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Bob le flambeur [Bob the Gambler] (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1956)
Jun
13
Friday
Bob (Roger Duchesne) at the tables, gambling. DP: Henri Decaë.
“I'd even lose at hopscotch these days.”
– Bob Montagné
Bob gambles, and always wins. But then he starts losing. And not just games.
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Black Widow (Nunnally Johnson, 1954)
Jun
6
Carlotta 'Lottie' Mari (Ginger Rogers) reaching out to Nancy 'Nanny' Ordway's (Peggy Ann Garner). DP: Charles G. Clarke.
– Were you drunk when you did these?
– A little.
– They're very good.
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Riot in Cell Block 11 (Don Siegel, 1954)
June
5
1920
Inmate James V. Dunn's (Neville Brand) file. He's born on June 5, 1920 and incarcerated in Willows State Prison on August 4, 1950. Somehow he's 32 year's old. DP: Russell Harlan.
And August 4.
“You're either in or out. OK?”
– James V. Dunn
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Compulsion (Richard Fleischer, 1959)
May
16
Straus (Bradford Dillman) with Steiner (Dean Stockwell) behind the wheel. They're beaming. DP: William C. Mellor.
“Murder's nothing. It's just a simple experience. Murder and rape? Do you know what beauty there is in evil?”
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পথের পাঁচালী [Pather Panchali / Apu 1: Song of the Little Road] (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
May
10
Stamp Out Hunger
Hands exchange food through a worn-out window. DP: Subrata Mitra.
“Those who came before have passed on. And I'm left behind. A penniless beggar. Not a cowrie to my name. Look, my purse is empty… Lord, the day is done and evening falls. Ferry me across to the other shore…”
– Indir Thakrun, singing
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Летят журавли [Letyat zhuravli / The Cranes Are Flying] (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957)
May
8
VE Day
A young woman standing in what was a room in a building, looks out over the ruins of a city. A broken lampshade and a grandfather's clock whisper of other times. DP: Sergey Urusevskiy.
A non-battlefield war movie on VE Day. It had to be a Soviet film, on this date. Thank you, Russia.
“Time will pass. Towns and villages will be rebuilt. Our wounds will heal. But our fierce hatred of war will never diminish.”
– Stepan
When the cranes fly over Moscow, a young couple learns about the war. Now separated, one day, when it is over, if, they'll reunite
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Stromboli (Terra di Dio) [Stromboli] (Roberto Rossellini, 1950)
May
8
birthdays
Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman on set on Sardinia. In the background the house Bergman's character moves into with her husband. DP: Otello Martelli.
May 8 is both director Rossellini and Bergman's character Karen's #birthday.
“What mystery, what beauty.”
– Karen
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Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (Fritz Lang, 1956)
May
7
Susan Spencer (Joan Fontaine) lighting Tom Garrett's (Dana Andrews) cigarette. DP: William E. Snyder.
“It's a weird, crazy idea, but that's the reason it intrigues me.”
– Tom Garrett
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Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut [A Man Escaped] (Robert Bresson, 1956)
May
2
A hand with dirty nails writing on a scrap of paper with a pencil stump. It starts “Mai 2 Ma chère maman, Je suis à la pris[…]“. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.
“With nothing to do, no news and in terrible solitude, we were 100 unfortunates awaiting our fate. I had no illusions about my own. If I could only escape, run away…”
– Fontaine
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Misterios de la magia negra [Mysteries of Black Magic] (Miguel M. Delgado, 1958)
Apr
12
Two well-dressed women, one of them prostrated on a stone slab. DP: Víctor Herrera.
