Throwback Muriels: 1989

Sunday, July 10, 2011

1989

Picture:
Do the Right Thing
Crimes and Misdemeanors
sex, lies and videotape
Under the Sun of Satan
Drugstore Cowboy
Roger and Me
Chocolat
Story of Women
Mystery Train
The War of the Roses

Director:
Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing
Woody Allen, Crimes and Misdemeanors
Maurice Pialat, Under the Sun of Satan
Steven Soderbergh, sex, lies and videotape
Claire Denis, Chocolat

Male Lead:
Daniel Day-Lewis, My Left Foot
James Spader, sex, lies and videotape
Gerard Depardieu, Under the Sun of Satan
John Cusack, Say Anything…
Michael Douglas, The War of the Roses

Female Lead:
Isabelle Huppert, Story of Women
Michelle Pfeiffer, The Fabulous Baker Boys
Kathleen Turner, The War of the Roses
Andie MacDowell, sex, lies and videotape
Giulia Boschi, Chocolat

Male Supporting:
Martin Landau, Crimes and Misdemeanors
Sean Penn, Casualties of War
Danny Aiello, Do the Right Thing
Peter Gallagher, sex, lies and videotape
Giancarlo Esposito, Do the Right Thing

Female Supporting:
Laura San Giacomo, sex, lies and videotape
Youki Kudoh, Mystery Train
Sandrine Bonnaire, Under the Sun of Satan
Lena Olin, Enemies, a Love Story
Anjelica Huston, Enemies, a Love Story

Screenplay:
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Do the Right Thing
sex, lies and videotape
Drugstore Cowboy
Say Anything…

Ensemble:
Do the Right Thing
Crimes and Misdemeanors
sex, lies and videotape
Mystery Train
Henry V

Cinematography:
Casualties of War (Burum)
Do the Right Thing (Dickerson)
Black Rain (Kawamata)
Chocolat (Alazraki)
Mystery Train (Muller)

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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.