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Grands soirs & petits matins [May Days] (William Klein, 1978)
Jun
6
National Higher Education Day
Students discussing at the Sorbonne. DPs: William Klein & Bernard Lutic.
A ripple went through France in the early months of 1968. It started when the Communist and socialist party joined forces in an attempt to remove President De Gaulle from office. A month later, students at Nanterre (a Parisian university) teamed up with poets, musicians and small leftist groups to discuss class discrimination and political bureaucracy on campus. The meeting was peacefully disassembled but tensions remained. In May, Sorbonne students stood up for Nanterre, by then shut down. Then, police invaded the university and 20 000 stood up against the police.
“Convert all Parisian universities into reception centres for the revolutionary youth of the whole world.”
– student proposal
Somewhere in that crowd were those whose interest went beyond the main spectacle: the toppling of the new ancien regime. A #JeanRouchian anthropologist of sorts, artist, photographer and filmmaker William Klein pushes the eye through the masses. But it's also his eye; each frame is a Klein. However, we see not a documentary. Sound is asynchronous. Suddenly, it's night and flames lick the black sky. When bricks fly, frames follow. And then… the end.
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Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural (Richard Blackburn, 1973)
Jun
4
meat
A fancy looking silver plate with what appears to be raw meat. DP: Robert Caramico.
“Wouldn't you rather I did it out of love, than have one of those wood things do it out of their own animal hungers?”
– Lemora
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Sinong lumikha ng yoyo? Sinong lumikha ng moon buggy? [Who Invented the Yoyo? Who Invented the Moon Buggy?] (Kidlat Tahimik, 1979)
May
30
National Creativity Day
Kidlat Tahimik test driving his moon buggy, closely followed by faithful crew member Gottlieb (Kidlat Gottlieb Kalayaan). DP: Kidlat Tahimik.
“If you don't eat too many Gummy Bears you could be my co-pilot.”
– Kidlat Tahimik, speaking to a budding crew member
Sinong lumikha ng yoyo? is a remarkable display of imaginative filmmaking. Together with Kidlat we ponder about practicalities, suddenly see connections that were obscured by too much thinking, and realise all the new possibilities we have in life. Part documentary, part animation, part fantasy, part sci-fi, Kidlat transports us to yet unexplored spaces!
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Grauzone [Zones] (Fredi M. Murer, 1979)
May
29
Mount Everest Day
Julia (Olga Piazza) waking from a unusually deep sleep. DP: Hans Liechti.
Grauzone takes place in one of the three spaces documented in Murer's beautifully titled documentary Wir Bergler in den Bergen sind eigentlich nicht schuld, daß wir da sind [We, the mountain people, who live in the mountains are not really to blame for being there] (1974). One valley lives in tune with its natural rhythm, the second experiences a transition to modernity.
Sie fallen unerwartet in einem traumlosen Schlaf.
The third space, the “grey zone” – both this film's title and a descriptive term for an undefined neutral zone – is where the Bergler have become technology dwellers, where they live on summits made of concrete instead of rock. Where rumours about a #pandemic stir an ancient, unnamed fear. And symptoms: the sudden urge to wander out in nature, an acute melancholy, an overall hyper awareness. A young, prosperous couple become infected and pick up secret radio transmissions. What they believed was concrete, solid, immovable, suddenly shows signs of a shift.
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Cuadecuc, vampir (Pere Portabella, 1971)
May
26
World Dracula Day
Lucy (Soledad Miranda) in bloody embrace with Dracula (Christopher Lee). DP: Manel Esteban.
A black forest. A man walks through, holding a smoke machine. Then a carriage with a familiar coachman. Dracula! Where are we? No, not 19th century #Transylvania. The film stock reveals bullet holes in ancient walls, and beyond these walls a ladder, maybe scaffolding. A pneumatic drill, more crew members, lights, a clapperboard. Are the characters aware of that? Them seem to interact with the disturbance yet oblige to the interruptions of the movie set. In a state of hypnopompia, guided by kuroko, maybe?
“cut”
Pere Portabella created a hyper-reality with his Cuadecuc, vampir. A director dismantles the man-behind-the-curtain, Franco, the other #Franco while setting up scaffolding for the next Spain. Everything's a reality, or an illusion, then nothing is.
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Padre padrone [My Father My Master / Father and Master] (Paolo + Vittorio Taviani, 1977)
May
23
freebie: National Sons Day
Father (Omero Antonutti) and son (Saverio Marconi). The son, an adult here, kneels and rests his head on his father's knee. The father, perched on the edge of a bed, looks down on the young man. DP: Mario Masini.
Not a film you can be prepared for, Padre padrone. The author, Gavino Ledda, hands a stick – that stick – to the actor who plays his part. There we are, in Sardinia, beautiful Sardinia. A boy in class, learning. His father barges in: the boy must attend the sheep, or else. From that moment on we become that boy Gavino. Life's cruel on the island, but his father, his master, is worse. But that's how it is, there's sheep to herd. When Gavino enlist in the army, he encounters a new world. The precise world of electronics, other people, other sounds, the Italian #language. When he returns home, he finds his father a small man.
“Don't laugh at Gavino. Hands on your desks! Today is Gavino's turn. Tomorrow will be yours.”
– father
In a 1977 New York Times article the Taviani's are cited as seeing Gavino in the same light as #Truffaut's L'Enfant sauvage (1970) and #Herzog's Kaspar Hauser (Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle) (1974). However, the Sardinian boy's outsiderness is not caused by estrangement, but an immense loneliness that cannot be put into words. This is why Ledda's newfound language is such an important tool. It's not a stick, or a fist, or a dead snake. It's the foundation of his Home.
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Dejlig er den himmel blå [Lovely Is the Blue Sky] (Jon Bang Carlsen, 1975)
May
19
Malcolm X Day
The Julemandshæren (“Santa Claus Army”) at Magasin, just after their arrest (image credit: Mother Jones, Dec. 1977). The performance was archived for prosperity in the documentary Dejlig er den himmel blå. DPs: Jimmy Andreasen, Morten Bruus, Dirk Brüel, Teit Jørgensen & Freddy Tornberg.
'Twas the week before Christmas. Not too far from Copenhagen a helicopter lands, carrying #SantaClaus and a Christmas angel. A small welcome orchestra plays carols, after which the party makes its way to the Danish capital. There, more Santas join the duo.
“Here Santa opens a factory with 1000 workers”
– banner next to a Julemandshæren-occupied factory
Over the course of several days they bring cheer, song and hot chocolate to delighted Copenhagen Christmas shoppers. Then they show up at a local bank, demanding low-interest loans. Then, in support of the laid-off workers, they unroll a large banner at the recently shutdown General Motors factory. On the final day, Santa Claus visits Magasin, the Danish version of Macy's. In the true spirit of Christmas the Julemandshæren hands out the store's books to thrilled customers. Magasin staff is not amused. Some of them start pummelling the Santas, ripping off beards to prove that these are crooks, not real #Santas. Small children are in tears, their dreams of a just world shattered.
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Idaho Transfer (Peter Fonda, 1973)
May
17
National Idaho Day
Teenagers Ronald (Kevin Hearst) and Karen (Kelly Bohanon) sitting next to each other in the desert. Karen, wearing untied shoes and a sleeping bag over her shoulders, looks distraught. DP: Bruce Logan.
A disaster has struck the future world. A private one, Karen's sister has had an accident. And a global one, one so severe that a Government project is put in place. The Project, located in the #Idaho desert and in different points in time, transfers teenagers 56 years forward so to repopulate the to-be-wiped-out land. Then, without warning or reason, The Project shuts down and the kids strand into a deserted future.
“Esto Perpetua”
– Idaho state motto
Idaho Transfer is, even for early 70s standards, an odd affair. It carries the weight of its time – hippie optimism had died thanks to #Manson, US meddling in Vietnam, the impending #EcoCrisis (we knew, we always did…) – but there too was this optimism for the upcoming millennium. Everything was going to be fine, in The Future. We'll be wiser, no more wars, no more famine, technology will save us. Released just 4 months before the first Oil Shock, Fonda somehow transferred a glimpse of our future.
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Doc (Frank Perry, 1971)
May
16
A tense scene in a dark saloon, the table littered with empty bottles. DP: Gerald Hirschfeld.
“If it weren't for bad people, what would you do for a living, Marshal?”
– Doc Holliday
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Trafic [Traffic] (Jacques Tati, 1971)
May
16
National Barbecue Day
A man prepares a steak on his nifty Renault 4 Altra grill (there's a pun), observed by M. Hulot and a perplexed Dutch customs officer. In the background a sign in Dutch that requests to refrain from smoking. DPs: Eduard van der Enden & Marcel Weiss.
Monsieur #Hulot – who in his final appearance happens to be an automobile designer – travels to a car show in Amsterdam to demonstrate his latest creation, a camper van par excellence. The vehicle of course accommodates the latest gadgets, such as a collapsible grill.
“Where are you going, Mr. Hulot?”
However regarded as a lesser #Tati, Trafic, is another display of lovingly choreographed insanity, notably a #CarCrash that makes me wonder if this was Tati's attempt to transpose Godard's Week-end (1967) into a pleasant, pre-May 68 France.