Films of 1979
by christopherpip | created - 13 Jul 2013 | updated - 13 Jul 2013 | PublicThese are the films I have seen from the year 1979.
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1. Agatha (1979)
PG | 105 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
December 1926, Agatha Christie's husband asks for a divorce. She leaves her car and goes missing 11 days. She books into a hotel as Mrs. Neele. Fiction: A US reporter looks for her and investigates.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Vanessa Redgrave, Timothy Dalton, Helen Morse
Votes: 3,573 | Gross: $7.50M
2. Alien (1979)
R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
The crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright
Votes: 950,147 | Gross: $78.90M
3. All That Jazz (1979)
R | 123 min | Drama, Music, Musical
Director/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid career of Joe Gideon, a womanizing, drug-using dancer.
Director: Bob Fosse | Stars: Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking, Leland Palmer
Votes: 35,375 | Gross: $37.82M
4. The Amityville Horror (1979)
R | 117 min | Horror
Newlyweds and their three children move into a large house where a mass murder was committed. They start to experience strange, inexplicable manifestations which have strong effects on everyone living in or visiting the house.
Director: Stuart Rosenberg | Stars: James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don Stroud
Votes: 44,584 | Gross: $86.43M
5. Amor Bandido (1979)
95 min | Drama
Rio de Janeiro police investigator Galvão is pursuing two trails, one professional and one personal. While he tracks a serial killer of taxi drivers, he also seeks his estranged daughter, ... See full summary »
Director: Bruno Barreto | Stars: Paulo Gracindo, Cristina Aché, Paulo Guarnieri, Ligia Diniz
Votes: 302
6. And Justice for All (1979)
R | 119 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A lawyer is forced to defend a judge, while defending other clients, and trying to find punishment for the guilty and provide justice for the innocent.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Al Pacino, Jack Warden, John Forsythe, Lee Strasberg
Votes: 39,643
7. Apocalypse Now (1979)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, War
A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 709,965 | Gross: $83.47M
8. The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1979)
G | 88 min | Comedy, Family, Western
The adventures of two idiotic outlaw wannabees, Amos and Theodore.
Director: Vincent McEveety | Stars: Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Tim Matheson, Kenneth Mars
Votes: 3,259 | Gross: $20.93M
9. Being There (1979)
PG | 130 min | Comedy, Drama
After the death of his employer forces him out of the only home he's ever known, a simpleminded, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful tycoon and an insider in Washington politics.
Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden
Votes: 77,629 | Gross: $30.18M
10. The Black Stallion (1979)
G | 118 min | Adventure, Family, Sport
After being shipwrecked with a magnificent horse off the coast of Africa in the 1940s, a boy bonds with the stallion, and trains him to race after their rescue.
Director: Carroll Ballard | Stars: Kelly Reno, Mickey Rooney, Teri Garr, Clarence Muse
Votes: 14,034
11. Breaking Away (1979)
PG | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport
A working-class Indiana teen obsessed with the Italian cycling team vies for the affections of a college girl while searching for life goals with his friends.
Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley
Votes: 25,466 | Gross: $16.42M
12. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)
PG | 89 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A 20th century astronaut emerges out of 500 years of suspended animation into a future time where Earth is threatened by alien invaders.
Director: Daniel Haller | Stars: Gil Gerard, Erin Gray, Pamela Hensley, Henry Silva
Votes: 6,867 | Gross: $21.67M
13. The Bugs Bunny/Road-Runner Movie (1979)
G | 98 min | Animation, Comedy, Family
Bugs Bunny reflects on his past cartoon exploits.
Directors: Chuck Jones, Phil Monroe, Maurice Noble, Tom Ray | Stars: Mel Blanc, Arthur Q. Bryan, Paul Julian, Nicolai Shutorev
Votes: 4,455
14. Caligula (1979)
Unrated | 156 min | Drama, History
A dramatization of the ascent to Caesar and subsequent reign of Caligula, one of the most notorious leaders of ancient Rome. We see his ambition, his scheming, his perversion and decadence, his brutality and his lunacy.
Director: Tinto Brass | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Peter O'Toole, Helen Mirren, Teresa Ann Savoy
Votes: 38,349 | Gross: $23.44M
15. The Champ (1979)
PG | 121 min | Drama, Sport
Billy Flynn is an ex-champion boxer who was KO'd by booze and gambling. When the wealthy, estranged mother of his young son begins trying to lure the boy away from him, Flynn must return to the ring to provide for his child.
Director: Franco Zeffirelli | Stars: Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway, Ricky Schroder, Jack Warden
Votes: 9,239 | Gross: $30.44M
16. Chapter Two (1979)
PG | 124 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
George Schneider is an author whose wife had just died. His brother Leo gives him the number of Jennie MacLaine, and somehow they hit it off, and just when things are moving along, the memory of his first wife comes between them.
Director: Robert Moore | Stars: James Caan, Marsha Mason, Joseph Bologna, Valerie Harper
Votes: 1,275
17. The China Syndrome (1979)
PG | 122 min | Drama, Thriller
A reporter finds what appears to be a cover-up of safety hazards at a nuclear power plant.
Director: James Bridges | Stars: Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady
Votes: 33,023 | Gross: $51.72M
18. Dracula (1979)
R | 109 min | Drama, Horror, Romance
In 1913, the charming, seductive and sinister vampire Count Dracula travels to England in search of an immortal bride.
Director: John Badham | Stars: Frank Langella, Laurence Olivier, Donald Pleasence, Kate Nelligan
Votes: 11,109 | Gross: $20.16M
19. The Electric Horseman (1979)
PG | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A rodeo star past his prime steals his company's horse and rides into the desert, accompanied by a feisty reporter.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Valerie Perrine, Willie Nelson
Votes: 10,297 | Gross: $61.80M
20. Ernesto (1979)
R | 94 min | Drama, Romance
Triestw in the year 1911. Ernesto is the privileged, seventeen year old son of a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father, who has deserted his family. He is raised by his uncle Giovanni and ... See full summary »
Director: Salvatore Samperi | Stars: Martin Halm, Michele Placido, Virna Lisi, Turi Ferro
Votes: 572
21. Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
PG | 112 min | Action, Biography, Crime
Alcatraz is the most secure prison of its time. It is believed that no one can ever escape from it, until three daring men make a possibly successful attempt at escaping from one of the most infamous prisons in the world.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Thibeau
Votes: 147,398 | Gross: $43.00M
22. French Postcards (1979)
PG | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The believable, fresh-faced characters are naive American college students; armed with their French-English dictionaries they compulsively seek out hundreds of monuments, romanticize the nomadic artist's life, and look for grown-up love.
Director: Willard Huyck | Stars: Miles Chapin, Blanche Baker, David Marshall Grant, Valérie Quennessen
Votes: 853
23. Going in Style (1979)
PG | 97 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Three friends living on the dole decide to rob a bank.
Director: Martin Brest | Stars: George Burns, Art Carney, Lee Strasberg, Charles Hallahan
Votes: 3,911 | Gross: $26.87M
24. Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff (1979)
R | 105 min | Drama
An abusive sexual relationship between a white spinster schoolteacher and a young black janitor in 1956 Kansas complicates her struggle to come to grips with her sexuality and emotions.
Director: Marvin J. Chomsky | Stars: Anne Heywood, Donald Pleasence, Robert Vaughn, Earl Holliman
Votes: 455
25. The Great Santini (1979)
PG | 115 min | Drama
As he approaches manhood, Ben Meechum struggles to win the approval of his demanding alpha male father, an aggressively competitive, but frustrated Marine pilot.
Director: Lewis John Carlino | Stars: Robert Duvall, Blythe Danner, Michael O'Keefe, Lisa Jane Persky
Votes: 6,941
26. Hair (1979)
PG | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
Claude Bukowski leaves the family ranch in Oklahoma for New York where he is rapidly embraced into the hippie group of youngsters led by Berger, yet he's already been drafted. He soon falls in love with Sheila Franklin, a rich girl but still a rebel inside.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo, Annie Golden
Votes: 40,867 | Gross: $15.28M
27. Hardcore (1979)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama
A religious businessman from Michigan has to venture into the world of pornography in California, desperately searching for his runaway teenage daughter.
Director: Paul Schrader | Stars: George C. Scott, Peter Boyle, Season Hubley, Dick Sargent
Votes: 13,786
28. The In-Laws (1979)
PG | 103 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
On the eve of their children's marriage, NYC in-laws Sheldon Kornpett and Vince Ricardo embark on a series of misadventures involving the CIA, the Treasury Department and Central American dictators.
Director: Arthur Hiller | Stars: Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, Richard Libertini, Nancy Dussault
Votes: 10,093 | Gross: $38.20M
29. The Jerk (1979)
R | 94 min | Comedy
A simpleminded, sheltered country boy suddenly decides to leave his family home to experience life in the big city, where his naivete is both his best friend and his worst enemy.
Director: Carl Reiner | Stars: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Catlin Adams, Mabel King
Votes: 64,193 | Gross: $73.69M
30. Just You and Me, Kid (1979)
PG | 95 min | Comedy
A former vaudevillian befriends a 14 year-old runaway who is being chased by drug dealers.
Director: Leonard Stern | Stars: George Burns, Brooke Shields, Lorraine Gary, Ray Bolger
Votes: 1,064
31. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
PG | 105 min | Drama
After his wife leaves him, a work-obsessed Manhattan advertising executive is forced to learn long-neglected parenting skills, but a heated custody battle over the couple's young son deepens the wounds left by the separation.
Director: Robert Benton | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander, Justin Henry
Votes: 154,656 | Gross: $106.26M
32. A Little Romance (1979)
PG | 110 min | Adventure, Comedy, Romance
An American teenager living in Paris meets and falls in love with a local.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Diane Lane, Thelonious Bernard, Arthur Hill
Votes: 6,426
33. Lost and Found (1979)
PG | 106 min | Comedy
An American widower and a British divorcée keep running into each other and marry. But when the marriage loses its bloom, they try to separate, yet can’t stop finding their way back together.
Director: Melvin Frank | Stars: George Segal, Glenda Jackson, Maureen Stapleton, Hollis McLaren
Votes: 394 | Gross: $3.22M
34. Love at First Bite (1979)
PG | 96 min | Comedy, Horror
After being evicted from his castle in Transylvania, Count Dracula and his assistant Renfield travel to New York to find a woman who the Count believes is the reincarnation of the woman he has loved for all eternity.
Director: Stan Dragoti | Stars: George Hamilton, Susan Saint James, Richard Benjamin, Dick Shawn
Votes: 6,388 | Gross: $43.89M
35. Love on the Run (1979)
PG | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Antoine Doinel is now more than thirty. He divorces from Christine. He is a proofreader, and is in love with Sabine, a record seller. Colette, his teenager love, is now a lawyer. She buys ... See full summary »
Director: François Truffaut | Stars: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claude Jade, Marie-France Pisier, Dani
Votes: 7,518
36. Luna (1979)
R | 142 min | Drama
While touring in Italy, a recently-widowed American opera singer has an incestuous relationship with her 15-year-old son to help him overcome his heroin addiction.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Barry, Veronica Lazar, Renato Salvatori
Votes: 5,374
37. The Main Event (1979)
PG | 112 min | Comedy, Romance, Sport
A bankrupt entrepreneur attempts to recoup some of her losses by getting a washed-out boxer she picked up as a tax loss back into the ring - an idea her protégé isn't fond of.
Director: Howard Zieff | Stars: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Paul Sand, Whitman Mayo
Votes: 3,280 | Gross: $42.80M
38. The Man You Loved to Hate (1979)
PG | 78 min | Documentary
Erich von Stroheim was an director of silent movies, as well as an actor in both silents and talkies. Uncompromising and rigid, he battled the studio system for control over his pictures' ... See full summary »
Director: Patrick Montgomery | Stars: Edward Binns, Paul Kohner, Marcel Dalio, Leonard Spigelgass
Votes: 210
39. Manhattan (1979)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The life of a divorced television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Michael Murphy
Votes: 147,219 | Gross: $45.70M
40. The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
R | 120 min | Drama
Maria marries Hermann Braun in the last days of World War II, only for him to go missing in the war. Alone, Maria puts to use her beauty and ambition in order to find prosperity during Germany's "economic miracle" of the 1950s.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Löwitsch, Ivan Desny, Gisela Uhlen
Votes: 14,912
41. Meatballs (1979)
PG | 94 min | Comedy
Wacky hijinks of counselors and campers at a less-than-average summer camp.
Director: Ivan Reitman | Stars: Bill Murray, Harvey Atkin, Kate Lynch, Russ Banham
Votes: 23,860 | Gross: $43.05M
42. Life of Brian (1979)
R | 94 min | Comedy
Born on the original Christmas in the stable next door to Jesus Christ, Brian of Nazareth spends his life being mistaken for a messiah.
Director: Terry Jones | Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam
Votes: 421,793 | Gross: $20.05M
a/k/a 'Monty Python's Life of Brian'
43. Moonraker (1979)
PG | 126 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
James Bond investigates the mid-air theft of a space shuttle, and discovers a plot to commit global genocide.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Richard Kiel
Votes: 108,777 | Gross: $70.31M
44. More American Graffiti (1979)
PG | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, War
Told in four different New Year's Eves in the mid 1960s, John, Terry, Debbie, Steve and Laurie deal with adulthood, the Vietnam war, peace rallies, and relationships.
Director: Bill Norton | Stars: Candy Clark, Bo Hopkins, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat
Votes: 5,076 | Gross: $15.01M
45. Adventures of the Wilderness Family 3 (1979)
G | 100 min | Adventure, Family
The family who went "back to nature" by homesteading in Colorado's Rocky Mountains is threatened by possible federal opposition to their mining claims on the land they moved to.
Director: Jack Couffer | Stars: Robert Logan, Susan Damante, Heather Rattray, Ham Larsen
Votes: 631
46. The Muppet Movie (1979)
G | 95 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
Kermit and his newfound friends trek across America to find success in Hollywood, but a frog legs merchant is after Kermit.
Director: James Frawley | Stars: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt
Votes: 39,134 | Gross: $76.66M
47. 1941 (1979)
PG | 118 min | Action, Comedy, War
Hysterical Californians prepare for a Japanese invasion in the days after Pearl Harbor.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Treat Williams, Nancy Allen
Votes: 36,256 | Gross: $31.76M
48. Norma Rae (1979)
PG | 114 min | Drama
A young single mother and textile worker agrees to help unionize her mill despite the problems and dangers involved.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Sally Field, Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman, Pat Hingle
Votes: 12,830 | Gross: $22.23M
49. The North Avenue Irregulars (1979)
G | 100 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A new preacher in town joins forces with an unlikely group of crimefighters: six dedicated church ladies who are ready, but not necessarily equipped--to help.
Director: Bruce Bilson | Stars: Edward Herrmann, Barbara Harris, Susan Clark, Karen Valentine
Votes: 1,361
50. North Dallas Forty (1979)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport
A satire of American professional football in which a veteran pass-catcher's individuality and refusal to become part of the team family are bitterly resented by his disciplinarian coaches.
Director: Ted Kotcheff | Stars: Nick Nolte, Charles Durning, Mac Davis, Dayle Haddon
Votes: 5,992 | Gross: $26.08M
51. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
PG | 107 min | Drama, Horror
Count Dracula moves from Transylvania to Wismar, spreading the Black Plague across the land. Only a woman pure of heart can bring an end to his reign of horror.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz, Roland Topor
Votes: 40,500
52. The Odd Angry Shot (1979)
Unrated | 92 min | Action, Comedy, War
In between drinking cans of Fosters beer, Australian soldiers tread on a few landmines, and generally experience the war in Vietnam.
Director: Tom Jeffrey | Stars: Graham Kennedy, John Hargreaves, John Jarratt, Bryan Brown
Votes: 1,335
53. Old Boyfriends (1979)
R | 103 min | Drama
When her marriage falls apart, a psychiatrist seeks out the former boyfriends who left the biggest impacts on her life, mostly in negative ways.
Director: Joan Tewkesbury | Stars: Talia Shire, Richard Jordan, John Belushi, Keith Carradine
Votes: 599
54. Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980)
R | 104 min | Drama
Seven former college friends, along with a few new friends, gather for a weekend reunion at a summer house in New Hampshire to reminisce about the good old days, when they got arrested on the way to a protest in Washington, DC.
Director: John Sayles | Stars: Bruce MacDonald, Maggie Renzi, Adam LeFevre, Maggie Cousineau
Votes: 2,228 | Gross: $2.00M
55. Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Music
Ramones fanatic and delinquent Riff Randell battles it out with the strict new principal of Vince Lombardi High School, Miss Togar, with help from the Ramones.
Directors: Allan Arkush, Joe Dante | Stars: P.J. Soles, Vincent Van Patten, Clint Howard, Dey Young
Votes: 11,201
56. Rocky II (1979)
PG | 119 min | Drama, Sport
Rocky struggles in family life after his bout with Apollo Creed, while the embarrassed champ insistently goads him to accept a challenge for a rematch.
Director: Sylvester Stallone | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers
Votes: 231,190
57. The Rose (1979)
R | 125 min | Drama, Music, Romance
The tragic life of a self-destructive female rock star who struggles to deal with the constant pressures of her career and the demands of her ruthless business manager.
Director: Mark Rydell | Stars: Bette Midler, Alan Bates, Frederic Forrest, Harry Dean Stanton
Votes: 9,248 | Gross: $29.20M
58. Scum (1979)
R | 98 min | Crime, Drama
An uncompromising story of life in a British juvenile offender institution in the '70s.
Director: Alan Clarke | Stars: Ray Winstone, Mick Ford, Julian Firth, John Blundell
Votes: 13,077
59. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
G | 143 min | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi
When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan
Votes: 96,592 | Gross: $82.26M
60. Starting Over (1979)
R | 105 min | Comedy, Romance
A divorced man falls in love, but somehow he can't get over his ex-wife. This affects his love life in comic ways. Based on Dan Wakefield's novel.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh, Candice Bergen, Charles Durning
Votes: 3,240 | Gross: $41.64M
61. 10 (1979)
R | 122 min | Comedy, Romance
A Hollywood composer goes through a mid-life crisis and becomes infatuated with a sexy, newly married woman.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Dudley Moore, Bo Derek, Julie Andrews, Robert Webber
Votes: 19,285 | Gross: $74.87M
62. Tess (1979)
PG | 186 min | Drama, Romance
A strong-willed young peasant girl attracts the affection of two men.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Nastassja Kinski, Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson, John Collin
Votes: 18,262
63. Time After Time (1979)
PG | 112 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
H.G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to the 20th Century when the serial murderer uses the future writer's time machine to escape his time period.
Director: Nicholas Meyer | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, David Warner, Charles Cioffi
Votes: 20,630
64. The Tin Drum (1979)
R | 142 min | Drama, War
In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.
Director: Volker Schlöndorff | Stars: David Bennent, Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, Katharina Thalbach
Votes: 25,747
65. Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979)
G | 93 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
An astronaut and his android double travel back to the time of King Arthur.
Director: Russ Mayberry | Stars: Dennis Dugan, Jim Dale, Ron Moody, Kenneth More
Votes: 1,392
66. Wanda Nevada (1979)
PG | 107 min | Comedy, Mystery, Romance
A drifter named Beaudray Demerille wins a young orphan named Wanda in a poker game and takes her gold prospecting in the Grand Canyon.
Director: Peter Fonda | Stars: Peter Fonda, Brooke Shields, Fiona Lewis, Luke Askew
Votes: 1,521 | Gross: $2.41M
67. Nous étions un seul homme (1979)
Unrated | 91 min | Drama, Romance
During the final days of World War II, a simple French peasant rescues a wounded German soldier and nurses him back to health. As their playful camaraderie grows, two young men who should ... See full summary »
Director: Philippe Vallois | Stars: Serge Avedikian, Piotr Stanislas, Catherine Albin, Lucien Guérin
Votes: 643
68. When a Stranger Calls (1979)
R | 97 min | Mystery, Thriller
A psychopathic killer terrorizes a babysitter, then returns seven years later to menace her again.
Director: Fred Walton | Stars: Carol Kane, Charles Durning, Rutanya Alda, Carmen Argenziano
Votes: 14,320 | Gross: $21.41M
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