A memorable fire or fireplace scene*

“Oh, my God, Gerald! Shall I die?”

– Gudrun Brangwen

Oddly, one barely remembers the fireplace.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for November is, again, not date-based, but follows a sloppy schmaltzy all-American Thanksgiving-y narrative. Trying to make it work my way.

A bit – occasionally a lot – Greenaway without the room for interpretation. Lovely though and impossible to make in this overly self-aware selfie universe.

A movie set in the woods or mountains*

“Anderntags hat man sofort getauft, weil jede Mutter lieber ein «Gotteskindli» auf die Arme nahm.”

– Gisler-Arnold Babette, midwife (via)

Murer describes the people from Switzerland's gorges in three movements, along the lines of a symphony

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for November is, again, not date-based, but follows a sloppy schmaltzy all-American Thanksgiving-y narrative. Trying to make it work my way.

“You take away my life and offer me a favor in return. That's what I call a 'bargain'.”

– John Ellman

“I'm trying to run an impersonal business. Killing is very personal. Once it gets started, it's hard to stop.”

– Mr. Brown

A movie about community*

“Early one morning, just as the sun was rising, I heard a maid sing in the valley below; ‘O don’t deceive me, O never leave me! How could you use a poor maiden so?”

– Early one morning, via

A sort of Wicker Man visits Mon oncle, this painting of an old England is. Painter filmmaker David Gladwell's impressionist work takes us to a small Suffolk community that, like all other communities, is both frozen in time and unable to escape its progression. The churchyard's caretaker, amongst the living and the dead, watches, works, and knows.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for November is, again, not date-based, but follows a sloppy schmaltzy all-American Thanksgiving-y narrative. Trying to make it work my way.

 

A memorable kitchen or cooking scene*

“Look at us. We're almost totally dependent on our maid. She cooks and washes for us, and is the first person to greet me when I come home from work. She is entirely at our service.”

– Dong-sik Kim

A housemaid works her way into a middle-class household and takes over the wife's tasks – cleaning, cooking, child rearing.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for November is, again, not date-based, but follows a sloppy schmaltzy all-American Thanksgiving-y narrative. Trying to make it work my way.

During one scene a perpetual calendar is visible. It's a 26^th.

– Why do they call you The Gorilla? – Because I'm big and strong… and everyone has to have a name.