“One thing I find appalling is when people who were [Vichy President] Pétain supporters come up to me and tell me what they did for the Resistance. Sometimes it's unreal. “Oh, Mr. Gaspard, if only you knew what we did, what I did for the Resistance.” Go ahead, pal, tell me all about it. I try to stay calm. I'm a salesman, and I want to sell my product. The company doesn't pay me to do politics and pick fights, so sometimes I find myself obliged to listen to a song and dance of some guy who shows me a drawer and gets his wife to confirm that there was indeed a revolver in that drawer during the war, a revolver which he was supposedly ready to use on the Germans. Only he never actually used it. History doesn't lie.” Le chagrin et la pitié [The Sorrow and the Pity] (Marcel Ophüls, 1969)
Jun
5
Sorry I Was on a Boat Day
Two smiling farmers. The interviewer asks “What did you think about?” One of them replies “Surviving. That's it.” Screenshot via. DPs: André Gazut & Jürgen Thieme.
Someone makes an excuse on Sorry I Was on a Boat Day (USA)
– Émile Coulaudon aka Colonel Gaspard, former head of the French Resistance in Auvergne
Marcel Ophüls documents the people of Clermont-Ferrand as the microcosm of Vichy France, part of Europe's only country that happily collaborated with its occupier, Nazi Germany. What were their justifications, their excuses, their motivations? Was it survival, habit, greed? Comfort, conformity, obedience, fear?
And what is yours?
Point de chute [Falling Point] (Robert Hossein, 1970)
Jun
4
Global Running Day
Catherine (Pascale Rivault) running. DP: Daniel Diot.
A character who is running on Global Running Day
Sombre (Philippe Grandrieux, 1998)
Jun
3
World Bicycle Day
Cycling fans along the route. DPs: Philippe Grandrieux & Sabine Lancelin.
A film scene with a bike for World Bicycle Day
Jean (Marc Barbé) follows the route of the Tour de France. He sees women, picks them up, takes them out. Claire, infatuated with him, is taken in by his darkness. At night, the cyclists continue the course.
跑道終點 [Pao dao zhong dian / The End of the Track] (Tun-Fei Mou, 1970)
Jun
2
Dennis Haysbert – 1954
Hsiao-Tung and Yung-shen at the track. DP: Chung-Hsin Chen.
A [favourite]* fictional athlete for Dennis Haysbert's birthday (1954).
Close friends Hsiao-Tung and Yung-shen spend their time together, wandering about, eating dumplings, and training for athletics. Until one of them pushes too hard, leaving the other alone in his grief.
* this month's Bales' Challenge is marred with “favourites”, something I don't believe in. Instead, I stick to great cinema and will squeeze in a few LGBT-themed films for Pride Month.
La maudite galette [Dirty Money] (Denys Arcand, 1972)
Jun
1
Oscar the Grouch Day
Rolland (René Caron) and Berthe (Luce Guilbeault). She's had it with these money troubles. DP: Alain Dostie.
A character who's a grouch for Oscar the Grouch Day (USA)
ビリィ★ザ★キッドの新しい夜明け [Birī za kiddo no atarashii yoake / The New Morning of Billy the Kid] (Naoto Yamakawa, 1986)
May
31
National Utah Day
Director Naoto Yamakawa directing Billy the Kid (Hiroshi Mikami) on site in Utah (via) DP: Kenji Takama.
An actor, director or character from Utah – National Utah Day (USA)
Billy the Kid steps out of a huge poster of Monument Valley right into a Tokyo bar and becomes its bar keeper. Together with a samurai, a WW2 G.I, Marx-Engels (not a typo), the Japanese weather service number 177 and others, he keeps the tavern safe from various thugs roaming the streets.
“Had I the time to keep a diary, I’d use that time to better effect; sleeping on the veranda” 吾輩は猫である [Wagahai wa neko de aru / I Am a Cat] (Kon Ichikawa, 1975)
May
30
Hug Your Cat Day
The cat and his master, teacher Sneaze. DP: Kōzō Okazaki.
A pet for National Hug Your Cat Day (USA) *
– The cat
A school teacher's house cat observes and comments his household's going-ons as a microcosm of Japan's paradoxical Meiji period. The second adaptation of Sōseki Natsume's 1900s satirical novel.
* The event falls on June 4
“Ich bin nicht der offizielle Kirchenjesus, ich bin nicht euer Superstar.”Jesus Christus Erlöser [Jesus Christ Saviour] (Peter Geyer, 1971/2008)
May
29
Ascension Day
Kinski speaking to (presumably) journalists as part of promoting his Jesus tour (via)
The birth, life, death or teachings of Jesus on Ascension Day
– Klaus Kinski
It is November 20. The Jesus Christus Erlöser tour brings Klaus Kinski to Berlin's Deutschlandhalle. His monologue, spoken from Jesus the revolutionary's perspective, brings out the hecklers. It's 1971, the post-68 generation is not satisfied with words. It wants to debate, dissect, and devour their Saviour.
“Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person”فلسطين في العين [Filastin fi al-ayn / Palestine in the Eye] (Mustafa Abu Ali, 1977)
May
28
Amnesty International Day
Palestinian freedom fighters.
Amnesty International Day: someone who fights for human rights
– The Right to Live, the third of the Human Rights
Filmmaker #HaniJawharieh died while working for the #PLO Film Unit, an organisation fighting for the rights of the Palestinian people. His own death in 1976, which he caught on camera, is edited into this documentary.
Jonathan (Hans W. Geissendörfer, 1970)
May
26
World Dracula Day
Siring the mortals. DP: Robby Müller.
A vampire for World Dracula Day
This deeply political, unpleasant interpretation of Stoker's Dracula can not not be seen against the backdrop of political movements like the #RAF and West-Germany's youth revolting against the failed #Denazification that the country underwent under supervision of the Allied occupying forces.
Note the usage of colour and grouping of people; Klaus Mann's Mephisto (1981) borrowed quite a few visuals from Jonathan.