Film Dictionary: 1990

December 12, 1990

Top 10 Films of 1990

1. "GoodFellas" (Martin Scorsese, USA)

2. "Metropolitan" (Whit Stillman, USA)

3. ''The Nasty Girl'' (Michael Verhoeven, Germany)

4. "Cyrano de Bergerac" (Jean-Paul Rappeneau, France)

5. ''Singapore Sling'' (Nikos Nikolaidis, Greece)

6. ''Milou en mai'' (Louis Malle, France)

7. ''The Grifters'' (Stephen Frears, USA)

8. "Mermaids" (Richard Benjamin, USA)

9. ''Freeze - Die - Come To Life" (Vitali Kanevsky, Soviet Union)

10. "Bullet In The Head" (John Woo, Hong Kong)

Other great films:

Adam's Rib (Soviet Union)

The Ages Of Lulu (Spain)

Barbarian Queen 2

La Baule-les-Pins (France)

Beautiful Dreamers (Canada)

The Big Steal (Australia)
Le Chateau de ma mère (France)
A Chinese Ghost Story 2 (Hong Kong)
Close-Up (Iran)

Conte de printemps (France)
Cry-Baby
Dances With Wolves
Darkman
Days Of Thunder
La Discrète (France)
Edward Scissorhands

Erotic Ghost Story (Hong Kong)
The Forbidden Dance

Forbidden Love (East Germany)
The Freshman
Ghost

Glimpse 1
La Gloire de mon père (France)
The Gods Must Be Crazy II (South Africa)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch

H (Canada)

Halfaouine l'enfant des terrasses (Tunisia)
Une Histoire inventée (Canada)
Home Alone
Hudson Hawk
The Hunt For Red October
Joe Versus The Volcano
Ju Dou (China)
King Of New York
Korczak (Poland)
Lambada

Life Is Sweet (UK)

Longtime Companion

The Match Factory Girl (Finland)
Miller's Crossing
Misery
Mr And Mrs Bridge

Nikita (France)
Nouvelle vague (Switzerland)

Nuit d'été en ville (France)

Le Party (Canada)

Pont de Varsovia (Spain)

Porno (Poland)

Pump Up The Volume

Puta del Rey (Italy)
The Reflecting Skin
The Rescuers Down Under
Reversal Of Fortune
Ripoux contre Ripoux (France)
Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead

Secrets

The Sheltering Sky
Simon les nuages (Canada)
Swordsman (Hong Kong)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Tiger Cage 2 (Hong Kong)

Total Recall
Tremors
Uranus (France)
Vincent And Me (Canada)
White Hunter Black Heart

Wild At Heart
The Witches

Without You I'M Nothing

Short Top 3:

1. "12:01 PM" (Jonathan Heap, USA)

2. "The Lunch Date" (Adam Davidson, USA)

3. "The Evil Cameraman" (Richard Kern, USA)

November 11, 1990

Martin Scorsese's masterpiece and arguably the greatest American film of all time ("Citizen Kane" included). This is movie storytelling at its best, capturing the viewer's imagination and involving him in the story in an active and exciting way. A cinematic miracle of the highest order.

Metropolitan (1990) *****

Jane Austen in Manhattan. Wonderfully witty film about rich young preppies attending Christmas parties on the Upper East Side.

Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) *****

Flamboyant and dynamic adaptation of the classic tale, starring Gerard Depardieu as the long-nosed swashbuckler who falls in love with his beautiful cousin, Roxanne (Anne Brochet). A superbly directed, brilliantly written and flawlessly acted film, with magnificently orchestrated crowd movements and beautiful, poetic dialogue, full of charm and humor. A great achievement.

October 10, 1990

Life Is Sweet (1990) ****

Freeze - Die - Come To Life (1990) ****

'The Grifters (1990) ****

Mermaids (1990) ****

Winona Ryder gives one of her best performances as a young girl growing up in the early 1960's. Cher plays her excentric mother.

Bullet In The Head (1990) ****

An unusual picture for John Woo. It's a crime film, but one set in South Vietnam in the late 60's. It also bears some striking similarities to Michael Cimino's "The Deer Hunter" (1978).

September 9, 1990

Conte de printemps (1990) ***

Charming and intelligent comedy directed by Eric Rohmer. Great dialogues.

Wild At Heart (1990) ***

Total Recall (1990) ***

Lambada (1990) ***

Fine musical film with excellent dance numbers.

Adam's Rib (1990) ***

A Soviet film, clearly inspired by "Moscow Doesn't Believe In Tears".

Ghost (1990) ***

Fantasy melodrama about undying love.

Days Of Thunder (1990) ***

A race car driver (Tom Cruise) has a serious accident, but he manages to overcome his fears to win the Daytona 500 race. A fairly conventional story by Robert Towne has some original touches, but the film is most memorable for its razon-sharp editing, great score and a fine performance by Robert Duvall.

The Forbidden Dance (1990) ***

Musical film about an Amazonian princess who wants to dance and save the rainforest. A certain priscillagrrr took this film a bit too seriously, making this comment on imdb.com:

I feel ashamed of being Brazilian after watching this movie! This is a ridiculous film! Not only is there no good dancing, as the title suggests, and moronic dialog, but the writers obviously did not research Brazilian culture whatsoever before making this crappy movie. I'm Brazilian, born and raised, and believe me on this one, there are NO princesses there. Not even anything close! It makes me angry that this movie portrays my country and culture so wrong. Asides from that, the movie makes me laugh because everything is so exaggerated and corny!

Yes, we are aware, dear Priscilla, that there are no princesses in Brazil. But you are apparently unaware that this is a fairy-tale musical, and not a serious documentary.

Edward Scissorhands (1990) ***

Very original fantasy fable from Tim Burton.

La Discrète (1990) ***

Fabrice Luchini stars in this French drama about relationships between men and women.

Darkman (1990) ***

Directed by Sam Raimi, it's an effective action/horror movie about a masked avenger.

Dances With Wolves (1990) ***

It will be forever remembered as that overpraised western that stole the best picture Oscar from "GoodFellas", but otherwise it's not a bad movie at all.

Close-Up (1990) ***

An Iranian drama directed by Abbas Kiarostami. It's based on a true story of a fraud artist who pretended to be a famous Iranian filmmaker, Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

Le Chateau de ma mère (1990) ***

Beautiful film set in the south of France.

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) ***

A deconstruction of "Hamlet". Witty and clever. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

A Chinese Ghost Story 2 (1990) ***

A spectacular sequel to the 1987 hit movie from Hong Kong.

Cry-Baby (1990) ***

A musical blend of fifties nostalgia, iconoclastic irreverance and pure campiness, courtesy of cult director John Waters. The film stars Johnny Depp as a punky rebel from the wrong side of the tracks. Songs include:

"Cry Baby" **
"Sh Boom" **
"A Teenage Prayer" *
"King Cry Baby" **
"Teardrops Are Falling" *
"Doin' Time For Bein' Young" *
"Mister Sandman" **
"Please Mister Jailer" **
"High School Hellcats" *

The Freshman (1990) ***

An off-beat comedy about a film student (Matthew Broderick), who's hired by a mafia boss (Marlon Brando) to transport a giant lizard.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) ***

This sequel to the 1984 hit is a hugely entertaining comedy/horror/satire about a bunch of vicious monsters taking over a New York high-rise. It's more ambitious, louder and scarier than the original. It's also more self-reflexive. It parodizes everything and everyone from Donald Trump and Leonard Maltin to Hulk Hogan, Busby Berkeley and Rambo. Great fun.

The Hunt For Red October (1990) ***

A taut and exciting adaptation of Tom Clancy's bestselling novel about a senior Soviet naval commander (Sean Connery) trying to defect with his state-of-the-art nuclear submarine.

Joe Versus The Volcano (1990) ***

Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan star in this quirky pastiche of Hollywood romances.

Ju Dou (1990) ***

Imaginative, visually splendid Chinese melodrama about an abused wife who seduces her husband's nephew. The film was banned in China not so much for its sexual content (quite tame by Western standards), but rather for its clear political interpretations (old senile Communists destroying young people's dreams of democracy).

The Reflecting Skin (1990) ***

Very unusual, psychological horror film about a young boy suspecting his brother's girlfriend of being a vampire.

Ripoux contre Ripoux (1990) ***

A hilarious action comedy starring Philippe Noiret and Thierry Lhermitte as a pair of slightly corrupted cops fighting against their more corrupted rivals. Full of side-splitting verbal repartees, memorable one-liners, fast-paced action scenes and many surprising plot twists. A very entertaining film, with a dark and very cynical sense of humor.

Simon les nuages (1990) ***

An excellent kidpic from Quebec.

Swordsman (1990) ***

An excellent example of "wu xia pian" genre. Producer Tsui Hark and action director Ching Siu-Tung are credited as co-directors, along with Raymond Lee, Ann Hui, Andrew Kam and King Hu.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) ***

Surprisingly good martial arts film about four huge turtles living in New York severs. Far superior to its sequels.

Tiger Cage 2 (1990) ***

Entertaining chop socky film from Hong Kong. Borrowing from Hitchcock, it's a fast-paced, exciting film.

Tremors (1990) ***

A small Nevada desert town is terrorized by four gigantic worms that crawl underground and devour people by sucking them with their snake-like tentacles. Produced by Gale Anne Hurd ("The Terminator", "Aliens"), "Tremors" is a first-rate horror film, exciting and funny.

The Gods Must Be Crazy II (1990) ***

A sequel to the 1983 hit from South Africa.

Without You I'M Nothing (1990) ***

Longtime Companion (1990) ***

The Witches (1990) ***

Impressive fantasy film about evil witches persecuting children.

White Hunter Black Heart (1990) ***

Story of John Huston's adventures in Africa, shortly before the filming of "The African Queen".

Vincent And Me (1990) ***

Detective story for kids about a stolen painting by Vincent van Gogh.

Uranus (1990) ***

Fascinating drama set in France after the end of World War II, when people justly or unjustly accused of collaboration found themselves persecuted by Communist vigilantees.

Reversal Of Fortune (1990) ***

True story of Claus of Bulow (Jeremy Irons), whose murder conviction was overturned on appeal by Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver) and a team of his students and ex-students.

The Rescuers Down Under (1990) ***

A sequel to "The Rescuers" (1977), set in Australia.

Mr And Mrs Bridge (1990) ***

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward star in this excellent drama directed by James Ivory.

Misery (1990) ***

Superlative adaptation of a Stephen King's novel.

Miller's Crossing (1990) ***

Stylized, noir-ish gangster film from the Coen Brothers.

Korczak (1990) ***

Life of the famous writer and physician.

King Of New York (1990) ***

Curious gangster film starring Christopher Walken as a New York mafia boss.

Hudson Hawk (1990) ***

Bruce Willis stars in this parody of action films.

Home Alone (1990) ***

Very entertaining comedy starring Macaulay Culkin as a little kid left at home my mistake. There is a hilarious mock trailer that suggest a completely different film.