“A surprise popular and critical success at this year's Cannes Film Festival, The Golden Eighties is a wryly humorous, provocative look at Belgian experimental filmmaker Chantal Akerman attempting to put together a ‘mainstream' production--a musical. The first part of the film includes videotapes of auditions for actors, dancers and singers, which have been transferred to film; near the end of this part, rehearsals are shown as Akerman and others ‘walk through' various scenes. Finally, the film switches to lush color as we see the more-or-less finished product: elaborate production numbers for a musical which seems to be taking place in a shopping center. Never a literal record of a shoot, The Golden Eighties instead captures the flavor of the production process. Moments of action are often repeated several times, first as part of the audition, then during rehearsals, and finally as part of a film; we watch these moments change and take on meaning as they begin to fit in with a larger context.” Richard Pena, The Film Center of the Chicago Art Institute