“Stand by, there's trouble coming soon.”
The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock, 1934)
Mar
21
Abbott (Peter Lorre). DP: Curt Courant.
– Bob Lawrence
უჟმური [Ujmuri / Мрачная равнина / Cheerless] (Nutsa Gogoberidze, 1934)
Mar
3
Florida – 1845
A young woman, dress and arms covered in swamp water, raises a muddy shotgun. DP: Shalva Apaqidze.
A swamp or The Everglades on the date that Florida became the 27th state in 1845.
The swamp dwellers' trust in shaman Uzhmuri, the Queen of Frogs, prohibits the authorities from draining the wetlands in their fight against malaria.
“[Kuhle Wampe] gives witness to the true face of a struggling, suffering nation. Made by four thousand unemployed people, it never aims to be a work of art but simply aims to portray […] workers whose youthful energy is going to waste.”
Kuhle Wampe oder: Wem gehört die Welt? [Kuhle Wampe or Who Owns the World?] (Slatan Dudow, 1932)
Feb
28
unemployment
The unemployed at Kuhle Wampe, with Hertha Thiele's Anni front and center. People's states vary between still clinging on to better times up to destitute. DP: Günther Krampf.
Someone quits something or is unemployed: the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013.
– Marcel Carné, via
Kuhle Wampe, Berlin slang that means something like “empty stomach”, is the name of a real-world, improvised encampment for the unemployed at the Müggelsee. Here we find a family who lost everything after the death of one of them.
This late-Weimar, brechtian film was quickly banned by the German government.
Even: As You and I (Roger Barlow, Harry Hay + LeRoy Robbins, 1937)
Feb
27
A film editor struggling with a long strip of celluloid. DP: Hy Hirsh.
“You don't think I sat there all evening with an eight-foot mamba in my pocket?”
Murders in the Zoo (A. Edward Sutherland, 1933)
Feb
20
A couple walks into a room, only to discover a lifeless man and a headless snake. DP: Ernest Haller.
– Eric Gorman
“I don't want your husband. I want a parachute!”
Madam Satan (Cecil B. DeMille, 1930)
Feb
4
Charles Lindbergh's born
You're cordially invited to Mr. James Wade's “Masquerade”, aboard the Zeppelin – CB – P – 55. Do wear a mask. DP: Harold Rosson.
A movie about aviation for that eugenicist Charles Lindbergh's birthday.
– Trixie
“In this film, by showing certain basic aspects of a city, a way of life is put on trial… the last gasps of a society so lost in its escapism that it sickens you and makes you sympathetic to a revolutionary solution.”
À propos de Nice – point de vue documenté [À propos de Nice] (Boris Kaufman + Jean Vigo, 1930)
Jan
1
New Year's Day
Exuberant prostitutes, Jean Vigo (5th from the left), and people who appear to be men in drag, dance on a landing with confetti all around them. In the moving footage they can be seen high-kicking with increased vulgarity, the camera posed below them. DP: Boris Kaufman.
Confetti for New Year's Day.
– Jean Vigo in his manifesto Vers un cinéma social
浪華悲歌 [Naniwa erejī / Osaka Elegy] (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936)
Dec
15
International Tea Day
A woman in kimono sits at a low wooden tea cabinet. It holds a small tea pot and other utensils. The traditional setup is broken in the background with contemporary Western furniture. She's smoking. DP: Minoru Miki.
Something with tea for International Tea Day.
“Fascism is not to be debated, it is to be destroyed.”
20 de noviembre de 1936 ¿Te acuerdas de esta fecha, compañero? [20th of November] (1937)
Nov
20
1936
Soldiers in silhouette. Disclaimer: I am not 100% sure this still is from the correct film. DP: anonymous.
A documentary made by the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo in honour of anarchist Buenaventura Durruti, who was murdered on November 20, 1936.
– Buenaventura Durruti
“You take away my life and offer me a favor in return. That's what I call a 'bargain'.”
The Walking Dead (Michael Curtiz, 1936)
Nov
16
John Ellman (Karloff), dead man walking. DP: Hal Mohr.
– John Ellman