkin, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Philippe Léotard
Genre: Biography, Fantasy
Country: France

“I’ll look at you, but not at the camera. It could be a trap,” whispers Jane Birkin shyly into Agnès Varda’s ear at the start of JANE B. PAR AGNES V. The director of CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 and VAGABOND once again paints a portrait of a woman, this time in a marvelously Expressionistic way. “It’s like an imaginary bio-pic,” says Varda. Jane, of course, is the famed singer (“Je t’aime … Moi non plus”), actress (BLOW UP), fashion icon (the Hermes Birkin bag) and longtime muse to Serge Gainsbourg.

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Stars: Michael Stein, Robert Ridgely, Eddie Delcore
Genre: Short, Biography, Drama
Country: USA

The rise and fall of Dirk Diggler.

Director: Terry Gilliam
Stars: John Neville, Eric Idle, Sarah Polley
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
Country: UK | West Germany

An account of Baron Munchausen’s supposed travels and fantastical experiences with his band of misfits.

Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Stars: Jean Bouise, Laurence Côte, Lydia Andrei
Genre: Drama, Short, Romance
Country: France

Godard blends elements of literature, cinema and other artistic medias from different historical periods in order to make a stance on how words can be subverted and manipulated to many different contexts, sometimes bearing a similar significance to the original material or even creating an alternate context. That’s “The Power of Speech”.

Director: Frank Martin
Stars: Robert Mitchum, Lauren Bacall, Paul Newman
Genre: Documentary, Biography
Country: USA

Biography of risk-taker and raconteur John Huston from his childhood to become one of the most highly respected filmmakers in the world.

Director: Jûzô Itami
Stars: Nobuko Miyamoto, Rentarô Mikuni, Masahiko Tsugawa
Genre: Comedy, Crime
Country: Japan

Ryoko Itakura returns as the government tax agent willing to tackle the toughest cases. This time she takes on a fanatical but lucrative religious cult run by a vile lecher.

Director: Richard Hobert
Stars: Hans Mosesson, Bergljót Arnadóttir, Victoria Möllerström-Hjelm
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Country: Sweden

Two construction workers are offered an unusual contract. Great pay, but they don’t know where they’re going or what they are supposed to build. They are brought to a place with 12 months of summer.

Director: Charlotte Zwerin
Stars: Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Jimmy Cleveland
Genre: Documentary, Biography, Music
Country: USA

A documentary film about the life of pianist and jazz great Thelonious Sphere Monk. Features live performances by Monk and his band, and interviews with friends and family about the offbeat genius.

Director: Ermanno Olmi
Stars: Rutger Hauer, Anthony Quayle, Sandrine Dumas
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy | France

An alcoholic homeless man is given two hundred francs by a stranger, who requests that when he can he will return the money to Saint Therese in the cathedral.

Director: Peter Greenaway
Stars: Bernard Hill, Joan Plowright, Juliet Stevenson
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK | Netherlands

Three generations of women all share the same problem: marriage woes, and they want to put an end to it.

Director: Guy Maddin
Stars: Kyle McCulloch, Michael Gottli, Angela Heck
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Canada

While their mother is dying in the modern Gimli, Manitoba hospital, two young children are told a tale by their Icelandic grandmother about Einar the Lonely, his friend Gunnar, and the angelic Snjofridur in a Gimli of old.

Director: Joris Ivens
Stars: Joris Ivens, Henxiang Han, Zhuang Liu
Genre: Documentary
Country: France | UK | West Germany | Netherlands

An elderly, asthmatic filmmaker travels to China, hoping to film the wind.

Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Richard Linklater, James Goodwin, Dan Kratochvil
Genre: Drama
Country: USA

A nameless young character goes into travels to the country, meeting some acquaintances and strangers as well, having banal conversations, dedicating his existence into daily mundane activities. Richard Linklater presents an unconventional narrative, barely composed of dialogue and consisting in observing life and actions.