Golden Eighties(CA Retro)

Structure’s the key to Chantal Akerman’s work – and what better genre to highlight her forte than the musical, where tight rhythms and meticulous choreography converge? Channeling the technicoloured joys of Vincente Minelli’s MGM spectacles and Jacques Demy’s bittersweet sing-alongs, Golden Eighties is set in a shopping mall where multiple relationships of all shapes and sizes intertwine. A middle-aged Jewish boutique owner (Delphine Seyrig) is torn between the present (her stable family life) and the past (the reappearance of a US soldier he was in love with after the second world war). Her son (Nicolas Tronc), meanwhile, struggles with the rejection of the manager of the hair salon next door, and finds a rebound in the shape of a starry-eyed coiffeur. Having spent years securing funds for the project, Golden Eighties is proof of Akerman’s ability to combine formalism and fun to fantastic effect – and that her wicked sense of humour has been so undervalued throughout her career.