settima

1970s

Red [The Red Half-Breed / Red the Half Breed] (Gilles Carle, 1970)

Sep

2

Red (1970)

A counter at a Québécois branch of the Banque de Montréal – oddly enough using its English-language name. A wall calender reads September 2. DP: Bernard Chentrier.

Endişe [Anxiety] (Yılmaz Güney + Şerif Gören, 1974)

Sep

1

Labor Day

Endişe (1974)

A Kurdish worker in the cotton fields. She looks straight into the camera while two others continue their work. DP: Kenan Ormanlar.

The Industrial Revolution, or unions, for Labor Day (USA)

 

Kurdish seasonal cotton pickers fear losing their job when mechanisation is preferred by their overseers. While unionising, Cevher, one of the workers – tries to stay out of the hands of his enemies, who want him because of a blood feud.

Månen är en grön ost [The Moon Is a Green Cheese] (Mai Zetterling, 1977)

Aug

21

violet

Månen är en grön ost (1977)

A woman in a violet dress and sunhat, plays a harp in the middle of a lake (via). DP: John Bulmer.

Violet in food or fashion. If in doubt, pick a title with ALL the colours of the rainbow!*

 

During their stay in the family summer house, two sisters imagine themselves as adults, once for every colour of the rainbow.

 

Le camion [The Lorry] (Marguerite Duras, 1977)

Aug

16

indigo

Le camion (1977)

His Saviem, possibly an SM170. DP: Bruno Nuytten.

Indigo: a building or structure*

Him: It’s a film? Her: It would have been a film.

A truck, both the narrative structure and his (Depardieu's character) material representation. She – the director – and he – the lead actor – do a read-though while discussing her script. A communist truck driver picks up a female hitchhiker. They discuss the landscape, the cosmos, pointlessness, communism of course. All the while, the indigo truck plods on.

 

Il fiore delle mille e una notte [Arabian Nights] (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1974)

Aug

13

cerulean

Il fiore delle mille e una notte (1974)

The entrance of the Shah Mosque as seen in the film. The seven colours of the tile work are reflected in the extras' costumes. DP: Giuseppe Ruzzolini.

Cerulean, or blue: a building or structure*

“Eh, i sogni a volte insegnano male, Dùnya, perché la verità intera non è mai in un solo sogno, la verità intera è in molti sogni.”

One of the many exotic locations is the مسجد شاه, [Masjed-e Shah, or Shah Mosque] in Iran with its otherworldly blue and blue-adjacent tiles.

 

Ovoce stromů rajských jíme [We Eat the Fruit of the Trees of Paradise] (Věra Chytilová, 1970)

Aug

6

orange

Ovoce stromů rajských jíme (1970)

Eva (Jitka Novákova) devouring oranges under a black umbrella (via). DP: Jaroslav Kučera.

Orange, food or fashion*

“Tell me the truth!”

– choir

An allegorical, psychedelic retelling of Genesis 3 and the Fall of Man

 

Viskningar och rop [Cries and Whispers] (Ingmar Bergman, 1972)

Aug

1

red

Viskningar och rop (1972)

The three sisters in the red room (via). DP: Sven Nykvist.

Red: a building or structure*

“It's just a dream, Agnes.”

– Anna

Red as an expression of inner and outer worlds. Even the scene transitions are red.

 

The Tempest (Derek Jarman, 1979)

Jul

28

The Tempest (1979)

Sailors dancing in a room wildly decorated with guirlandes and flowers (via). DP: Peter Middleton.

Local nightlife: people dancing or at a show*

“Don't know why There's no sun up in the sky Stormy weather Since my man and I ain't together Keeps raining all of the time

Oh, yeah Life is bad Gloom and misery everywhere Stormy weather, stormy weather And I just can get my poor self together Oh, I'm weary all of the time The time, so weary all of the time

When he went away The blues walked in and met me Oh, yeah if he stays away Old rocking chair's gonna get me All I do is pray The Lord will let me Walk in the sun once more

Oh, I can't go on, can't go on, can't go on Everything I have is gone Stormy weather, stormy weather Since my man and I, me and my daddy ain't together Keeps raining all of the time Oh, oh, keeps raining all of the time Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah raining all of the time Stormy stormy Stormy weather Yeah”

– Elisabeth Welch, Stormy Weather (Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler, 1933)

A radiant Goddess (Elisabeth Welch) performs the torch song Stormy Weather. Enchanted sailors dance.

 

Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 1972)

Jul

24

cantaloupe

Silent Running (1972)

Bruce Dern as peace-loving Freeman Lowell aggressively eating a cantaloupe in space. DP: Charles F. Wheeler.

“It calls back a time when there were flowers all over the Earth… and there were valleys. And there were plains of tall green grass that you could lie down in – you could go to sleep in. And there were blue skies, and there was fresh air… and there were things growing all over the place, not just in some domed enclosures blasted some millions of miles out in to space.”

– Freeman Lowell

La grande bouffe (Marco Ferreri, 1973)

Jul

21

La grande bouffe (1973)

Andréa Ferréol in a promotional photo. Food styling by actor/food writer Giuseppe Maffioli, DP: Mario Vulpiani.

A character pigging out*

“The most revolting film I have ever seen”

– Mary Whitehouse, via

Four hedonistic gourmands throw a party of the flesh, of meat, of lust, and death.