Year by year: 1978
My 50 favorite films of 1978
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50 titles
- DirectorMichael CiminoStarsRobert De NiroChristopher WalkenJohn CazaleAn in-depth examination of the ways in which the Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of several friends in a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania.
- DirectorTerrence MalickStarsRichard GereBrooke AdamsSam ShepardA hot-tempered farm laborer convinces the woman he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune.
- DirectorAlan ParkerStarsBrad DavisIrene MiracleBo HopkinsBilly Hayes, an American college student, is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsIngrid BergmanLiv UllmannLena NymanA devoted wife is visited by her mother, a successful concert pianist who had little time for her when she was young.
- DirectorHal AshbyStarsJane FondaJon VoightBruce DernIn 1968 California, a woman whose husband is a Marine officer fighting in Vietnam falls in love with a former high school classmate who suffered a paralyzing combat injury in the war.
- DirectorErmanno OlmiStarsLuigi OrnaghiFrancesca MoriggiOmar BrignoliPeasant life in a feudal farm in rural Italy at the end of the 19th century.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsDiane KeatonGeraldine PageKristin GriffithThree sisters find their lives spinning out of control in the wake of their parents' sudden, unexpected divorce.
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsIsabelle HuppertStéphane AudranJean CarmetIn an interwar France struggling with profound social and political change, 18-year-old Violette Noziere rebels against the constraints of her claustrophobic, working-class (and possibly incestuous) family, with troubling consequences.
- DirectorRainer Werner FassbinderStarsDirk BogardeAndréa FerréolKlaus LöwitschIn early-1930s Berlin, an elegant Russian émigré and eccentric chocolatier convinces himself that he has seen his doppelgänger, and hatches a murderous plan to trade his existence for an entirely new one. Will he get over the deep despair?
- DirectorCharles BurnettStarsHenry G. SandersKaycee MooreCharles BracySet in the Watts area of Los Angeles, a slaughterhouse worker must suspend his emotions to continue working at a job he finds repugnant, and then he finds he has little sensitivity for the family he works so hard to support.
- DirectorNagisa ÔshimaStarsTatsuya FujiKazuko YoshiyukiTakahiro TamuraA married woman and her lover murder her husband and dump his body into a well. After a while, his ghost comes to haunt them while the local gossip grows stronger.
- DirectorWarren BeattyBuck HenryStarsWarren BeattyJames MasonJulie ChristieA Los Angeles Rams quarterback, accidentally taken away from his body by an overanxious angel before he was meant to die, returns to life in the body of a recently murdered millionaire.
- DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsDonald PleasenceJamie Lee CurtisTony MoranFifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.
- DirectorFred SchepisiStarsTommy LewisFreddy ReynoldsAngela Punch McGregorAfter suffering racist abuse throughout his life - which intensifies following his marriage to a white woman - a half-Aboriginal farmhand finds himself driven to murder.
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsZbigniew ZapasiewiczEwa DalkowskaAndrzej SewerynA famous Polish journalist presents a problem for the powers-that-be when he displays his full political skill and knowledge on a television show featuring questions and answers on a world conference by a panel of journalists. His enemies take away his privileges when he is away. The shock of being "unwanted" parallels a deeper disappointment in his private life: his wife has an affair with a jealous young rival, and after 15 years of marriage and two daughters wants a divorce. She offers no explanations as he tries to untie these problems himself. All the moves he makes are the wrong ones. He takes on drinking heavily with students eager to attend his seminar after discovering the class has been canceled. The journalist, once suave and commanding is reduced to silence.
- DirectorStanislav RostotskiyStarsVyacheslav TikhonovValentina VladimirovaMikhail DadykoA white dog called Bim is looking for its owner. It encounters all kinds of people and situations.
- DirectorBertrand BlierStarsGérard DepardieuCarole LaurePatrick DewaereA worried husband finds a lover for his depressed wife, but she falls in love with a bullied thirteen-year-old math prodigy and wants to have the boy's baby.
- DirectorHerbert RossStarsJane FondaAlan AldaMaggie SmithMisadventures of four groups of guests at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
- DirectorMartin RosenJohn HubleyStarsJohn HurtRichard BriersRalph RichardsonHoping to escape destruction by human developers and save their community, a colony of rabbits, led by Hazel and Fiver, seek out a safe place to set up a new warren.
- DirectorPhilip KaufmanStarsDonald SutherlandBrooke AdamsJeff GoldblumWhen strange seeds drift to earth from space, mysterious pods begin to grow and invade San Francisco, replicating the city's residents one body at a time.
- DirectorRainer Werner FassbinderStarsVolker SpenglerIngrid CavenGottfried JohnA transgender woman tries to salvage something from the wreckage love has made of her life by confronting her anguished past, hoping to find ultimate acceptance among former acquaintances and herself.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsFrançois TruffautNathalie BayeJean DastéA French little town, at the end of the twenties. Julien Davenne is a journalist whose wife Julie died a decade ago. He gathered in the green room all Julie's objects. When a fire destroys the room, he renovates a little chapel and devotes it to Julie and his other dead persons.
- DirectorHans W. GeissendörferStarsBrigitte FosseyHelmut GriemDieter LaserA man is wrongfully imprisoned for five years. Once out, he hears about his wife's supposed adventures outside of their marriage and becomes increasingly jealous.
- DirectorLouis MalleStarsBrooke ShieldsKeith CarradineSusan SarandonA preteen girl lives as a prostitute in New Orleans in 1917.
- DirectorPaul MazurskyStarsJill ClayburghAlan BatesMichael MurphyA wealthy woman from Manhattan's Upper East Side struggles to deal with her new identity and her sexuality after her husband of 16 years leaves her for a younger woman.
- DirectorFranklin J. SchaffnerStarsGregory PeckLaurence OlivierJames MasonA Nazi hunter in Paraguay discovers a sinister and bizarre plot to rekindle the Third Reich.
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsKrystyna JandaJerzy RadziwilowiczTadeusz LomnickiA young Polish filmmaker sets out to find out what happened to Mateusz Birkut, a bricklayer who became a propaganda hero in the 1950s but later fell out of favor and disappeared.
- DirectorClaudia WeillStarsMelanie MayronEli WallachAdam CohenA photographer and her girlfriend are roommates. She is stuck with small-change shooting jobs and dreams of success. When her roommate decides to get married and leave, she feels hurt and has to learn how to deal with living alone.
- DirectorVentura PonsStarsOcañaCamiloGuillermoPortrait of Ocaña, a multi-artist who exploded the prevailing conventions in Barcelona during the last years of Franco's dictatorship.
- DirectorRandal KleiserStarsJohn TravoltaOlivia Newton-JohnStockard ChanningGood girl Sandy Olsson and greaser Danny Zuko fell in love over the summer. When they unexpectedly discover they're now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance?
- DirectorRichard DonnerStarsChristopher ReeveMargot KidderGene HackmanAn alien orphan is sent from his dying planet to Earth, where he grows up to become his adoptive home's first and greatest superhero.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobbie RobertsonMuddy WatersNeil YoungA film account and presentation of the final concert of The Band.
- DirectorAlan J. PakulaStarsJames CaanJane FondaJason RobardsA brave and proud woman struggles for her land, finding help and something more in unexpected way.
- DirectorRichard AttenboroughStarsAnthony HopkinsAnn-MargretBurgess MeredithA ventriloquist is at the mercy of his vicious dummy while he tries to renew a romance with his high school sweetheart.
- DirectorÉric RohmerStarsFabrice LuchiniAndré DussollierSolange BoulangerThe exploits of Sir Perceval, a legendary exemplar of knightly chivalry and one of the champions of King Arthur's Round Table.
- DirectorArnold ShapiroStarsPeter FalkMickie ColdDoug CroninThe filmed depiction of a program where convicts tell troubled kids about the horrors of prison life.
- DirectorPedro OleaStarsJosé SacristánFrancisco AlgoraCarmen CarbonellLluis de Serracant leads a double life. By day he's a young lawyer, scion of a Catalan bourgeois family. At night he's a transvestite performer known to his fans as "Flower of Autumn".
- DirectorRobert MulliganStarsAlan AldaEllen BurstynIvan BonarA married man and a married woman end up sleeping with each other, and decide to meet at the same place every year on the anniversary of their one night stand. As the years go by, they observe changes in each other and their relationship.
- DirectorAdolfo AristarainStarsJulio De GraziaLuisina BrandoFernanda MistralA man who dreams of striking it rich stumbles upon the loot of a heist.
- DirectorRaúl RuizStarsJean RougeulChantal PaleyJean RaynaudTwo narrators, one seen and one unseen, discuss possible connections between a series of paintings. The on-screen narrator walks through three-dimensional reproductions of each painting, featuring real people, sometimes moving, in an effort to explain the series' significance.
- DirectorJerzy SkolimowskiStarsAlan BatesSusannah YorkJohn HurtA traveller by the name of Crossley forces himself upon a musician and his wife in a lonely part of Devon, and uses the aboriginal magic he has learned to displace his host.
- DirectorGeorge A. RomeroStarsDavid EmgeKen ForeeScott H. ReinigerDuring an escalating zombie epidemic, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter and his TV executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.
- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsPeter FalkPeter BoyleAllen GarfieldA fictional retelling of the infamous Boston Brink's Company robbery on January 17th, 1950, of $2.7M, and cost the American taxpayers $29M to apprehend the culprits with only $58,000 recovered.
- DirectorAlbert LamorisseStarsManouchehr AnvarA tour of Iran filmed from a helicopter.
- DirectorZoltán FábriStarsGábor KonczÉva PapJózsef BihariMany Hungarian migrant workers work in Germany in good conditions and for good wages during WW2. They face the war only once they return home to Hungary.
- DirectorEloy de la IglesiaStarsJosé SacristánMaría Luisa San JoséJosé Luis AlonsoSex and politics collide in this tale of forbidden love, blackmail and murder. Set up by the secret police to compromise a prominent politician, a teenage hustler discovers himself passionately in love with the man he must betray.
- DirectorBoaz DavidsonStarsYftach KatzurAnat AtzmonJonathan SagallThree friends live their lives in 1950s Israel, each looking for someone to love.
- DirectorColin HigginsStarsGoldie HawnChevy ChaseBurgess MeredithA San Francisco librarian picks up a hitchhiker whose car has broken down, which leads to her being stalked and hunted by shady individuals. A cop she briefly met during a function eventually comes to her rescue.
- DirectorMario MonicelliDino RisiEttore ScolaStarsVittorio GassmanOrnella MutiAlberto SordiSeveral episodes depicting Italian's life in short humoristic stories.
- DirectorSteve RashStarsGary BuseyDon StroudCharles Martin SmithThe story of the life and career of the early rock and roll singer, from his meteoric rise to stardom, to his marriage and untimely death.