“The 17th of July. Comrade Anna is not lying!”Ucho [The Ear] (Karel Kachyňa, 1970)
Jul
17

Party member, and rather drunk, Anna (Jiřina Bohdalová) and her newspaper hat at the officials' party. DP: Josef Illík.
“The 17th of July. Comrade Anna is not lying!”Ucho [The Ear] (Karel Kachyňa, 1970)
Jul
17

Party member, and rather drunk, Anna (Jiřina Bohdalová) and her newspaper hat at the officials' party. DP: Josef Illík.
“I'll tell you what though, Mac. There'll be no more games from now on.”Figures in a Landscape (Joseph Losey, 1970)
Jul
17

MacConnachie (Robert Shaw, standing and peering upwards) and Ansell (Malcolm McDowell, squatting and facing away) in a barren landscape. Both have their hands tied behind their back. DPs: Henri Alekan, Peter Suschitzky & Guy Tabary.
– Ansell
– We'll go to an island and live from fishing and hunting. And the sun will shine and it will never rain. And we'll eat lobster and drink wine.
– …
– Why not?
– Because it's too expensive.
– Why too expensive?
– It's just too expensive. Götter der Pest [Gods of the Plague] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970)
Jul
16

The Gorilla (Günther Kaufmann) and Franz (Harry Baer) reflected in the window of a deserted supermarket at night (via). DP: Dietrich Lohmann.
Someone complains about costs or prices*
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
“Ein Psychogramm zweier ungewöhnlicher, aber auch extrem unterschiedlicher Frauen. Die eine, reich, exzentrisch, ihre Gefühle maskenhaft verbergend, trinkt sich bewusst zu Tode. Sie ist der Fall, der in der Statistik nicht erscheint, weil entweder zu Hause unter Valium gehalten oder unter Verschluss in einer Privatklinik. Die andere ist arm und trinkt sich unbewusst zu Tode. Sie erscheint in der normalen Statistik als Typ der haltlosen Trinkerin” Bildnis einer Trinkerin – Aller jamais retour [Portrait of a Female Drunkard. Ticket of No Return] (Ulrike Ottinger, 1979)
Jul
15

Sie, German for “she/her”, hungover in her fabulous yellow nappa leather outfit (via). DP: Ulrike Ottinger.
Someone is hungover*
– U.O., via
An eccentric woman simply named Sie (Tabea Blumenschein), takes a one-way trip to West Berlin. Accompanied by her alter ego, a homeless alcoholic, and commented on by a Greek choir consisting of Soziale Frage (Social Question), Exakte Statistik (Exact Statistics), and Gesunder Menschenverstand (Common Sense), she drinks herself to death.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
點指兵兵 [Dian zhi bing bing / Cops and Robbers] (Kwok-Ming Cheung, 1979)
Jul
15

“Telephones were still working, we are told, and the air-conditioning and refrigerators in many houses were still on.” La Soufrière – Warten auf eine unausweichliche Katastrophe [La Soufrière: Waiting for an Inevitable Catastrophe] (Werner Herzog, 1977)
Jul
13

Herzog and crew make their way up the volcano (via). DPs: Edward Lachman & Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein.
Someone at a theme park or national park*
– narrator
The highest peak in the Parc national de la Guadeloupe is called La Grande Soufrière. The volcano had erupted before and was bound to do soon again. Hastily, the 76,000 islanders were evacuated with one farmer staying put. For Herzog reason to halt the editing of Herz aus Glas and make his way to the island.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
La mort d'un bûcheron [The Death of a Lumberjack] (Gilles Carle, 1973)
Jul
12
1920

Blanche Bellefeuille (Denise Filiatrault) in front of a wall covered in catholic knickknacks. Through a door, nightclub entrepreneur Armand St. Amour (Willie Lamothe) can be seen asleep, his beloved cowboy boots carefully placed next to his improvised bed. DP: René Verzier.
La dame dans l'auto avec des lunettes et un fusil [The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun] (Anatole Litvak, 1970)
Jul
10
Vendredi

A man with a lot of swagger and rolled up blueprints is about to enter a room with a prominent Coca-Cola machine and a jazzy leather swivel chair on display. An electronic flip clock tells the time and date. It's 17:52. DP: Claude Renoir.
Басейнът [Baseynat / The Swimming Pool] (Binka Zhelyazkova, 1977)
Jul
9

Bella (Yanina Kasheva) at the pool, holding a passport. DP: Ivaylo Trenchev.
A passport or ID*
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
“On July 4, 1976 I and my camera toured the state of Colorado with governor Richard D. Lamm, as he traveled in parades with his children, appeared at dinners, lectured, etc. On July 20, I spent the morning in his office in the state capitol and the afternoon with himself and his wife in a television studio, then with Mrs. Lamm greeting guests to the governor’s mansion and finally with Governor Lamm in his office again. These two days of photography took me exactly one year to edit into a film which wove itself thru multiple superimpositions into a study of light and power.”The Governor (Stan Brakhage, 1977)
Jul
4
1976
And July 20
– Stan Brakhage