Already my fifth post about films from 1988. After the first four articles, I'm almost done with the "obvious" names. But I will still talk about 8 cult films here, some more known than others. So let's catch up classics!
Dangerous Liaisons
One of the biggest titles missing from my 1988 film collection.
Stephen Frears is a famous director and still makes films these days, but the only one of his films that interested me and that I watched was the likeable High Fidelity.
I thought it was funny that Dangerous Liaisons reminded me of Cruel Intentions (1999), but I discovered that it’s adapted from the same 1782 French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses.
With the historical setting and the AAA cast, I always imagined it was a serious movie, what a surprise!
I would have like to have more comic gestures, but the balance between humour and play style is quite good.
Not a fan of Glenn Close, but John Malkovich is hilarious popping in and out of frame in the background.
Michelle Pfeiffer is on point but it’s hard to get attached to her character. And the young Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves are delightful.
Ultimately, I was a little disappointed, as I was expecting a more epic historical film, but now I'll know what it's about the next time it's referred to.
Hairspray
I'd never heard of this film before, but it's a classic for some people and had a remake in 2007.
My reaction after discovering it was mostly confusion. It’s campy, but not enough to be fun.
There is no challenge, no story. Everything happen without friction. Only segregation is addressed, but not dealt with. It’s definitively uplifting, but every character is so crazy that it’s frightening. The same situations are repeated over and over again, I’m baffled and bored at the same time.
I will only remember Penny, the silly and awkward character with pigtails, always sucking her gum ball.
Scrooged
In between two Lethal Weapon, Donner made another Christmas film. The same year that Elfman did Midnight Run and Beetlejuice, he also composed for Scrooged, which is why the intro sounds so much like a Burton film.
So the cast looked promising, but the whole thing hasn’t aged well:
The love interest is still fully in love with a rich asshole, even after 15 years?! Everyone is also ready to applause a mogul if he says “sorry, I've changed”?! And the closing speech, as American Christmasy as it gets, casually slips in a sexual assault. It was definitely another time.
What hasn’t aged are the practical effects. The film looks good and is not short on fantasy.
I didn’t really take anything from the film, except that it’s a Bill Murray show.
Fun fact, he took a 4 years break, after Ghostbusters (1984), to study philosophy in France and came back to acting with this film.
In my mind, its persona is not yet definitive. Like in the two Ghostbusters, he is too weird, with a lot of wrongly timed gags. I think his style became more interesting from Groundhog Day onwards.
Frantic
From the infamous Roman Coppola. I've only seen Ghostwriter by him. Frantic is very similar but less well done and exciting. Instead of Ewan McGregor, we have Harrison Ford, not a bad substitute. (The same year, he also starred in the lovely Working Girl)
I loved the setting: telling the story of an American in Paris brings a delightful mix of French and English and makes a good portrait of Paris in the 80s.
It's fun to find some famous actors like Dominique Pinon in supporting roles.
There are some really nice shots: when he wakes up in the barge (with the Statue of Liberty) or looks at himself in the mirror at the airport.
Harrison Ford is just pretty, Ennio Morricone does some nice pieces with the obligatory accordion and Emmanuel Segnier is okay, even if her character is a bit too cliché.
But the film has too many slapstick cartoonish stunts and cringy dances (it reminds me Scarface). Like in Blade Runner, Ford is too goofy. What is it with 80s films?
In short, Frantic is correct but not memorable. A bit too long, with too many back and forth, like with the suitcase, but that's part of the genre, right?
The Last Temptation of Christ
So, one of the living legends of American cinema did actually make a film in 1988. But apparently, not his most remarquable one.
I still remember discovering Scorsese with Casino in a public library, being amazed despite the uncomfortable plastic chair.
While I later studied Mean Streets (1973) in school, and liked most of his films, the lastest example Killers of the Flower Moon (2023!), I still can't wrap my head around his cinema, there is something that doesn't click with me.
So I came to The Last Temptation of Christ with little to big expectations and came back as confused as before.
A blond Jesus, Willem Dafoe, is hanging with John, Baptist and peers in Nazareth. All women are called Mary. With Harvey Keitel as Judas and David Bowie as Pilate, the whole thing looks ridiculously fake, or American, I'm not sure.
It's a good catechism lesson, it's funny that I didn't remember learning about the resurrection of Lazarus. I knew about water into wine, the multiplication of loaves or walking on water but I didn't learn the most incredible miracle of all.
It's crazy that there was controversy when it came out when it looks like the Bible by the book. I certainly lacked a (American?) Christian sensitivity to understand the point of this project.
A mention to the music by Peter gabriel, which is also marked by its times but has not aged like the rest.
The end reminds me of The Green Knight, I love when cinema plays with timeline to show temptation.
The very last shot also piqued my curiosity: Scorsese ends with a strange and beautiful camera roll effect, as if to reveal the fiction of the film, but also of the whole story?
All in all, it's a weird experience from which I didn't take much away.
Spoorloos
Some says it's the best Dutch movie of all time.
Funny thing, at the time of publishing this article, the film is re-released in cinemas in France and The Netherlands.
But I discovered it during the Imagine film festival in Amsterdam. With an interesting introduction talking about the alchemist subtext interpretation.
Good looking film with some great shots. The restauration coordinated by the Eye Filmmuseum is impeccable.
It's a real pleasure to have a multilingual film with no acting issue, they are speaking than more French than Dutch, but the actors are good. I'm wondering how the director controlled this.
The film is always advertised by quoting Kubrick saying it was the most terrifying film he’d ever seen.
Surely because of its third act like Old Boy. It's a very surprising and peculiar film but it would be wrong to overrate it.
George Sluizer directed his own Hollywood remake 5 years later, with a fancy casting. But it looks like a big miss according to the reception.
Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
I first heard about this film recently, in a comparison with Babylon final montage.
I thought the Damien Chazelle’s sequence, showing the evolution of Cinema, was only referencing the La La Land final crescendo. I understand now this clear reference.
But the Cinema Paradiso’s scene is much more emotional as it resonates deeper with the whole story.
It’s almost certainly the greatest classic in this list, it’s a very moving feature. It’s also a major picture by the length, (155 minutes) it can be daunting but it makes sense when the story follows a character's entire life.
It was nice to see the French Philippe Noiret in this purely Italian story.
Ennio Morricone scored all Giuseppe Tornatore’s films, starting with this one. And Tornatore thanked him with the Ennio documentary in 2021. Funny that I saw this film in Italian, without subtitles, by accident. But the brilliant Morricone’s music needs no translation.
The film didn’t shock me personally, but it still left a mark on me. Now, every time I complain about people making noises in a movie theater, I think about it. It taught me that cinema is (was?) also a lively place.
Miracle Mile
Before wrapping up this already too long post, the Eye cinema screened a film I never heard of before my research, but it was on my 1988 watch list, so I couldn't miss it.
I was a nice surprise to have the Dutch cinematographer present for a short talk before the film. Theo van de Sande has a long career that is still going strong (Blade(!), Cruel intentions, Volcano, etc.).
He also did CROSSING DELANCEY released in 1988, should I catch it up?
Once again, we have a big name I love at the soundtrack: Tangerine Dream. Not their best work, though.
The film has a cult following as a hidden gem with a strong twist. I was pleasently surprised as the slow twist develops an unsetting and surealist atmosphere really well.
Even though I didn't guess the ending, I’m still not totally convinced with the result.
Maybe, the tight budget is too visible.
But it's a romance movie, at its core, but I didn't fully buy their love.
Anthony Edwards is convicing but Mare Winningham's haircut is a distraction, to say the least, with today's eyes.
Fin