“I left forty lira at home, the family is hungry now.”Umut [Hope] (Yılmaz Güney + Şerif Gören, 1970)
Dec
30
National Resolution Planning Day
Hasan (Tuncel Kurtiz) and Cabbar (Yılmaz Güney) planning their next step sitting atop of the pit. DP: Kaya Ererez.
Discussing an elaborate plan on National Resolution Planning Day (USA)
Cabbar (Yılmaz Güney), an impoverished, illiterate phaeton driver, loses his already half-dead horse when a rich man crashes into the cart. Now destitute and burdened with feeding his six children, wife and grandmother, Cabbar is offered several ways out. While winning the lottery is not in his stars, his friend Hasan's (Tuncel Kurtiz) and imam Hodja's (Osman Alyanak) wondrous plan to go out into the Kurdish wastelands to dig up an illusive treasure may be his only escape.
– Cabbar
Umut is Turkey's early venture into Neorealismo. Banned by the national board of censorship – the display of abject poverty, characters not observing morning prayer etc etc – the film was smuggled out off the country and into Cannes, where its screening urged the Turkish government to reconsider its decision. It's now seen as one of Turkey's most important cinematic masterpieces.
1970s
Colloque de chiens (1977)
Monique (Silke Humel, R) spending Christmas Eve in a bar, looking for a way out. She's speaking to an elderly man in an expensive tuxedo. Is this it? DP: Denis Lenoir; still photographer Patrice Morere.
December 24: the night before Christmas (Christmas Eve)
Colloque de chiens (Raúl Ruiz, 1977)
“Nobody knows why Monique, the cold and dry voiced whore, bears in her eyes the sadness and tiredness of her past.”
Filmed during an actors' strike, Raúl Ruiz's Colloque de chiens consists for the most part of still photographs with mixed in stolen moving footage of unsuspecting bystanders and stray dogs. Told in fotonovela format, we follow the pitiful account of Monique, who as a young girl, learns that her mother is not who she thinks she is. Rejected, she throws herself into a life of vice until she meets Henri, a handsome young television repairman. Together they buy a small café, and are happy for once. But the cyclical nature of life determines her faith.
Raúl Ruiz's work is, like Henri's modus operandi, determined by maps and patterns. Even in the short comically melodramatic breathe of Colloque de chiens, the map has been laid out for Ruiz's later, much more complex narrative.
Colloque opens in a barren landscape. There are the skeletal towers of a nearby city, and the endless barks of abandoned dogs. Obscured by tall reeds, a blown-up photograph of a young man. The face, soft and familiar, a distant memory.
“He wanted to be returned to the world of his childhood and to this woman who was perhaps waiting for him” –Chris Marker, dialogue from La Jetée (1962)
Amongst bare winter bushes a large photo of a friendly, young, familiar looking man. In the background against a grey sky multiple white apartment buildings.
#Bales2023FilmChallenge #RaúlRuiz #SilkeHumel #EvaSimonet #RobertDarmel #JorgeArriagada #DenisLenoir #PatriceMorere #drama #crime #melodrama #ShortFilm #photography #animals #gender #prostitution #France #1970s ★★★★☆
“He's a peasant. Without looking into his situation, words are all he has.”شكاوى الفلاح الفصيح [El-Fallâh el-fasîh / The Eloquent Peasant] (Chadi Abdel Salam, 1970)
Dec
23
National Farmers Day – India
The peasant (Ahmed Marei) in a stone temple, flanked by scribes. DP: Mustafa Imam.
Farmers for Kisan Divas [National Farmers Day] (India)
4000 years ago, Egypt, Middle Kingdom. A peasant, leading his mules past a stream of water, is tricked. With his animals gone, he pleads to the Pharaoh to restore Maʽat, harmony.
Chadi Abdel Salam is not only this film's director, but also a trained architect, later set and costume designer. His eye wordlessly speaks the passing of time in the smallest of details. The withering of ferns, desert sand staining linen, the Sun merging with skin. At once, the universal presence of the gods becomes visible.
“America is as psychotic as it is powerful and violence is the only goddamn thing that will command your attention.”Punishment Park (Peter Watkins, 1971)
Dec
13
U.S. National Guard Birthday
Military men arresting one of the dissidents. A man in black uniform and white helmet interacts directly with the camera c.q. the viewer. DPs: Joan Churchill & Peter Smokler.
The National Guard shows up: U.S. National Guard Birthday, USA.
A European camera crew follows a diverse group of American minor dissidents – pacifists, feminists, communists – who are given the choice to spend decades in federal prison, or three days in Bear Mountain Punishment Park, chased by National Guardsmen and law enforcement officers. If they manage to capture the American flag, they're free to go.
– Defendant Lee Robert Brown
While the washed-out 16mm footage and references to #Nixon may tell you otherwise, Punishment Park remains a gut-punching portrait of a timeless America.
Pinky Rose: Wine! You got wine!
Millie: Yeah.
PR: Tickled Pink!
M: And the other's Lemon Satin.
PR: Ooo! Lemon Satin!3 Women (Robert Altman, 1977)
Dec
2
Pillsbury™ Crescent Dogs
Pinky Rose (Sissy Spacek) opens a jar of Sau-Sea shrimp cocktail. Thank you Mother Suspiria and mom for solving this riddle! Ooo, there's Crescent Dogs too! DP: Charles Rosher Jr..
“Peace is at hand.” Em bé Hà Nội [The Little Girl of Hanoi] (Hải Ninh, 1974)
Nov
30
Day of Remembrance for All Victims of Chemical Warfare
The titular little girl walking past a wall covered in bullet holes. DP: The Dan Tran.
War crimes on the Day of Remembrance for All Victims of Chemical Warfare
Operation Linebacker II, sometimes euphemistically referred to as the #Christmas bombings, was the outcome of a 1972 agreement between US war criminal and future Nobel Prize winner Henry #Kissinger and Vietnamese general Lê Đức Thọ. During an 11 day period, a staggering 20000 tons of shells were dropped on the cities of Hà Nội [#Hanoi] and Hải Phòng [#Haiphong], killing at least 1624 civilians.
– Kissinger in 1972, commenting on Operation Linebacker II
Film as you may know it approaches the #Vietnam war from one of two perspectives. There is your heroic propaganda, reducing the Vietnamese to cruel vermin to be rooted out by brave Americans. That list is endless and I'm tired. Then on the other hand there's levity, song and dance and a swish of sentiment with Hair and the unforgivable Good Morning, Vietnam; the, see it wasn't too bad we brought “them” rock 'n' roll and bubblegum-approach. And only once upon a time there was The Deer Hunter. However none of these see the Vietnamese, regardless of North or South, as people. A backdrop perhaps, as exotic as foliage.
Showing what happened on the ground, other than the faith of Phan Thị Kim Phúc or Nguyễn Văn Lém, something beyond the fetishisation of helpless victimhood, is essential to put a face on things. And a voice in people's mouths.
Today, I use my voice to proclaim my wordless joy for the end of an era. And will spare it for the harrowing future to come.
“I'm calm. I'm completely calm. You can leave me alone now”Angst vor der Angst [Fear of Fear] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975)
Nov
29
freebie: Housewife Day
Margot (Margit Carstensen) seeing herself reflected twice in a triple mirror. We see her from the back, which blocks out the third reflection. DP: Jürgen Jürges.
November 3 redux
– Margot
“This we do for pleasure, so that we may shortly be at the mercy of venomous snakes and poisonous ants. How foolish can human creatures be.”Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975)
Nov
26
Valentine's cake – alfresco
A piece of cake. With teeny tiny ants crawling all over it. Awww! DP: Russell Boyd.
– Miss McCraw
“The vicinity is reknowned for its venomous snakes and poisonous ants of various species. It is, however, a geological marvel.”Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975)
Nov
26
World Lewis Day
A koala high up in a tree, observing one of the rescue operations. DP: Russell Boyd.
A koala for World Lewis Day
It's not possible to be in nature, one can only be absorbed by it.
– Mrs. Appleyard
Italianamerican (1974)
Cast and crew in the Scorsese family dining room.
November 23: family dinner for #Thanksgiving
Italianamerican (Martin Scorsese, 1974)
Take a few spoonfuls of tomato and throw them in there.
While mother Scorsese's famous meatballs in gravy are working their way to mwah! chef's kiss perfection, son Martin interviews his parents Catherine and Charles. For those unsure what to cook, and for those who don't celebrate Thanksgiving at all, mama's recipe is included in the end credits. And here: