'80s Roulette: ARIA

We shift the calendar just a bit and bathe in the weirdo decadence of this anthology film

I have every single movie released in the United States in the 1980s on a hard drive and once a week, I’m going to hit shuffle and review whatever film comes up first.

Welcome to ‘80s Roulette!

Quick heads-up for you guys. I’m moving the ‘80s Roulette day from Fridays to Sundays permanently because I don’t want to have to publish this the same day as I’m publishing new episodes of The Hip Pocket podcast, which is definitely pinned to Fridays for me.

I didn’t publish one last week, but we’re back on schedule this week, and you’re going to get another email in just a few days as we wrap up June of 1985.

After that, I’ve got a few more boners to share, and then we’re heading into October 1981. Then July 1985, November 1981, and so on and so on. I wrote here recently about how happy I was to have finally finished my acquisition of ‘80s titles. Since then, I’ve added at least 200 more films to my collection, and it’s clear that I will probably keep kicking over rocks and coming up with a few more films and then a few more and even still a few more after that until I am dead. It is astounding.

So, anyway, all that is to say, it’s Sunday, so once again, we hit shuffle on the entire 3000+ film library and see what comes up. Today, we’ve got a great little curio…

SEPTEMBER 18, 1987

Aria
Theresa Russell, Stephanie Lane, Roy Hyatt, Sevilla Delofski, Ruth Halliday, Arthur Cox, Dennis Holmes, Paul Brightwell, Frank Baker, Christopher Hunter, Nicola Swain, Jackson Kyle, Marianne McLoughlin, Marion Peterson, Valérie Allain, Jacques Neuville, Luke Corre, Christiam Cuachon, Philippe Pellant, Patrice Linguet, Lionel Sorin, Jean Coffinet, Alexandre Des Granges, Gérard Vivès, Frederick Brosse, Pacal Bermont, Jean Luc Corre, Bernard Gaudray, Dominique Mano, Patrice Tridian, Buck Henry, Beverly D’Angelo, Gary Kasper, Anita Morris, John Hostetter, Albie Selznick, Stan Mazin, Dominic Salinero, Jeff Calhoun, Elizabeth Hurley, Peter Birch, Bridget Fonda, James Mathers, Angie Tetamontie, Esther Buchanan, Lorraine Cote, Renee Korn, Bertha Weiss, Dyanne Thorne, Howard Maurer, Derick Coleman, Quentin Brown, Linzi Drew, Andreas Wisniewski, Q, Bella Enahoro, Bunty Mathias, Angela Savy, Amy Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Spencer Leigh, John Hurt, Sophie Ward, Paul Collard, George Ellis Jones, Danny Fitzgerald, Johnny Doyle, David Ross, Lucy Oliver, Gordon Winter, Derek Farmer, Michelle Read, Maximillian Roeg
cinematography by Gabriel Beristain, Caroline Champetier, Frederick Elmes, Harvey Harrison, Christopher Hughes, Pierre Mignot, Mike Southon, Dante Spinotti, Oliver Stapleton, Gale Tattersall
screenplay by Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, Don Boyd, Bill Bryden, Derek Jarman, Franc Roddam, Nicolas Roeg, Ken Russell, Charles Sturridge, Julien Temple
produced by Don Boyd
directed by Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, Bill Bryden, Jean-Luc Godard, Derek Jarman, Franc Roddam, Nicolas Roeg, Ken Russell, Charles Sturridge, Julien Temple
Rated R
1 hr 30 mins

Ten filmmakers. Ten short films. Ten different opera selections.

When you look back at the critical reaction to Aria when it was released, it’s almost hilarious how many mainstream critics struggled to find the words to say “ten music videos about opera,” but that’s really all that Aria is. It’s a goof. A lark. An anthology of indulgence, and absolutely unashamed of it.