Throwback Muriels: 1985

Thursday, July 14, 2011

1985

Picture:
Back to the Future
Brazil
Ran
After Hours
The Purple Rose of Cairo
Blood Simple.
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
Insignificance
To Live and Die in L.A.
Mishima

Director:
Terry Gilliam, Brazil
Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future
Akira Kurosawa, Ran
Martin Scorsese, After Hours
Joel Coen, Blood Simple.

Male Lead:
Philip Baker Hall, Secret Honor
Jonathan Pryce, Brazil
Ken Ogata, Mishima
Jeff Daniels, The Purple Rose of Cairo
Val Kilmer, Real Genius

Female Lead:
Maja Komorowska, A Year of the Quiet Sun
Mia Farrow, The Purple Rose of Cairo
Whoopi Goldberg, The Color Purple
Frances McDormand, Blood Simple.
Theresa Russell, Insignificance

Male Supporting:
M. Emmett Walsh, Blood Simple.
Michael Palin, Brazil
Crispin Glover, Back to the Future
Christopher Lloyd, Back to the Future
Michael Emil, Insignificance

Female Supporting:
Mieko Harada, Ran
Katharine Helmond, Brazil
Lea Thompson, Back to the Future
Angelica Huston, Prizzi’s Honor
Margaret Avery, The Color Purple

Screenplay:
Back to the Future
After Hours
The Purple Rose of Cairo
Blood Simple.
Brazil

Ensemble:
Brazil
Back to the Future
Insignificance
Blood Simple.
After Hours

Cinematography:
Ran (Saito/Nakai/Ueda)
Mishima (Bailey)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (Willis)
Brazil (Pratt)
After Hours (Ballhaus)

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Administrative Stuff

In keeping with the spirit of the project I started this past winter, I’ve decided to continue formulating lists of retrospective nominees by year. Of course, as we move backwards in time I’d estimate that some years will be pretty lean. Therefore, I fear I will have to stop when I feel I can’t fill out a satisfactory ballot, although this probably won’t happen for a while yet.

As with the present-day Muriels, I based these old-school awards on the film’s NYC commercial release date. Since Mike D’Angelo’s eligibility lists don’t go back past 1998, I used the listed release dates in IMDb for this purpose. And much like the contemporary Muriels, if a movie remains unreleased in Gotham within five years of its international release date, it is ineligible for nominations. Sadly, that means I couldn’t throw any nominations at, say, Play Time, Satantango, the films of Yasujiro Ozu, or (sniff) Jeanne Dielman. So it goes.

Additionally, I reserve the right to allow ties here, especially in the case of movies featuring same-sex co-leads who are equally awesome. Several Bergman films spring to mind here, but there will no doubt be other occurrences as well.

Finally, I’ve decided to limit these lists to a “big nine” (picture, director, 4 acting categories, screenplay, ensemble, and cinematography). Much as I would have loved to include Best Cinematic Moment- probably my favorite Muriels category- here as well, I have a feeling that I’d forget some embarrassingly obvious choices and would prefer to save myself the bother.

As before, I’ll post one of these here per day as long as I’m able. I’ll try to remember to update these as needed, but I make no promises.

By the way, here’s a link to the 1995-2009 throwback Muriels I posted this winter. In time, I’ll probably move them over here, but until then this’ll have to do.