view
Krakatit (Otakar Vávra, 1948)
Apr
26
International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day
A man on a darkened, concrete runway, running towards a man-made structure, a mirage. DP: Václav Hanuš.
With the experience of yet another world war, and two devastating applications of science biggest terror, Karel Čapek's 1922 novel Krakatit [“Krakatoa”] anticipated and moulded the decades to come.
And R.U.R. is now, just around the corner.
view
Una farfalla con le ali insanguinate [The Bloodstained Butterfly] (Duccio Tessari, 1971)
Apr
26
Fri
Sarah Marchi (Wendy D'Olive) with Giorgio (Helmut Berger) in the background, just out of focus behind her. DP: Carlo Carlini.
“Because, in the way I see it, the killer could only be one of two types. Either a person who was seized by a sudden impulse and in all probability has no police record, or else, a sex maniac.”
view
Bom Povo Português [The Good People of Portugal] (Rui Simões, 1980)
Apr
25
1974
A young soldier triumphantly holds up his riffle. DPs: Manuel Barros, Mário Cabrita Gil, José Luís Carvalhosa, Gérard Collet, Acácio de Almeida, Russell Parker & José Reynès.
view
Распад [Raspad / Collapse / Decay] (Mikhail Belikov, 1990)
Apr
25
1986
A young boy looks over his shoulder into the camera. He's seated at an extended table, set with food for many. A man in the back is on the phone; a woman walks around cradling a newborn child. In the corner of the room a baby cot. DP: Vasiliy Trushkovskiy.
view
Prigionieri della guerra [Prisoners of War] (Yervant Gianikian + Angela Ricci Lucchi, 1995)
Apr
24
Armenian genocide
Horse-pulled carts arrive at a cross (via). DPs: Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi.
“Parfois ils disent que nos images sont esthétiques, mais nous disons que les images esthétiques sont des images hautement étiques. Pour nous éthique et esthétique marchent ensemble. Re-filmer signifie re-signifier.”
– Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi in conversation with Daniele Dottorini, 2007 (via)
Re-purposed propaganda reels show citizens – displaced, dehumanised – turned into prisoners of war, and finally into corpses.
view
Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
Apr
24
Devlin (Cary Grant) and Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman). DP: Ted Tetzlaff.
And January 9.
“Dry your eyes, baby; it's out of character.”
– Devlin
view
The Angelic Conversation (Derek Jarman, 1985)
Apr
23
William Shakespeare — 1564
Two men in tender embrace. DPs: Derek Jarman & James Mackay.
A Shakespearean play or quote for the Bard's (assumed) birthday (1564).
Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
Thy edge should blunter be than appetite,
Which but to-day by feeding is allay’d,
To-morrow sharpen’d in his former might:
So, love, be thou; although to-day thou fill
Thy hungry eyes even till they wink with fullness,
To-morrow see again, and do not kill
The spirit of love with a perpetual dulness.
Let this sad interim like the ocean be
Which parts the shore, where two contracted new
Come daily to the banks, that, when they see
Return of love, more blest may be the view;
Or call it winter, which, being full of care,
Makes summer’s welcome thrice more wish’d, more rare.
Accompanied by Coil's brooding lust and Judi Dench's solemn recital of 14 of Shakespeare's sonnets, men cross dreamlike landscapes and dark desires.
view
Hotel of the Stars (Jon Bang Carlsen, 1981)
Apr
21
Heartbreak Hotel
The setting for a dramatic reenactment, watched over by the King. DP: Alexander Gruszynski.
A film set in a hotel, or involving Elvis Presley, on the date Heartbreak Hotel topped the charts in 1956.
“I love to see myself in Technicolor.”
view
Memoirs of a Survivor (David Gladwell, 1981)
Apr
20
Easter Sunday
A Victorian family, all dressed in white, marvel at an enormous egg in an ornate room. DP: Walter Lassally.
Eggs for Easter Sunday.
“The walls of the room seemed to hold stories untold, whispering in the quiet.”
– Doris Lessing, The Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)
In a dystopian Britain, D (Julie Christie) survives while taking care of a sullen teenage girl, and visiting a mirage behind the walls.
view
Két félidő a pokolban [Two Half-Times in Hell] (Zoltán Fábri, 1961)
Apr
20
A sour looking player with a flood of Nazis coming towards him. DP: Ferenc Szécsényi.