Golden Eighties

MOVIE #2,447 • SCORE 9.5/10 • 03.27.25
SERIES: ALBERT & AKERMAN

We return to the world of Chantal Akerman narrative feature films since… AUGUST OF LAST YEAR?! (Her excellent almost-experimental film A Whole Night). It’s been a lot of self-referential shorts and documentaries but she’s still managed to hold her own in the head-to-head against Pyun, down only one entering this week, which — SPOILER — she’s gonna notch the W easily (despite an above-average Albert effort).

This was an extremely delightful movie. Endlessly charming, wonderfully staged, thematically resonant on multiple levels… what more can you ask for? Like with any musical, a large chunk of the credit has to be given to the songwriter, in this case: Marc Herouet, a seemingly little known musician with a very scant Discogs entry. The tunes are poppy and vibrant — they work completely…


Akerman assisted with the lyrics and in turn got an assist on the screenplay as there are a whopping five other co-authors listed (typically, a classic red flag). To the movie’s credit, it doesn’t feel disjointed at all. The story revolves around the romantic lives of two generations of Belgians working in a Brusseler shopping mall, primarily a clothing shop and a hair salon. Of course, Akerman’s favorite theme — the eternally flawed and unbalanced existence that is (heteronormative) domestic life — is on full display, but there are other ideas swirling about.

This seems like her most cutting critique of consumerism and capitalism to date…


…which is evident right away from both the title and the setting. There are plenty of quips and comments on the opulent and indulgent 1980s. Whenever the story seems to be fully descending into romantic, mindless fluff, a character will tie it back to commerce and economics, and comically so. It’s very effective.

By all accounts, this was probably the most difficult feature production Akerman ever tackled. She made a documentary solely in service of attracting finance for the project three years prior. This makes the fact that it’s so smart and fun even more of a triumph. To think the person who crafted Jeanne Dielman would make a film in the style of a Technicolor MGM musical? It’s such a bold pivot and — up to this point, at least — THE hidden gem in her filmography. Because this is Akerman working in a highly specific genre, she naturally subverts the form. Often during the song and dance routines, we’ll see a character break the fourth wall and look directly into the camera. And, in one instance, another character seems to comment on this unusual act…


It’s the bemused character’s response — Jean-François Balmer's excellent deadpan — that functions as the payoff here: a subtle nod to the artifice that is the artifice of breaking the wall to begin with (as if to say, really? that hack move?).

There are plenty of totally beloved if not culturally and/or thematically transcendent musicals. I’m by no means an expert (or even much of a fan), but it seems like the genre that typically asks the least of its audience. If the story is memorable, the songs are good and the people are hot, then you needn’t pine for much else. Golden Eighties has all three elements in spades, and yet its sole purpose for existing seems to be in service of finding that ‘else’. That this search is so effortless is what makes the film fantastic.

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Golden Eighties (also known as Window Shopping) is a 1986 musical comedy film co-written and directed by Chantal Akerman. The film explores themes such as consumerism, feminism, and Jewish identity through the lens of a shopping mall. It was released on May 15, 1986.