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The History of American Cinema: 1990

4/1 -

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces that a record total of 37 countries have submitted entries for the Foreign Language Film Academy Award this year. [ADD]

6/1 -

Martin Scorsese’s gangster film Goodfellas is awarded Best Picture and Best Director Awards by the National Critics Association in New York. [ADD]

18/1 -

Franco Zeffirelli returns to the works of the bard with his adaptation of Hamlet, in which Mel Gibson plays the title role.   Glenn Close and Paul Scofield also star. [ADD]

4/1 -

British director Stephen Frears’ adaptation of Jim Thompson’s gritty crime novel The Grifters is released.   John Cusack stars as a young con artist caught between his femme fatale girlfriend (Annette Bening) and his mother, an experienced hustler (Angelica Huston). [ADD]

28/1 - 

Poison, Todd Haynes' three-part drama inspired by the work of Jean Genet, wins the grand jury prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. [ADD]

30/1 -

According to Premiere magazine, three couples paid the sum of $14,000 to have breakfast at Tiffany's with Audrey Hepburn as part of a campaign by the actress to raise funds for UNICEF. [ADD]

8/2 -

British director Mick Jackson’s L. A. Story, written by and starring Steve Martin, is released. [ADD]

14/2 -

Jonathan Demme’s chilling thriller The Silence of the Lambs, adapted from the novel by Thomas Harris, is released.   Anthony Hopkins plays Dr. Hannibal ‘the Cannibal’ Lecter, psychiatrist turned serial killer who plays psychological cat-and-mouse with Jodie Foster’s FBI agent, Clarice Starling.   Lecter was previously played by Brian Cox in Michael Mann’s Manhunter. [ADD]

28/2 -

Christian Brando is convicted of the murder of Dag Drollet, his half-sister Cheyenne’s boyfriend, and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for voluntary manslaughter. [ADD]

7/3 -

Controversial film critic Pauline Kael retires after 23 years with the New Yorker. [ADD]

25/3 -

Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves, which he produced, directed and starred in, wins the Best Picture Award at the 63rd Annual Academy Awards.   The Best Actor Award goes to Jeremy Irons for his performance in Reversal of Fortune. [ADD]

Mar -

Julia Phillips, a former top producer whose career crashed when she became hooked on drugs, publishes her autobiographical expose You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again. [ADD]

20/4 -

Alan Ladd Jr becomes president-director-general of MGM-Pathe Communications after Giancarlo Parretti resigns as president of MGM-Pathe. [ADD]

24/5 -

Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise, a female buddy movie, is released.   Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis star in the title roles as friends on the run from men and the law who find the experience both liberating and exhilarating.   Brad Pitt has an early role. [ADD]

14/6 -

Kevin Reynolds’ Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is released.   Kevin Costner stars in the title role with his US accent intact.   Morgan Freeman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Christian Slater also star, while Alan Rickman plays the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham. [ADD]

3/7 -

Terminator 2: Judgment Day, James Cameron’s sequel to 1984’s The Terminator is released with Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising his role as the terminator, but this time as a good guy.  With an estimated budget of $102 million it is the most expensive film production to date. [ADD]

12/7 -

John Singleton’s directorial debut, Boyz N the Hood, a stark portrayal of life and gang warfare in the projects of  South Central L.A. is released.   Larry (Laurence) Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr, Ice Cube and Morris Chestnut star. [ADD]

28/7 -

Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) is arrested in Sarasota for indecent behaviour in an adult cinema. [ADD]

12/8 -

Dustin Hoffman, currently filming Steven Spielberg’s Hook, signs a three-year contract with Columbia TriStar. [ADD]

12/8 -

Jennie Livingston's Paris Is Burning, a documentary about New York's Harlem drag balls comes under strong criticism from the Atlanta-based Christian Film and Television Commission. [ADD]

6/10 -

Elizabeth Taylor marries her seventh husband, builder Larry Fortenski whom she met while undergoing treatment for alcoholism.   The wedding takes place at Michael Jackson's ranch, Neverland. [ADD]

29/10 -

Japanese firm Toshiba-Itoh acquire 12.5% of capital of Time-Warner Entertainment for $100 million. [ADD]

13/11 -

Martin Scorsese's remake of J. Lee Thompson’s 1962 film, Cape Fear is released.   Robert De Niro stars as Max Cady, an ex-con out for vengeance on the lawyer who put him away (Nick Nolte) and his family (Jessica Lange, and remarkable newcomer Juliette Lewis).   Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck, who appeared in the lead roles in Thompson’s original, have cameo roles in Scorsese’s version. [ADD]

13/11 -

Disney’s animated version of Mme. Leprince de Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast is released. [ADD]

24/11 -

Academy Award winning special effects designer Anton Furst commits suicide shortly after splitting from his girlfriend, actress Beverly D'Angelo.   Furst won his award for his art direction on Batman (1989). [ADD]

20/12 -

Oliver Stone's JFK, a three-hour dissection of the events surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy highlighted by the subsequent investigations of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner), is released.   A high-profile cast includes Sissy Spacek, Gary Oldman, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci, Edward Asner, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, John Candy, Vincent D'Onofrio, Sally Kirkland, Lolita Davidovich, Donald Sutherland, and John Larroquette. [ADD]

25/12 -

Barbra Streisand’s adaptation of Pat Conroy's best-selling novel, The Prince of Tides, is released.   Streisand and Nick Nolte star. [ADD]

27/12 -

Producer Jon Avnet directs Fried Green Tomatoes (at the Whistle Stop Cafe), which is released today.   Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker and Cicely Tyson star. [ADD]

Other Key American Films of 1991

The Addams Family (Barry Sonnenfeld) [ADD]

Bugsy (Barry Levinson) [ADD]

City of Hope (John Sayles) [ADD]

The Doors (Oliver Stone) [ADD]

Homicide (David Mamet) [ADD]

Hook (Steven Spielberg) [ADD]

In Bed with Madonna (Alex Keshishian) [ADD]

Jungle Fever (Spike Lee) [ADD]

Little Man Tate (Jodie Foster) [ADD]

My Own Private Idaho (Gus van Sant) [ADD]

New Jack City (Mario Van Peebles) [ADD]

Sleeping with the Enemy (Joseph Ruben) [ADD]