settima

1960s

The Naked Kiss (Samuel Fuller, 1964)

Jul

4

1961

The Naked Kiss (1964)

A desk calendar reading July 4, 1961, with dirty, crumpled dollar bills thrown on top of it. DP: Stanley Cortez.

“Nobody shoves dirty money in my mouth.”

– Candy

Divorzio all'italiana [Divorce Italian Style] (Pietro Germi, 1961)

Jul

3

Divorzio all'italiana (1961)

A closeup of a man's hand holding up a diary. It's the third of July. DPs: Leonida Barboni & Carlo Di Palma.

Additionally, IMDb writes that “director Pietro Germi filmed a close-up of the front page of a newspaper announcing Yuri Gagarin's flight around the earth on April 12th 1961.”

Il mare [The Sea] (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1962)

Jul

1

Il mare (1962)

The actor (Umberto Orsini) looking out over the island. The claustrophobic framing of the hotel windows contrasts sharply with the openness of the sea. DP: Ennio Guarnieri.

My ideal vacation spot, country, city, town, or resort*

 

An island, in this case Capri (granted I've never been there), off-season, in a space and time lost in the mists. It'll occasionally rain and it's cold enough to dress up.

 

The Lottery (Larry Yust, 1969)

Jun

27

The Lottery (1969)

Drawing lots from a box. DP: Isidore Mankofsky.

This, or any other adaptation of Shirley Jackson's story.

“Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.”

– Shirley Jackson, The Lottery (1948)

Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara [The Last Trick of Mr. Schwarcewallde and Mr. Edgar] (Jan Švankmajer, 1964)

Jun

26

National Handshake Day

Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara (1964)

Mr Schwarcewallde and Mr Edgar on stage. Both are puppeteers in Edwardian costumes and oversized papier-mâché heads. DP: Svatopluk Malý.

Characters shake hands on National Handshake Day (USA)

 

Two illusionists compete with increasingly incredible tricks, sealed with a hefty handshake.

Ikarie XB 1 [Icarus XB 1] (Jindřich Polák, 1963)

Jun

26

Ikarie XB 1 (1963)

An astronaut passing a perfectly symmetrical walkway, similar to the ones seen in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). DP: Jan Kališ.

Sodrásban [Current] (István Gaál, 1964)

Jun

24

Swim a Lap Day

Sodrásban (1964)

Friends swimming in a summer haze. DP: Sándor Sára.

A character who is swimming on Swim a Lap Day (USA)

 

A group of friends go swimming to celebrate the start of summer vacation, and relish those final moments before adult responsibly begins. It is only much later when they realise that one of them is missing.

L'immortelle (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1963)

Jun

23

Sat

L'immortelle (1963)

A man's hand holds a crumbled up diary page for Saturday June 23. There are no calendar entries. DP: Maurice Barry.

“You're a foreigner and you're lost.”

Il vangelo secondo Matteo [The Gospel According to Matthew] (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964)

Jun

22

National Kissing Day

Il vangelo secondo Matteo (1964)

Judas (Otello Sestili) kisses Jesus (Enrique Irazoqui) in intimate closeup. DP: Tonino Delli Colli.

A [favourite] movie kiss for National Kissing Day (USA*), not to be confused with International Kissing Day aka World Kiss Day which falls on July 6.

“I don’t have the inhibitions that a practicing Catholic would in that I’m not paralysed by the sacredness of the text, nor do I have the inhibitions of a lapsed Catholic who would view approaching the story of Jesus as compromising his Marxist beliefs, of sinking back into conformity.”

– PPP, via

An neorealist, straightforward adaptation of the Gospel of Matthew, populated by non-actors (“Jesus” is a 19-year Catalan trade unionist picked for his resemblance to El Greco's Christ), intellectuals, and anachronistic characters based on biblical art through the ages.

 

According to said Gospel, apostle Judas kissed prophet Jesus to signal to the police who of the 13 men present was the one to arrest.

 

Interestingly, the word Matthew chose to describe the kiss is καταφιλέω, the same word used by philosopher Plutarch to describe the kiss between Alexander the Great and his eunuch Bagoas

 

* no one wants to kiss you anymore, America

藪の中の黒猫 [Yabu no naka no kuroneko / A Black Cat in a Bamboo Grove] (Kaneto Shindō, 1968)

Jun

19

Garfield the Cat Day

藪の中の黒猫 (1968)

A young woman in white, strangely resembling a cat, seemingly lapping a drink from a bowl. DP: Kiyomi Kuroda.

A scene with a cat for Garfield the Cat Day (USA)

 

A mother and daughter who are raped and murdered by a rogue samurai, return as cat-shaped onryō, vengeful spirits.