settima

1960s

Wholly Communion (Peter Whitehead, 1966)

Jun

11

1965

Wholly Communion (1966)

Allen Ginsberg reciting in front of an enraptured audience at the Royal Albert Hall. DP: Peter Whitehead.

“Love! Love!”

– anonymous poet interrupting Harry Fainlight

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (Robert Drew, 1963)

Jun

10

1963

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963)

An energetic Bobby arrives at the White House in his limousine. DP: Gregory Shuker.

“This nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.”

– JFK

The Thomas Crown Affair (Norman Jewison, 1968)

Jun

9

0609-Thomas-Crown-Affair1968.png

A newspaper covered in food scraps. Barely legible a large ad: BE A FINK FOR $25,000! WAS HE IN BOSTON ON JUNE 9TH? DP: Haskell Wexler.

“Left early. Please come with the money… or, you keep the Rolls. All my love,

Tommy”

À Meia Noite Levarei Sua Alma [At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul] (José Mojica Marins, 1964)

Jun

6

Robert Englund – 1947

À Meia Noite Levarei Sua Alma (1964)

Josefel Zanatas, aka Coffin Joe, summoning you to your early grave. DP: Giorgio Attili.

[A] favourite horror movie villain for Robert Englund's birthday (1947).

“What is life? It is the beginning of death. What is death? It is the end of life! What is existence? It is the continuity of blood. What is blood? It is the reason to exist!”

– Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe), opening lines

In 1963, long before Freddy's got his claws, Brazil didn't have any horror films of its own. Then, José Mojica Marins woke up from uneasy dreams. He had seen himself being dragged across a cemetery by a dark figure, towards a grave with his name on it. Now wide awake in a pool of sweat, José became Josefel Zanatas – the true name of the godless undertaker from his dream.

 

Josefel, nicknamed Zé do Caixão, or Coffin Joe as he was rechristened for the English speaking world, would be Marins' alter ego in numerous movies and TV shows. His gnarly nails clawed their way past Brazil's censorship, dug themselves out of the pits of obscurity, and impaled themselves deep into this disciple's heart.

Le chagrin et la pitié [The Sorrow and the Pity] (Marcel Ophüls, 1969)

Jun

5

Sorry I Was on a Boat Day

Le chagrin et la pitié (1969)

Two smiling farmers. The interviewer asks “What did you think about?” One of them replies “Surviving. That's it.” Screenshot via. DPs: André Gazut & Jürgen Thieme.

Someone makes an excuse on Sorry I Was on a Boat Day (USA)

“One thing I find appalling is when people who were [Vichy President] Pétain supporters come up to me and tell me what they did for the Resistance. Sometimes it's unreal. “Oh, Mr. Gaspard, if only you knew what we did, what I did for the Resistance.” Go ahead, pal, tell me all about it. I try to stay calm. I'm a salesman, and I want to sell my product. The company doesn't pay me to do politics and pick fights, so sometimes I find myself obliged to listen to a song and dance of some guy who shows me a drawer and gets his wife to confirm that there was indeed a revolver in that drawer during the war, a revolver which he was supposedly ready to use on the Germans. Only he never actually used it. History doesn't lie.”

Émile Coulaudon aka Colonel Gaspard, former head of the French Resistance in Auvergne

Marcel Ophüls documents the people of Clermont-Ferrand as the microcosm of Vichy France, part of Europe's only country that happily collaborated with its occupier, Nazi Germany. What were their justifications, their excuses, their motivations? Was it survival, habit, greed? Comfort, conformity, obedience, fear?

 

And what is yours?

A cavallo della tigre [On the Tiger's Back] (Luigi Comencini, 1961)

Jun

4

A cavallo della tigre (1961)

Mario (Mario Adorf) rinsing his mouth while eyeing two of the wardens. DP: Aldo Scavarda.

or June 5th?

1999 A.D. (Lee Madden, 1967)

Jun

2

1999

1999 A.D. (1967)

Mother Karen (Marj Dusay) busy with online meal planning, her husband supervising her from the other screen. While she scheduling for Tuesday, June 2, 1999 in reality fell on a Wednesday. DP: Vilmos Zsigmond.

“What year is it now? I forgot.”

– Jamie

Снежная королева [Snezhnaya koroleva / The Snow Queen] (Gennadiy Kazanskiy, 1967)

May

25

National Missing Children's Day

Снежная королева (1967)

Kai (Vyacheslav Tsyupa) under the Snow Queen's spell. DPs: Vadim Grammatikov & Sergei Ivanov.

Someone missing is found on National Missing Children's Day (USA)

 

Oh boy, how to do this one without a spoiler…

 

Siblings Gerda and Kai are best friends until one day, the Snow Queen's mirror shatters into a million pieces. One shard pierces Kai's eye, the other his heart, and from that moment on, all he can see is evil and his heart is cold. Now taken in by the Queen, and cold to Gerda's affection, the girl tries all to get Kai, the old Kai, back.

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (Val Guest, 1961)

May

23

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)

Jeannie Craig (Janet Munro) trying to cool down in a bathtub. DP: Harry Waxman.

“Truly the light is sweet; and what a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to see the Sun.”

– Peter Stenning

La Femme Bourreau [A Woman Kills] (Jean-Denis Bonan, 1968)

May

20

1943

La Femme Bourreau (1968)

A dark-haired woman lounging on a bed. DP: Gérard de Battista.

“Hélène Picard, born in Lyon, May 20, 1943. A child in care, she is reported as a runaway, a thief and unstable.”