by Allan Fish
Best Picture Cinema Paradiso (Special Edition), Italy (6 votes)
Best Director Krzysztof Kieslowski, Dekalog (8 votes)
Best Actor Jeremy Irons, Dead Ringers (14 votes)
Best Actress Isabelle Adjani, Camille Claudel (4 votes)
Best Supp Actor Philippe Noiret, Cinema Paradiso (Special Edition) (12 votes)
Best Supp Actress Lena Olin, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (7 votes)
Best Cinematography Giorgos Arvanitis, Landscape in the Mist & Sven Nykvist, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (4 votes each, TIE!)
Best Score Ennio Morricone, Cinema Paradiso (Special Edition) (7 votes)
Best Short The Cat Came Back, Canada, Cornell Barker (4 votes)
—
On to the seventh inner circle of Dante’s hell, otherwise known as 1989.
1989
—
Best Picture/Director
—
The Abyss: Special Edition (US (1993)…James Cameron)
Arietta (Japan…Akio Jissoji)
The Asthenic Syndrome (USSR…Kira G.Muratova)
Batman (US…Tim Burton)
Blackeyes (UK…Dennis Potter)
Black Rain (Japan…Shohei Imamura)
Blood (Portugal…Pedro Costa)
Born on the Fourth of July (US…Oliver Stone)
Casualties of War (US…Brian de Palma)
Cézanne (France…Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet)
Chameleon Street (US…Wendell B.Harris Jnr)
Circus Boys (Japan…Kaizo Hayashi)
City of Sadness (Taiwan…Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (UK…Peter Greenaway)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (US…Woody Allen)
Darkness/Light/Darkness (Czechoslovakia…Jan Svankmajer)
Dead Poets Society (US…Peter Weir)
Do the Right Thing (US…Spike Lee)
Driving Miss Daisy (US…Bruce Beresford)
Drugstore Cowboy (US…Gus van Sant)
Eat a Bowl of Tea (US…Wayne Wang)
Enemies, a Love Story (US…Paul Mazursky)
The Fabulous Baker Boys (US…Steve Kloves)
Field of Dreams (US…Phil Alden Robinson)
The Firm (UK…Alan Clarke)
For All Mankind (US…Al Reinert)
Gang of Four (France…Jacques Rivette)
Glory (US…Edward Zwick)
Heathers (US…Michael Lehmann)
Henry V (UK…Kenneth Branagh)
The Iceman Cometh (Hong Kong…Clarence Fok)
The Icicle Thief (Italy…Maurizio Nichetti)
Jesus of Montreal (Canada…Denys Arcand)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (Japan…Hayao Miyazaki)
The Killer (Hong Kong…John Woo)
Knockout (Japan…Junji Sakamoto)
Last Exit to Brooklyn (West Germany/US…Uli Edel)
Life and Nothing But (France…Bertrand Tavernier)
The Little Mermaid (US…John Musker, Ron Clements)
Lonesome Dove (US…Simon Wincer)
The Mahabharata (UK/France/India…Peter Brook)
Marriage of the Blessed (Iran…Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
The Match Factory Girl (Finland…Aki Kaurismäki)
Milou en Mai (France…Louis Malle)
Mr Hoover and I (US…Emile de Antonio)
Monsieur Hire (France…Patrice Leconte)
My Left Foot (UK/Ireland…Jim Sheridan)
My 20th Century (Hungary…Ildekó Enyedi)
Mystery Train (US…Jim Jarmusch)
The Nasty Girl (West Germany…Michael Verhoeven)
The Needle (USSR…Rashid Nagmanov)
Niu-Peng (China…Dai Sijie)
Noce Blanche (France…Jean-Claude Brisseau)
Parenthood (US…Ron Howard)
Recollections of the Yellow House (Portugal…Joao César Monteiro)
Roger and Me (US…Michael Moore)
Romuald et Juliette (France…Coline Serreau)
Roselyne et les Lions: director’s cut (France…Jean-Jacques Beineix)
Santa Sangre (Mexico…Alejandro Jodorowsky)
Say Anything (US…Cameron Crowe)
Scandal (UK…Michael Caton-Jones)
The Seventh Continent (Austria…Michael Haneke)
Sex, Lies and Videotape (US…Steven Soderbergh)
Sidewalk Stories (US…Charles Lane)
Sweetie (Australia…Jane Campion)
Talvisoto (Finland…Pekka Parikka)
Tetsuo: Iron Man (Japan…Shinya Tsukamoto)
Traffik (UK…Alastair Reid)
Trop Belle Pour Toi! (France…Bertrand Blier)
True Love (US…Nancy Savoca)
The Unbelievable Truth (US…Hal Hartley)
Under the Glacier (Iceland…Gundy Halldorsdottir)
Valmont (US…Milos Forman)
A Village Romeo and Juliet (West Germany/UK…Petr Weigl)
Violent Cop (Japan…Takeshi Kitano)
When Harry Met Sally… (US…Rob Reiner)
Yaaba (Burkino Faso…Idrissa Ouedraogo)
Zamri umri voskresni! (USSR…Vitaly Kanevski)
—
Best Actor
—
Kevin Bacon The Big Picture
Michel Blanc Monsieur Hire
Lothaire Bluteau Jesus of Montreal
Kenneth Branagh Henry V
Bruno Cremer Noce blanche
Tom Cruise Born on the Fourth of July
Billy Crystal When Harry Met Sally…
Daniel Day-Lewis My Left Foot
Matt Dillon Drugstore Cowboy
Robert Duvall Lonesome Dove
Colin Firth Valmont
Morgan Freeman Driving Miss Daisy
Michael Gambon The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
Ed Harris The Abyss
John Hurt Scandal
Charles Lane Sidewalk Stories
Stephen Lang Last Exit to Brooklyn
Armin Mueller-Stahl Music Box
Philippe Noiret Life and Nothing But
Gary Oldman The Firm TV
Bill Paterson Traffik TV
Michel Piccoli Milou en Mai
James Spader Sex, Lies and Videotape
Robin Williams Dead Poets Society
Chow Yun-Fat The Killer
—
Best Actress
—
Rosanna Arquette Black Rainbow
Josiane Balasko Trop Belle pour Toi
Annette Bening Valmont
Pauline Collins Shirley Valentine
Jessica Lange Music Box
Jennifer Jason Leigh Last Exit to Brooklyn
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio The Abyss
Andie McDowell Sex, Lies and Videotape
Helen Mirren The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
Michelle Pfeiffer The Fabulous Baker Boys
Meg Ryan When Harry Met Sally…
Winona Ryder Heathers
Annabella Sciorra True Love
Lena Stolze The Nasty Girl
Jessica Tandy Driving Miss Daisy
—
Best Supp Actor
—
Danny Aiello Do the Right Thing
Alan Alda Crimes and Misdemeanors
Dan Aykroyd Driving Miss Daisy
Marlon Brando A Dry White Season
Beau Bridges The Fabulous Baker Boys
Ossie Davis Do the Right Thing
Giancarlo Esposito Do the Right Thing
Michael Gough Blackeyes TV
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins Mystery Train
Derek Jacobi Henry V
James Earl Jones Field of Dreams
Martin Landau Crimes and Misdemeanors
Ray McAnally My Left Foot
John Mahoney Say Anything
Nick Nolte New York Stories
Jack Nicholson Batman
Hugh O’Conor My Left Foot
Max Perlich Drugstore Cowboy
John Turturro Do the Right Thing
Denzel Washington Glory
—
Best Supp Actress
—
Dominique Blanc Milou en Mai
Sandrine Bonnaire Monsieur Hire
Ines de Medeiros Blood
Fabia Drake Valmont
Lindsay Duncan Traffik TV
Bridget Fonda Scandal
Brenda Fricker My Left Foot
Anjelica Huston Enemies, a Love Story
Kelly Lynch Drugstore Cowboy
Geraldine McEwan Henry V
Miou-Miou Milou en Mai
Lena Olin Enemies, a Love Story
Julia Ormond Traffik TV
Rosie Perez Do The Right Thing
Mae Questel New York Stories
Laura San Giacomo Sex, Lies and Videotape
Dianne Wiest Parenthood
—
Best Cinematography
—
Michael Ballhaus The Fabulous Baker Boys
Bruno de Keyzer Life and Nothing But
Ernest Dickerson Do the Right Thing
Freddie Francis Glory
Denis Lenoir Monsieur Hire
Takashi Kawamata Black Rain
Tibor Mathé My 20th Century
Robby Müller Mystery Train
Miroslav Ondricek Valmont
Roger Pratt Batman
Robert Richardson Born on the Fourth of July
Jean-François Robin Roselyne et les Lions
Mikael Solomon The Abyss
Sacha Vierny The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
—
Best Score
Elmer Bernstein My Left Foot
Patrick Doyle Henry V
Danny Elfman Batman
James Horner Field of Dreams
James Horner Glory
Mark Knopfler Last Exit to Brooklyn
Bill Lee Do the Right Thing
Alan Menken The Little Mermaid
Michael Nyman The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
Michael Nyman Monsieur Hire
Basil Poledouris Lonesome Dove TV
John Williams Born on the Fourth of July
Hans Zimmer Driving Miss Daisy
—
Short
—
Balance (West Germany…Christoph Lauenstein, Wolfgang Lauenstein)
The Club of the Laid-Off (Czechoslovakia…Jiri Barta)
Creature Comforts (UK…Nick Park)
Elephant (UK…Alan Clarke)
Flora (Czechoslovakia…Jan Svankmajer)
Hey Ladies (US…Adam Bernstein)
The Hill Farm (UK…Mark Baker)
Hubert Bals Handshake (UK…Peter Greenaway)
Knick Knack (US…John Lasseter)
The Lunch Date (US…Adam Davidson)
Meat Love (Czechoslovakia…Jan Svankmajer)
Shadrach (US…Nathaniel Hornblower, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris)
Best Picture: Crimes and Misdemeanours
Best Director: Spike Lee- Do the Right Thing
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis- My Left Foot
Best Actress: Michelle Pfeiffer- The Fabulous Baker Boys
Best Supporting Actor: Martin Landau- Crimes and Misdemeanours
Best Supporting Actress: Brenda Fricker- My Left Foot
Best Cinematography: Ernest Dickerson- Do the Right Thing
Best Score: Danny Elfman- Batman
Best Film of 1989: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Best Director: Steven Spielberg – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Best Actor: Robin Williams – Dead Poets Society
Best Supporting Actor: Martin Landau – Crimes and Misdemeanors
Best Supporting Actress: Alison Doody – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Best Cinematography; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Best Score: Tetsuo
Best Short: Ilha das flores – Jorge Furtado
My Top 5:
1. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
2. Crimes and Misdemeanors
3. Ilha das Flores
4. Dead Poets Society
5. Back to the Future Part II
Miscelaneous:
· Award for the worst year of horror: 1989 (A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Halloween 5, After Death (Oltre la morte), Puppetmaster, The Horror Show)
· Most Fun Bad Movie of the year: Sinbad of the Seven Seas
· Least Fun Bad Movie of the year: After Death (Oltre la morte)
· Most dissapointing move from a director: Robot Jox
· Worst Thing Ever: Coppola’s segment in New York Stories
· Best Animated Short: Shadrach music video.
· Worst Animation: All Dogs Go to Heaven
· Worst Short of the Year: Sonata for Hitler – Aleksandr Sokurov
· Best Sequel: Back to the Future Part II
· Worst (Non Horror) Sequel: Ghostbusters II
· Most Overrated Film: Tetsuo
· Most Underrated Film: Back to the Future Part II
· How the hell does this have a shit-ton of sequels award: Puppetmaster.
You chose…wisely.
Hahahaha.
by the way Shadrach was co-directed with the duo extraordinaire of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.
I’ve been really keen to re-watch that film lately as I’m on a real Holy Grail kick, reading all books on the subject I can get my hands on. In some ways, it’s the film that clinched me as a movie-lover though it’s hard to pin that down to one single movie (it was kinda a trifecta of my cousin’s impressive VHS collection – including the Indy titles which I borrowed; 3 films playing in theaters during holiday season of ’90: Kindergarten Cop, Edward Scissorhands, and Home Alone; and a series of books in my school library about the movie monsters of film history).
As for Shadrach, I found it kinda surprising that Adam Yauch (via his pseudonym) would be credited for the direction of an animated video, given that he wasn’t (as far as I knew) practiced in that field, but that was how imdb and wiki had it. I’ll correct accordingly, thanks.
Best Picture: Monsieur Hire
What’s that I am hearing from the rafters? Is this guy serious? Who is he trying to impress? Sad to say it’s another case where the verdict tells us far more about the reviewer than it does about the films in question.
Feel cheated by this pointed minimalism, (the overkill makes it fraudulent anyway) in the same way you do by his incomplete weekly ballot? I don’t blame you.
In memory of our dear Roger Ebert let’s take a look at his top 10 of 1989, all films he has rated highly.
— 1. “Do the Right Thing” 2. “Drugstore Cowboy” 3. “My Left Foot” 4. “Born on the Fourth of July” 5. “Roger & Me” 6. “The Mighty Quinn” 7. “Field of Dreams” 8. “Crimes and Misdemeanors” 9. “Driving Miss Daisy” 10. “Say Anything”
BTW, Costa’s Blood and Muratova’s The Aesthenic Syndrome must be watched before even firming up such a restrictive opinion.
I found THE AESTHENIC SYNDROME on You Tube, but it’s in Russian without subtitles. So if you know Russian, you’re in luck!
PICTURE: DO THE RIGHT THING, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Drugstore Cowboy, The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover, Field of Dreams, Mystery Train, Henry V, Sex Lies and Videotape, Jesus of Montreal, Roger and Me, The Seventh Continent, Born on the Fourth of July, Lonesome Dove, The Abyss, For All Mankind, My Left Foot, Black Rain, How to Get in Advertising, Enemies A Love Story, Life and Nothing But, Driving Miss Daisy, Glory, Parenthood, Sidewalk Stories, Say Anything, True Love, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Little Mermaid, The Killer, The Tall Guy, Batman, Apartment Zero, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Vampire’s Kiss, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Dead Calm, The Big Picture, New York Stories, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, Blaze, Breaking In, Jacknife, Heathers, Licence to Kill, Johnny Handsome, Lethal Weapon 2, Meet the Feebles
DIRECTOR: Spike Lee, DO THE RIGHT THING (2nd: Woody Allen, Crimes and Misdemeanors, followed by: Gus Van Sant, Drugstore Cowboy; Jim Jarmusch, Mystery Train; Steven Soderburgh, Sex Lies and Videotape; Peter Greenaway, The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover; Kenneth Branagh, Henry V; Michael Haneke, The Seventh Continent)
ACTOR: Matt Dillon, DRUGSTORE COWBOY (2nd: Daniel Day-Lewis, My Left Foot, followed by: Kenneth Branagh, Henry V; James Spader, Sex Lies and Videotape; Tom Cruise, Born on the Forth of July; Morgan Freeman, Driving Miss Daisy; Robert Duvall, Lonesome Dove)
ACTRESS: Jessica Tandy, DRIVING MISS DAISY (2nd: Michelle Pfieffer, The Fabulous Baker Boys, followed by: Helen Mirren, The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover; Andie McDowell, Sex Lies and Videotape; Annabella Sciorra, True Love; Winona Ryder, Heathers)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Danny Aiello, DO THE RIGHT THING (2nd: Martin Landau, Crimes and Misdemeanors, followed by: Alan Alda, Crimes and Misdemeanors; Hugh O’Conor, My Left Foot; Ossie Davis, Do The Right Thing; James Earl Jones, Field of Dreams; Denzel Washington, Glory; Nick Nolte, New York Stories; Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Mystery Train)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jennifer Jason Leigh, LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN (2nd: Kelly Lynch, Drugstore Cowboy, followed by: Anjelica Huston, Enemies a Love Story; Lena Olin, Enemies a Love Story; Rosie Perez, Do The Right Thing; Brenda Fricker, My Left Foot; Dianne Wiest, Parenthood; Laura San Giacomo, Sex Lies and Videotape; Mae Questel, New York Stories)
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ernest Dickerson, DO THE RIGHT THING (2nd: Michael Ballhaus, The Fabulous Baker Boys, followed by Sacha Vierny, The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover; Mikael Solomon, The Abyss; Takashi Kawamata, Black Rain; Freddie Francis, Glory)
SCORE: James Horner, FIELD OF DREAMS (2nd: Bill Lee, Do the Right Thing, followed by Danny Elfman, Batman; James Horner, Glory; Hans Zimmer, Driving Miss Daisy; John Williams, Born on the Forth of July)
SHORT: CREATURE COMFORTS (Nick Park) (2nd: Elephant (Alan Clarke), followed by: A Grand Day Out (Nick Park); Balance (Christof and Wolfgang Lauenstein); The Lunch Date (Adam Davidson)
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: TIE: Spike Lee, DO THE RIGHT THING and Woody Allen, CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (2nd: Jim Jarmusch, Mystery Train, followed by Steven Soderburgh, Sex Lies and Videotape; Peter Greenaway, The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover; Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, Parenthood; Steve Kloves, The Fabulous Baker Boys)
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Gus Van Sant and Daniel Yost, DRUGSTORE COWBOY (2nd: Phil Alden Robinson, Field of Dreams, followed by: Larry McMurtry and William D. Wittliff, Lonesome Dove; Paul Mazursky and Roger L. Simon, Enemies a Love Story; Oliver Stone and Ron Kovic, Born on the Forth of July; Shane Connaughton and Jim Sheridan, My Left Foot; Alfred Uhrys, Driving Miss Daisy)
NON ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: JESUS OF MONTREAL (Canada, Denys Arcand) (2nd: The Seventh Continent (Austria, Michael Haneke) followed by Black Rain (Japan, Shohei Imamura); Life and Nothing But (France, Bertrand Tavernier); The Killer (Hong Kong, John Woo); Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Japan, Shinya Tsukamoto)
DOCUMENTARY: ROGER AND ME (Michael Moore) (2nd: For All Mankind (Al Reinert), followed by Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (Rob Epstein and Jeffery Friedman))
ART DIRECTION: THE ABYSS, Batman, The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover, Do The Right Thing, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
COSTUME DESIGN: HENRY V, Great Balls of Fire, Valmont, Blaze, Do The Right Thing, Batman
EDITING: DO THE RIGHT THING, The Abyss, Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Killer, Drugstore Cowboy, Born on the Forth of July
SOUND: THE ABYSS, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Field of Dreams, Glory, Born on the Forth of July, The Killer
ADAPTATION SCORE/SCORING OF A MUSICAL: THE LITTLE MERMAID (Alan Menken)
SONG: “Fight The Power” from DO THE RIGHT THING (music and lyrics by Carlton Ridenhour, Hank Shocklee, Keith Shocklee and Eric Sadler) (2nd: “Cheer Down” from Lethal Weapon 2 (music by George Harrison, lyrics by George Harrison and Tom Petty) , followed by: “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman); “I Love to See You Smile” from Parenthood (music and lyrics by Randy Newman))
VISUAL EFFECTS: THE ABYSS, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Tetsuo: The Iron Man
MAKEUP: JOHNNY HANDSOME, Driving Miss Daisy, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Batman
ANIMATED FEATURE: THE LITTLE MERMAID (Ron Clements, Jon Musker)
As always Dean you post a fabulous round-up in every sense!
Thank you, Sam!
Yes, always make the saboteur feel like God.
The saboteur is actually the person who made this statement at the very outset, before even a single comment was made. It was that statement that subsequently led to all the others here, including my exhaustive defense:
On to the seventh inner circle of Dante’s hell, otherwise known as 1989.
Best Picture: The Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover
and
Henry V (tie)
Best Director: Peter Greenaway (The Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover)
Best Actor: Kenneth Branagh (Henry V)
Best Actress: Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy)
Best Supporting Actor: Giancarlo Esposito (Do the Right Thing)
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Jason Leigh (Last Exit to Brooklyn)
Best Cinematography: Martin Schafer (Blood, O Sangue)
Best Score: Michael Nyman (The Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover)
and
Patrick Doyle (Henry V) -tie-
1989 is in my carefully considered opinion the best year of the 1980’s, and one of the best twelve year junctures ever. There is at least one person at this site (no it is not Allan!) who takes every chance to deride and diminish the year (yeah with this guy it’s always that taste thing again, which he regularly attempts to segue into a personal edict of the year’s accomplishments. Geez you would think we were voting here for numbers and not movies!) In any case it would have to be considered an invalid assessment of the year in total to cast judgement without having seen two of the greatest films of the decade, the impressionist Russian THE AESTHENIC SYNDROME and the hauntingly brilliant Portugese film BLOOD (O SANGUE), which is certainly the case with this viewer, who has seen neither film. I come here to defend 1989 not with a shoulder shrug or a declaration of taste disparity but with generally acknowledged sentiments and/or facts. Not mind you that 1989 needs any defense from me or anyone else, but here you have it:
37 Reasons why 1989 is the decade’s most unforgettable year:
1. 1989 produced the great Peter Grenaway’s most popular, narratively cogent and artistically accomplished work, The Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover.
2. 1989 produced what is arguably the greatest modern day cinematic Shakespeare adaptation in Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V.
3. Pedro Costa’s homage to Samuel Beckett, Blood, is a stunningly photographed film about longing, displacement and alienation, fueled by mystery and ghosts and negotiated with searing monochrome.
4. The Russian black and white impressionist The Aesthenic Syndrome is a stone-cold masterpiece of the cinema, a fact I just recently discovered with Allan’s long-time promotion.
5. 1989 produced the greatest film Aki Kaurismaki has ever made, The Match Factory Girl.
6. 1989 produced the most profound Woody Allen film ever made, Crimes and Misdemeanors.
7. 1989 produced what is arguably the greatest Canadien film ever made, Dennis Arcand’s Jesus of Montreal.
8. Cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Santa Sangre is hands down the greatest film of the director’s career, and a personal favorite that made my top ten of 1989, as it did Roger Ebert’s own list of that year.
9. 1989 produced one of the best Oliver Stone films ever in an admittedly spotty career, Born of the Fourth of July.
10. 1989 produced what is unquestionably the most popular (and rightly so) baseball film of them all, Phil Alden Robinson’s Field of Dreams
11. Spike Lee’s greatest film and a near-masterpiece Do The Right Thing released in 1989.
12. Stephen Soderbergh’s debut film Sex, Lies and Videotape is still seen by many to be the director’s finest work. It released in 1989.
13. The superb My Left Foot with Daniel-Day Lewis in one of his most celebrated performances as Cristy Brown also released in 1989.
14. At WitD Driving Miss Daisy has found it’s strongest contrarians, but the fact is that outside these sneering walls we have a film beloved by many from adored theatrical source material and some splendid performances by Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman and Dan Akroyd.
15. Even Gus Van Sant nay-sayers have regularly acknowledged that his stylish Drugstore Cowboyranks among his very best work. It released in 1989.
16. Edward Zwick’s Civil War opus Glory remains one of the best films about that conflict yet made to this day. It released in 1989.
17. The shockingly sordid and visually stunning Last Exit to Brooklyn with Jason Jason Leigh and directed by Uli Edel is one of the great films of the 1980’s. It released in 1989.
18. Asian master Hou Hsiao Hsien’s City of Sadness is my own favorite by this director, and it was also released in 1989.
19. Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train, which is one of my two favorites from this artist also released in 1989.
20. Hong Kong master John Woo’s greatest film The Killer released in 1989.
21. Bela Tarr’s extraordinary Damnation released in 1989.
22. World-class master Abbas Kiarostami’s Close-Up released in 1989. Many consider it the director’s greatest work.
23. Jane Campion’s beautiful Sweetie also released in 1989.
24. One of Bertrand Tavernier’s best films (for some the best), Life and Nothing But, released in 1989.
25. Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society is expertly written, directed and acted, and has developed something of a cult reputation. Certainly it ranks with Witness among his best American work.
26. Petr Weigl’s A Village Romeo and Juliet is one of the most beautiful opera films ever made, arguably Weigl’s finest and a personal favorite. It released in 1989.
27. Michael Verhoeven’s The Nasty Girl is a splendid European film that would rank among the best films of any year of this decade.
28. Patrice Laconte’s Monsieur Hire is a wholly extraordinary film that also released in 1989.
29. Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata is an often electrifying epic that also ranks among the best films released in 1989 and/or the decade.
30. Nik Park’s Creature Comforts may well be the artists’s finest work. It also released in 1989.
31. Charles Lane’s resurrected classic Sidewalk Stories, is considered a masterpiece by some, and has screened a Tribeca this week. It released in 1989.
32. Hayao Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service is one of it’s celebrated director’s most beloved works. It released in 1989.
33. Idrissa Ouedraogo’s Yaaba is one of the great African films by one of it’s greatest artists. It released in 1989.
34. Derek Jarmen’s War Requiem is a personal favorite and by any barometer of measurement one of the best film’s the artist ever produced. It released in 1989.
35. Michael Henecke’s The Seventh Continent remains a supreme favorite by the venerated director. It released in 1989.
36. Shomhei Imamura’s impressive Black Rain released in 1989.
37. Disney’s wonderful The Little Mermaid also released in 1989.
I rest my case. The evidence is clear enough.
Best Short: TIE
Creature Comforts and Isle of Flowers
Case dismissed.
Well I would much rather revel in the endorsement of what I have tabulated to be 14 of 16 yay-sayers on this thread.
Sam I agree with you, I think 1989 is a tremendous year for films. Such an extraordinary range of films.
Thanks Movie Fan! Yes it is one of the great years for sure, and like you say there is amazing diversity in the lineup!
Just got an e mail from Dennis (who by the way will be submitting a ballot this week) and he agrees it’s a tremendous year, a fact that I see Dean has also celebrated above.
Cool, I mentioned in the previous awards ballot that I haven’t seen Dennis post on these for a while. Will be great to see him post on here again.
Those are only 37 great reasons to love 1989. I’d posit maybe ten more…but the point has been made. BTW, Sam, be sure and add CREATURE COMFORTS to your ballot as your favorite short of the year!
1989 it’s in fact a fabulous year, and amazingly there are two Portuguese movies in my top 5!!
Best Picture: The Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover
2. Crimes and Misdemeanors
3. Recordações da Casa Amarela
4. O Sangue
5. Drugstore Cowboy
Best Director: Peter Greenaway (The Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover)
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot)
Best Actress: Jennifer Jason Leigh (Last Exit to Brooklyn)
Best Supporting Actor: Martin Landau (Crimes and Misdemeanors)
Best Supporting Actress: Ines de Medeiros (O Sangue)
Best Cinematography: Sacha Vierny (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover) & Martin Schafer (O Sangue) – My first Tie ever in this poll!!
Best Score: Michael Nyman (The Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover)
Absolutely Pedro, and you make a great point about the Portugese films! I am sorry to say I have not seen RECORDACOES DA CASA AMERELA, but will seek it out ASAP. Thrilled at your #1 chioce!
Let’s just say that your tie (in cinematography) is further testament to the cinematic riches of this amazing year.
Recollections of the Yellow House is in my opinion the best portuguese movie ever made. João Cesar Monteiro finds it’s own path recalling something between Woody Allen and Nosferatu. I guess it will be difficult to understand it fully outside Lisbon’s old neighbourhoods but for those who admire Mike Leigh’s Naked I strongly recomend it.
My apologies to all, my absence over the past few weeks could not have been helped. I was suffering a lazy bout of walking pneumonia that just refused to go away. I had been going to work thinking it was merely a persistent version of the flu. However, at the start of the third week of illness, I went to the doctor who told me I was just getting ahold of the real malady and was ordered into some seclusion time with a whole lot of drugs.
But, I’M BACK!
That said…
Are these naysayer’s drinking down too many pints of lager at the pubs in London or scoring crystal off the drug dealers in Brooklyn????? To say that 1989 was anything other than one of the most glorious years in modern film history is like saying a pornographic rendezvous with a scantily clad Lindsay Lohan wouldn’t be a hell of a party.
I have to give Sam a round of applause for pointing out more than two dozen solid reasons as to why this particular year stands tallest in the decade that was the 1980’s. To go further, any year that sees the likes of DO THE RIGHT THING, THE COOK-THE THIEF-HIS WIFE-AND HER LOVER, A CITY OF SADNESS, THE UNBELIEVALE TRUTH, THE ASTHENIC SYNDROME, ROGER AND ME, THE KILLER, KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE and SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE, all groundbreakers, only prove that those that jeer at 1989 must have something wrong with them, mentally, or no taste at all. I remember this year like it was yesterday and still marvel at the memories of, literally, going into a theatre, week after week, and being shocked by yet ANOTHER great film.
So, without further delay…
BEST PICTURE: CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (d. Woody Allen)
Runners Up: Do The Right Thing (d. Spike Lee), The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (d. Peter Greenaway), Jesus of Montreal (d. Denis Marcand), Sex, Lies and Videotape (d. Steven Soderberg)
Even with all the groundbreakers coming from the independent circuit and the rash of great movies emerging from foreign shores, it’s the spiritually probing and psychologically penetrating questions that Woody Allen is asking and examining in CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS that trumped the a lot of the new hot-shots flaunting their wares. While primarily known as a maker of comedies that saw so-so reception for his few dramatic outings, this is one of the rare dramatic turns for Allen that hits pay-dirt. Metaphorically examining the existence of God and his ever watchful eyes over those with guilty hearts, Allen presents his most existential piece as a meditation on the dark depths of the soul and how it can affect even the most unlikely individuals. Balancing real time with flashbacks that illustrate the inner morality of the films protagonist (a breath-taking Martin Landau), this is Allen’s most haunting, intelligent and finest film to date. A far cry from his Oscar winning BEST PICTURE comedy ANNIE HALL.
DIRECTOR: Woody ALLEN (Crimes and Misdemeanors)
Runners Up: Spike Lee (Do The Right Thing), Peter Greenaway (The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover), John Woo (The Killer), Oliver Stone (Born on the 4th of July)
The flash seen in the works of Spike Lee, Peter Greenaway, John Woo and Oliver Stone aside, the real fire comes from Woody Allen’s simplicity in creating the hermetically sealed world of a conscience riddled by murderous guilt in CRIMES. With the simplest swipes of editing, Allen works miracles in creating a claustrophobic environment that finds his main character drowning in a sea of self condemnation and frenzied worry. Simply put, Allen does so much more with less than most of the four runners up do with huge canvases and gargantuan budgets. They could all learn a lesson from the restraint that Allen masters here.
LEAD ACTOR: Daniel DAY-LEWIS (My Left Foot)
Runners Up: Martin Landau (Crimes and Misdemeanors), Kenneth Branagh (Henry V), Michael Gambon (The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover), Morgan Freeman (Driving Miss Daisy)
Martin Landau almost had this one in the bag. His Judah Rosenthal, the ophthalmologist with a deadly secret that is almost exposed through paranoid guilt and despair is a masterwork of quiet subtleties and hysterical outbursts. However, to give Landau the top spot would be to deny the breakout performance of an actor that has, over the past three decades, emerged as the finest actor working in the English language to date.
Daniel Day-Lewis’s turn as the severely crippled poet and painter Christy Brown is one for the record books. Making minced meat out of guys like Dustin Hoffman who think making faces and staring into walls equals brilliance, Day-Lewis so completely submerges himself into the physically twisted frame of Brown that you are absolutely convinced of the pain and physical torture that is severe cerebral paulsey. That Day-Lewis is also able to allow an inspiring personality seep through the twists and curves of a crippled body shows us a master thespian at the height of his talents and gives us Christy as the intellectual, life loving soul in search of artistic and romantic fulfillment that he was. I a nutshell, nobody could match this, the most explosive performance of 1989 and, most likely, the single finest performance of the 80’s. Today, with one great performance after another and a record breaking 3 Oscars in the Lead Actor Category, nobody would deny Day-Lewis every accolade and round of applause for his repeated excellence and almost mind numbing dedication to his craft. There hasn’t been an actor this good on screen since Jack cut his legendary swath through cinema acting in the 70’s.
LEAD ACTRESS: Jessica TANDY (Driving Miss Daisy)
Runners Up: Michelle Pfeiffer (The Fabulous Baker Boys), Annabella Sciorra (True Love), Lena Stolze (The Nasty Girl), Helen Mirren (The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover)
Looks like the old have to teach the young a few lessons on how it’s done. As the oldest winner in the Lead Actress category of the Oscars, Tandy was well into her eighties when she totally convinced us she was this bickering and bitching little old Jewish lady with fire in her heels. All of the history that she has witnessed comes out in her moments of loving memory and smarmy finger waving as she makes Daisy Werthen a force to be reckoned with. Tandy plays her moments on screen as a conservative know-it-all perplexed by the changing times and in desperate search for that one person that not only understands her views, but willing to submit to the changes as long as they help her to understand. It’s a funny, strong willed turn that turns wrenchingly heartbreaking as the characters mind begins to deteriorate and all that she is threatened to be obliterated by the ravages of old age and time. Say what you want as some say this one was just merely phoned in. But, for me, this is the capper to the career of a legend that brought the likes of Blance DuBois to the stage…
SUPP. ACTOR: Hugh O’CONOR (My Left Foot)
Runners Up: Alan Alda (Crimes and Misdemeanors), Danny Aiello (Do The Right Thing), Ray McAnally (My Left Foot), Derek Jacobi (Henry V)
One cannot work without the other and, as in the case of Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin (The Piano) or, recently, Sean Penn and Tim Robbins (Mystic River), so does the combining of Hugh O’Conor and Daniel Day Lewis make a duo complete in MY LEFT FOOT. What’s interesting though, is that the two are playing the same person in different stages of life. I don’t know if O’Conor was influenced by Day-Lewis’s turn or vice versa but, edited together in flashbacks and flash-forwards, the personality and pain of Christy Brown comes throught not only loud and clear but so physically heartbreaking as to reduce the viewer to tears. For me, O’Conor was the obvious choice as he was only 11 years old when asked to take the part of young Brown and his performance, completely mute, is a minor masterpiece of painfully twisted physicality and heartfelt emotional outbursts.
SUPP. ACTRESS: Brenda FRICKER (My Left Foot)
Runners Up: Jennifer Jason Leigh (Last Exit to Brooklyn), Angelica Huston (Crimes and Misdemeanors), Laura San Giacomo (Sex, Lies and Videotape), Ruby Dee (Do The Right Thing)
The heart of MY LEFT FOOT is not in the performances of Day-Lewis or young O’Conor. No, the heart of the film belongs in the precisely modulated performance of Fricker, whose soulful eyes and hushed whispers to her son are the driving force behind Christy Browns against-all-odds determination. Whether it’s through her stern verbal consternation or her full bodied embraces to a son that nobody wants or understands, she is the rock-like foundation of love and acceptance that can drive even the most unlikely into the realm of kings. Every moment she shares on screen with young O’Conor rings true as a testament to blind faith and her moments with Day-Lewis represent the figure of admiration that inspires artists to their greatest heights. Oscar got this one sooooooo right. A touching and deeply felt emotional tour-de-force.
PHOTO: Ernest DICKERSON (Do The Right Thing)
Runners Up: Sascha Vierney (The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover), Sven Nykvist (Crimes and Misdemeanors), Kenneth McMillan (Henry V), Robert Richardson (Born on the 4th of July)
So many great ones in this category. Yet, with all of the fireworks going off in the photography of guys like Nykvist and Richardson, it’s the bold primary colors and simplicity in the framing that Dickerson makes his name with in DO THE RIGHT THING. Taking place on the hottest day of the year in the hottest city of all time, Dickerson’s work not only makes you understand the heat building to fry the emotions of the characters but, literally, makes the audience drip sweat as they are immersed in the completely heated and hostile environment of Bedford Styvesant.
MUSIC: Alan MENKEN (The Little Mermaid)
Runners Up: Danny Elfman (Batman), Patrick Doyle (Henry V), John Williams (Born on the 4th of July), Michael Nyman (The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover)
LOL!!!!!!! Any of the runner up’s can eat cake. That Allan didn’t have the real winner listed only proves how so many take the musical work of Disney for granted. Combining Calypso/Caribbean motifs with Broadway musical cues, Menken not only transports us into a radically reinterpreted version of a classic fairie-tale, but introduces us into the renaissance of screen musical work. This is the score that started it all and its charm would influence the likes of Hans Zimmer, Elton John and others to create a body of musical work unmatched since THE LITTLE MERMAID started the ball rolling in 1989 and is still rolling with the wonderful work by the talents behind PIXAR. Head and shoulders the finest score of the year…
Glad to see you back on here Dennis, hope your feeling better now. I’m glad you share the love for Crimes and Misdemeanours, I think its Allen’s masterpiece and Landaus’ performance is one of my favourites of all time.
Thanx for the concern and the welcome back…
Just ask Sam what I think about CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS and he’ll tell you he can’t keep count of all the times I have orated ad nauseum about how I think it’s Allen’s ultimate masterpiece and the defining moment in his career as a master film-maker and director. Martin Landau (who is really a LEAD performer in this film) almost displaced the gargantuan performance of Daniel Day-lewis for the best of the year.
What I love so much about CRIMES is that Allen perfectly realizes the claustraphobic sense of dread that guilt brings a seemingly ordinary person when he sides, briefly, with wickedness. It’s Allens most heartfelt, probing and deeply emotional film and it also raises some valid questions on the depths of morality and the loss of it in times of stress and confusion. The sequence that finds Judah walking back in time to his old home and commenting on a discussion about faith and hard fact is a masterwork of existentialism. The arguments between Judah and Delores (a wonderful turn by the ever great Angelica Huston) ring with such truth that it’s uncomfortable to listen to what they are saying to each other. The more desperate the pleas, the more nauseating the lies that come in retaliation.
How Allen didn’t take the prize for best original screenplay of 1989 still leaves me at a loss for words.
The great thing about Landau’s performance is the way he plays him so ordinarily, any other actor would have made their character a little more larger than life, but Landau brings him down to life size making it feel as though it could be your neighbour or someone close to you that could be hiding a dark secret, I could see how some would criticise that the change at the end happened so suddenly but Landau absolutely sells it in that final scene, some people just get away and its unfortunate but it happens in life all the time. As much as I liked Denzel in Glory, Landau’s performance was significantly more complex, difficult and intriguing. He should have taken that Oscar with ease.
Just added shorts. Must admit I’m bummed they keep being left out every week – sometimes (this year might be one of them) the best film of the year is a short, not a feature. I’ve just added this year’s lineup to the ballot.
My pick for ’89, though I’ve yet to see the compelling Elephant which will give it a run for its money, is the brilliant Isle of Flowers, which Tony covered for this site a few years ago:
https://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/isle-of-flowers-god-doesnt-exist-ilha-das-flores-brazil-1989-a-flip-side-view-of-the-80s/
bump. I realize Nick Park is going to win this in a cakewalk but I do hope some more people avail themselves of the opportunity to watch the great short and read Tony’s piece, regardless…
Film: Do the Right Thing
Director: Spike Lee
Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot)
Actress: Andie MacDowell (sex, lies and videotape)
S. Actor: Danny Aiello (Do the Right Thing)
S. Actress: Bridget Fonda as Mandy Rice-Davies in the Profumo movie ‘Scandal’
Photography: Ernest Dickerson (Do the Right Thing)
Ensemble: The casts of ‘Crimes and Misdemeanors’ and ‘Scandal.’
‘The Asthenic Syndrome’ is unavailable everywhere I look.
Sam, your defense of 1989 is exhaustive and great, though I did walk out of ‘The Wife, the Cook, the Thief and Her Lover’ in spite of Helen Mirren (hehe).
I know it’s ‘The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and the Next Door Neighbor’s Rottweiler,’ I’m just playin’. Call it an anti-Thatcher diatribe, or Lacan’s maxim that “civilization is shit,” whatever it is it’s awfully pretentious, the disgusting elements are laid on with a fecal trowel, and the comparisons to “A Modest Proposal” are bogus. As far as I could tell (I wasn’t nearly able to finish this latrine of a film) none of the luxe characters in the pic were starving to death.
Mark here is my response to you:
“What you’ve got to realize is that the clever cook puts unlikely things together, like duck and orange, like pineapple and ham. “It’s called artistry.” You know, I am an artist the way I combine my business and my pleasure; Money’s my business, eating’s my pleasure and Georgie’s my pleasure, too, though in a more private kind of way than stuffing the mouth and feeding the sewers. Though the pleasures are related because the naughty bits and the dirty bits are so close together that it just goes to show how eating and sex are related. Georgie’s naughty bits are nicely related, aren’t they, Georgie?” – Albert Spica (Michael Gambon)
When Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, the Thief His Wife and her Lover opened in the U.S. in the spring of 1989, it fell subject to the MPAA’s then-new “NC-17″ rating, which insured the avant-garde director the biggest audiences of his career. In any case, this corrosive allegory, which contains scenes of intense and shocking brutality and humiliation, and even some cannibalism, is both Greenaway’s most famous and most infamous film. It’s also the only one of his auspicious cataloge that rates the ‘masterpiece’ label. As the film comes the closest of all his works to conform to a narrative structure, it’s easy to understand the film’s relative mainstream popularity, yet it’s an inordinately disturbing and revolting film that has no doubt offended as many as it’s enraptured.
Greenaway was trained as a painter, and was considerably influenced by structural linguistics, philosophy and ethnography, and these subjects informed the fabric of his films, which defied conventional form in favor of striking, sometimes sumptuous visual designs, cryptic meanings and emotional tensions often infused with eroticism. Greenaway also favors Jacobean revenge tragedy and 17th Century painting, and both of these interests figure prominently in the film’s composition and narrative, which opens with a man having his clothes torn off, being force-fed shit and pissed on by thugs under the employ of a vile, gluttonous and bossy hoodlum named Albert Spica (Michael Gambon) who bought a French restaurant ‘Le Hollandais” in an undisclosed area in London to dine in night after night. While the stoic chef (Richard Bohringer) attends to his every command, Spica bullies and abuses patrons and even some of his own inner circle with his nouveau riche offensiveness and continuing threats of violence. In one scene, Spica (who is the “Thief” of the title) demands that a table be moved so dancers may perform in the restaurant. The patrons refuse, so he dumps a bowl of creamy soup on to one of them, as one of his disciples walks up to a woman at the same table, tossing her head back and forcibly kissing her. But Spica’s nihilistic behavior is perhaps best illustrated in a later scene, while the restaurant is crowded, when the he is approached by one of his numerous “molls” who claims his wife is having an affair behind his back. He angrily renounces the claim, shoves a fork in her face and resumes eating his meal. Spica delivers the majority of the dialogue in the film, and truth be said it’s entirely superfluous. Michael Gambon, in a ferocious turn as a remorseless cretin, gives what may well be the best performance of his distinguished career. While the film’s celebrated subplot, involving the warranted infidelity of Spica’s lost abused wife Georgina, sets the most nefariously perverse plot machinations to their inexorable conclusion, it also displays the quiet brilliance of Helen Mirren, whose sensuality and silent pauses speak volumes more than a vociferous and seasoned sexpot would.
Despite the prominence of the characters, the central component in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is the stunning color cinematography by master and Greenaway alumni, Sacha Vierny. His sumptuous reds which define the decor inside the restaurant, are contrasted by the technique employed by the director, where the clothes worn by the characters are constantly changing color–accented by the greens in the kitchen, the reds and golds in the dining room and the stark white of the bathroom, where the film’s first erotic encounter occurs. Some of Vierny’s compositions in the film take on a visually surrealist palette, like the electrifying first glimpse of the restaurant when the camera tracks through a long kitchen, while an albino-haired young ‘boy soprano’ sings a richly melodic and haunting aria, that accentautes the eerie beauty that largely defines this film. It’s one of Greenaway’s most extraordinary scenes in all his work. And in this film it’s the first of the continuing use of tracking shots to mark the characters entering and exiting the restaurant, and it facilitates Greenaway’s ability to observe the smallest detail, in his juggling act of blending decadence with upper-class opulence.
The exceptional composer Michael Nyman, another Greenaway regular, provided a pulsating, atmospheric score, which is simultaneously minimalist and sonorous. The ‘tentative’ musical chords in the scenes where the illicit affair between the “wife” and her “lover” a shy bookeeper, begins, combining a sense of security and warning at once. Like the film, it’s both beautiful and disturbing. Both avante-garde designer Jean-Paul Gaultier’s extravagant costumes and Ben Van Os’s production design seem in this film to have put the cramps on Greenaway’s natural impulse towards the stylistically bizarre, which are on display in films like Prospero’s Books and The Pillow Book, (for which he employed a then revolutionary device known as an electronic paintbox which allowed the director to fill the screen with an intricate series of intertexual double exposures and transparent overlays) but this is largely the result of its being entirely studio-bound.
While it can’t be denied that the clever verbal jousting that characterizes Greenaway’s best work is absent in The Cook, the Thief His Wife and Her Lover, there is the bizarre sense of irony of hearing thugs and low-lifes ruling in a place of affluence, a sure mark of decadence. The most fascinating relationship in the film is also the most curious. The wife and her lover don’t share a single verbal exchange during their opening escapades, allowing Greenaway to strip the affair of extraneous formalities, so that the emphasis is on sex. As is the case in other Greenaway films, the characters are symbols, with those here representing varying degrees of avarice, gluttony and depravity.
Alas, there is a nastiness in the film that is difficult to see in Greenaway’s other work, and the prevailing reason is political. When Georgina’s lover is eventually exposed he has the pages of a book shoved down his throat one by one, and at the end, Spica is forced into cannibalism. Comparisons at the time made reference to Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” but I see that as overreach. Rather it was clearly a repudiation of Thatcher’s Britain, where the thief represented the ruling Tories, and the cook the opposition. But the film ultimately portends the ousting of the ruling party by the acute metamorphosis of Mirren’s character, who is transformed by the heinous events of the story into determined revenge seeker. Weaving his story of lust, power and comeuppance with ravishing medieval tapestries, Greenaway has done something he hasn’t quite achieved in his career, as impressive as it’s been: he’s wedded asthetic beauty with compellingly gruesome narrative.
Sammy, OK, OK, I’ll force myself to watch this emetic ‘art’ all the way through to its cannibalistic ending (“Titus Andronicus” under glass, one of the film’s admirers labelled it), but shit and piss do not an auspicious beginning make. Where can a film go from an opening salvo like that? At least Waters waited until the end of ‘Pink Flamingos’ before he made Divine eat that dog turd. In between obscenities the excellent Sacha Vierny and his photography surely provide some visual respite.
As usual, Sam, your defense of ‘CTWL’ is brilliantly written and maybe I’m just being prudish here.
Skeptically yours, Mark
PS: Pretty certain I’ll vote for Gielgud for his great performance in Greenaway’s ‘Prospero’s Books’
Wait why is The Match Factory Girl in 1989? This should be 1990! I think this needs to be corrected, no?
Not only because we need to be “accurate”, but I would be voting for this film if it was 1990, and Kati Outinen is incredible.
And now I see we haven’t even included her in the list of Best Actress nominees…..oh heavens.
It sucks that there can’t be an accepted editor on this project. One wonders where this release information is coming from…
There is an accepted editor – it’s Allan. Sometimes his choices may be frustrating, for release date contention or when shorts aren’t added, but he initiated the project and there wouldn’t be a compilation period if not for him. So as readers/voters, we must take the good with the (pretty slight) bad, imo. Not that complaints can’t be lodged (I’ve had issues with the supports categories in particular in past years) but they must be put in perspective.
In my experience, writers who have their writing gone over by a separate set of eyes often see the fruits of their labor improved, both in style and in accuracy.
Well it sounds like this isn’t going to be changed…..I just need to know because I will be putting votes toward it.
Fair enough as far as writing goes, but here we’re talking primarily about chronological disputations – ultimately someone has to make the call, and in this case it’s Allan.
It’s even more important with things like this, which are based on facts, not opinion; facts need to be edited, too. I just think that, with this effort on this site, which has taken upwards of two years to complete, thanks to Allan’s efforts and everyone else’s, that measures need to be taken to not only get the years of release correct (and to change them when they are found incorrect), but also to include, out of fairness, most if not all of the nominatable possibilties in each of the categories. If it’s worth doing, as this effort obviously is, then it’s worth doing correctly. That said, Allan continues to do a fabulous job all around; we agree on this.
Up to this point I’ve turned down the invitation to include TV in my awards, but looking at this year’s lineup I decided: what the hell….
Best Picture: Lonesome Dove
Director: Greenaway, Cook, Thief etc.
Actor: Duvall, Lonesome Dove
Actress: Mastrantonio, The Abyss
Supporting Actor: Aiello, Do the Right Thing
Supporting Actress: Huston, Enemies
Cinematography: Dickerson, Do the Right Thing
Score; Doyle, Henry V
Welcome back to Dennis! As for the ’89 hate, I have to believe it’s just having fun tweaking Sam because 1989 is, at minimum, no worse than the bulk of the 80s. Do the Right Thing is certainly a seminal American film, and Drugstore Cowboy & sex, lies, and videotape – among others – are quite important in the history of U.S. independent film. Not to mention Sam’s whole rundown. Don’t really get the hate, though personally I prefer ’84.
Feature: For All Mankind
2. Roger and Me
3. Do the Right Thing
4. Field of Dreams
5. Born on the Fourth of July
Short: Isle of Flowers – everyone needs to watch this if they haven’t yet!
Director: Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing
Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, My Left Foot
Actress: Helen Mirren, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
Supp. Actor: Giancarlo Esposito, Do the Right Thing
Supp. Actress: Kelly Lynch, Drugstore Cowboy
Cinematography: Ernest Dickerson, Do the Right Thing
Score: Alan Menken, The Little Mermaid
Screenplay: Do the Right Thing
Editing: Isle of Flowers
Pic – The Match Factory Girl (Finland…Aki Kaurismäki)
Director – Sex, Lies and Videotape (US…Steven Soderbergh)
Actor – Daniel Day-Lewis My Left Foot
Actress – Jessica Tandy Driving Miss Daisy
Supp Actor – Denzel Washington Glory
Supp Actress – Brenda Fricker My Left Foot
Score – Alan Menken The Little Mermaid
Short – Isle of Flowers (Brazil…Jorge Furtado)
Best Picture – Field of Dreams (US…Phil Alden Robinson)
Best Director – Phil Alden Robinson Field of Dreams
Best Actor – Morgan Freeman Driving Miss Daisy
Best Actress – Jessica Tandy Driving Miss Daisy
Best Supp Actor – James Earl Jones Field of Dreams
Best Supp Actress – Jennifer Jason Leigh Last Exit to Brooklyn
Best Score – James Horner Glory
1989 is a great year. Complaints will be lodged though by attention seekers.
Best Picture: The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
Best Director: Peter Greenaway
Best Actor: Michael Gambon
Best Actress: Jessica Tandy
Best Supporting Actor: Dan Akroyd
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Jason Leigh
Best Cinematography: Sacha Vierney
Best Score: Michael Nyman
Best Short: Creature Comforts
No, by those with eyes to see, Peter.
Ha! That is the equivalent of “my Daddy is stronger than yours.”
Some people really do need to get over themselves. Otherwise I won’t even dignify the attitude.
An amazing year!
Best Picture: Jesus of Montreal
Best Director: Denis Arcand (Jesus of Montreal)
Best Actor: Kenneth Branagh (Henry V)
Best Actress: Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy)
Best Supporting Actor: Denzel Washington (Glory)
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Jason Leigh (Last Exit to Brooklyn)
Best Cinematography: Freddie Francis (Glory)
Best Score: Thomas Newman (Field of Dreams)
Best Short: Creature Comforts
BEST PICTURE; (a four way tie, I’m afraid): CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS/FIELD OF DREAMS/JESUS OF MONTREAL/SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE
BEST DIRECTOR: Spike Lee for DO THE RIGHT THING
BEST ACTOR: Daniel Day-Lewis for MY LEFT FOOT
BEST ACTRESS: Pauline Collins for SHIRLEY VALENTINE
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Hugh O’Connor for MY LEFT FOOT
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Laura San Giacomo for SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE
BEST SCORE:James Horner for FIELD OF DREAMS
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ernest Dickerson for DO THE RIGHT THING
BEST SHORT: CREATURE COMFORTS.
A four way tie is the most ridiculous thing ever. Seriously, make a decision already…
Yes, four best films and best director for a fifth.
Martin”s understandable quandary is obviously a result of the riches 1989 has to offer.
An absolutely incredible year. I am going to split votes for 2 stand-out films.
Best Film: BLOOD by Pedro Costa.
Best director: Peter Greenaway, THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER.
Thank God at least we have a vote for one of the only two truly great films of 1989.
2 great films? Try no less than 17 or 18 that are genuinely great, a fact that virtually this entire thread has triumphantly declared from top to bottom!
I too whole-heartedly agree that this was a very good year for cinema. My choices are as below:
Best Picture: Black Rain
Best Director: Shohei Imamura (Black Rain) & Woody Allen (Crimes & Misdemeanors)
Best Actor: Kazuo Kitamura (Black Rain)
Best Actress: Kati Outinen (The Match Factory Girl)
Best Supporting Actor: Martin Landau (Crimes & Misdemeanors)
Best Supporting Actress: Angelica Huston (Crimes & Misdemeanors)
Best Cinematography: Takashi Kawamata (Black Rain)
Best Score: Mauri Sumén (Leningrad Cowboys Go America)
Top 10:
1. Black Rain
2. Crimes & Misdemeanors
3. The Match Factory Girl (this is a 1990 film as per my records)
4. Leningrad Cowboys Go America
5. Drugstore Cowboy
6. The Seventh Continent
7. Batman
8. Born on the 4th of July
9. Ganashatru/Enemy of the State (dir. Satyajit Ray)
10. Parinda (dir. Vidhu Vinod Chopra)
Shubhajit….you and I are the only ones that have picked the right Best Actress…..no one can touch her in The Match Factory Girl. Incredible range of emotion without saying ANYTHING.
Haha, touche!!! As they say, great men think alike 😉
Best Picture: Born on the Fourth of July
Best Director: Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July)
Best Actor: Tom Cruise (Born on the Fourth of July)
Best Actress: Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy)
Best Supporting Actor: Dan Akroyd (Driving Miss Daisy)
Best Supporting Actress: Rosie Perez (Do the Right Thing)
Best Cinematography: Robert Richardson (Born on the Fouth of July)
Best Score: James Horner (Glory)
Best Short: Creature Comforts (Nick Park)
Picture: Life and Nothing But
Director: Bertrand Tavernier, Life and Nothing But
Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, My Left Foot
Actress: Michelle Pfeiffer, The Fabulous Baker Boys
Sup. Actor: Martin Landau, Crimes and Misdemeanors
Sup. Actress: Laura San Giacomo, Sex Lies and Videotape
Cinematography: Sven Nyqvist, Crimes and Misdemeanors
A fairly extraordinary year, to end the decade…
PICTURE: City of Sadness
DIRECTOR: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
LEAD ACTOR: Chow Yun-fat (sometimes, you just want a Movie Star)
LEAD ACTRESS: Kati Outinen (if Match Factory Girl is 89…)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Jack Nicholson, Batman
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Rosy Perez, Do the Right Thing
SHORT: Creature Comforts
SCORE: Danny Elfman, Batman
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Takashi Kawamata, Black Rain
Plus bonus picks:
Script: This is also City of Sadness, the best film of the 80s, one of the all time greats.
Music/Sound: Leningrad Cowboys Go America? No, not really – Do the Right Thing, in a walk.
Martial Arts: Some nice films to choose from, but Jacky Chan’s Capra remake, Miracles, takes the prize.
Another vote for Kati Outinen! Yes that makes 3!
I also thought Outinen was excellent Jon, and frankly was my #2 choice behind Jessica Tandy.
For some reason I’ve never understood the appeal of Driving Miss Daisy, but that’s just me apparently as most have voted for her.
Remember there aren’t many sane people at Wonders, Jon, DMD is a piece of shit.
Our national institution Roger Ebert included DRIVING MISS DAISY among his Top 10 of 1989. I guess he isn’t sane either then.
Always equating personal taste with some long-elusive declaration of fact.
Pic- The Match Factory Girl (If by chance we move TMFG to 1990, then my vote would go to Do the Right Thing)
Dir – Spike Lee – Do the Right Thing
Actor – Day-Lewis – My Left Foot
Actress- Kati Outinen – The Match Factory Girl (Alternate would be Meg Ryan)
Supp. Actor – Landau – Crimes and Misdemeanors
Supp. Actress – Genevieve Lemon – Sweetie
Cinematography – Ernest Dickerson – Do the Right Thing
Score – Mencken – The Little Mermaid
Don’t understand how any rational person as opposed to the classic contrairian who wants to come off as smarter than everyone else could say that 1989 isn’t a great year. A blanket dismissal of an entire year is unprecedented, but some at this site are desparate to stand apart. I will be back with my choices later today when I sort things out.
Best Film: Do the Right Thing
Best Director: Peter Greeaway (Cook…)
Best Actor: Robin Williams (Dead Poets Society)
Best Actress: Jessica Tandy (Miss Daisy)
Best Supporting Actor: Martin Landau (Crimes and Misdemeanors)
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Jason Leigh (Last Exit to Brooklyn)
Best Cinematography: Ernest Dickerson (Do the Right Thing)
Best Score: Patrick Doyle (Henry V)
Best Short: Elephant -Alan Clarke
Best Film: Born on the 4th of July
Best Director: Oliver Stone
Best Actor: Tom Cruise
Best Actress: Jessica Tandy
So many good films this year. Choosing the best one has been most difficult. Perhaps, the most difficult year so far.
My top five for 1989:
1. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover – Peter Greenaway
2. Crimes and Misdemeanors – Woody Allen
3. Gang of Four – Jacques Rivette
4. Monsieur Hire – Patrice Leconte
5. My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days – Andrzej Zulawski
Best Picture: The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
Best Director: Peter Greenaway
Best Actor: Kenneth Branagh (Henry V)
Best Actress: Jennifer Jason Leigh (Last Exit to Brooklyn)
Best supporting actor: Martin Landau (Crimes and Misdemeanors)
Best supporting actress: Lena Olin (Enemies, a Love Story)
Best Cinematography: Sascha Vierny (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover)
Best Score: Michael Nyman (The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover)
Bravo on your assessment of the year and of your top choice Duane!
An excellent year!
Best Picture: Blood
Best Director: Peter Greenaway
Best Actor: Michael Gambon
Best Actress: Jennifer Jason Leigh
Best Sup. Actor: Martin Landau (Crimes and Misdemeanors)
Best Sup. Actress: Laura San Giacomo (Sex Lies and Videotape)
Best Cinematography: Blood
Best Score: The Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover
Best Short: Elephant
Thanks for stopping in Bill. You are missed. Typically great choices!
Best Picture: Field of Dreams
Best Director: Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams)
Best Actor: Kenneth Branagh (Henry the Fifth)
Best Actress: Jessica Lange (Music Box)
Best Supporting Actor: Danny Aiello (Do the Right Thing)
Best Supporting Actress: Kelly Lynch (Drugstore Cowboy
Best Cinematography: Freddie Francis (Glory)
Best Music: James Horner (Glory)