Memories are amazing things

When I was seven years old, my cousin Michelle told me about a movie in which a man has his long-missing wife declared legally dead so that he can marry again.

What amazes me is that I still remember her telling me this. It's less amazing that sarah_ovenall just saw it, since, well, she watches at least a movie a day.... Thanks, Sarah, for giving me a name for this memory (and thanks to georg in the comments for giving me another name for it).

Best Films of the 1980s

Some time ago, for a reason I never found out, Matt Yglesias asked what were the ten best films of the 1980s. I spent a lot of time watching movies that decade, and it had a huge impression on me. I couldn't keep it to ten and instead posted a dozen:

• Blade Runner


• Brazil


• Dangerous Liasons


• Day of the Dead


• Do the Right Thing


• Full Metal Jacket


• Gallipoli


• Manhunter


• The Road Warrior


• Sherman's March


• This Is Spinal Tap


• Videodrome

There are many other superb films from that decade that might have made the list if I'd happened to think of them. Among them are:

• Amadeus


• Brother from Another Planet


• Dead Ringers


• Hollywood Shuffle


• Man Facing Southwest


• Ran


• Repo Man

One other that I'm going to have to add tentatively:

• A Long Day's Journey into Night (dir. Jonathan Miller)

This is tentative because it's a TV-film of a stage production which I saw live in its initial run at Duke University before it went to Broadway, but I've never actually seen the film. However, it's just come out on DVD, so I hope to see it soon.

That brings the list to twenty, which is a nice note on which to stop.