Da capo: The Real Eighties
September 28 to October 20, 2018
"The Real Eighties": In May and June 2013, the Film Museum dedicated a retrospective under this title to a still ostracized era of American film history. Crossing all genres, the series gathered varieties of an impure realism that exerted a crucial influence on the commercial cinema of the time, which was forming on the sidelines of the contemporaneous blockbuster realm.
On the one hand, the series was meant to act as an objection against common narratives of the decline of cinema. However, its most important objective was to honor the rich store of popular cinema that had just as much room for sceptical outsider stories in the wake of New Hollywood as it had for the anarchic humor of the ZAZ trio (Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker).
After an extensive European tour, "The Real Eighties" now continues its journey in book form, translating the panoramic demands of the retrospective into lexical format. The volume, published by FilmmuseumSynemaPublikationen in May this year, is not concerned with creating a universally applicable theory of post-classical Hollywood cinema, but developing a multi-perspectival approach to a decade whose beauty and contradictory nature all too often disappear in a cloud of prejudice or fall victim to nostalgic distortion.
On the occasion of the book's publication, the Film Museum makes another foray into the unplumbed depths of the American Eighties. Once again, the focus is not on iconic classics of the decade but often overlooked gems from the regular cinema repertoire.
The book launch will take place on September 28 in the presence of the editors (and curators of the 2013 retrospective), Lukas Foerster and Nikolaus Perneczky.
"The Real Eighties": In May and June 2013, the Film Museum dedicated a retrospective under this title to a still ostracized era of American film history. Crossing all genres, the series gathered varieties of an impure realism that exerted a crucial influence on the commercial cinema of the time, which was forming on the sidelines of the contemporaneous blockbuster realm.
On the one hand, the series was meant to act as an objection against common narratives of the decline of cinema. However, its most important objective was to honor the rich store of popular cinema that had just as much room for sceptical outsider stories in the wake of New Hollywood as it had for the anarchic humor of the ZAZ trio (Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker).
After an extensive European tour, "The Real Eighties" now continues its journey in book form, translating the panoramic demands of the retrospective into lexical format. The volume, published by FilmmuseumSynemaPublikationen in May this year, is not concerned with creating a universally applicable theory of post-classical Hollywood cinema, but developing a multi-perspectival approach to a decade whose beauty and contradictory nature all too often disappear in a cloud of prejudice or fall victim to nostalgic distortion.
On the occasion of the book's publication, the Film Museum makes another foray into the unplumbed depths of the American Eighties. Once again, the focus is not on iconic classics of the decade but often overlooked gems from the regular cinema repertoire.
The book launch will take place on September 28 in the presence of the editors (and curators of the 2013 retrospective), Lukas Foerster and Nikolaus Perneczky.
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