Fantastic Fantasy Films From The 80s
Last week was about 5 Cult, Underrated, Must Watch, Fantasy Films, where we looked at 5 films from across 5 decades – 50s: 'The Seventh Seal, 60s: 'Jason and the Argonauts', 70s: 'Wizards', 80s: 'The Dark Crystal', and 90s: 'Being John Malkovich'.
Fantasy films, with elements of the exotic and the surreal, and with extraordinary themes like magic, legends, myths, folklore and the supernatural, had always been extremely popular with a subset. But even though they have increasingly become popular with the mainstream in the last two decades, it was not as if audiences were suddenly cast under their spell.
The foundation had started being laid a while back, and by the 70s there were budding directors who
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It is a martial arts comedy set in a mystical underworld below Chinatown and which is ruled by a very old and powerful wizard. The film bombed but as with most of his other films, is today extremely popular on home video.
A British comedy, co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam, 'The Adventures of Baron Munchausen' (1988) is based upon an 18th-century German Lord, Baron Munchausen's supposed travels, fantastical experiences and adventures against the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. Though the movie was critically acclaimed, and was nominated for four BAFTAs (Costume Design, Make Up Artist and Production Design), as well as four Oscars (Costume Design, Art Direction, Makeup and Visual Effects), it fared poorly at the box office. Today however it is considered one of the most visually beautiful films ever imagined.
A light adaptation of “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, "Something from Alice" (Něco z Alenky, Czech, 1988) is a live action plus stop motion animation fantasy written and directed by Jan Švankmajer. Though the original tale has been adapted many a times, Švankmajer thought that the absurd dream of Carroll had slowly been sweetened into a surreal fairytale, and so he created an interpretation that is dark and uncompromising, and which has been called the definitive version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Time Out). The film has a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with 18 critic reviews (as of 29th Jan