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The National Society of Film Critics Awards for 1985 were …

 

Best Actor

Jack Nicholson, Prizzi’s Honor*

William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman

Sean Penn, The Falcon and the Snowman

James Mason, The Shooting Party

 

Best Actress

Vanessa Redgrave, Wetherby*

Jessica Lange, Sweet Dreams

Norma Aleandro, The Official Story

 

Best Supporting Actors

John Gielgud, Plenty and The Shooting Party*

William Hickey, Prizzi’s Honor

Ian Holm, Brazil and Dance With a Stranger

Klaus Maria Brandauer, Out of Africa

 

Best Supporting Actresses

Anjelica Huston, Prizzi’s Honor*

Meiko Harada, Ran

Ann Wedgeworth, Sweet Dreams

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The BAFTA Awards for 1985 were ….

 

Best Actor

William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman*

F. Murray Abraham, Amadeus (84)

Victor Banjeree, A Passage to India (84)

Harrison Ford, Witness

 

Best Actress

Peggy Aschcroft, A Passage to India* (84)

Alexandra Pigg, Letter to Brezhnev

Mia Farrow, The Purple Rose of Cairo

Kelly McGillis, Witness

 

Best Supporting Actor

Denholm Elliott, Defence of the Realm*

Saeed Jaffrey, My Beautiful Laundrette

James Fix, A Passage to India (84)

John Gielgud, Plenty

 

Best Supporting Actress

Rosanna Arquette, Desperately Seeking Susan*

Tracey Ullman, Plenty

Anjelica Huston, Prizzi’s Honor

Judi Dench, Wetherby

 

This is the third year in a row that Denholm Elliott has won the supporting actor BAFTA.

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Here are Danny Peary’s Alternate Oscar choices for 1985.  Winners in bold.  

 

Best Actor

Jack Nicholson, Prizzi’s Honor*

Albert Brooks, Lost in America

Harrison Ford, Witness

Michael J. Fox, Back to the Future

Sean Penn, The Falcon and the Snowman

 

Best Actress

Theresa Russell, Insignificance*

Rosanna Arquette, Desperately Seeking Susan

Laura Dern, Smooth Talk

Mia Farrow, The Purple Rose of Cairo

Whoopi Goldberg, The Color Purple

Geraldine Page, The Trip to Bountiful

Miranda Richardson, Dance With a Stranger

Meryl Streep, Out of Africa

Kathleen Turner, Prizzi’s Honor

 

 

And here are Michael Gerbert’s Golden Armchair choices for 1985:

 

Best Actor

Klaus Maria Brandauer, Colonel Redl*

 

Best Actress

Mieko Harada, Ran*

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The Golden Globe Awards for 1985 were …

 

Best Actor in a Drama

Jon Voight, Runaway Train*

Harrison Ford, Witness

Gene Hackman, Twice In a Lifetime

William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman

Raul Julia, Kiss of the Spider Woman

 

Best Actress in a Drama

Whoopi Goldberg, The Color Purple* 

Anne Bancroft, Agnes of God

Cher, Mask

Geraldine Page, The Trip to Bountiful

Meryl Streep, Out of Africa

 

Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical

Jack Nicholson, Prizzi’s Honor*

James Garner, Murphy’s Romance

Griffin Dunne, After Hours

Michael J. Fox, Back to the Future

Jeff Daniels, The Purple Rose of Cairo

 

Best Actresses in a Comedy or Musical

Kathleen Turner, Prizzi’s Honor*

Mia Farrow, The Purple Rose of Cairo

Sally Field, Murphy’s Romance

Rosanna Arquette, Desperately Seeking Susan

Glenn Close, Maxie

 

Best Supporting Actor

Klaus Maria Brandauer, Out of Africa*

Eric Stolz, Mask

John Lone, Year of the Dragon

Eric Roberts, Runaway Train

Joel Grey, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins

 

Best Supporting Actress

Meg Tilly, Agnes of God*

Sonia Braga, Kiss of the Spider Woman

Anjelica Huston, Prizzi’s Honor

Amy Madigan, Twice In a Lfietime

Kelly McGillis, Witness

Oprah Winfrey, The Color Purple

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More quotes from 1985

 

The Quiet Earth

 

[Aiming a shotgun at a crucifix]

Zac Hobson: If you don't come out I'll shoot the kid!

 

 

Back to the Future

 

Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads

 

Clue

 

They all did it. But if you wanna know who killed Mr. Boddy, I did. In the hall. With the revolver. Okay, Chief, take 'em away. I'm gonna go home and sleep with my wife.

 

Wadsworth:  You *were* jealous that your husband was **** Yvette. That's why you killed him, too!

Mrs. White: Yes. Yes, I did it. I killed Yvette. I hated her, so much...

[stammers]

Mrs. White: it-it- the f - it -flam - flames. Flames, on the side of my face, breathing-breathl- heaving breaths. Heaving breaths... Heathing...

 

 

Wadsworth:  The game's up, Scarlet. There are no more bullets left in that gun.

Miss Scarlet: Oh, come on, you don't think I'm gonna fall for that old trick?

Wadsworth: It's not a trick. There was one shot at Mr. Boddy in the Study; two for the chandelier; two at the Lounge door and one for the singing telegram.

Miss Scarlet: That's not six.

Wadsworth: One plus two plus two plus one.

Miss Scarlet: Uh-uh, there was only one shot that got the chandelier. That's one plus two plus *one* plus one.

Wadsworth: Even if you were right, that would be one plus one plus two plus one, not one plus *two* plus one plus one.

Miss Scarlet: Okay, fine. One plus two plus one... Shut up! The point is, there is one bullet left in this gun and guess who's gonna get it!

 

 

Shoah

 

If you licked my heart, it would poison you.

 

Brazil

 

Sam Lowry: You don't exist anymore. I've killed you. [(Shows picture of Jill Layton's file with the words "DELETE" on it] Jill Layton is dead.

Jill Layton: [smiles] Care for a little necro-----? Hmmm?      

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The 1985 Berlin International Film Festival winners were…

 

Best Actor

Fernando Fernan Gomez, Stico*

 

Best Actress

Jo Kennedy, Wrong World*

 

——————————————————————————————

 

The 1985 Cannes Film Festival winners were…

 

Best Actor

William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman*

 

Best Actresses

Norma Aleandro, The Official Story*

Cher, Mask*

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Best Actor of 1985

 

1.  KLAUS MARIA BRANDAUER (Colonel Alfred Redl), Colonel Redl

 

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Klaus Maria Brandauer (1943- ) was my choice for Best Actor of 1985 in Colonel Redl, an adaptation of John Osborne's play, A Patriot For Me.  Redl is a career officer in the Austro-Hungarian military.  Despite having several strikes against him (he is gay and comes from the lower classes) he manages to rise to the upper echelon of military intelligence because of his loyalty and eagerness to please.  He becomes a small spider playing in a bigger spider's web which is not necessarily a healthy place to be.  But will that realization come too late?

Brandauer was quite successful in English language features in the 80's and early 90's before returning to work primarily in his native Germany.  There are big holes in his filmography which makes me wonder if he is doing more stage.

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Klaus Maria Brandauer (1943- ) was my choice for Best actor of 1985 in Colonel Redl, an adaptation of John Osborne's play, A Patriot For Me.  

I saw an excellent production of A Patriot for Me at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 1983, with Alan Bates in the lead and Michael Gough as the Baron. The play's history is fascinating. It was banned in 1965, largely because of the drag ball. George Devine, the head of the Royal Court Theatre (who also played Baron Von Epp) had to do all sorts of schemes to get the play on. Then one night, the great George Devine, having completed the famous drag scene, went up to his office in the Royal Court, had a massive heart attack and was taken to hospital, still in drag. He died a few months later. George Devine was one of the great men of British theatre, having discovered John Osborne and having supported other young playwrights of the time. Devine may be best known to filmgoers as the benevolent Squire Allworthy in Tom Jones.

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The 1985 Venice Film Festival winners were:

 

Best Actors

Gerard Depardieu, Police*

Robert Duvall, The Lightship*

 

Best Actresses

Jane Birkin, Dust*

Barbara Del Rosi, Mamma Ebe*

 

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The 1985 San Sebastian Film Festival winners were…

 

Best Actor

Piotr Siwkiewicz, Yesterday*

 

Best Actress

Barbara De Rosi, Mamma Ebe*

 

——————————————————————————————

 

The 1985 Moscow International Film Festival winners were …

 

Best Actors

Lars Simonsen, Twist and Shout*

Detiev Kugow, Wodzek*

 

Best Actresses

Juli Basti, The Red Countess*

Eun-hie, Salt*

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Brandauer was quite successful in English language features in the 80's and early 90's before returning to work primarily in his native Germany.  There are big holes in his filmography which makes me wonder if he is doing more stage.

 

I still haven't seen either of his most acclaimed films, Mephisto or Colonel Redl. I know him from Never Say Never AgainOut of AfricaThe Russia House, and Druids.

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Here are some performances from 1985 that will be recognized in subsequent years …

 

Denholm Elliott will be nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and for the BAFTA Best Supporting Actor Award in 1986 for A Room With a View (1985).

 

Maggie Smith will be nominated for the Best Supporting Actress BAFTA and Oscar and win the Golden Globe Best Supporting Actress Award in 1986 for A Room With a View (1985).  

 

Daniel Day-Lewis will win the New York Film Critics and National Board of Review Best Supporting Actor Awards and be nominated for the National Society of Film Critics in 1986 for A Room With a View (1985) and My Beautiful Laundrette (1985).

 

Sandrine Bonnaire will win the Los Angeles Film Critics Best Actress Award and be nominated for the National Society of Film Critics Best Actress Award in 1986 for Vagabond (1985).

 

Meryl Streep will be nominated for the BAFTA Best Actress Award in 1986 for Out of Africa (1985).

 

Klaus Maria Brandauer will be nominated for the BAFTA Best Supporting Actor Award in 1986 for Out of Africa (1985).

 

Simon Callow will be nominated for the BAFTA Best Supporting Actor Award in 1986 for A Room With a View (1985).

 

Judi Dench will win the BAFTA Best Supporting Actress Award in 1986 for A Room With a View (1985).

 

Rosemary Leach will be nominated for the BAFTA Best Supporting Actress Award in 1986 for A Room With a View (1985).

 

Rosanna Arquette will be nominated for the BAFTA Best Supporting Actress Award in 1986 for After Hours (1985).

 

Charlotte Valandrey will win the Berlin Film Festival Best Actress Award in 1986 for Red Kiss (1985).

 

Marcella Cataxo will also win the Berlin Film Festival Best Actress Award in 1986 for Hour of the Star (1985).

 

Michele Placido won Italy’s Nastro d’Argento Best Actor Award in 84/85 for Pizza Connection (1985).

 

Francesco Nuti won Italy’s David di Donatello Best Actor Award in 84/85 for Casablanca Casablanca (1985).

 

Lina Sastri won Italy’s David di Donatello Best Actress Award in 84/85 for Secrets Secrets (1985).

 

Norma Aleandro will win Italy’s David di Donatello Best Foreign Actress Award in 86/87 for The Official Story (1985).

 

Hitoshi Ueki will win the Mainichi Best Supporting Actor Award in 1986 for Congratulatory Speech (1985).

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I want to say more about Almanac of Fall, which got a nomination from me for Best Actress.  Here I'm quoting from the review by Jonathan Rosenbaum:

 

The plot and characters of Almanac of Fall are crystal clear. All of the action takes place in the roomy apartment of Hedi (Hedi Temessy), an elderly woman who lives with her son Janos (Janos Derzsi) and her nurse Anna (Erika Bodnar). A recent addition to the household is Miklos (Miklos B. Szekely), Anna’s lover; another recent addition is Pal (Pal Hetenyi), Janos’s former and now unemployed schoolmaster, who moves in at Janos’s insistence.

 

The main issue for all five characters is money, which Hedi has and the other four characters want. The relations between them are often edgy and quarrelsome and at times even violent, although at the outset, Anna gets along quite well with Hedi, serving as a friend as well as a nurse. The action proceeds mainly through a series of dialogues between two characters at a time, in or between various rooms, during which they either form temporary alliances or engage in conflicts: Anna speaks to Miklos in their bedroom, Hedi and Janos quarrel about money in the living room, Anna in the kitchen addresses Hedi in the bathroom, and so on.

 

almanac-of-fall-3.png

 

 

Over the course of the film, Anna sleeps with all three men, and Pal, desperate to pay back a loan, steals and pawns Hedi’s gold bracelet, an act that eventually unites the other four characters against him. Most of the time, each character seems to be acting on his or her own behalf, conspiring against the others; the emotional climate is Strindbergian, reflecting a continual series of power struggles, and it suggests at times the films of John Cassavetes in its intensity. The amount of time that passes over the course of the film is somewhat ambiguous; scenes usually follow one another abruptly, without much sense of how much time has passed between them.

 

The writing and acting are sufficiently controlled and effective to give this story a strong dramatic appeal, but what gives the film its greatest interest is Tarr’s elaborately choreographed mise en scène: he treats every scene as an individually shaped and sculpted set piece. This is also the case in Damnation, where the plot is much more minimal (a recluse in love with a singer gets her husband involved in a smuggling scheme so that he can spend time with her), and the mise en scène is more systematically blocked out and structured in lengthy takes. The two films are quite different in other respects. Damnation is in black and white and steeped in gloomy atmospherics (in exterior shots rain, fog, mud, and stray dogs, and in interiors lots of murk and decay). Almanac of Fall is in color and has the dramatic economy of a tightly scripted play. But the two films have one striking thing in common: the story and the mise en scène are constructed in counterpoint to one another, like the separate melodic lines in a fugue.

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In Damnation, this sometimes has the effect of making the story seem an afterthought, or at least a secondary element. A very slow camera movement proceeds through a given setting for no apparent reason apart from conjuring up a mood and creating a powerful sensation of formal suspense, similar to the look and effect of such camera movements in Tarkovsky films like Solaris and Stalker; then, toward the end of the sequence, something will appear in the shot or on the sound track that will retroactively connect this scene with the preceding story. The mise en scène in Almanac of Fall, by contrast, is rarely used to suspend our perception of the plot; but it frequently has the effect of following a distinct agenda of its own. Another way of describing this process would be to say that in conventional movies, the action usually represents a precise congruence between what the characters do and what the camera does; in Damnation and Almanac of Fall, where the congruence is not precise, the “action” consists of what the characters and the camera do in relation to one another — creating a set of shifting power relationships every bit as intricate as the shifting power relationships between the characters.

almanacoffall.png

 

One of the most beautiful aspects of Tarr’s mise en scène is a recurring lighting scheme: most areas in a given shot are divided between blue gray and orange red, isolating the characters from one another in the process. There doesn’t appear to be anything systematic or programmatic about the color coding of various characters and spaces; it differs from scene to scene (Bela Tarr is much more of an artist than Peter Greenaway), and its use is much too varied and expressive to register as a simple manneristic device. (Although the lighting is usually plotted in relation to the actors, the division of colors isn’t absolute; a character bathed in blue light might be outlined in orange, for instance.)

almanac-of-fall-floor.png

 

Some of the unorthodox camera angles, like those of Raul Ruiz, provide disturbingly uncanny and nonhuman vantage points on the action: in some scenes in the bathroom, the camera peers down at the characters from a point somewhere near the ceiling, and in one startling and violent scene in the kitchen, the wide-angle camera peers up at them through a transparent floor. (Because the camera is some distance below the floor, the characters seem to be floating eerily in midair, like astronauts frozen in free-fall.) More often, the camera frames the actors at eye level from a certain distance while moving slowly past or around them — glimpsing them from outside the apartment through a succession of windows, or gliding between them so that their relationships to each other and to the frame are in continual flux. Reflections in mirrors and in other kinds of glass are often ingeniously incorporated; a dialogue between Janos and Miklos is framed in such a way that, thanks to double reflections, they appear to be simultaneously facing and looking away from each other, so that we get the equivalent of both an angle and its reverse angle within the same shot.

almanac-of-fall.jpg

Some of the elaborate staging helps alert us to the characters’ hidden agendas and duplicitous motives, almost as if the camera were whispering to us about the scene, adding to the overall paranoid and conspiratorial atmosphere. But at other times this mise en scène seems to express a certain detachment toward the characters that borders on contempt or indifference — it pursues a distracted path of its own that has little to do with them. This is especially true in the final sequence, when the camera, moving around a festive banquet to the strains of a Hungarian version of “Que sera, sera,” is only intermittently attentive to what the characters are doing.

 

Here, as in Damnation, Tarr’s approach ultimately becomes a set of strategies for creating or locating various kinds of movement within stasis, and freedom within confinement. Should his approach be read in political and allegorical terms, as a direct or indirect statement about the rigidity of life under Hungarian communism? Certainly it can be read that way — a veritable cottage industry has grown up out of interpreting the elaborate camera movements in Jancso’s films in an analogous fashion. But applying this interpretation to Damnation and Almanac of Fall as a literal skeleton key to their meanings seems both facile and needlessly simplistic. It’s part of these films’ beauty and fascination that they don’t have to be read this way in order for them to breathe, function, and speak to us. (All American films are about America — and a strict ideological reading might say that they’re all about capitalism, too — but it’s surely reductive to limit the range of their meanings to this notion.) With or without the Hungarian context, Almanac of Fall is a riveting experience.

almanac-of-fall-4.jpg

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France’s Cesar Awards for 1985 were …

 

Best Actor

Christopher Lambert, Subway 

 

Best Actress

Sandrine Bonnaire, Vagabond

 

Best Supporting Actor

Michel Boujenah, Three Men and a Cradle

 

Best Supporting Actress

Bernadette Lafont, An Impudent Girl

 

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Sweden’s Guldbagge 84/85 Awards for 1985 were…

 

Best Actor

Anton Gianzelius, My Life as a Dog

 

Best Actress

Malin Ek, False as Water

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Italy’s 84/85 Nastro d’Argento Film Awards for 1985 included …

 

Best Actor

Michele Placido, Pizza Connection

 

Italy’s 85/86 Nastro d’Argento Film Awards for 1985 included …

 

Best Foreign Actress

Angela Molina, Camorra (A Story of Streets, Women and Crime)

 

Best Supporting Actor

Gastone Moschin, All My Friends Part 3

 

Best Supporting Actress

Isa Danieli, Camorra (A Story of Streets, Women and Crime)

 

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Italy’s 84/85 David di Donatello Awards for 1985 included …

 

Best Actor

Francesco Nuti, Casablanca Casablanca

 

Best Actress

Lina Sastri, Secrets Secrets

 

Italy’s 85/86 David di Donatello Awards for 1985 included …

 

Best Foreign Actor

William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman

 

Best Actress

Angela Molina, Camorra (A Story of Streets, Women and Crime)

 

Best Foreign Actress

Meryl Streep, Out of Africa

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Best Supporting Actor of 1985

 

3.  SAEED JAFFREY (Uncle Nasser Ali), My Beautiful Laundrette

 

laundrette6.jpg

I couldn't help liking Saeed Jaffrey, OBE (192-2015) in anything he did.  He just had that warm, open personality.  It was also true of the character he played in My Beautiful Laundrette who as written was probably not likeable at all.  Uncle Nasser left his native Pakistan some time ago as it 'was not a place where one could make money anymore.'  He has embraced Thatcher's capitalism and is a successful small time operator.  He even has an attractive English mistress.  He tutors his nephew in his new values not recognizing the destructive nature it has on his own family.

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A few words about Michael Kitchen, who gives one of 1985's great supporting performances in Out of Africa. He may be best known to many as Christopher Foyle in Foyle's War, but this incredibly versatile actor has excelled on all fronts.

 

I've seen him on stage several times, in totally different types of roles: as Lenny in Pinter's The Homecoming; and, with the Royal Shakespeare Company, as Henry Bolingbroke in Richard II (with Jeremy Irons as Richard); as the painter William Hogarth in The Art of Success; and as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet.

 

As Berkeley Cole in Out of Africa, Kitchen gives one of the screen's most subtle and romantic supporting performances. I particularly remember the scene in which he meets Meryl Streep and comments on her perfume, comparing it to the perfume of a girlfriend from long ago. Although I don't like to get too specific about my choices, I think Michael Kitchen gives the best supporting actor performance of 1985, and perhaps of many other years as well.

 

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"I had a friend who I used to take to the dances at Oxford. They were in June by the river. She always wore a new silk dress. I think you're wearing her perfume. Ah, no, it's very nice, but it's not the same."

 

 

 

africa17a.jpg

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The Canadian Genie Awards for 1985 were …

 

Best Actor

John Wildman, My American Cousin

 

Best Actress

Margaret Langrick, My American Cousin

 

Best Supporting Actor

Alan Arkin, Joshua Then and Now

 

Best Supporting Actress

Linda Sorenson, Joshua Then and Now

 

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The Australian Film Institute Awards for 1985 were …

 

Best Actor

Chris Haywood, A Street to Die

 

Best Actress

Noni Hazlehurst, Fran

 

Best Supporting Actor

Nique Needles, The Boy Who Had Everything

 

Best Supporting Actresses

Annie Byron, Fran

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1985 wasn't a particularly great year for movies, in my book. I count Brazil among my all-time favorites, but the only other movie that year that I would rank very highly is Return of the Living Dead. Despite the title, it's not a sequel, not really. The movie opens with two workers at a medical supply warehouse. One is a veteran employee (James Karen) and the other a new guy (Thom Mathews) on his first day. The veteran is showing him the ropes, and regaling him with stories about the business. He tells the younger man that the old movie Night of the Living Dead was based on an actual incident where a military-created bio-toxin caused dead bodies to regain movement. The Army covered it up, and placed the reanimated corpses in air-tight drums, shipping them to a secret facility. Only there was a snafu, and one of the drums was accidentally shipped to the medical warehouse where the two are working. The young man insists on seeing it, and one thing leading to another, the drum is opened, the toxic gas is released, and finds its way to the nearby cemetery, where it awakens an army of bloodthirsty zombies. This film differs from the George Romero zombie films in that these zombies often retain some intelligence, many of them capable of simple speech, and they run just as fast as the living. This movie is also the origin of zombies' preference for eating brains, which has since become part of the common "folklore". The film is also very hilarious, one of the best horror comedies ever made.

 

Clu Gulager stars as the beleaguered owner of the medical warehouse who gets called down to the office after the drum breaks open. Gulager plays the role in a way reminiscent of Leslie Nielsen in Airplane: very straight-faced, talking macho even if his actions at times speak otherwise.

 

Return-of-the-Living-Dead-5.jpg

 

Don Calfa plays Ernie, the owner-operator of the nearby mortuary and crematorium. Gulager and his employees go to Ernie to ask for the use of his crematorium, and when Ernie finds out why, he becomes entangled in the whole affair, as well. Calfa has fun with his role, and though he's a little odd, it's one of the few times he got to play a nice guy.

 

return-of-the-living-doncalfa-214835.jpg

 

 

Linnea Quigley was one of the biggest "Scream Queens" of the 1980's, and this movie was a big reason why. She plays Trash, a punk girl and friend of the new employee. When she and her friends get tired of waiting for him to get off of work, she decides to entertain everyone with an impromptu striptease. She then spends the rest of the movie wearing only leg stockings. Her "naked dedication" to the role is only part of why it's memorable though, as her line delivery as the vacuously outlandish Trash shows her gift for deadpan comedy.

 

linnea-quigley-return-of-the-living-dead

 

 

The stand out of the film, though, and my choice for Best Supporting Actor of the year, is James Karen. A longtime character actor in movies as disparate as Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster and Poltergeist, Karen plays the veteran employee brilliantly. His loquacious story-telling in the film's prologue was enough to make him memorable, but after the horrific events begin, his character becomes a whining, mewling, screaming source of hilarity. 

 

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The Japanese Academy Awards for 1985 were …

 

Best Actor

Minoru Chiaki, Gray Sunset

 

Best Actress

Mitsuko Baisho, Iketeru Uchiga Hana Nanoyo Shin-dara Sore Madeyo to Sengen and Koibumi and Let Him Rest In Peace

 

Best Supporting Actor

Kaoru Kobayashi, And Then and  Koibumi

 

Best Supporting Actress

Yoshiko Mita, W’s Tragedy (84) and Haru no Kane

 

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Japan’s Blue Ribbon Awards for 1985 were …

 

Best Actor

Kin’ya Kitaoji, Himatsuri

 

Best Actress

Mitsuko Baisho, Koibumi and Let Him Rest In Peace

 

Best Supporting Actor

Kaoru Kobayashi, And Then and  Koibumi

 

Best Supporting Actress

Yumiko Fujita, Lonelyheart

 

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Japan’s Mainichi Awards for 1985 were …

 

Best Actor

Kin’ya Kitaoji, Himatsuri

 

Best Actress

Mitsuko Baisho, Iketeru Uchiga Hana Nanoyo Shin-dara Sore Madeyo to Sengen and Koibumi

 

Best Supporting Actor

Hisashi Baisho, Ran and Tampopo

 

Best Supporting Actress

Mariku Fuji, Tracked

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A few remarks about my 1985 favorites.

 

The Purple Rose of Cairo is Woody Allen at his best, because it has the right balance between humor, seriousness and nostalgia. Jeff Daniels has the double role of the hero with simple ideals and the cynical movie star. Mia Farrow plays an unhappy waitress who needs the escapism of the movies. Her real life sister Stephanie plays her sister in the movie, another waitress. There's a lot of attention for people's entertainment during the Great Depression. The husband is playing a street game, they enter a funhouse and there's a publicity poster for funnies (comic books). 

 

The Breakfast Club brings together five high school students who seem stereotypes at first. Normally they would never have a conversation because they belong to a different clique. A "basket case" (Ally Sheedy) is a hopeless case, only fit to make baskets in a psychiatric institute. Gradually the five reveal more about themselves. They turn out to be more complex than their clothes and first impression would make you believe. I don't know whether this was intentional, but Bender's fist movement in the final shot mirrors the statue in the library.

 

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I nominated Myrem Roussel for best actress in Hail Mary.  Here is more on the movie from Studies in Cinema blogspot:

 

When Jean-Luc Godard's 1985 film Hail Mary (Je vous salue, Marie) was initially released, it set off a firestorm of protest. According to an article in a contemporary issue of Film Quarterly, the film was met with everything from "the Pope's Vatican Radio denunciations and Italian magazine covers depicting barebreasted blondes on crucifixes, to Catholics lighting candles and shaking rosaries outside offending theaters." The film was banned and the subject of boycotts, and religious leaders worldwide deemed it blasphemous (the above quote, which the DVD displays almost as a badge of honor on its cover, is just one example). But what was at the heart of the controversy? Why all this fuss? First and foremost, there was the plot.

Godard's film is a modern day retelling of the virgin birth. Here, Mary (Myriem Roussel) is a basketball-playing high school student who works at her father's gas station. Her boyfriend, Joseph (Thierry Rode), is a school drop-out who drives a cab. Mary suddenly becomes pregnant. But she's a virgin. How can this be? Predictably, Joseph is not exactly thrilled by this news. Rather, as would be expected, he is confused, suspicious and, at times, angry. The angel Gabriel (Philippe Lacoste), arriving via airplane, tries to provide some reassurance, but the situation is not an easy one for Mary, Joseph and their friends and family. How does a young girl like this cope with such a thing, and how does this sudden revelation affect her life, her worldview and her relationships?

 

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These are the more reflective issues explored by Hail Mary. But to some, these ideas—indeed this very story—are not to be tampered with. Instead of seeing the film as a unique way in which to examine what such an occurrence would mean for those involved, instead of seeing the evolution of young Mary from average teenager to sacred vessel as one of deep religious transformation, many saw it easier to dismiss the film immediately, often sight unseen.



Adding to the objections was the considerable amount of nudity in the film. Roussel was well into her twenties by this point, so she wasn't really a teenager, thus her age shouldn't have been a factor. But perhaps the idea of seeing this present-day virgin mother naked was too much for some. However, in all reality, the nudity makes perfect sense. Here you have a young, chaste girl inexplicably with child. Doesn't it stand to reason that her body would be of the utmost importance? Wouldn't it be natural for her to therefore appear naked when she questions and examines her predicament? Or, take it from Joseph's angle. He hasn't touched her. Has someone else? Is she lying? ("I'm pregnant but still a virgin" would be a pretty tough declaration to go along with.) Obviously her body is now sacred, but Joseph is after all a young man. He probably has desires as would any other. Maybe he could at least see her naked?

In any event, Hail Mary was met with its fair share of detractors. And as such, many people have not seen the picture. Most have probably never even heard of it. But it's a worthwhile film, one that, if nothing else, should elicit some discussion and consideration. If one can step back from the sacredness of the Biblical text and just look at the film for what it is and what it presents there are moments of tremendous power to be discovered, even for nonbelievers or those of another belief. Hail Mary speculates on a great number of issues pertaining to the nature of faith, of human interaction and of how potential or actual holiness can situate itself in a contemporary world. This being a Godard film, none of this is simplistically spelled out, but it is there.
 

Hail-Mary-For-Ever-Mozart-Jean-Luc-Godar

 

 

 

 

Hail Mary could be placed roughly in the middle of Godard's third phase of filmmaking. This is nearly two decades after his "French New Wave" days and years after his overtly political video experimentations and his Dziga Vertov period of filmmaking in the 1970s. By this point in his career, Godard was in the midst of a return of sorts to more narrative but nonetheless radically inventive productions. Such blatant religiousness was rare though. There was occasional religious imagery in his films, and the irregular quote alluding provocatively to religion would pop up (from Weekend (1967): "Didn't you hear what he said? Marx says we're all brothers!" "Marx didn't say that. Some other communist said that. Jesus said that."), but there was nothing like this. Later though, in his multi-part Histoire(s) du Cinéma (1988-98) this passage stands out: "Cinema, like Christianity, isn’t grounded in historical truth. It tells a story and says, 'Now, believe.' Not 'Have faith in this story as you do in history,' but 'Believe, whatever happens.'"

Godard himself was raised Protestant, but at the time of Hail Mary he no longer practiced. However, as he said in the aforementioned Film Quarterly, "I'm very interested in Catholicism. I think there's something so strong in the way the Bible was written, how it speaks of events that are happening today, how it contains statements about things which have happened in the past. I think, well – it's a great book!" He continues, "And somehow I think we need faith, or I need faith, or I'm lacking faith. Therefore maybe I needed a story which is bigger than myself."

Hardly the words of one who is seeking to wound the religious sentiments of believers.

Ultimately, Hail Mary joins the ranks of films like the groundbreaking The Miracle (1948) made in years previous and such works as The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), The Passion of the Christ (2004) and even Dogma (1999) made since; it is a film of significant meaning and remarkable artistry, but one that tends to get obscured by a controversy that, in all reality, was relatively isolated and, in time, proved to be rather reactionary.

 

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If you're looking for something different to watch this time of year, Hail Mary would certainly be a bold selection, but a worthy one. As a side note though, if you're seeking a more conventionally religious film, one still presented in an innovative fashion by a most unlikely of filmmakers, Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), which I've written on before, would be another recommendation. 

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Here are the 1985 movies that I haven't seen:

 

All My Friends Part 3

Almanac of Fall

And Then 

Angry Harvest

The Boy Who Had Everything

Camorra

Casablanca Casablanca

Colonel Redl

Congratulatory Speech

Dance with a Stranger

Death of a Salesman

Dreamchild

Dust

False as Water

Fran

Gray Sunset

Hail Mary

Haru no Kane

Himatsuri

Hour of the Star

Iketeru Uchiga Hana Nanoyo Shin-dara Sore Madeyo to Sengen

An Impudent Girl

Insignifigance 

Joshua Then and Now

The Journey of Natty Gann

Koibumi

Let Him Rest in Peace

Letter to Brezhnev

The Lightship*****

Lonelyheart 

Lost in America

Mamma Ebe

Manoel's Destinies

Men...

My American Cousin

My Beautiful Laundrette

My Sweet Little Village

The Official Story

Pizza Connection

Police

The Red Countess

Red Kiss

Salt

Secrets Secrets

The Shooting Party

Silas Marner

Smooth Talk

Stico

A Street to Die

Taipei Story

Tampopo

Three Men and a Cradle

The Time to Live and the Time to Die

Tracked

Turtle Diary

Twist and Shout

Wetherby

Wodzek

Wrong World

Yesterday

A Zed and Two Naughts

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Here are the films from 1985 that were mentioned that I have not seen as yet. 

 

All My Friends Part 3 with Gastone Moschin

Almanac of Fall with Hedi Temessy and Erika Bodnar [1984 film]

And Then with Kaoru Kobayashi

Better Off Dead with John Cusack, Curtis Armstrong and Diane Franklin

The Boy Who Had Everything with Nique Needles

Camorra (A Story of Streets, Women and Crime) with Angela Molina and Isa Danieli

Cat’s Eye with James Woods

Clue with Madeleine Kahn, Tim Curry, Martin Mull, Christopehr Lloyd and Eileen Brennan

Crossover Dreams with Ruben Blades

Dreamchild with Ian Holm

Dust with Jane Birkin

Explorers with River Phoenix

Extramurals with Mercedes Sampietro

False as Water with Malin Ek

Fletch with Chevy Chase, Joe Don Baker and Tim Matheson

Fran with Noni Hazlehurst and Annie Byron

The Goonies with Corey Feldman, Josh Brolin, Anne Ramsay, Sean Astin and Jeff Cohen

Gray Sunset with Minoru Chiaki

Hail Mary with Myrem Roussel, Aurore Clement and Rebecca Hampton

Haru no Kane with Yoshiko Mita

Himatsuri with Kin’ya Kitaoji

Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf with Sybil Danning

Iketeru Uchiga Hana Nanoyo Shin-dara Sore Madeyo to Sengen with Mitsuko Baisho

An Impudent Girl with Bernadette Lafont

Koibumi with Mitsuko Baisho and Kaoru Kobayashi

Let Him Rest In Peace with Mitsuko Baisho

Lonelyheart with Yumiko Fujita

Mamma Ebe with Barbara De Rosi

Manoel’s Destinies with Ruben de Freitas and Aurelie Chazelle [1984 TV - feature release?]

Maxie with Glenn Close

Plenty with John Gielgud and Tracey Ullman

Police with Gerard Depardieu, Sophie Marceau and Sandrine Bonnaire

The Quiet Earth with Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge and Peter Smith

Real Genius with Val Kilmer an Michelle Meyrink

The Red Countess with Juli Basti

Salt with Eun-hie Choi

Secret Admirer with Lori Laughlin

Smooth Talk with Treat Williams and Laura Dern

Stico with Fernando Fernan Gomez

A Street to Die with Chris Haywood

Subway with Christopher Lambert

Taipei Story with Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Chin

A Time to Live, A Time to Die with Yu An-Shun

Tracked with Mariko Fuji

Trouble In Mind with Lori Singer

Twist and Shout with Lara Simonsen

Weird Science with Bill Paxton

Wetherby with Ian Holm, Joely Richardson and Judi Dench

Wodzek with Detiev Kugow

Wrong World with Jo Kennedy

Yesterday with Piotr Siwkiewicz

 

And I would like to see these again …

 

The Color Purple for Desreta Jackson

Out of Africa for Michael Kitchen

Return of the Living Dead for Clu Gulager, James Karen, Linnea Quigley and Don Calfa

Sweet Dreams for Ann Wedgeworth

Vagabond for Sandrine Bonnaire

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