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Jeopardy (John Sturges, 1953)
Jun
25
National Camp Counts Day
– Aw, mom. You always talk about civilization.
– Don't knock it, son.
John Sturges' Jeopardy is a thrilling reverse home invasion based on Maurice Zimm's radioplay A Question of Time. Without falling into the trap of an illustrated radio broadcast, the haunting photography by Victor Milner, small, intense cast, short runtime and claustrophobic sets make for a very modern, economic thriller.
And Barbara Stanwyck the type of heroine we wouldn't see much of until decades later.
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The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
Jun
21
National Arizona Day
Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) facing the endless desert. DP: Winton C. Hoch.
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Tire dié [Toss Me a Dime] (Fernando Birri, 1958)
Jun
20
National Flag Day – Argentina
A young boy running along the train. Another, even younger, child can be just seen behind him. DPs: Oscar Kopp & Enrique Urteaga.
A slum survives next to a railroad bridge. When the train travelling from the city shows up, the children who are old and gutsy enough run along and yell tire dié! toss me a dime! Some of them make more than their parents do.
“Tire dié!”
Tire dié is a sobering account of #poverty and how it's as much a part of life's schedule as a slow running train on a rickety bridge.
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Gycklarnas afton [Sawdust and Tinsel] (Ingmar Bergman, 1953)
Jun
11
pancakes
Ringmaster Albert Johansson (Åke Grönberg) with Anne (Harriet Andersson) – holding a pot – standing over him. DPs: Hilding Bladh & Sven Nykvist.
– All I can offer is pancakes? Will they do?
– They'll do just fine.
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Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
May
27
Golden Gate Bridge
A pensive Novak in black in front of a sunlit Golden Gate Bridge. DP: Robert Burks.
A bridge to celebrate the 1937 Golden Gate Bridge opening.
“Here I was born, and there I died. It was only a moment for you; you took no notice.”
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Ansiktet [The Magician / The Face] (Ingmar Bergman, 1958)
May
22
love potion
Coach driver Simson (Lars Ekborg) serving maid Sara (Bibi Andersson) a potion from a flask. DP: Gunnar Fischer.
– We're out of love potion. What now?
– Take this one, for colic and bunions. What matters is how the bottle looks and how the potion tastes.
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Les statues meurent aussi [Statues also Die] (Ghislain Cloquet, Chris Marker + Alain Resnais, 1953)
May
18
International Museum Day
A Black African woman looks at objects of African origin – several statues, a mask, an object decorated with beadwork – in an antique store's window. Behind her white people pass by. It's raining. DP: Ghislain Cloquet.
Commissioned by the #PanAfrican literary magazine Présence Africaine to make a short film about African art, Chris Marker and his collaborator Alain Resnais – the latter still emboldened by his Van Gogh (1948) – were struck that unlike the Dutch painter's work, this #art was not on display in the Louvre or a similar cultural temple, but in the ethnological Musée de l'Homme.
“An object dies when the living glance trained upon it disappears. And when we disappear, our objects will be confined to the place where we send black things: to the museum.”
– narrator
These works of “Negro” art that embody such a deep cultural and artistic significance for the creators and the people they are part of, were, within the boundaries of Western civilisation, merely things. The editing (Alain Resnais), photography (Ghislain Cloquet) and dialogue (Chris Marker) bring life to these works. Through these voices they speak to the viewer, escaping the institutes' walls.
This voice was enough for the CNC to censor Les statues meurent aussi; only the first third of the film, the segment that's not blatantly #AntiColonial, was to be watched. And to this day, the documentary still has not seen a restored, digital release.
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Happy Ever After [Tonight's the Night] (Mario Zampi, 1954)
May
13
Leprechaun Day
Jasper O'Leary (David Niven) giving Serena McGlusky (Yvonne De Carlo) a stern talking-to. DP: Stanley Pavey.
Rathbarney is a typical small Irish town inhabited with a bunch of eccentrics, including a few leprechauns and a ghost, who all live in general harmony with each other, mostly at the local pub. (via IMDb)
“I've not lived long enough in Ireland to appreciate the logic of that remark.”
– Jasper O'Leary
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Mutya ng Pasig [Muse of Pasig] (Richard Abelardo, 1950)
May
2
National Foster Care Day
A young woman, drowned, held up by several helpless looking people. DP: Ray Lacap.
In this #supernatural Filipino melodrama, it being a Filipino melodrama, the town's muse tragically drowns, taking her newborn child with her. The orphaned baby floats down the river then is picked up by an older, childless couple who gladly raise her as their own. The child has a strange attachment to the #Pasig river where at night, a mysterious spellbinding voice sings the #kundiman [traditional love song] Mutya ng Pasig.
While Mutya ng Pasig is a lovely, somewhat predictable mystery by Richard Abelardo, it's well worth your time on a slowly meandering, hot summer night.
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Orphée [Orpheus] (Jean Cocteau, 1950)
Apr
27
Morse Code Day
Orphée (Jean Marais) in the black car, hearing poetry in Morse. DP: Nicolas Hayer.
#Cocteau's Orpheus – here the mythological poet and musician is personified by Jean Marais – accompanies a fallen young poet transported to the Underworld by car. The car radio plays fragments of poetry, interrupted by #MorseCode. When back in this world, #Orphée obsesses over the lines of radical poetry he heard and returns to the car's radio to retrieve them.
“Sleeping or dreaming, the dreamer must accept his dreams.”
– The Princess
Morse code and other industrial sounds serve as a soundscape for Cocteau's characters. They swerve in and out of it, sometimes fully aware of them (#Orpheus himself is attuned to the #poetry to be found in emergency radio broadcasts), by times passing through like a mirage.