The standard narrative of decline would have it that everything went wrong in the 80s.
A turning point when New Hollywood, American film art’s last hurrah, gave way to the high concept desert of the present, a transitional decade in which American cinema realigned itself with President Reagan’s neoliberal agenda.
The Austrian Film Museum sought to challenge this narrative with the “The Real Eighties” film series curated by the Canine Condition, which is unafraid to side with the Hollywood mainstream as it sees fit. From July 4 – 31 Kino Arsenal presents selected films from the program with a focus on thrillers in the film noir tradition.
Brian De Palma | Blow Out Trailer
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=rM4fM-R3HC8
BLOW OUT: A early highpoint of the baroque eighties style: Brian de Palma’s deconstructivist thriller filters a variation on Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up through a Hitchcockian sensibility, creating in the process a unique film technical extravaganza in which a new treat can be discovered in every single frame.
James bridges | Mike’s Murder Trailer
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=hNZuTSbR1XI
MIKE’S MURDER by James Bridges: A re-discovery – the studio executives at Warner Bros didn’t quite know what to do with this enigmatic neo-noir, which feels more like a late New Hollywood auteur film than the Debra Winger star vehicle it was likely commissioned as.
John Cassavetes | Gloria Trailer
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=8NImDlin6hE
GLORIA: This studio production by John Cassavetes shows a greater affinity for genre and popularism than nearly all of his other films, yet still remains full of bewitching idiosyncrasies. GLORIA is also a flight through New York at the start of the 80s, dirty, prosaic and unredeemable, all accompanied by a grandiose and excessive score by Bill Conti.
Ridley Scott | Someone To Watch Over Me Trailer
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=ErFGGccIfkc
SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME by Ridley Scott: Another underrated genre gem about brittle masculinity and the dark recesses of 80s high-gloss visuality. the baroque design of some of the suspense scenes is reminiscent of the Italian gialli of the 70s and the hall of mirrors finale is a small masterpiece.
William Friedkin | To Live and Die in L.A. Trailer
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=zGBe8mltpkA
TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.: William Friedkin’s perfectionist counterfeit money thriller dives right into the 80s aesthetic in order to highlight its dazzling extremes. It’s not just the narrative that’s about processes of forbidden duplication: the film itself also generates various confusing doublings and characters that mirror one another.
Jim McBride | Breathless Trailer
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=eGhcrT3ux58
BREATHLESS by Jim McBride: Richard Gere was one of the quintessential stars of the 80s and their first years in particular, his face perennially exuding a slight sense of melancholy. He takes on one of his best, most playful roles in BREATHLESS, Jim McBride’s reimagining of Jean-Luc Godard’s “A bout de souffle”.
Roger Donaldson | No Way Out Trailer
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=lypNWLvpb0I
NO WAY OUT by Roger Donaldson: The most frenetic films are often hidden behind the most generic titles. NO WAY OUT, a remake of classic noir “The Big Clock” by underrated genre craftsman Donaldson, is a political thriller which blows its fuse early on. The film’s fast-paced second half takes place almost entirely within the Pentagon where it soon becomes impossible to distinguish between political and erotic desire.
James Foley | At Close Range Trailer
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=_oEenejHcO4
AT CLOSE RANGE by James Foley is a stridently dark piece of genre cinema about the relevance of the social: The provincial band of criminals whose story AT CLOSE RANGE tells has nothing glamorous or even merely romantic about it. Rather than drawing on apologetic gestures of excess, Foley relies on the feverish intensity of a life lived outside society.
For the detailed program and the schedule check the website: arsenal-berlin.de
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The Real Eighties – Neo Noir Films
Thursday, 04 July – Wednesday, 31. July 2013
Arsenal | Potsdamer Straße 2 | 10785 Berlin/Tiergarten
arsenal-berlin.de
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