My Top 20 by Year - 1981
by miran_kor | created - 21 Feb 2014 | updated - 23 Aug 2017 | PublicUnder construction and always in progress.
The Best films from this year (according to IMDb) I've seen (so far).
Out of 172 films 'seen' (ie rated at IMDb).
(Aug 2017)
Notes:
- Features, shorts, docs and TV movies eligible ("A film is a film is a film.").
- TV mini-series are NOT (unless stated otherwise).
- My humble rates added (for films with the same rate just once or twice though).
- Films with the same rate are ordered arbitrarily. Feel free to re-order them at your will.
- When I saw more than 20 excellent films (9/10 or above in my book) from a certain year I'll try and list them ALL. That would make some lists much longer but all the excellentia deserves to be mentioned.
Cinema = cinema (big screen) viewing TV = TV viewing PC = download OL = online viewing VHS = VHS viewing
Yet to see (among many):
Coup de torchon (Clean Slate, Tavernier, 1981) Le pont du Nord (Rivette, 1981) Merry-Go-Round (Rivette, 1981) Die Fälschung (Circle of Deceit, Schlöndorff, 1981) La femme de l'aviateur (The Aviator's Wife, Rohmer, 1981) La tragedia di un uomo ridicolo (Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man, Bertolucci, 1981) Francisca (de Oliveira, 1981) Agoniya (Agony, Klimov, 1981) Documenteur (Documenteur: An Emotion Picture, Varda, 1981) Garde à vue (The Inquisitor, C. Miller, 1981) Doro no kawa (Muddy River, Oguri, 1981) Fantasma d'amore (Ghost of Love, Risi, 1981) Valehtelija (The Liar, M. Kaurismäki, 1981) Eye of the Needle (Marquand, 1981) Presents (M. Snow, 1981) Vrchní, prchni! (Run, Waiter, Run!; Smoljak, 1981) Tag der Idioten (Day of the Idiots, Schroeter, 1981) Lesnaya pesnya. Mavka (A Story of the Forest: Mavka, Ilyenko, 1981) Wojna swiatów - nastepne stulecie (The War of the Worlds: Next Century, Szulkin, 1981) Outside In (Dwoskin, 1981) Ilektrikos angelos (Electric Angel, Rentzis, 1981) Subway Riders (A. Poe, 1981) Stagefright (Jost, 1981) Wie de Waarheid Zegt Moet Dood (Whoever Says the Truth Shall Die, Bregstein, 1981, doc) The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time (J. Brown, 1981, doc) The Day After Trinity (Else, 1981, doc) No One Here Gets Out Alive: A Tribute to Jim Morrison (G. Forbes III, 1981, doc) Turumba (Tahimik, 1981, doc) Agatha et les lectures illimitées (Agatha and the Limitless Readings, Duras, 1981) The Loveless (Bigelow/M. Montgomery, 1981) Trances (El Maanouni, 1981, doc) Kundskabens træ (Tree of Knowledge, Malmros, 1981)
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1. Man of Iron (1981)
PG | 156 min | Drama, History
A few years after the events of Man of Marble (1977), a journalist investigates Mateusz Birkut's son Maciek Tomczyk, now an activist leading a shipyard strike.
Director: Andrzej Wajda | Stars: Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Krystyna Janda, Marian Opania, Wieslawa Kosmalska
Votes: 3,797
Cinema. 10/10.
2. Lola (1981)
R | 115 min | Drama, Romance
A seductive cabaret singer-prostitute pits a corrupt building contractor against the new straight-arrow building commissioner, launching an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything-and everyone-is for sale.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mario Adorf, Matthias Fuchs
Votes: 6,825
Cinema.
3. Spacy (1981)
10 min | Short
Set of rapid telescopic images of a gym, in fast forward, traveling through itself, space and time.
Director: Takashi Itô
Votes: 426
OL.
4. Mephisto (1981)
Unrated | 146 min | Drama
In early-1930s Germany, a passionate stage actor faces a dilemma: renounce his apolitical stance and comply with the Reich's doctrine, or face oblivion. But, Faustian bargains never end well. What is the price of success?
Director: István Szabó | Stars: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Ildikó Bánsági, Krystyna Janda, Rolf Hoppe
Votes: 11,600
TV.
5. Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981)
101 min | Drama
Poet/lecturer Charles Serking awakens from his alcoholic haze long enough to take a bus back to L.A. and plunge into an orgy of drink and sexual depravity.
Director: Marco Ferreri | Stars: Ben Gazzara, Ornella Muti, Susan Tyrrell, Tanya Lopert
Votes: 2,964
Cinema.
6. Lili Marleen (1981)
R | 120 min | Drama, Music, Romance
In 1938, a German singer falls in love with a Jewish composer in Zurich, who helps Jews flee Nazi Germany. She wants to help but is forced back to Germany. Her song "Lili Marleen" becomes a hit with soldiers and the Nazi top brass.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Hanna Schygulla, Giancarlo Giannini, Mel Ferrer, Karl-Heinz von Hassel
Votes: 4,295
Cinema.
7. Tango (1981)
8 min | Animation, Short
Subsequent characters appear in a poorly-decorated room, intertwining but never colliding, all possessed by never-ending rituals.
Director: Zbigniew Rybczynski
Votes: 3,039
PC.
OL. 10/10.
9. Possession (1981)
R | 124 min | Drama, Horror
A woman starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband for a divorce. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister.
Director: Andrzej Zulawski | Stars: Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen, Heinz Bennent
Votes: 42,924 | Gross: $1.11M
PC. 9.5/10.
10. Das Boot (1981)
R | 149 min | Drama, War
A German U-boat stalks the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as its young crew experience the sheer terror and claustrophobic life of a submariner in World War II.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch
Votes: 264,448 | Gross: $11.49M
PC. 9/10.
11. Chariots of Fire (1981)
PG | 125 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
Two British track athletes, one a determined Jew and the other a devout Christian, are driven to win in the 1924 Olympics as they wrestle with issues of pride and conscience.
Director: Hugh Hudson | Stars: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nicholas Farrell, Nigel Havers
Votes: 65,923 | Gross: $58.97M
VHS.
12. Pixote (1980)
TV-MA | 128 min | Crime, Drama
The life of a boy on the streets of Sao Paulo, involved with crimes, prostitution, and drugs.
Director: Hector Babenco | Stars: Fernando Ramos da Silva, Jorge Julião, Gilberto Moura, Edilson Lino
Votes: 9,241
PC.
13. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
PG | 115 min | Action, Adventure
In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies
Votes: 1,037,256 | Gross: $248.16M
Cinema.
14. Marianne & Juliane (1981)
106 min | Drama
Two sisters both fight for women's rights. Juliane is a journalist and Marianne a terrorist. When Marianne is jailed, Juliane feels obligated to help her despite their differing views on how to live.
Director: Margarethe von Trotta | Stars: Jutta Lampe, Barbara Sukowa, Rüdiger Vogler, Doris Schade
Votes: 2,625
Cinema.
15. Excalibur (1981)
PG | 140 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Merlin the magician helps Arthur Pendragon unite the Britons around the Round Table of Camelot, even as dark forces conspire to tear it apart.
Director: John Boorman | Stars: Nigel Terry, Helen Mirren, Nicholas Clay, Cherie Lunghi
Votes: 67,211 | Gross: $34.97M
Cinema.
16. On Golden Pond (1981)
PG | 109 min | Drama
Norman is a curmudgeon with an estranged relationship with his daughter Chelsea. At Golden Pond, he and his wife nevertheless agree to care for Billy, the son of Chelsea's new boyfriend, and a most unexpected relationship blooms.
Director: Mark Rydell | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Doug McKeon
Votes: 34,880 | Gross: $119.29M
Cinema.
17. Der Bockerer (1981)
104 min | Drama, History
A politically naïve Viennese butcher (Bockerer) manages to survive the unification of Germany and Austria and the Second World War.
Director: Franz Antel | Stars: Karl Merkatz, Alfred Böhm, Hans Holt, Marte Harell
Votes: 1,027
Cinema.
18. Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981)
Not Rated | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young man's personality is shaped, involving some weird happenings around.
Director: Emir Kusturica | Stars: Slavko Stimac, Slobodan Aligrudic, Ljiljana Blagojevic, Mira Banjac
Votes: 6,797
Orig. title: Sjećaš li se Dolly Bell?.
Cinema.
19. Montenegro (1981)
R | 96 min | Drama, Comedy
A bored wealthy housewife on the verge of insanity cuts loose with some lively Yugoslavian immigrants who delight in their bohemian lifestyle.
Director: Dusan Makavejev | Stars: Susan Anspach, Erland Josephson, Per Oscarsson, Marianne Jacobi
Votes: 2,126
Cinema.
20. Son of the White Mare (1981)
Unrated | 86 min | Animation, Adventure, Fantasy
In this dreamlike Hungarian folk myth, a horse goddess gives birth to three powerful brothers who set out into the Underworld to save three princesses from three evil dragons and reclaim their ancestors' lost kingdom.
Director: Marcell Jankovics | Stars: György Cserhalmi, Vera Pap, Gyula Szabó, Ferenc Szalma
Votes: 2,869
OL.
21. The Garden of Earthly Delights (1981)
G | 3 min | Short
A collage of two-dimensional images of vegetation, each appearing only for a moment, sometimes as a single image, more often with other bits of stem, leaf, bud, or petal. Often we see only ... See full summary »
Director: Stan Brakhage
Votes: 874
OL.
22. Reds (1981)
PG | 195 min | Biography, Drama, History
A radical American journalist becomes involved with the Communist revolution in Russia, and hopes to bring its spirit and idealism to the United States.
Director: Warren Beatty | Stars: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Edward Herrmann, Jerzy Kosinski
Votes: 24,725 | Gross: $40.38M
TV.
23. Bolero (1981)
173 min | Drama, Music
Through fabulous music, this movie tracks three generations of musicians and dancers from Russia, Germany, France and the U.S., from before World War II through the war and the Holocaust, ... See full summary »
Director: Claude Lelouch | Stars: Robert Hossein, Nicole Garcia, Geraldine Chaplin, Daniel Olbrychski
Votes: 2,750
Cinema.
24. S.O.B. (1981)
R | 122 min | Comedy, Drama
A successful movie director makes the most expensive film in his career and it becomes a huge flop. He tries to salvage his career by reshooting the film as an erotic production, where its family-friendly star takes her top off.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Julie Andrews, William Holden, Marisa Berenson, Larry Hagman
Votes: 6,484 | Gross: $14.87M
Cinema.
25. Priest of Love (1981)
R | 125 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Following the banning and burning of his novel, "The Rainbow", D.H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, move to the United States, and then to Mexico. When Lawrence contracts tuberculosis, they ... See full summary »
Director: Christopher Miles | Stars: Ian McKellen, Janet Suzman, Ava Gardner, Penelope Keith
Votes: 522
TV.
26. They All Laughed (1981)
PG | 115 min | Comedy, Romance
A madcap private-eye caper about a team of detectives who are following, and are being followed by, a group of beautiful women.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich | Stars: Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara, Patti Hansen, John Ritter
Votes: 3,016
Cinema.
27. Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Drama
Ken Harrison is an artist who makes sculptures. One day he is involved in a car accident, and is paralyzed from his neck down. All he can do is talk, and he wants to die. In hospital he ... See full summary »
Director: John Badham | Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, John Cassavetes, Christine Lahti, Bob Balaban
Votes: 3,553 | Gross: $8.21M
Cinema.
28. You Love Only Once (1981)
103 min | Drama, War
Tomislav is a former Partizan who continues his struggle after the war as a dedicated member of Tito's secret police. He meets and falls in love with a ballet dancer from a bourgeois family... See full summary »
Director: Rajko Grlic | Stars: Predrag 'Miki' Manojlovic, Vladislava Milosavljevic, Mladen Budiscak, Zijah Sokolovic
Votes: 485
Cinema.
29. Biljeg (1981)
11 min | Documentary, Short
Life goes on in a rural community with no running water where the local authorities had built a hydroelectric power station.
Director: Zivko Nikolic
Votes: 23
OL.
30.
Pat & Mat (1976–2020)
Episode:
Gril
(1981)
9 min | Animation, Comedy, Family
Chicken tastes great! But it needs be grilled first. Too bad if your grill is too small.
Director: Lubomir Benes
Votes: 59
OL.
31.
Pat & Mat (1976–2020)
Episode:
Gramofon
(1981)
9 min | Animation, Comedy, Family
There are so many records, but obviously no working player. Best idea is making your own music.
Director: Lubomir Benes
Votes: 62
OL. 9/10.
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