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նռան գույնը [Sayat Nova / The Color of Pomegranates] (Sergei Parajanov, 1969)
Jan
11
journeys
A nun holds up an embroidered cloth depicting a dead Christ surrounded by mourning saints. Next to her a monk in black, resembling poet Sayat-Nova. Screenshot via Screenmusings. DP: Suren Shakhbazyan.
Garnets for January. The garnet is supposed to protect the traveller on his journey, and is named after the pomegranate with which it shares its bloodred colour.
“We sought asylum for our love, but the road led us out to the land of the dead.”
The story of a poet's spiritual journey. The poet, and poems the film is based on is ashough [lover, or travelling musician] Sayat-Nova (b. Harutyun Sayatyan).
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The Trip Back (Ralph Weisinger, 1970)
Jan
11
Florrie Fisher telling the kids about her highs and lows in the gutter. DPs: Donald Shapiro & Ralph Weisinger.
“Twenty-three years of living with nothing but gutter hypes and junkies!”
– Florrie Fisher
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Kinoautomat: Člověk a jeho dům [Kinoautomat / One Man and His House] (Ján Roháč, Radúz Činčera + Vladimír Svitáček, 1967)
Jan
10
Representation of the People Act 1918
The audience about to vote for one of two scenes, with two presenters on stage.. DP: Jaromír Šofr.
Made for the Czechoslovak Pavilion at #Expo67 in #Montréal, Kinoautomat was the world's first interactive film. During nine moments in the story, a moderator would appear on the stage, and ask the audience where the story should go now. Depending on the votes, one of two reels would play.
“The Kinoautomat in the Czechoslovak Pavilion is a guaranteed hit of the World Exposition, and the Czechs should build a monument to the man who conceived the idea, Radúz Činčera.”
– The New Yorker
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Times Square (Allan Moyle, 1980)
Jan
10
1967
A bus on Times Square with a large (expensive) ad asking people to be on the lookout for a Pamela Pearl, born January 10, 1967. DP: James A. Contner.
“Yes, it's story time on WJAD in the heart of Times Square, New York, New York. The city so nice, they named it twice.”
– Johnny LaGuardia, on the air
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Tarry-Dan Tarry-Dan Scarey Old Spooky Man (John Reardon, 1978)
Jan
10
Tarry-Dan (Paul Curran) observing kids at the school's gate. DP: Peter Bartlett.
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La baie des anges [Bay of Angels] (Jacques Demy, 1963)
Jan
9
Wheel of Fortune
Jean (Claude Mann) and Jackie (Jeanne Moreau) at a casino table. The tension is palpable. DP: Jean Rabier.
Good, or bad, fortune on the day Wheel of Fortune premiered in 1975.
– How much did you win?
– 500,000 in less than an hour. It's immoral, but no more than anything else. No more than poverty or ugliness.
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Mauvais sang [Bad Blood / The Night Is Young] (Leos Carax, 1986)
Jan
8
David Bowie's birthday
(Alex) Denis Lavant in a scene set to David Bowie's Modern Love. DP: Jean-Yves Escoffier.
A [favourite] scene featuring a Bowie song for David Bowie's birthday (1947).
“They pulled in just behind the fridge
He lays her down, he frowns
“Gee, my life's a funny thing
Am I still too young?”
He kissed her then and there
She took his ring, took his babies
It took him minutes, took her nowhere
Heaven knows, she'd have taken anything”
– David Bowie, Modern Love (from Let's Dance, 1983)
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Operation Ganymed [Helden, verloren im Staub der Sterne] (Rainer Erler, 1977)
Jan
7
moons
Jupiter rising. DP: Wolfgang Grasshoff.
Moons for Galileo Galilei's observation of Jupiter's four largest moons in 1610: Ganymede and Callisto on January 7, and Europa and Io on January 8.
“I therefore concluded and decided unhesitatingly, that there are three stars in the heavens moving about Jupiter, as Venus and Mercury round the Sun; which at length was established as clear as daylight by numerous subsequent observations. These observations also established that there are not only three, but four, erratic sidereal bodies performing their revolutions round Jupiter… the revolutions are so swift that an observer may generally get differences of position every hour.”
– Galileo Galilei, Sidereus Nuncius (”Starry Messenger”), 1610
A spacecraft named Ganymede II returns back to Earth after its expedition to Jupiter's moons followed by 1500 days stuck in space. The Earth they find, is deserted.
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Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980)
Jan
7
Wed
Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) in his tank. Around him visions of clouds, fishes, the ocean. DP: Jordan Cronenweth.
“I'm a man in search of his true self. How archetypically American can you get?”
– Eddie Jessup
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Sevmek Zamanı [Time to Love] (Metin Erksan, 1965)
Jan
6
Muslim-American Heritage Month
The man, the woman, and her portrait. DP: Mengü Yeğin.
“Study me as much as you like, you will not know me, for I differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be. Put yourself behind my eyes and see me as I see myself, for I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see.”