The exuberant enchantments of the singing, dancing musical meet the feminist, formalist sensibility of cinematic visionary Chantal Akerman in this uniquely captivating vision of love and survival in the age of late capitalism. Amid the consumerist wonderland of a shopping mall, a cadre of store employees bounce in and out of one another’s arms in a cycle of breakups, makeups, misunderstandings, and reunions, their romantic roundelay punctuated by imaginatively stylized production numbers. Working with frequent star Delphine Seyrig and a remarkable team of writers—who between them penned everything from Jules and Jim to Desperately Seeking Susan—Akerman deftly balances the shiny pop pleasures of the genre with piercing variations on her signature themes, including a startlingly moving reflection on Jewish resilience and the legacy of the Holocaust.
Golden Eighties was restored in 4K in 2024 by the Cinémathèque royale de Belgique in collaboration with Chantal Akerman Foundation at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, from the 35mm original negative and the original sound mix. Funding provided by Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Leora Barish, Henry Bean, Ostrovsky Family Fund (OFF), SWA. Restoration supervised by Luc Benhamou.
