settima

@settima@zirk.us

The Queen of Spades (Thorold Dickinson, 1949)

Feb

22

Play More Cards Day

The Queen of Spades (1949)

The young Countess (Pauline Tennant) surrounded by nobility, playing cards in domino. DP: Otto Heller.

Someone's playing cards.

“Why, you might end up by gaining a fortune… or losing your precious soul.”

– bookseller

I fidanzati [The Fiancés / The Engagement] (Ermanno Olmi, 1963)

Feb

21

Brazilian Carnival

I fidanzati (1963)

Revellers at the Sicilian carnival parade with confetti all around them. Centred Giovanni (Carlo Cabrini), eyes shut. DP: Lamberto Caimi.

A carnival-like parade.

“Do you still go dancing at night? I've stopped going. There are no dance halls here. But that's not the only reason. I was used to dancing with you. I'm not comfortable with other girls.”

– Giovanni in a letter to Liliana

Le voleur de crimes [Crime Thief] (Nadine Trintignant, 1969)

Feb

20

National Handcuff Day

Le voleur de crimes (1969)

Jean Girod (Jean-Louis Trintignant) handcuffed in the back of a cell van. DP: Pierre Willemin.

Fast Break (Mike McLeod + Don Zavin, 1978)

Feb

19

NBA All Star Game

Fast Break (1978)

Bill Walton hosting a basketball camp for Indigenous kids. Children line up to get pictures and T-shirts signed. DP: Mike McLeod.

Le genou de Claire [Six Contes Moraux V: Le genou de Claire / Claire's Knee] (Éric Rohmer, 1970)

Feb

17

National Tennis Pro Day

Le genou de Claire (1970)

Touching Claire's knee. DP: Néstor Almendros.

“Every woman has her most vulnerable point. For some, it's the nape of the neck, the waist, the hands. For Claire, in that position, in that light, it was her knee.”

– Jerome

Hroch [The Hippo] (Karel Steklý, 1973)

Feb

15

World Hippo Day

Hroch (1973)

A poster for Hroch, showing a beautifully dressed woman in an animal enclosure feeding a hippopotamus what appears to be a consecrated wafer. A TV camera in the back records it all. DP: František Uldrich.

In this political satire criticising Czechoslovakia's “normalisation” period, a journalist learns about bank employee Bedrich Hroch, who – while attempting to determine how much #gold the local #zoo's hippopotamus' needs for a tooth replacement – is swallowed by the animal.

 

With the man happily residing inside the creature, his journalist friend hatches a plan to use the “talking hippo” for political means .

Sur un air de Charleston [Charleston Parade] (Jean Renoir, 1927)

Feb

14

Extraterrestrial Culture Day

Sur un air de Charleston (1927)

Parisian savage Catherine Hessling and African explorer Johnny Hudgins exploring each other's alien ways. DP: Jean Bachelet.

Legendary African-American #vaudeville performer Johnny Hudgins – in historically correct Blackface – plays an African explorer who descends onto 2028 Paris to learn about the primitive ways of the white natives. Soon, he discovers the Charleston.

“I have finally discovered my ancestors' traditional dance.”

– Johnny Hudgins

A fantastic Afrofuturist short, made a decade before Sun Ra's trip to Saturn.

Kiss (Andy Warhol, 1963)

Feb

13

Kiss Day

Kiss (1963)

An interracial couple kissing. © The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh.

“People should fall in love with their eyes closed.”

– Andy Warhol

Primate (Frederick Wiseman, 1974)

Feb

12

Georgia Day

Primate (1974)

Man and ape sharing a white concrete cell. The man playfully dangles from a chain attached to the wall while the ape looks on. DP: William Brayne.

Filmed at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

“Now, we'll just let nature take its course.”

– researcher

Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)

Feb

11

Global Movie Day

Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (1962)

Nana (Anna Karina) crying in a dark movie theatre while watching Carl Theodor Dreyer's La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928). DP: Raoul Coutard.

A fascinating overlap with The Savage Eye (1959), a film #Godard must have been familiar with in 1962.

“Maybe I'll get into the movies.”

– Nana