For the longest time, I felt that the 1980s were a transition year for cinema. The stellar quality of World Cinema from the 1960s were absent in the 1980s and only a handful of films from this decade have featured in my all time Best film lists. However, revisiting films from this decade has made me think that I have been harsh on this decade. This decade saw the emergence of many new directors, especially from Asia such as Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wong Kar-wai. Béla Tarr directed his first feature in 1978 but he gained world wide attention in the 1980s. New films from Brazil, Argentina started to emerge in the 1980s as well after those nations were freed of military dictatorships. However, the world was still undergoing massive political changes and that surely played a part in the lack of cinema from this decade: the revolution in Iran and Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan took place in 1979 but their impacts were felt throughout the 1980s; the Iraq-Iran war; the shift in government stance in US, UK and the impact of US interference in Latin America. Of course, one of the bigger events took place in the final months of the decade when the Berlin Wall fell on Nov 9, 1989.
Top 30 films from the 1980s
1. Cinema Paradiso (1988, Italy/France, Giuseppe
Tornatore)
2. Amma Ariyan (Report to Mother, 1986, India, John
Abraham)
3. Tampopo (1985, Japan, Jûzô Itami)
4. The Shining (1980, UK/USA, Stanley Kubrick)
5. Kalyug (1981, India, Shyam Benegal)
6. L'Argent (1983, France/Switzerland, Robert
Bresson)
7. Three Crowns of the Sailor (1982, France, Raúl
Ruiz)
8. Where is the Friend's House? (1987, Iran, Abbas
Kiarostami)
9. The Decalogue (1989, Poland/West Germany, Krzysztof
Kieslowski)
10. Boat
People (1982, Hong Kong, Ann Hui)
11. Videodrome
(1983, Canada, David Cronenberg)
12. Arth
(1982, India, Mahesh Bhatt)
13. Come
and See (1985, Soviet Union, Elem Klimov)
14. Taipei
Story (1985, Taiwan, Edward Yang)
15. Do
the Right Thing (1989, USA, Spike Lee)
16. Jaane
Bhi do Yaaron (1983, India, Kundan Shah)
17. Wings
of Desire (1987, West Germany/France, Wim Wenders)
18. Dead
Poets Society (1989, USA, Peter Weir)
19. Masoom (1983, India, Shekhar Kapur)
20. O Sangue (1989, Portugal, Pedro Costa)
21. Babette’s Feast (1987, Denmark, Gabriel Axel)
22. Mandi (1983, India, Shyam Benegal)
23. Ghare Baire (1984, India, Satyajit Ray)
24. Terrorizers (1986, Taiwan, Edward Yang)
25. Revenge (1989, Soviet Union, Ermek Shinarbaev)
26. Om Dar-B-Dar (1988, India, Kamal Swaroop)
27. Sans Soleil (1983, France, Chris Marker)
28. My Brother's Wedding (1983, USA, Charles Burnett)
29. Damnation (1988, Hungary, Béla Tarr)
30. Raakh (1989, India, Aditya Bhattacharya)
Honourable mentions:
Pixote (1980, Brazil, Hector Babenco)
Mephisto (1981, Hungary/West Germany/Austria, István Szabó)
A Time to Live and A Time to Die (1985, Taiwan, Hou
Hsiao-hsien)
The Vanishing (1988, Holland, George Sluizer)
Katha (1983, India, Sai Paranjpye)
The Official Story (1985, Argentina, Luis Puenzo)
Blow Out (1981, USA, Brian De Palma)
My Neighbour Totoro (1988, Japan, Hayao Miyazaki)
