Sunday
Jul172011
Podcast: Nick & Nathaniel Circa 1986
Sunday, July 17, 2011 at 1:00PM 
Before you ask again, please note that I have submitted the podcast to iTunes. Hopefully the submission process will take. The podcast can be heard at the end of this post.
Today, we have a special retrospective podcast for you today. Since Nick has been revisiting Cannes 1986 in all its sidebar and competitive glory and Nathaniel has been gagging on Aliens and Peggy Sue Got Married lately for their 25th anniversarieswe decided to join forces.
Topics include & spin off from:
- Robert Altman's Fool For Love (1985)
- Aliens (1986) vs. Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) vs. Platoon (1986)
- Sigourney Weaver's "Ripley" or Kathleen Turner's "Peggy Sue"?
- Molly Ringwald, Farrah Fawcett, Marlee Matlin, Kim Basinger, Beatrice Dalle and dozens more 80s actresses discussed
- Three French Films: The Green Ray, Betty Blue and Therese
- Spike Lee, Woody Allen, James Cameron and David Lynch
- Our favorite films of 1986 -- we share a #1 favorite which has to share the #1 spot in both our cases.
We'd love to hear your opinions on these topics as well as your memories (constructed or actual) of the 1986 Film Year.
tagged Beatrice Dalle, Cannes, Francophile, Kathleen Turner, Kim Basinger, Oscars (80s), Podcast, Sigourney Weaver in Podcast
Beatrice Dalle, Cannes, Francophile, Kathleen Turner, Kim Basinger, Oscars (80s), Podcast, Sigourney Weaver in Podcast
Reader Comments (19)
I can't hear it but love to see your bringing back those (painful) Oscar face shots of the goddess! I still have them on VHS too!
The year of my birth! Excellent :)
really? To me it seems a bit loud (i had to turn it up so you could hear Nick). anyone else having a problem?
My first visit to the Cinearama Dome was in 1986 for an evening showing of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Audio is fine! I just need new headphones (sorry)...
What a great podcast! I also started paying attention to the Oscar race back in 1985 and 1986 was the first year I saw the show LIVE, so you can imagine how much fun I've just had remembering the whole thing.
Do you remember the broadcast? The show was so good with Bernadette Peters singing and Lauren Bacall presenting the costumes awards with models.
PS I'll get you back to my corner ;)
You only mention it in passing.... but have you SEEN Julie Andrews in 'Duet for One"?? (About a musician who gets multiple sclerosis; it was kind of a first version of Hilary & Jackie). First of all weirdest/most eclectic cast ever: Julie, Max von Sydow, Alan Bates, and young unknowns Rupert Everett and Liam Neeson (with whom Julie has a love scene!!). In the film's weirdest moment, Julie is hit on by her female housekeeper. The film is not quite bad enough to be camp and not good enough to be good...
Would love more 'historical' podcasts -- 1993 maybe?? :)
Brian -- i have seen Duet For One!!! i barely remember it though which is why i didn't chat it up.
I have not seen Duet for One, but since Konchalovsky has got to be one of the most all-over-the-map directors out there, count me intrigued.
And if you want to hear more about 1993, you should rest assured that you'll get your wish in the next couple months—from me, anyway!
Great podcast. Interesting that you guys find yourselves "trying to love" Blue Velvet, as I often find myself doing just that with many of Lynch's other works (especially Mulholland Dr..
Loved this podcast! I really love to hear you and Nick discussing non-Oscar race things! Would love more of these bits o' nostalgia. Nathaniel, to answer the question you posed at the end I always start with the Oscar lists as a base point, but then I try to see and include as many other sites/lists that I can to get a well-rounded look.
For example I know have Therese and The Green Ray! Thanks Nick!
One of my mom's favorite movies for ever and a day has been Peggy Sue Got Married and I finally watched it for the first time about a month ago. Wow. The film itself has some problems but I know understand the Kathleen Turner so much more. So much of my references for her have always been Friends and other TV work along with things like Prizzi's Honor. If I have to pick, I'd still pick Sigourney Weaver though. She is able to create such a role in spite of all the noise, sounds, and effects. So Great.
Great podcast. Looking at the list of the movies for that year, you covered all the interesting ones. strange that Cannes had those older American movies - I didn't know that.
The few others that I've seen from that year that I liked were Mona Lisa (Bob Hoskins & Michael Caine,) Down By Law (Jim Jarmusch), Round Midnight (Bertrand Tavernier), The Fringe Dwellers (Australian), the Manon des Sources/Jean Florette movies, and F/X (Thriller about a movie special effects guy - Bryan Brown)).
The year that I always go back to when I think about my burgeoning actressexuality is 1988. My parents would get the Saturday paper and I would grab arts and entertainment and look at the movie ads and ask them who different actresses were. The names that stood out most were Michelle, Sigourney and Melanie - they all had a few movies in play. I recall asking my dad which lady from the Working Girl ad was Sigourney, since her name was also attached to the Ghostbusters ad, but her photo wasn't. I think I was kind of obsessed with her name, too.
I didn't start watching the Oscars until 1991 or 1992, but I've always been in love with the '88 Supporting Actress lineup too. What a group of women!
Great podcast! I think less of 1986 than I should, but Velvet, Hannah and Room make it a pretty serious year.
Aaah, and the Kathleen Turner art comes out again! I never get tired of lol'ing.
LOVE the bit about Marlee Matlin and the nerd pride when she won over the other four.
YAY @ the Ellen Greene shutout. That was such a once-in-a-lifetime/perfect marriage of role and performer kind of thing, I would've totally nominated her as well.
I was born in the very late 80s and to answer the question of what makes me wanna go back and seek out film from before. A couple things -- 1) film history in general is always a fascinating thing to just dive into but 2) when it's an incredibly specific thing like an obscure Cannes darling, probably the excitement of whomever might be talking about it. Passion, really.
Great podcast as always. Can never get enough of these. And for the sake of sharing, my fave from '86 would probably be A Room With A View. A film I found too 'light' at first but has grown on me considerably. I've still yet to see The Mission, or rather, The Mission's amazing cinematography that I always hear about.
everyone -- thanks. these are just the type of comments we were hoping for. i really should follow through with these things more and like rent THERESE (if i can find it) and write about it and such.
Mike -- great story. I didn't dare ask my dad anything about entertainment for a couple of reasons 1) he wouldn't knwo the answers 2) he didn't like it when i talked about it. knew instantly (apparently) that i was too excited about it and would never shut up from then on. haha
Drew -- now i'm curious about how old your mom is. When i was watching PEGGY SUE this last time i suddenly realized (i must have been too tunnelvisioned in '86) that it was made for the generation who went to high school in the late 50s or 60s.
Loving it. As I've said to Nick on Twitter, I often struggle to find movies from the '80s that I really connect with as a lot of the more celebrated films from the era really underwhelm me, so I've loved following Nick's project and listening to this podcast. The Green Ray, here I come.
The Green Ray sounded great to me, so I watched it today and.. I think I indeed love it. Glad it was mentioned in the podcast.
Blue Velvet is one of the last Lynch films I haven't seen yet. For some reason I doubt I'll love it as much as Mulholland Dr., Inland Empire, Eraserhead, The Elephant Man or The Straight Story (roughly in that order), though. The only Lynch movie I haven't liked that much so far is Wild at Heart, and even that one definitely has its moments. Especially the Diane Ladd With Lipstick Smeared All Over Her Face scene.
y'all should give BETTY BLUE a try too. It's very out there but famous and interesting.
and Jean Hughes Anglade is so sexy!
Great conversation! I do enjoy the "nostalgia" and re-evaluating past choices. It's interesting to learn that the Globes lineup was very different than the Oscars (and I wish that was still the case.)
The mention of Ellen Greene reminds me of the write-up you did on her in LSoH, Nat - probably one of my favorite of your essays, btw.
I saw She's Gotta Have It a couple of years ago and my partner and I found it a hard sit (though we managed) due to the sexism (and homophobia) towards the two female characters.
In terms of going backwards to "films before my time" (which I include films I would have been too young to see in the day, such as "Mean Streets") it never comes down to "what won/was nominated for Oscars"; it's usually "everybody calls this a great movie so I should see it" or mere interest (as with silent films.)