settima

@settima@zirk.us

غزل [Ghazal] (Masud Kimiai, 1975)

May

2

Brothers and Sisters Day

Ghazal (1975)

The two brothers in their forest. DP: Nemat Haghighi.

Sibling love or strife on Brothers and Sisters Day (USA)

 

Brothers Hojjat and Zeini live in peace in the forest. When strangers cut down the trees, a city woman joins the couple. Despite the comfort she brings with structure, food, and a warm body, the men come to realise that she's a disturbance of their peace.

Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut [A Man Escaped] (Robert Bresson, 1956)

May

2

Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (1956)

A hand with dirty nails writing on a scrap of paper with a pencil stump. It starts “Mai 2 Ma chère maman, Je suis à la pris[…]“. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.

“With nothing to do, no news and in terrible solitude, we were 100 unfortunates awaiting our fate. I had no illusions about my own. If I could only escape, run away…”

– Fontaine

Todo modo [One Way or Another] (Elio Petri, 1976)

May

1

National Day of Prayer

Todo modo (1976)

M. (Gian Maria Volontè) speaks to the gathered elite while a gypsum Christ multiplies bread and fishes. DP: Luigi Kuveiller.

A spiritual theme for the National Day of Prayer (USA)

“Have you ever tried to dress as a priest? Try it, at least once. It's a bit like being a woman. In summer the breeze enters under the genitals. You can go without briefs. Priests are half men and half women.”

– Don Gaetano

Inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, Italy's political leaders, industrialists, bankers, and business leaders gather for a retreat as an atonement for their past crimes of corruption and unethical practices, and to reinforce their power.

حاجی واشنگتن [Hajji Washington / Haji Washington] (Ali Hatami, 1983)

Apr

30

George Washington – 1789

Hajji Washington (1983)

The ambassador and guest in the embassy. The guest, a white cowboy peeling peanuts, leisurely rests on a Persian rug with a hookah by his side. The ambassador recites from a book, with his chaii within reach (via). DP: Mehrdad Fakhimi.

The White House, or set in Washington, DC, in commemoration of the first inauguration of George Washington in 1789.

 

Hajji Hossein-Gholi Noori was Iran's first ambassador to the United States in 1889. Stuck in DC, homesick, and without any US-based Iranians to serve, he slowly unravels

Normalsatz [Ordinary Sentence] (Heinz Emigholz, 1982)

Apr

30

1975

Normalsatz (1982)

A woman, seated on a bed, speaks to a second woman who is pressed against the side of a bookcase. Still via. DP: Heinz Emigholz.

Part of the Trilogie der Siebziger Jahre (“Trilogy of the Seventies”).

鬼の詩 [Oni no uta / Song of the Devil] (Tetsutaro Murano, 1975)

Apr

29

Jerry Seinfeld – 1954

鬼の詩 (1975)

Keima Kyo entertaining his audience by hanging numerous clay pipes from his face. DP: Yasuhiro Yoshioka.

A comedian, or set in Brooklyn or NYC, for Jerry Seinfeld's birthday (1954).

 

Rakugo (落語, litt. “story with a fall”), is a style of Japanese comedy performed while seated. Armed with a few props, the rakugoka recites a comical monologue using pitch and gestures.

 

A dramatic retelling of the life of rakugoka Katsura Beikyo II. Keima Kyo, a talented rakugoka, is offered apprenticeship from an older successful performer, but refuses. Young and arrogant, he decides to take over the other man's act instead.

The Devil Rides Out (Terence Fisher, 1968)

Apr

29

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

The menacing Mocata (Charles Gray). DP: Arthur Grant.

– Do you realise what today's date is, Rex?

– April the, er, 29th, why?

重慶森林 [Chung Hing sam lam / Chungking Express] (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994)

Apr

28

8:59

重慶森林 (1994)

A flipclock. It's April 28, a Friday, and 8:59 pm. DPs: Christopher Doyle & Wai Keung Lau.

“We broke up on April's fools day, so I took it as a joke. I'm willing to humor her for a month.”

– He Zhiwu, Cop 223

重慶森林 [Chung Hing sam lam / Chungking Express] (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994)

Apr

28

freebie: April

重慶森林 (1994)

Eating pineapple, expiration date May 1. DPs: Christopher Doyle & Wai Keung Lau.

A film set in April.

“We split up on April Fool's Day. So I decided to let the joke run for a month. Every day I buy a can of pineapple with a sell-by date of May 1. May loves pineapple, and May 1 is my birthday. If May hasn't changed her mind by the time I've bought thirty cans, then our love will also expire.”

– He Zhiwu, Cop 223

Das Netz – Unabomber / LSD / Internet [The Net] (Lutz Dammbeck, 2003)

Apr

27

personal computer mouse – 1981

Das Netz (2003)

A mouse in action. Note the stress ball. DPs: James Carman, István Imre & Thomas Plenert.

A computer mouse: the first personal computer mouse debuted on this day in 1981.

“To those who think that all this sounds like science fiction, we point out that yesterday's science fiction is today's fact. The Industrial Revolution has radically altered man's environment and way of life, and it is only to be expected that as technology is increasingly applied to the human body and mind, man himself will be altered as radically as his environment and way of life have been.”

– Theodore J. Kaczynski

A Gedankenspiel.

 

Similar to the way moveable print has accelerated the spread of ideas, the personal computer mouse accelerated the speed of which individualist's ideas can spread. However, like the printing press and unlike the spoken word, the mouse can only point and enhance pre-existing notions, thus neutering any prospect of revolutionary change on an individual level.

 

In a grotesque snub to nature, the pointing finger has transcended the mouse, detaching our minds from our bodies in one infinite scroll.