Top 10 Films of 1979

1. "Manhattan" (Woody Allen, USA)

2. ''Alien'' (Ridley Scott, USA)

3. "Mad Max" (George Miller, Australia)

4. ''Apocalypse Now'' (Francis Ford Coppola, USA)

5. "Stalker" (Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union)

6. "The Castle Of Cagliostro" (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)

7. "Nosferatu" (Werner Herzog, Germany)

8. ''All That Jazz'' (Bob Fosse, USA)

9. ''Vengeance Is Mine'' (Shohei Imamura, Japan)

10. ''Kramer Vs Kramer'' (Robert Benton, USA)

Other great films:

Aktorzy prowincjonalni (Poland)

Amator (Poland)
Being There

The Black Stallion
Buffet froid (France)

Caniche (Spain)

Christ Stopped At Eboli (Italy)

Dawn Of The Dead  

Dragon Fist (Hong Kong)

Hair

Hardcore

Hungarian Rhapsody (Hungary)

I Am Maria (Sweden)

La Isla (Argentina)

The Lady In Red

Life Of Brian (UK)

The Marriage Of Maria Braun (Germany)

Moonraker

Mourir à tue-tête (Canada)

Perceval le Gallois (France)

Szpital Przemienienia (Poland)

Tess 

Those Wonderful Movie Cranks (Czechoslovakia)

Tin Drum (Germany)

The Wanderers
The Warriors

You're Out Of Your Mind Maggie (Sweden)

Top 10 Guilty Pleasures of 1979:

1. "The Thrushes Are Still Singing" (Nikos Nikolaidis, Greece)

2. "Laura" (David Hamilton, France)

3. "Three Immoral Women" (Walerian Borowczyk, France)

4. "Beneath The Valley Of The Ultra-Vixens" (Russ Meyer, USA)

5. "Dr Butcher MD" (Marino Girolami, Italy)

6. "Emanuelle, Queen Of Sados" (Ilias Mylonakos, Greece)

7. "Malabimba" (Andrea Bianchi, Italy)

8. "Six Swedish Girls In Boarding School" (Erwin C. Dietrich, Switzerland)

9. "Les Enfilées" (Jean-Claude Roy, France)

10. "Ecstasy Girls" (Gary Graver, USA)

Short Top 3:

1. "Away From It All" (John Cleese, Clare Taylor, UK)

2. "Sibylle" (Robert Cappadoro, France)

3. "Solly's Diner" (Larry Hankin, USA)

Other great shorts:

Paul Robeson: Tribute To An Artist
Z punktu widzenia nocnego portiera (Poland)

Top Music Video:

"Video Killed The Radio Star" (Russell Mulcahy, USA)

Top Commercial:

"Mean Joe Greene" (Coca-Cola)

TV Top 3:

1. "Fawlty Towers 2" (Bob Spiers, BBC, UK)

2. "Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Revue" (Olga Lipinska, TVP, Poland)

3. "Doctor Who: City Of Death" (Michael Hayes, BBC, UK)

Other great TV shows:

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Gosc (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Pieczarki (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Publicznosc (Poland)

Zalegly urlop (Poland)

Cartoon Top 3:

1. "Every Child" (Eugene Fedorenko, NFB, Canada)

2. "Dream Doll" (Zlatko Grgic, Bob Godfrey, Yugoslavia, UK)

3. "Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol" (Friz Freleng, Warner)

Other great cartoons:

Harpya (Belgium)

Jeu de coudes (Canada)

Log Driver's Waltz (Canada)

Weak films of 1979:

10

1941
Breaking Away
Butterfly Murders (Hong Kong)
The China Syndrome
Le Gendarme et les extra-terrestres (France)

Last Hurrah For Chivalry (Hong Kong)
La Luna (Italy)
My Brilliant Career (Australia)
Norma Rae
Panny z Wilka (Poland)
Quadrophenia (UK)
Star Trek I: The Motion Picture
The Third Generation (Germany)

Weak shorts:

Nails (Canada)

Weak cartoons:

Freeze Frame
Instant Sex

It's So Nice To Have A Wolf Around The House
Refleksy (Poland)
La Rose et l'anneau (Canada)
This Is Your Museum Speaking (Canada)

Weak TV shows:

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Duchy (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Dyrekcja (Poland)

Top Musical of 1979

"All That Jazz" (Bob Fosse, 20th-Fox)

Manhattan (1979) *****

One of Woody Allen's best films.

Alien (1979) *****

Dawn Of The Dead (1979) ****

Stalker (1979) ****

An almost experimental, very allegorical film that eerily seems to anticipate the Chernobyl disaster.

Mad Max (1979) ****

Terrific action flick from Australia, Mel Gibson's film debut.

The Castle Of Cagliostro (1979) ****

Hayao Miyazaki's first animated feature film, an incredibly entertaining romp about Arsène Lupin and his wild adventure in a mysterious European kingdom.

Hungarian Rhapsody (1979) ****

Life Of Brian (1979) ****

Tin Drum (1979) ****

Apocalypse Now (1979) ****

All That Jazz (1979) ****

Vengeance Is Mine (1979) ****

Kramer Vs Kramer (1979) ****

Szpital Przemienienia (1979) ***

Polish drama set in an insane asylum in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Hair (1979) ***

Dragon Fist (1979) ***

The Warriors (1979) ***

Excellent film about street gangs in New York City.

The Wanderers (1979) ***

Nostalgic drama set in the early 1960's.

Buffet froid (1979) ***

Black comedy from Bertrand Blier.

Being There (1979) ***

Peter Sellers gives an incredible performance in this adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski's novel.

The Black Stallion (1979) ***

A young boy finds a magnificent horse on a desert island.

Amator (1979) ***

Film Krzysztofa Kieslowskiego analizujacy role artysty w spoleczenstwie. Znakomity przyklad "kina moralnego niepokoju".

Perceval le Gallois (1979) ***

Highly stylized film about a medieval knight. Dialogues are in verse and sung by the actors.

Hardcore (1979) ***

The Lady In Red (1979) ***

Tess (1979) ***

Moonraker (1979) ***

Beneath The Valley Of The Ultra-Vixens (1979) ***

Le Gendarme et les extra-terrestres (1979) *

Lame comedy about French cops and aliens from Outer Space.

Laura (1979) ***

Caniche (1979) ***

Emanuelle, Queen Of Sados (1979) ***

Nosferatu (1979) ****

Dr Butcher MD (1979) ***

La Isla (1979) ***

Aktorzy prowincjonalni (1979) ***

Those Wonderful Movie Cranks (1979) ***

You're Out Of Your Mind Maggie (1979) ***

Last Hurrah For Chivalry (1979) **

Directed by John Woo. Non-stop swordfights.

Panny z Wilka (1979) *

Nostalgiczny film Andrzeja Wajdy, oparty na powiesci Jaroslawa Iwaszkiewicza.

La Luna (1979) *

A mother takes care of her drug-addicted son.

The Third Generation (1979) **

German film about a group of terrorists. Not a typical Fassbinder's film, but quite interesting.

Butterfly Murders (1979) **

Little butterflies attack people in a mysterious castle. Tsui Hark's first film, clearly inspired by Hitchcock's "The Birds".

I Am Maria (1979) ***

The Marriage Of Maria Braun (1979) ***

Malabimba (1979) ***

The Thrushes Are Still Singing (1979) ***

Christ Stopped At Eboli (1979) ***

Quadrophenia (1979) **

Overrated film about youth gangs in Britain.

My Brilliant Career (1979) **

Judy Davis gives a good performance in this Australian film about love, ambition and social conventions.

Mourir à tue-tête (1979) ***

Away From It All (1979) ****

Hilarious spoof of travelogue documentaries, narrated by John Cleese.

Sibylle (1979) ****

Memorable French short about a strange and mysterious reel of film.

Solly's Diner (1979) ***

Oscar-nominated short film set in a diner.

Paul Robeson: Tribute To An Artist (1979) ***

Video Killed The Radio Star (1979) ***

The first music video to play on MTV in 1981. Directed by Russell Mulcahy.

Mean Joe Greene (1979) ***

Z punktu widzenia nocnego portiera (1979) ***

Disturbing documentary about totalitarian mentality.

Nails (1979) **

Phillip Borsos' film about the manufacturing of nails.

Every Child (1979) ****

An abandoned baby is rejected by all potential foster parents, who keep throwing it around like a hot potato. The cartoon is remarkable for its innovative use of sound effects.

Dream Doll (1979) ****

A coproduction between Yugoslavia and the UK. Co-directed by Zlatko Grgic and Bob Godfrey.

Log Driver's Waltz (1979) ***

Excellent cartoon illustrating a Canadian folk song.

Jeu de coudes (1979) ***

A comment on conformity, with a row of uniform characters pushing each other into water.