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The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966)
Jan
12
1812
The sheriff jolts something down next to a wall calendar that reads January 12, 1812. Just visible through a window, Jake (Woody Strode) approaches. DP: Conrad L. Hall.
“Right now, I don't know if it's me or the dynamite that doin' all that sweatin'.”
– Jake Sharp
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նռան գույնը [Sayat Nova / The Color of Pomegranates] (Sergei Parajanov, 1969)
Jan
11
journeys
A nun holds up an embroidered cloth depicting a dead Christ surrounded by mourning saints. Next to her a monk in black, resembling poet Sayat-Nova. Screenshot via Screenmusings. DP: Suren Shakhbazyan.
Garnets for January. The garnet is supposed to protect the traveller on his journey, and is named after the pomegranate with which it shares its bloodred colour.
“We sought asylum for our love, but the road led us out to the land of the dead.”
նռան գույնը tells the story of a poet's spiritual journey. The poet, and poems the film is based on is ashough [lover, or travelling musician] Sayat-Nova (b. Harutyun Sayatyan).
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Kinoautomat: Člověk a jeho dům [Kinoautomat / One Man and His House] (Ján Roháč, Radúz Činčera + Vladimír Svitáček, 1967)
Jan
10
Representation of the People Act 1918
The audience about to vote for one of two scenes, with two presenters on stage.. DP: Jaromír Šofr.
Made for the Czechoslovak Pavilion at #Expo67 in #Montréal, Kinoautomat was the world's first interactive film. During nine moments in the story, a moderator would appear on the stage, and ask the audience where the story should go now. Depending on the votes, one of two reels would play.
“The Kinoautomat in the Czechoslovak Pavilion is a guaranteed hit of the World Exposition, and the Czechs should build a monument to the man who conceived the idea, Radúz Činčera.”
– The New Yorker
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La baie des anges [Bay of Angels] (Jacques Demy, 1963)
Jan
9
Wheel of Fortune
Jean (Claude Mann) and Jackie (Jeanne Moreau) at a casino table. The tension is palpable. DP: Jean Rabier.
Good, or bad, fortune on the day Wheel of Fortune premiered in 1975.
– How much did you win?
– 500,000 in less than an hour. It's immoral, but no more than anything else. No more than poverty or ugliness.
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Sevmek Zamanı [Time to Love] (Metin Erksan, 1965)
Jan
6
Muslim-American Heritage Month
The man, the woman, and her portrait. DP: Mengü Yeğin.
“Study me as much as you like, you will not know me, for I differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be. Put yourself behind my eyes and see me as I see myself, for I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see.”
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他人の顔 [Tanin no kao / The Face of Another] (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1966)
Jan
3
Tutankhamun's tomb
Mr. Okuyama (Tatsuya Nakadai). DP: Hiroshi Segawa.
Bandages for that day in 1924 when Howard Carter came across Tutankhamun's sarcophagus.
“You'll feel better soon. Once you're used to the mask, you'll be a new man — one with no records, no past. A mind invisible to the world.”
– psychiatrist
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Teorema [Theorem] (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968)
Dec
29
Independence Day of Mongolia
The visitor (Terence Stamp) in intimate closeup. DP: Giuseppe Ruzzolini.
Someone finds their independence: Independence Day of Mongolia (Үндэсний эрх чөлөө, тусгаар тогтнолоо сэргээсний баярын өдөр).
“I no longer even recognize myself. What made me like the others has been destroyed. I was like everyone else, with many faults, perhaps, mine and those of the world around me. You made me different by taking me out of the natural order of things.”
– Pietro, the son
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Couro de Gato [Cat Skin] (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1962)
Dec
27
Junkanoo
A man plays a small hand drum, the tamborim, with a cat skin head. DP: Mário Carneiro.
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Accidente 703 [Los culpables] (José María Forqué, 1962)
Dec
21
A darkened room. People take care of a man slumped on a coach. A wall calendar tells us it's the 21st. DP: Juan Mariné.
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Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962)
Dec
18
Daniel LaRusso's birthday
Lolita (Sue Lyon) twirling her hoola hoop in the yard in front of Prof. Humbert Humbert (James Mason). He pretends to read but is mostly ogling her.. DP: Oswald Morris .
A backyard, deck or fences for Daniel LaRusso's (the Karate Kid kid who, as part of his martial arts training, endlessly paints fences) birthday.
“What drives me insane is the twofold nature of this nymphet, of every nymphet perhaps, this mixture in my Lolita of tender, dreamy childishness and a kind of eerie vulgarity. I know it is madness to keep this journal, but it gives me a strange thrill to do so. And only a loving wife could decipher my microscopic script.”
– Prof. Humbert Humbert