settima

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Plein soleil [Purple Noon] (René Clément, 1960)

Aug

20

1959

Plein soleil (1960)

A contract for Marge, a sailboat, dated August 20, 1959. DP: Henri Decaë.

“Marge, my love, my angel.”

The Plague of the Zombies (John Gilling, 1966)

Aug

20

The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

A rather disgusting looking zombie carrying a young brunette in a flower dress. DP: Arthur Grant.

“I, I find all kinds of witchcraft slightly nauseating and this I find absolutely disgusting.”

– Sir James Forbes

Le Horla [The Horla] (Jean-Daniel Pollet, 1966)

Aug

19

violet

Le Horla (1966)

The narrator enters a violet-blue room via a lavender-purple corridor (via). DP: Jean-Jacques Rochut.

Violet: a building or structure *

“Is it the form of the clouds, or the tints of the sky, or the colours of the surrounding objects which are so changeable, which have troubled my thoughts as they passed before my eyes? Who can tell?”

– Guy de Maupassant, Le Horla, 1887 (via)

Objects and rooms have distinct colours ranging from the deepest blues and violets to a pale lavender, a muted silver and shocks of yellow. The usage of colour in Le Horla is striking throughout and reminds me of how Van Gogh's paintings became increasingly colourful as his madness enveloped him.

 

Nineteen Eighty-Four (Rudolph Cartier, 1954)

Aug

18

indigo

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954)

Winston Smith (Peter Cushing). We only see his frail looking back with the identifier KZ-6090, and his name SMITH W.

Indigo, in food or fashion*

“He moved over to the window: a smallish, frail figure, the meagreness of his body merely emphasized by the blue overalls which were the uniform of the party. His hair was very fair, his face naturally sanguine, his skin roughened by coarse soap and blunt razor blades and the cold of the winter that had just ended. “

– George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) (via)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)

Aug

18

1973

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Cast and crew in the back of their motorhome. From LtR: Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Allen Danziger, Teri McMinn, Tobe Hooper, Dottie Pearl, and William Vail (via). DP: Daniel Pearl.

“Travel in the country, long-range plans, and upsetting persons around you, could make this a disturbing and unpredictable day. The events in the world are not doing much either to cheer one up.”

your August 18 horoscope

Procès de Jeanne d'Arc [The Trial of Joan of Arc] (Robert Bresson, 1962)

Aug

17

forgiveness

Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (1962)

Jeanne (Florence Delay) bound to the stake. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.

Holi: someone is forgiven (forgiveness being an important aspect of Holi)*

“Pray for me. I forgive the evil done me.”

– Jeanne d'Arc

Jeanne trusts her delusions to forgive the people who brought her to justice.

 

Le camion [The Lorry] (Marguerite Duras, 1977)

Aug

16

indigo

Le camion (1977)

His Saviem, possibly an SM170. DP: Bruno Nuytten.

Indigo: a building or structure*

Him: It’s a film? Her: It would have been a film.

A truck, both the narrative structure and his (Depardieu's character) material representation. She – the director – and he – the lead actor – do a read-though while discussing her script. A communist truck driver picks up a female hitchhiker. They discuss the landscape, the cosmos, pointlessness, communism of course. All the while, the indigo truck plods on.

 

Al filo del hacha [Edge of the Axe] (José Ramón Larraz, 1988)

Aug

16

1978

spoiler warning: click to toggle image Al filo del hacha (1988)
spoiler warning: click to read

A computer screen with the admission date of Lillian Nebbs (Christina Marie Lane) in the psychiatric ward on August 16, 1978. Diagnosis: Psycho Amnesia [sic]. There are small pop magazine stickers on the display's bezel. DP: Tote Trenas.

Top of the Heap (Christopher St. John, 1972)

Aug

16

10 A.M.

Top of the Heap (1972)

An invitation via telegram dated August 10 for astronaut George Lattimer to Waltersville Alabama on August 16 at 10 A.M.. DP: Richard A. Kelley.

Trois couleurs: Bleu [Three Colors: Blue] (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993)

Aug

15

cerulean

Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993)

Julie (Juliette Binoche) in a blue wallpapered room, observes blue beads suspended in front of a window with a cerulean sky and ocean behind it. Throughout the story, her clothing changes from white, to black, to the darkest charcoal blue, to Prussian blue. DP: Slawomir Idziak.

Cerulean, or blue: in food or fashion*

“I'm just fine. I have everything here. I have the TV. You can see the whole world”

– the mother

How could I not pick at least one instalment of Kieślowski's Trois couleurs trilogy. Here's blue, the liberté of the tricolor. Blue occurs as the sky to fall through, the room without life, and the cloth that binds.