“The boys come to soak up the sun, and a few carloads of beer. The girls come, very simply, because this is where the boys are.”Where the Boys Are (Henry Levin, 1960)
Jul
21
Legal Drinking Age Day
While chatting up TV Thompson (Jim Hutton), Tuggle Carpenter (Paula Prentiss) presents a fake ID to prove that with her “25” years of age she's old enough to drink. The ID also states that despite her 5'10” (1,78m) frame, she's a petite 5'2” (1,57m). DP: Robert J. Bronner.
Where the Boys Are is chock-full of characters whose names appear to be straight space-travel-lifted from various #JohnWaters' movies: Tuggle Carpenter! TV Thompson! Lola Fandango! Dr. Raunch for Chrissakes!
– narrator
We follow four female midwestern college students on #SpringBreak in Fort Lauderdale. Their objective is boys boys boys (and an even tan) and nothing, including being too young to drink, can stop them. This was one of the first post-Hayes Hollywood movies to address teenage sex yet despite all the innuendo (“What's your shoe size?” “13.” “Get in the car!”), it's all pretty clean. But without these girls, there wouldn't be any Dawn Davenport. And that would've ruined everybody's Christmas.
1960s
– He's got a calendar in there.
– What day is it?
– It's a broad in a cowboy hat.
– Scooby doo bi doo ba ba.Private Property (Leslie Stevens, 1959/1960)
Jul
21
Duke (Corey Allen) and Boots (Warren Oates) “watching TV”. Ann Carlyle (Kate Manx) stripping for her husband is on. DP: Ted D. McCord.
Date watched, not the date in the movie. The quote was too good to leave it off this blog.
Ikarie XB 1 [Icarus XB 1] (Jindřich Polák, 1963)
Jul
20
Space Exploration Day
Two astronauts weightlessly pushing themselves through a round airlock. Their suits are eerily similar to the ones seen in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). DP: Jan Kališ.
Both anticapitalist and pre-Stanley space odyssey. Based on Stanislaw Lem's Obłok Magellana [The Magellanic Cloud] (1955).
“I'm looking for the Hitchcock residence.”Private Property (Leslie Stevens, 1960)
Jul
20
lemonade
A blonde lady (Kate Manx) holds a wicker ray with a pitcher of lemonade and several glasses. Her anxious look contrast with the carefree promise of summer sky and cool drinks. DP: Ted D. McCord.
– Duke
“I still can't figure out if it's an office, a market place, or a boxing ring. And maybe I don't even need to.”L'eclisse [The Eclipse] (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)
Jul
19
fruit
Vitti as Vittoria in front of a fruit stand next to La Borsa, the Rome stock exchange located in the remnants of the Hadrianeum. The fruit in the middle is a Melone Mantovano, a type of cantaloupe. DP: Gianni Di Venanzo.
– Vittoria
刺青 [Irezumi / The Tattoo] (Yasuzō Masumura, 1966)
Jul
18
Otsuya (Ayako Wakao) and one of her samurai clients share sake and a small meal. Beautifully framed by cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa there's all we need to see – Otsuya's facial expressions and the fiery, protective 籠目 (kagome, litt. eye) pattern – with not much more on display. DP: Kazuo Miyagawa.
刺青 [Irezumi] (Yasuzō Masumura, 1966)
Jul
17
National Tattoo Day
Seikichi tattooing (the correct term for the act-of is tebori) the 絡新婦 / じょろうぐも [jorōgumo, litt. “entangling bride”] on Otsuya's back. DP: Kazuo Miyagawa.
Otsuya's (Ayako Wakao) is forced into #prostitution and marked with a large spider tattoo. As the figure slowly takes shape under horishi Seikichi's skilled hands, Otsuya too transforms.
“Yes, I'm afraid of death… but for a humble secret agent that's a fact of life, like whisky. And I've drunk that all my life.”Alphaville: Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
Jul
16
petit déjeuner
In one of the very few daytime scenes, Natacha (Anna Karina) and Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) share breakfast at a small table while awkwardly sitting on the armrests of two upholstered chairs. A large television is set up directly behind the table. DP: Raoul Coutard.
– Lemmy Caution
𝛼-60: “Do you know what illuminates the night?” Lemmy Caution: “Poetry.”Alphaville: Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
Jul
16
AI Appreciation Day
Natacha von Braun (Anna Karina) and Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine). Lights reflected in the windowpane that shields the two characters suggest “the existence of an obscure reality” (after Baudrillard). DP: Raoul Coutard..
Science fiction, of course, doesn't have to be driven by grandes effects, by superstar names and monumental backdrops. It can be cool, dry, colourless even. The hero, in trenchcoat and fedora, traverses a lightless city. There are few others at this time of night. The familiar landmarks of the City of Light become the voice of 𝛼-60, an artificial intelligence that presides over Alphaville.
– 𝛼-60 playing the imitation game with Lemmy Caution
Based on a poem by Paul Éluard, #Godard's Alphaville bears similarities with Jean #Cocteau's Orphée (1950), transported to a mirror world of sorts. It also foreshadows not only our time, but also M. Hulot's, whose #Tativille could be the simulacra of 𝛼-60's simulated, dehumanised world.
“Change your dreams, not the world.”La piscine [The Swimming Pool] (Jacques Deray, 1969)
Jul
13
“Chinese food”
The two couples (Delon and Schneider, and Ronet and Birkin) awkwardly sharing dinner. There's wine in red glasses and the food, plated on rustic French dinnerware, is handled with chopsticks. DP: Jean-Jacques Tarbès.
– Harry