settima

1960s

剣 ​(小説) [Ken / The Sword] (Kenji Misumi, 1964)

Dec

29

Tick Tock Day

剣 (1964)

One of the kendōka kneeled on the floor in gruelling punishment faces a clock on the wall, while the other students continue their training. DP: Chikashi Makiura.

A clock face for Tick Tock Day, USA.
After World War II, the Japanese martial arts of #kendo was banished by the occupying forces in an attempt to “remove and exclude militaristic and ultra-nationalistic persons from life”. With that in mind, it makes complete sense that nationalist author and former kendo practitioner Yukio Mishima wrote a short story – Sword, originally published in literary magazine Shincho in 1963 – about the art.

– So what is your goal in life then?

– Satisfaction of the present. The sword, and nothing else.

Both the story and Kenji Misumi's 1964 film adaptation follow arrogant kendo student Jiro, played by sublime kabuki actor Raizō Ichikawa who also appears in an earlier Mishima adaptation, 炎上 [Enjō / The Temple of the Golden Pavilion / Conflagration] (1958).

Invasión [Invasion] (Hugo Santiago, 1969)

Dec

27

maté

Invasión (1969)

Don Porfirio (Juan Carlos Paz) pours water from a small kettle into a maté. DP: Ricardo Aronovich.

飼育 [Shiiku / The Catch] (Nagisa Ōshima, 1961)

Dec

26

offerings

飼育 (1961)

An altar with two rotund, smiling stone statues – possibly Jizō, a bowl of rice with chopsticks stuck into it, and a Japanese soldier's photograph. The position of the chopsticks tells us that the soldier has died. DP: Yoshitsugu Tonegawa.

Празник [Praznik / The Feast] (Đorđe Kadijević, 1967)

Dec

25

Christmas dinner

Празник (1967)

Soldiers eating bread at a set table. DP: Aleksandar Petković.

شكاوى الفلاح الفصيح [El-Fallâh el-fasîh / The Eloquent Peasant] (Chadi Abdel Salam, 1970)

Dec

23

National Farmers Day – India

El-Fallâh el-fasîh (1970)

The peasant (Ahmed Marei) in a stone temple, flanked by scribes. DP: Mustafa Imam.

Farmers for Kisan Divas [National Farmers Day], India.
4000 years ago, Egypt, Middle Kingdom. A peasant, leading his mules past a stream of water, is tricked. With his animals gone, he pleads to the Pharaoh to restore Maʽat, harmony.

“He's a peasant. Without looking into his situation, words are all he has.”

Chadi Abdel Salam is not only this film's director, but also a trained architect, later set and costume designer. His eye wordlessly speaks the passing of time in the smallest of details. The withering of ferns, desert sand staining linen, the Sun merging with skin. At once, the universal presence of the gods becomes visible.

La baie des anges [Bay of Angels] (Jacques Demy, 1963)

Dec

23

pears

La baie des anges (1963)

A blonde Moreau at a restaurant table with a man seen from the back. There are several semi-empty wine glasses and pears sliced lengthwise on a plate, covered with a napkin. Jeanne's character Jackie Demaistre is holding a small sheet of paper with a schematic drawing of a roulette wheel while throwing the man a sceptical glance. DP: Jean Rabier.

“We'll go back to Nice tomorrow. The Bay of Angels brings us luck.”

– Jean Fournier

Angel, Angel, Down We Go [Cult of the Damned (Robert Thom, 1969)

Dec

22

Angel, Angel, Down We Go (1969)

A chubby, piggy pink-dressed debutante (Joan Calhoun) flanked by her uppity-class parents (Charles Aidman and Jennifer Jones) in a fancy restaurant. The kid gives her mother the side eye. Other eaters look on in shock. DP: John F. Warren.

“We say hip, hooray, Hip, hip hooray, For fat!”

– Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, The Fat Song

La battaglia di Algeri [The Battle of Algiers] (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)

Dec

18

Arabic Language Day

La battaglia di Algeri (1966)

Petit Omar (Mohamed Ben Kassen) reading out a letter to Ali La Pointe (Brahim Hadjadj) in the قصبة, (Cashbah). If it were not for the leads' jeans and sneakers, this scene could be in any century. DP: Marcello Gatti.

Speak an Arabic language on UN Arabic Language Day.

“The first section's dead. There's no one left. We lost contact with the second. The third is reorganizing. All that's left is the fourth. It's enough to start over with.”

گاو [Gaav / The Cow] (Dariush Mehrjui, 1969)

Dec

27

چای

Gaav (1969)

Two man sit against a white plastered, adobe wall. As one plays the setar, the other accepts a glass of chaii (black tea) from a square hole in the wall. DP: Fereydon Ghovanlou.

“I'm not Hassan. I'm his cow.”

少年 [Shōnen / Boy] (Nagisa Ōshima, 1969)

Dec

17

Freebie: National Insurance Awareness Day

少年 (1969)

The boy waiting next to a buzy road. DPs: Seizō Sengen & Yasuhiro Yoshioka.

A boy (Bin Amatsu), helps out his father and stepmother's insurance money scam by pretending to be injured in traffic.