settima

@settima@zirk.us

1999 A.D. (Lee Madden, 1967)

Jun

2

1999

1999 A.D. (1967)

Mother Karen (Marj Dusay) busy with online meal planning, her husband supervising her from the other screen. While she scheduling for Tuesday, June 2, 1999 in reality fell on a Wednesday. DP: Vilmos Zsigmond.

“What year is it now? I forgot.”

– Jamie

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

Jun

1

Oscar the Grouch Day

La maudite galette (1972)

Rolland (René Caron) and Berthe (Luce Guilbeault). She's had it with these money troubles. DP: Alain Dostie.

A character who's a grouch for Oscar the Grouch Day (USA)

Zítra vstanu a opařím se čajem [Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea] (Jindřich Polák, 1977)

Jun

1

Zítra vstanu a opařím se čajem (1977)

Time-traveling tourist Shirley White (Marie Rosůlková) dragging a bewildered Hitler (František Vicena) in front of her husband's photo camera. DP: Jan Kališ.

“Patrick, it's Hitler! Yes it is Hitler! Patrick, you must take a picture of me with him!”

– Shirley White, American time traveler

ビリィ★ザ★キッドの新しい夜明け [Birī za kiddo no atarashii yoake / The New Morning of Billy the Kid] (Naoto Yamakawa, 1986)

May

31

National Utah Day

Birī za kiddo no atarashii yoake (1986)

Director Naoto Yamakawa directing Billy the Kid (Hiroshi Mikami) on site in Utah (via) DP: Kenji Takama.

An actor, director or character from Utah – National Utah Day (USA)

 

Billy the Kid steps out of a huge poster of Monument Valley right into a Tokyo bar and becomes its bar keeper. Together with a samurai, a WW2 G.I, Marx-Engels (not a typo), the Japanese weather service number 177 and others, he keeps the tavern safe from various thugs roaming the streets.

El gran calavera [The Great Madcap] (Luis Buñuel, 1949)

May

31

El gran calavera (1949)

Lobbycard. DP: Ezequiel Carrasco.

吾輩は猫である [Wagahai wa neko de aru / I Am a Cat] (Kon Ichikawa, 1975)

May

30

Hug Your Cat Day

吾輩は猫である (1975)

The cat and his master, teacher Sneaze. DP: Kōzō Okazaki.

A pet for National Hug Your Cat Day (USA) *

“Had I the time to keep a diary, I’d use that time to better effect; sleeping on the veranda”

– The cat

A school teacher's house cat observes and comments his household's going-ons as a microcosm of Japan's paradoxical Meiji period. The second adaptation of Sōseki Natsume's 1900s satirical novel.

 

* The event falls on June 4

Jesus Christus Erlöser [Jesus Christ Saviour] (Peter Geyer, 1971/2008)

May

29

Ascension Day

Jesus Christus Erlöser (1971/2008)

Kinski speaking to (presumably) journalists as part of promoting his Jesus tour (via)

The birth, life, death or teachings of Jesus on Ascension Day

“Ich bin nicht der offizielle Kirchenjesus, ich bin nicht euer Superstar.”

– Klaus Kinski

It is November 20. The Jesus Christus Erlöser tour brings Klaus Kinski to Berlin's Deutschlandhalle. His monologue, spoken from Jesus the revolutionary's perspective, brings out the hecklers. It's 1971, the post-68 generation is not satisfied with words. It wants to debate, dissect, and devour their Saviour.

فلسطين في العين [Filastin fi al-ayn / Palestine in the Eye] (Mustafa Abu Ali, 1977)

May

28

Amnesty International Day

Filastin fi al-ayn (1977)

Palestinian freedom fighters.

Amnesty International Day: someone who fights for human rights

“Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person”

– The Right to Live, the third of the Human Rights

Filmmaker #HaniJawharieh died while working for the #PLO Film Unit, an organisation fighting for the rights of the Palestinian people. His own death in 1976, which he caught on camera, is edited into this documentary.

Jonathan (Hans W. Geissendörfer, 1970)

May

26

World Dracula Day

Jonathan (1970)

Siring the mortals. DP: Robby Müller.

A vampire for World Dracula Day

 

This deeply political, unpleasant interpretation of Stoker's Dracula can not not be seen against the backdrop of political movements like the #RAF and West-Germany's youth revolting against the failed #Denazification that the country underwent under supervision of the Allied occupying forces.

 

Note the usage of colour and grouping of people; Klaus Mann's Mephisto (1981) borrowed quite a few visuals from Jonathan.

Снежная королева [Snezhnaya koroleva / The Snow Queen] (Gennadiy Kazanskiy, 1967)

May

25

National Missing Children's Day

Снежная королева (1967)

Kai (Vyacheslav Tsyupa) under the Snow Queen's spell. DPs: Vadim Grammatikov & Sergei Ivanov.

Someone missing is found on National Missing Children's Day (USA)

 

Oh boy, how to do this one without a spoiler…

 

Siblings Gerda and Kai are best friends until one day, the Snow Queen's mirror shatters into a million pieces. One shard pierces Kai's eye, the other his heart, and from that moment on, all he can see is evil and his heart is cold. Now taken in by the Queen, and cold to Gerda's affection, the girl tries all to get Kai, the old Kai, back.