Black, in food or fashion*

“It is vital to be photogenic from head to foot. After that you are allowed to display some measure of talent.”

– Musidora

Possibly the first, and definitely the most, iconic catsuit in cinema is worn by Musidora as Irma Vep in Les Vampires. Skintight and scandalous, Musidora's screen presence in the serial further cemented the popularity of the vamp and set the scene for many man-eaters to come.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.

Celebrating Dia de Los Muertos [on November 1 and 2, of course]: a cemetery, coffin, or dead person*

“When we began to compare the typically American, typically European, and typically Russian films, we noticed that they were distinctly different from one another in their construction. We noticed that in a particular sequence of a Russian film there were, say, ten to fifteen splices, ten to fifteen different set-ups. In the European film there might be twenty to thirty such set-ups (one must not forget that this description pertains to the year 1916), while in the American film there would be from eighty, sometimes upward to a hundred, separate shots. The American films took first place in eliciting reactions from the audience; European films took second; and the Russian films, third. We became particularly intrigued by this, but in the beginning we did not understand it.”

– Lev Kuleshov, The Principles of Montage, from The Practice of Film Direction (pp. 183-195) (source)

Director Lev Kuleshov explains what happens when a scene is followed by a reaction shot. Depending on the preceding image, the viewer projects an emotion onto the performer's facial expression. In his most famous montage, made up of existing footage – because property is theft, we see matinee idol Ivan Mosjoukine “react” to a bowl of soup, a little girl in a coffin, and a woman sprawled out on a divan.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.

A fool or jokester for April Fools' Day

 

As a child, Shri Krishna, the eighth avatar of Lord Vishnu, was a prankster. The Lord and his childhood friends would steal makhan and, if there was too much to eat all at once, would share it with the monkeys.

 

Kaliya Mardan is one of the handful films from India's early cinematic output that has survived. Do check your attic

A laugh out loud scene for Something on a Stick Day (USA)

 

“Bonsoir. Je m'appelle Rosalie!”

Rosalie (the wonderful Sarah Duhamel) buys herself a phonograph and is delighted by the wonders it brings. Quick, the whole household should know!

 

Not only the obvious moments (no spoilers here), but the small, seemingly improvised bits is what makes Rosalie stand out above American productions of the time – with the exception of Roscoe Arbuckle's; his water bucket pun in His Wife's Mistakes (1916) still has me in stitches.

 

Duhamel makes great use of her physique, and doesn't shy away from looking inelegant, boorish even. Her hips are for pushing things and men out of her way, and her mighty paws easily toss any unwieldy piece of furniture out of the window.

 

Like Rosalie's irresistible gusto and her delightful ditties, the combination of Duhamel's physical comedy and (former #vaudeville-ian) Bosetti's Italian-flavoured slapstick, plus some of the best stop-motion trickery I've ever seen, is simply magical.

A film about finance because “the Commonwealth of Massachusetts issues the first paper money on February 3, 1690”. The oldest surviving paper bill in what is now the United States bears the date February 3, 1690. The first documented paper money was issued during the Tang and Song dynasties in China, starting in the vulgar year 618. Who would have thought those new colonies were not the center of world history… sigh…

 

In the fourth instalment of the Homunculus saga, the artificial man callously heads the nation's financial powerhouse while secretly goading the workers in revolt against the ruling class. Soulless and unable to love, he aims for the annihilation of mankind.

 

Some claim that Die Rache des Homunculus, “The Wrath of the Homunculus”, foreshadows Hitler. I say, beware of businessmen enthralling the working classes.

A ridiculous toy for Stupid Toy Day.

“She must have one complex mechanism!”

– Lancelot

The great Roscoe Arbuckle just can't help himself at the wonderfully hedonistic Oriental Café in this delightful short slapstick.