L'amour Braque (Andrzej Zulawski, 1985)

6/10
Apparently this Zulawski film from '85 is tough to follow even with subtitles. I speak French so I thought I'd tough it out, but much of the Parisian French and the metaphor/nonsense heavy dialogue went right by me. So maybe not fair to rate it but I still enjoyed it, it was entertaining and wild...particularly Sophie Marceau as 'the girl' and Tchéky Karyo, who practically convulses with energy. The movie misses him when he's not on screen, for sure.
I have to wonder if Christopher Nolan has ever seen it - the opening bank heist (with Disney masks for that added touch of surrealism) reminded me remarkably of the one that opens The Dark Knight.

Rising Tones Cross (Ebba Jahn, 1985)

6/10
An enjoyable enough documentary/concert film from 1985 focusing on mostly the New York avant-garde jazz scene. Charles Gayle and Peter Kowald are the central figures but Kowald's interviews are too brief and Gayle is never reeled in - he's sometimes interesting, mostly rambling. I also felt a bit cheated that the movie was more focused on talking and long handheld cam shots of urban New York (which are admittedly well-done and visually appealing) than on performance footage but there's some worthwhile stuff from Peter Brotzmann, John Zorn, Wayne Horvitz, Don Cherry, Charles Tyler and others. If some of those names are of interest to you you'd probably enjoy the movie but I wouldn't fret if you can't track it down either.

Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985)

9/10
Loved it...brilliant, surreal, and also with a great ending that defies typical Hollywood conventions. Reminded me a bit of A Clockwork Orange in the quasi-futuristic style it has. Highly recommended.

Day of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1985)

7/10
Not really what I was expecting after having seen Night, Dawn and Land. Day is more about humans' reactions to zombies living amongst us, so it was interesting from that POV. The message is pretty clear (humans are a greater danger to humans than any outside force) and for the most part it's well-acted...I found the scenes where the Professor was "teaching" the zombie Bub to be a little corny, and the ending felt like a bit of a cop-out to me. Also it didn't bug me much but I can see where some people would be disappointed with the lack of true zombie-on-human killing action (until the end, of course). As of now my Romero zombie hierarchy goes Dawn > Night > Day >>>> Land (haven't seen Diary yet).