Golden Eighties

+ Q&A with cellist and composer Sonia Wieder-Atherton

Song, dance and romance charge this joyous hair-salon set musical, but Akerman’s take on 80s consumerism is anything but frothy.

  • Director

    Chantal Akerman

  • With

    Delphine Seyrig, John Berry, Nicolas Tronc, Fanny Cottençon

  • Belgium-France-Switzerland 1986. 96min

  • Digital 4K (restoration)

  • Certificate

    12A

  • English subtitles

You can almost smell the hairspray in Akerman’s exuberant but subversive musical about the many romantic entanglements of salon workers in a shopping mall basement. Its natty 1980s style, witty song lyrics, rapturous dance sequences, not to mention a gloriously bitchy male-suited quartet, deliver all the joys of the genre. At the same time, Akerman critiques the consumerist ‘paradise’ around them, questioning whether love, if it’s tied to conformity, really is the answer.

Restored in 4K by Royal Film Archive of Belgium (CINEMATEK), Fondation Chantal Akerman and L’Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna.

+ J’ai faim, j’ai froid

I’m Hungry, I’m Cold

France 1984. Director Chantal Akerman. 12min. Digital (restoration)

Two girls wander the streets of Paris looking for love and a meal in this episode from Paris vu par... vingt ans après (Paris Seen By… 20 Years After).

Restored by Royal Film Archive of Belgium (CINEMATEK), Fondation Chantal Akerman and Cinémathèque française.

Total running time 108min.

Joint ticket available with Le Rendez-vous de Chantal Akerman on Monday 3 February 18:20 NFT1 Tickets £17, concessions £14 (Members pay £2 less). Book in person at the box office or by phone on 020 7928 3232.

See other screenings of Golden Eighties.

Also available on BFI Player