New York City 1985 Commercial Releases

(Reconstructed from New York Times archives; I didn't start keeping track week-to-week until 1998. List is probably not definitive—if it got neither an ad nor a review, I won't have caught it—but everything major should be here. Films seen by yours truly are in blue.)

Week of 27 Dec

Je tu il elle (Chantal Akerman) [1974]
Revolution (Hugh Hudson)

Week of 20 Dec

Brazil (Terry Gilliam)
The Color Purple (Steven Spielberg)
Enemy Mine (Wolfgang Petersen)
The Horse of Pride (Claude Chabrol) [1980]
Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack)
Ran (Akira Kurosawa)
Sword of Heaven (Byron Meyers)
The Trip to Bountiful (Peter Masterson)

Week of 13 Dec

A Chorus Line (Richard Attenborough)
Clue (Jonathan Lynn)
The Guardians of Hell (Bruno Mattei) [1981]*
The Jewel of the Nile (Lewis Teague)
Only Emptiness Remains (Rodolfo Kuhn)
Sanctuary (James Becket)

* Not 100% sure this is the correct film. There's no print ad, just the title Guardians of Hell in a theater listing; IMDb has no such film, but I did find references to it elsewhere as an alternate title for this Mattei film, which is usually called The Other Hell in English.

Week of 6 Dec

Death Bed (Sheldon Larry)
Fool for Love (Robert Altman)
[1956]
The Gig (Frank D. Gilroy)
Rocky IV (Sylvester Stallone)
White Nights (Taylor Hackford)

Week of 15 Nov

Breaking Silence (Theresa Tollini)
Buddies (Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.)
Choosing Children (Debra Chasnoff & Kim Klausner)
Les Plouffe (Gilles Carle) [1981]
Louie Bluie (Terry Zwigoff)
Once Bitten (Howard Storm)
Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer (Bernard Deyrieè & Kimio Yabuki)
Rasputin (Elem Klimov) [1981] Sugarbaby (Percy Adlon)

Week of 8 Nov

Bring On the Night (Michael Apted)
The Official Story (Luis Puenzo)
Subway (Luc Besson)
Target (Arthur Penn)
That Was Then...This Is Now (Christopher Cain)
Transylvania 6-5000 (Rudy DeLuca)

Week of 1 Nov

Death Wish 3 (Michael Winner)
El diputado (Eloy de la Iglesia) [1978]
Eleni (Peter Yates)
Flanagan (Scott Goldstein)
Living at Risk (Alfred Guzzetti & Susan Meiselas & Richard P. Rogers)
Macaroni (Ettore Scola)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (Jack Sholder)
Out of Order (Carl Schenkel)
Sotto...Sotto (Lina Wertmüller)
To Live and Die in L.A. (William Friedkin)

Week of 25 Oct

Krush Groove (Michael Schultz)
Onimasa (Hideo Gosha) [1982]
School Spirit (Alan Holleb)
South Bronx Heroes (William Szarka)
Shoah (Claude Lanzmann)*
Twice in a Lifetime (Bud Yorkin)


* Technically, Shoah's engagement at Cinema Studio this week doesn't meet my eligibility criteria for a theatrical release, as the theater showed half of it for four days and then the other half for three days. But by the following week, they were showing the entire nine hours every day, so I figure why quibble.

Week of 18 Oct

Acqua e sapone (Carlo Verdone)
Cease Fire (David Nutter)
Mixed Blood (Paul Morrissey)
Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon)
A Sense of Freedom (John Mackenzie) [1979]
28 Up (Michael Apted)

Week of 11 Oct

Better Off Dead (Savage Steve Holland)
Hail Mary (Jean-Luc Godard)
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins... (Guy Hamilton)
Stephen King's Silver Bullet (Daniel Attias)
When Father Was Away on Business (Emir Kusturica)
A Year of the Quiet Sun (Krzysztof Zanussi)

Week of 4 Oct

Came a Hot Friday (Ian Mune)
Colonel Redl (István Szabó)
Commando (Mark L. Lester)
The Doctor and the Devils (Freddie Francis)
Dreamchild (Gavin Millar)
Himatsuri (Mitsuo Yanagimachi)
Jagged Edge (Richard Marquand)
Savage Island (Nicholas Beardsley)
Sweet Dreams (Karel Reisz)

Week of 27 Sep

The Death of Mario Ricci (Claude Goretta)
Invasion U.S.A. (Joseph Zito)
Marie (Roger Donaldson)
Maxie (Paul Aaron)
The Stuff (Larry Cohen)
Tokyo Trial (Masaki Kobayashi)

Week of 20 Sep

Creator (Ivan Passer)
Creature (William Malone)
Joshua Then and Now (Ted Kotcheff)
A Matter of Struggle (Joan Harvey)
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader)
Morons From Outer Space (Mike Hodges)
Plenty (Fred Schepisi)
Ruthless Romance (Eldar Ryazanov)
Sheer Madness (Margarethe von Trotta)
Streetwalkin' (Joan Freeman)

Week of 13 Sep

After Hours (Martin Scorsese)
Agnes of God (Norman Jewison)
Bastille (Rudolf van den Berg)
James Joyce's Women (Michael Pearce)
L'Addition (Denis Amar)
Razorback (Russell Mulcahy)
Sudden Death (Sig Shore)
War and Love: A True Story (Moshé Mizrahi)
When Nature Calls (Charles Kaufman)

Week of 6 Sep

Eisenstaedt, Callahan, Siskind & Sander (various)
Kerouac (John Antonelli)

Week of 30 Aug

American Ninja (Sam Firstenberg)
Bullshot (Dick Clement)
Compromising Positions (Frank Perry)
Creepers (Dario Argento)
Eureka (Nicolas Roeg)
Godzilla 1985 (Koji Hashimoto & R.J. Kizer)
My Other Husband (Georges Lautner)

Week of 23 Aug

Crossover Dreams (Leon Ichaso)
Détective (Jean-Luc Godard)
The Flaxfield (Jan Gruyaert)
The Protector (James Glickenhaus)
Teen Wolf (Rod Daniel)
Warning Sign (Hal Barwood)

Week of 16 Aug

American Flyers (John Badham)
Bar Esperanza (Hugo Carvana)
The Bride (Franc Roddam)
Key Exchange (Barnett Kellman)
The Return of the Living Dead (Dan O'Bannon)
Volunteers (Nicholas Meyer)
Year of the Dragon (Michael Cimino)

Week of 9 Aug

Almonds and Raisins (Russ Karel) Dance With a Stranger (Mike Newell)
Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (Wayne Wang)
14's Good, 18's Better (Gillian Armstrong) [1981]
Greetings From Wollongong (Mary Callaghan) [1982]
Insignificance (Nicolas Roeg)
My Science Project (Jonathan R. Betuel)
Pee-wee's Big Adventure (Tim Burton)
Real Genius (Martha Coolidge)
Summer Rental (Carl Reiner)

Week of 2 Aug

Animals Are Beautiful People (Jamie Uys) [1974]
Fright Night (Tom Holland)
Péril (Michel Deville)
Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird (Ken Kwapis)
Weird Science (John Hughes)

Week of 26 Jul

After the Fall of New York (Martin Dolman)
The Black Cauldron (Ted Berman & Richard Rich)
The Heavenly Kid (Cary Medoway)
Kiss of the Spider Woman (Hector Babenco)
La Chèvre (Francis Veber) [1981]
National Lampoon's European Vacation (Amy Heckerling)
A Thousand Little Kisses (Mira Recanati) [1981]
Tosca's Kiss (Daniel Schmid)

Week of 19 Jul

The Legend of Billie Jean (Matthew Robbins)
The Man With One Red Shoe (Stan Dragoti)
Wetherby (David Hare)

Week of 12 Jul

The Coca-Cola Kid (Dusan Makavejev)
Explorers (Joe Dante)
Letters From Marusia (Miguel Littin) [1975]
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (George Miller)
Silverado (Lawrence Kasdan)

Week of 5 Jul

Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis)
Day of the Dead (George A. Romero)
The Emerald Forest (John Boorman)
The Lift (Dick Maas)
Red Sonja (Richard Fleischer)

Week of 28 Jun

Before Stonewall (Greta Schiller)
A Flash of Green (Victor Nunez)
Henry IV (Marco Bellocchio)
A Man Like Eva (Radu Gabrea)
Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood)
St. Elmo's Fire (Joel Schumacher)
Songwriter (Alan Rudolph)
Vengeance Is Mine (Shohei Imamura) [1979]

Week of 21 Jun

Cocoon (Ron Howard)
The Home and the World (Satyajit Ray)
Lifeforce (Tobe Hooper)
Return to Oz (Walter Murch)

Week of 14 Jun

D.A.R.Y.L. (Simon Wincer)
Prizzi's Honor (John Huston)
Secret Admirer (David Greenwalt)
White Elephant (Werner Grusch)

Week of 7 Jun

The Goonies (Richard Donner)
Perfect (James Bridges)
Sam's Son (Michael Landon)
Secret Honor (Robert Altman)
Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold (Matt Cimber)

Week of 31 May

Fletch (Michael Ritchie)
Future Cop (Charles Band)
Gaza Ghetto (Per-Åke Holmquist)
The Holy Innocents (Mario Camus)
Silent Madness (Simon Nuchtern)
Sylvia (Michael Firth)

Week of 24 May

Brewster's Millions (Walter Hill)
Certain Fury (Stephen Gyllenhaal)
Dangerous Moves (Richard Dembo)
Freckled Rice (Stephen C. Ning)
Kaddish (Steve Brand)
Moron Movies (various)
Rambo/First Blood Part II (George P. Cosmatos)
The Shooting Party (Alan Bridges)
A View to a Kill (John Glen)

Week of 17 May

Goodbye New York (Amos Kollek)
Grace Quigley (Anthony Harvey)
Gymkata (Robert Clouse)
MacArthur's Children (Masahiro Shinoda)
Marvin & Tige (Eric Weston)
Return to Waterloo (Ray Davies)
The Secret of the Sword (Ed Friedman & Lou Kachivas & Marsh Lamore & Bill Reed & Gwen Wetzler)
Silver City (Sophia Turkiewicz)
Smorgasbord (Jerry Lewis)

Week of 10 May

Almost You (Adam Brooks)
The Dungeonmaster (various))
Eccentric Shorts (various)
Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Alan Metter)
Les Années 80 (Chantal Akerman)
Rappin' (Joel Silberg)
Rembetiko (Costas Ferris)
Rustlers' Rhapsody (Hugh Wilson)
Secret Places (Zelda Barron)
Twenty Years Later (Eduardo Coutinho)

Week of 3 May

Code of Silence (Andy Davis)
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey (George Stevens, Jr.)
Gotcha! (Jeff Kanew)
Little Treasure (Alan Sharp)
Movers and Shakers (William Asher)
Pumping Iron II: The Women (George Butler)

Week of 26 Apr

Def-Con 4 (Paul Donovan) Just One of the Guys (Lisa Gottlieb)
The New Kids (Sean S. Cunningham)
1918 (Ken Harrison)
Stick (Burt Reynolds)
Tokyo-Ga (Wim Wenders)
Tomboy (Herb Freed)
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (Christopher Petit) [1982]
When the Raven Flies (Hrafn Gunnlaugsson)
Where's Picone? (Nanni Loy)

Week of 19 Apr

The Company of Wolves (Neil Jordan)
The Illusionist (Jos Stelling)
Lily in Love (Károly Makk)
Moving Violations (Neal Israel)
My First Wife (Paul Cox)
Petit Con (Gérard Lauzier)
What Have I Done to Deserve This? (Pedro Almodóvar)

Week of 12 Apr

Cat's Eye (Lewis Teague)
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (Mirra Bank & Ellen Hovde & Muffie Meyer)
Fraternity Vacation (James Frawley)
Ladyhawke (Richard Donner)
Nine Deaths of the Ninja (Emmett Alston)
A Test of Love (Gil Brealey)
Wildrose (John Hanson)

Week of 5 Apr

Alamo Bay (Louis Malle)
All My Good Countrymen (Vojtech Jasny) [1969]
Ballad of the Little Soldier (Werner Herzog & Denis Reichle)
The Dark Glow of the Mountains (Werner Herzog)
Streetwise (Martin Bell)

Week of 29 Mar

The Care Bears Movie (Arna Selznick)
Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman)
Imperative (Krzysztof Zanussi) [1982]>br> King David (Bruce Beresford)
Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (Jerry Paris)
The Slugger's Wife (Hal Ashby)

Week of 22 Mar

Baby · Secret of the Lost Legend (B.W.L. Norton)
Friday the 13th Part V—A New Beginning (Danny Steinmann)
The Last Dragon (Michael Schultz)
Mississippi Blues (Bertrand Tavernier & Robert Parrish)
Porky's Revenge (James Komack)
The Wild Duck (Henri Safran)

Week of 15 Mar

Camila (María Luisa Bemberg)
Heartbreakers (Bobby Roth)
Hellhole (Pierre De Moro)
Hotel New York (Jackie Raynal)
Sylvester (Tim Hunter)

Week of 8 Mar

The Hit (Stephen Frears)
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (Lou Adler) [1982]
Lovelines (Rod Amateau)
Mask (Peter Bogdanovich)
My New Partner (Claude Zidi)
Night Patrol (Jackie Kong)
Variety (Bette Gordon)

Week of 1 Mar

Allonsanfan (Paolo & Vittorio Taviani) [1974]
The Clinic (David Stevens) [1982]
Ghoulies (Luca Bercovici)
Lust in the Dust (Paul Bartel)
Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (Lance Hool)
A Private Function (Malcolm Mowbray)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen)
A Sunday in the Country (Bertrand Tavernier)
The Sure Thing (Rob Reiner)

Week of 22 Feb

Between Wars (Michael Thornhill) [1974]
The Eagle's Showdown (Liu Chia Lang)*
Fury of the Iron Monkey (Pao Shiue Li)*
Into the Night (John Landis)
Ladies on the Rocks (Christian Braad Thomsen)
A Marriage (Sandy Tung)


* These two Hong Kong martial-arts movies, which are probably from the '70s, played as a double feature. The director's names listed are those on the American poster; neither one is in the IMDb. Nor are most of the actors' names as transliterated on these posters. Consequently, I'm unable to determine the precise identity of the two films. Assistance welcome.

Week of 15 Feb

The Bay Boy (Daniel Petrie)
Beyond the Walls (Uri Barbash)
The Breakfast Club (John Hughes)
Fast Forward (Sidney Poitier)
Fear City (Abel Ferrara)
Freedom (Scott Hicks) [1982]
Lost in America (Albert Brooks)
The Makioka Sisters (Kon Ichikawa)
The Mean Season (Phillip Borsos)
The Return of the Soldier (Alan Bridges) [1982]
Tchao Pantin (Claude Berri)
Turk 182 (Bob Clark)
Vision Quest (Harold Becker)

Week of 8 Feb

Favorites of the Moon (Otar Iosseliani)
Heaven Help Us (Michael Dinner)
Mischief (Mel Damski)
Seventeen (Joel DeMott & Jeff Kreines)
Shivers (Wojciech Marczewski) [1981]
Squizzy Taylor (Kevin James Dobson) [1982]
Where the Green Ants Dream (Werner Herzog)
Witness (Peter Weir)

Week of 1 Feb

Heavenly Bodies (Lawrence Dane)
House on the Edge of the Park (Ruggero Deodato) [1980]
Man Under Suspicion (Norbert Kückelmann)
Moving Out (Michael Pattinson)
Torchlight (Tom Wright)
Tuff Turf (Fritz Kiersch)

Week of 25 Jan

Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (Bruce Beresford) [1972]
Chambre 666 (Wim Wenders) [1982]
Falasha (Simcha Jacobovici)
The Falcon and the Snowman (John Schlesinger)
Fandango (Kevin Reynolds)
Superstition (James Roberson)

Week of 18 Jan

Blood Simple (Joel Coen)
Dear Summer Sister (Nagisa Oshima) [1972]
Maria's Lovers (Andrei Konchalovsky)
Nineteen Eighty-Four (Michael Radford)
The Perils of Gwendoline (Just Jaeckin)
That's Dancing! (Jack Haley, Jr.)
Transes (Ahmed el-Maanouni) [1981]
Walking the Edge (Norbert Meisel)

Week of 11 Jan

Avenging Angel (Robert Vincent O'Neil)
Emmanuelle 4 (Francis Giacobetti)
The Inheritors (Walter Bannert)
The Jewish Gauchos (Juan José Jusid) [1975]
Kaddish (Steve Brand)
L'Homme blessé (Patrice Chéreau)
Night and Fog in Japan (Nagisa Oshima) [1960]
The Plague Dogs (Martin Rosen) [1982]

Week of 4 Jan

The Mutilator (Buddy Cooper)
The Sun's Burial (Nagisa Oshima) [1960]