settima

1970s

Οι Τεμπέληδες της Εύφορης Κοιλάδας [Oi tembelides tis eforis koiladas / The Idlers of the Fertile Valley] (Nikos Panayotopoulos, 1978)

May

15

Οι Τεμπέληδες της Εύφορης Κοιλάδας (1978)

The maid (Olga Karlatos) patiently feeding the father (Vasilis Diamantopoulos) in bed. DP: Andreas Bellis.

Malpertuis (Harry Kümel, 1971)

May

12

meat

Malpertuis (1971)

Cassavius (Orson Welles), looking monstrous on his sickbed, surrounded by peopel who appear to be in mourning. On his bed's foot-end a large silver platter with cooked meat, and a rat on its hind legs. DP: Gerry Fisher.

點指兵兵 [Dian zhi bing bing / Cops and Robbers] (Kwok-Ming Cheung, 1979)

May

6

點指兵兵 (1979)

A table set with one small plate of meat, one small plate of vegetables, three empty bowls, and one pair of chopsticks.

Last Chants for a Slow Dance (Jon Jost, 1977)

May

3

National Montana Day

Last Chants for a Slow Dance (1977)

Tom Blair as Tom Bates. We see him through a rest stop's window with the reflection of the word ƎᖷAƆ in red neon over his face. Tom's reading a newspaper. DP: Jon Jost.

Last Chants for a Slow Dance is shocking in its simplicity. Tom (Tom Blair) is out there looking for work. Out of the way of his wife and into the heart of Montana. On a slow moving road trip, as scorching and dragging like hot tar, we accompany him and some of the vapid interactions with others out there. The heat, pursuit of sex, and inter-human exchanges are endless.

 

Things do break.

How much Wood would a Woodchuck chuck… – Beobachtungen zu einer neuen Sprache (Werner Herzog, 1976)

Apr

20

National Auctioneers Day

How much Wood would a Woodchuck chuck… - Beobachtungen zu einer neuen Sprache (1976)

One of the younger auctioneers during his attempt. DP: Thomas Mauch.

#Herzog travels to New Holland, Pennsylvania to witness the 1976 World Livestock Auctioneer Championship. Cattle is weighed and paraded in front of the buyers, and the 53 contestants have a few minutes to auction the animals off to the highest bidder.

 

We see glimpses of the audience. New Holland is the land of the money-eschewing #Amish, descendants of German-speaking Swiss, whose dress, ways and speech found an ideal state in an increasingly convoluted world. While money rolls, the Amish hand out their home-baked pies free of charge to the Championship onlookers.

 

To German-as-Apfeltorte Herzog, the auction is bewildering, the “last #poetry possible, the poetry of #capitalism”. In keeping with Herzog's poetic, ecstatic truth, Bruno S. too travels to America and encounters the auctioneers in Stroszek (1977).

Jerry's Deli [Jerry] (Tom Palazzolo, 1974)

Apr

17

National Stress Awareness Month

Jerry's Deli (1974)

Jerry Meyer in his sandwich place, taking orders.

Stressed?‽ Who's got time to be stressed when there's a business to be run!!? Tom Palazzolo's Jerry’s Deli is a great character study of not only a character, but a whole time period inhabited by characters. The titular Jerry is Jerry Meyer, owner and proprietor of a Chicagoan deli that happened to be right next to Palazzolo's film lab. You wanna eat? Now, eat! Wanna order? Whaddaya waiting for?? Order!! Roast beef on rye please.

“On RYE!?!”

– Jerry Meyer

Supermarkt [Die Stadt, Jane Love / Supermarket] (Roland Klick, 1974)

Apr

16

National Cash Day

Supermarkt (1974)

A dirty, cut hand attempts to steal a few coins from a dish at a public toilet. DP: Jost Vacano.

Good-for-nothing Willi (Charly Wierzejewski) is in trouble. After yet another run-in with the law, and yet again meeting the wrong people at the wrong time, he falls in love with a destitute street worker (Eva Mattes). Now he really needs #money so he can support himself, her, and her kid. He tries his hand at renting himself out to a rich homosexual (homosexuality was illegal in 1970s W Germany), then moves forward to robbing the money transporter of a local supermarket with his pimp buddy. But as usual, Willi is in trouble.

 

Shot on location in #Hamburg's red-light district St. Pauli, Supermarkt is gritty, unpleasant and has an authenticity rarely seen in other films of this genre.

The Kirlian Witness (Jonathan Sarno, 1978)

Apr

13

International Plant Appreciation Day

The Kirlian Witness (1978)

Rilla (Nancy Snyder) in a neglected room, the floor's littered with empty food packaging. On a small table in front of her, a ficus hooked up to a polygraph. DP: João Fernandes.

Kirlian photography claims that plants can communicate telepathically. Rilla (Nancy Snyder) delves deep into the science so to interrogate the only witness to her plant-loving sister Laurie's murder, a ficus.

 

Not to be confused with the inferior alternative cut The Plants are Watching.

Hu-Man [Pleurs] (Jérôme Laperrousaz, 1975)

Apr

7

Public Television Day

Hu-Man (1975)

Terence (Terence Stamp) projected on multiple large screens with television executives watching. DP: Jimmy Glasberg.

The global audience of #Mondo-Vision, a live broadcast #TimeTravel experiment, determines through their emotional investment in the lead's screened experience what the man's destination will be. Even so, the spectators' collective energy should serve as a powerhouse, enabling a televised leap into the future. The man whose faith determines it all is Terence Stamp – played by the actor with the same name. He agrees to partake in the hope that enough emotional energy can be harvested for him to travel back in time so he can reunite with his lost love.

 

While definitely taking a cue or two from Alain Resnais' Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968), Hu-Man has a much grimmer feel to it. The seventies were not a time of or even for optimism, including Stamp's career and personal life. Noun Serra's dizzying editing and the real-world danger both the in-movie actor and real-world actor are exposed to makes Hu-Man a much more self-referential and personal experience for this future's reality-fatigued viewer.

Vérités et Mensonges [F for Fake] (Orson Welles, Gary Graver, Oja Kodar + François Reichenbach, 1973)

March

29

Smoke And Mirrors Day

Vérités et Mensonges (1973)

A wide shot of Orson Welles in his black cape and wide rimmed hat. His corpulence and black outfit sharply contrast with the bright, white background. The background is a white plane, held up by two assistants. The wide shot reveals that Welles, the white plane, and the assistants are on the platform of a train station, obscuring a passenger train if in close-up. DP: François Reichenbach.

Vérités et Mensonges is what it's actually called, but you may know it as F for Fake. Orson Welles and three uncredited fellow conspirators – Gary Graver, Oja Kodar, and François Reichenbach – delve into the world of #art forger Elmyr de Hory by way of his biographer Clifford Irving.

“Back to the old tricks.”

– Orson Welles

Welles et al free-associate with concepts of art, lies, #deception, and #authenticity. #Houdin, Welles, #Picasso and Hughes, hoaxers, hucksters and artists in their own right. And then it's over: this work of art, this sleight of hand, this demonstration of factuality, an exposé.