“I know. I know you. I know you very well.”

– Suzanne

Three people must decide what to do on August 13, 1961, the day the Berlin Wall goes up.

 

Green, in food or fashion*

“She'd discovered a small beach far from town, with crystal-clear water and pink sand. She loved that spot. The colors of nature were so beautiful, and there was no noise. She'd leave only when the sun did too.”

– Giuliana

Antonioni's first film in colour beautifully utilises Vitti's brilliance – of her auburn hair, her porcelain teint, her vivid costumes (by Paola Carloni) – against the drab landscape.

 

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

“Life has its tricks. Its oddities.”

– Jackie Demaistre

While the month is never explicitly stated, there's mention of August traffic jams.

“Matto, caldo, soldi, morto… girotondo…”

A kite in celebration of 浜松まつり, the Hamamatsu Kite Festival, which takes place on May 3–5*

 

Favela kids steal kites and sell them on in this Copacabana-set Nordic drama.

 

Toninho Carlos de Lima, Rico in the movie, was not a homeless kid from the favelas but lived in a house with his family when he was send to Sweden to promote Mitt hem är Copacabana. A wealthy Swedish couple offered to adopt him, and his natural mother reluctantly gave in hoping to prevent a life of crime for her son (source). That too, dear reader, is colonialism.

 

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

“It's a lot of work, ya know, just staying alive.”

– Rosemary Scott

A character has a camera or takes photos*

 

It buzzes on the set of Le mépris. These mosquitos, the Italians say paparazzi, swarm La Bardot and making it merely impossible for anyone – themselves included – to do their job. But Bardot knows them, too well, and gives them what they want, when she wants it.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.