settima

@settima@zirk.us

L'immortelle (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1963)

Jun

23

Sat

L'immortelle (1963)

A man's hand holds a crumbled up diary page for Saturday June 23. There are no calendar entries. DP: Maurice Barry.

“You're a foreigner and you're lost.”

Il vangelo secondo Matteo [The Gospel According to Matthew] (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964)

Jun

22

National Kissing Day

Il vangelo secondo Matteo (1964)

Judas (Otello Sestili) kisses Jesus (Enrique Irazoqui) in intimate closeup. DP: Tonino Delli Colli.

A [favourite] movie kiss for National Kissing Day (USA*), not to be confused with International Kissing Day aka World Kiss Day which falls on July 6.

“I don’t have the inhibitions that a practicing Catholic would in that I’m not paralysed by the sacredness of the text, nor do I have the inhibitions of a lapsed Catholic who would view approaching the story of Jesus as compromising his Marxist beliefs, of sinking back into conformity.”

– PPP, via

An neorealist, straightforward adaptation of the Gospel of Matthew, populated by non-actors (“Jesus” is a 19-year Catalan trade unionist picked for his resemblance to El Greco's Christ), intellectuals, and anachronistic characters based on biblical art through the ages.

 

According to said Gospel, apostle Judas kissed prophet Jesus to signal to the police who of the 13 men present was the one to arrest.

 

Interestingly, the word Matthew chose to describe the kiss is καταφιλέω, the same word used by philosopher Plutarch to describe the kiss between Alexander the Great and his eunuch Bagoas

 

* no one wants to kiss you anymore, America

Nosferato no Brasil [Nosferato in Brazil] (Ivan Cardoso, 1970)

Jun

21

International Surfing Day

Nosferato no Brasil (1970)

Nosferatu enjoys the breeze and fresh coconut water on the beaches of Rio. I could've posted a still of the surfers here but that would have been boring.

Someone surfing or skateboarding for either International Surfing Day or Go Skateboarding Day

 

José Mojica Marins' protégé Ivan Cardoso dabbled in short form horror movies. This one features a young hippie vampire who, after being defeated in beachy black-and-white Prague, hikes a ride to Super 8 Brazil. Can't help but notice a bit of (Charlie) Mansonsploitation going on, but that may be just me.

Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes [Aguirre, the Wrath of God] (Werner Herzog, 1972)

Jun

20

World Productivity Day

Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972)

Don Lope de Aguirre (Kinski), his eyes focussed. DP: Thomas Mauch.

A character who is always on the GO [sic] for World Productivity Day

“I am the great traitor. There must be no other. Anyone who even thinks about deserting this mission will be cut up into 198 pieces. Those pieces will be stamped on until what is left can be used only to paint walls. Whoever takes one grain of corn or one drop of water… more than his ration, will be locked up for 155 years. If I, Aguirre, want the birds to drop dead from the trees… then the birds will drop dead from the trees. I am the wrath of God. The earth I pass will see me and tremble. But whoever follows me and the river, will win untold riches. But whoever deserts…””

– Don Lope de Aguirre

Conquistador Don Lope de Aguirre drives his men deep into the Peruvian jungle, to El Dorado

藪の中の黒猫 [Yabu no naka no kuroneko / A Black Cat in a Bamboo Grove] (Kaneto Shindō, 1968)

Jun

19

Garfield the Cat Day

藪の中の黒猫 (1968)

A young woman in white, strangely resembling a cat, seemingly lapping a drink from a bowl. DP: Kiyomi Kuroda.

A scene with a cat for Garfield the Cat Day (USA)

 

A mother and daughter who are raped and murdered by a rogue samurai, return as cat-shaped onryō, vengeful spirits.

Ascenseur pour l'échafaud [Elevator to the Gallows] (Louis Malle, 1958)

Jun

18

International Panic Day

Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958)

M Tavernier (Maurice Ronet) seated in an elevator, calmly smoking. Around him several items speak of less calm moments. DP: Henri Decaë.

A character in panic mode on International Panic Day

“Have you seen Mr Tavernier tonight?”

Julien Tavernier has a plan about how to run off with his boss' wife. There's just this one snag. No time to panic, c'est cool c'est cool.

6-18-67 (George Lucas, 1967)

Jun

18

1967

6-18-67 (1967)

The opening credits with the date 6-18-67 superimposed over it. DPs: Charles Braverman, George Lucas, David MacDougall & David Wyler.

“We had never been around such opulence, zillions of dollars being spent every five minutes on this huge, unwieldy thing. It was mind-boggling to us because we had been making films for three hundred dollars, and seeing this incredible waste – that was the worst of Hollywood.”

– pre-blockbuster George Lucas

Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder, 1951)

Jun

17

Ace in the Hole (1951)

A man holds up the first newspaper reporting on Leo Minosa's faith, dated June 17. The headline blares ANCIENT CURSE ENTOMBS MAN. DP: Charles Lang.

“It's a good story today. Tomorrow, they'll wrap a fish in it.”

– Charles Tatum

Blue Remembered Hills (Brian Gibson, 1979)

Jun

16

Youth Day

Blue Remembered Hills (1979)

The children playing in the Forest of Dean. From left to right: Raymond (John Bird), Angela (Helen Mirren), Willie (Colin Welland), and Audrey (Janine Duvitski). DP: Nat Crosby.

A [favourite] child character for Youth Day (ZA)

“Into my heart an air that kills From yon far country blows: What are those blue remembered hills, What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went And cannot come again.”

– narrator, after A.E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad

A group of children plays. It's sunny and lovely in the Forest of Dean, a day to remember for as long as one lives. The war, the second one, is one of the adults' plays and far away from the children's much simpler life. It seeps through, though. You may run around, imagining being a fighter bomber, putt-putt-putting while you do so. And your uncle, your uncle!, is a parachutist! And maybe your dad is missing and your mum is doing something that involves bed sheets, and the other kids are mean about that. That too. That too is the cruelty of blue remembered hills.

La maudite galette [Dirty Money] (Denys Arcand, 1972)

Jun

16

La maudite galette (1972)

Berthe (Luce Guilbeault) points a rifle offscreen. Next to her a perpetual wall calendar from Desjardins with the date. It's June 16. DP: Alain Dostie.