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Taxi zum Klo (Frank Ripploh, 1980)
Sep
2
Christa McAuliffe 1948 – 1986
Frank (Frank Ripploh) teaching kids about the human body on an anatomy dummy. DP: Horst Schier.
A teacher for what would have been Christa McAuliffe's birthday.
“Ich mag Männer, bin 30 Jahre alt, von Beruf Lehrer.”
– Frank Ripploh
Frank Ripploh is a sexual ethics and biology teacher by day, and hedonistic gay man and aspiring pornographer by night. When Frank Ripploh, the man, publicly came out in 1978 in the tabloid Stern, he lost his teaching job and did become that filmmaker. Taxi zum Klo – litt. taxi to the john/loo – is his story. A frank pre-AIDS pre-Internet pre-victimhood depiction of male gay culture in West Germany. Maybe raw, possibly misogynist, definitely true to life.
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Czułe miejsca [Tender Spots] (Piotr Andrejew, 1981)
Aug
28
1998
Janek (Michał Juszczakiewicz) and Ewa (Hanna Dunowska) in embrace on a bed. DPs: Jerzy Zieliński & Ryszard Lenczewski.
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The Music of the Spheres (G. Philip Jackson, 1983)
Aug
28
1994
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The Black Tower (John Smith, 1985—1987)
Aug
22
black
Black: a building or structure*
“I first noticed it in Spring last year. […] It was from [my home] that I first saw it—its crest protruding over the roofs on the other side of the road. Surprised that I hadn’t noticed it before, I wondered what it was and then forgot about it for several weeks.”
– narrator
The black tower was a real structure, first noticed by filmmaker John Smith when he moved to East London. The building, actually the upper part of a hospital's water tower, was painted pitch black, and on sunny days appeared to be a cutout in the sky. By framing the shots in such a way that only part of the surroundings is visible, and editing them in a narrative framework, Smith creates a new context suggesting movement. This style of montage called creative geography, or artificial landscape, was developed by Lev Kuleshov and enables filmmakers to expand existing material and narrative into something that usually is only available to prose poetry.
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Al filo del hacha [Edge of the Axe] (José Ramón Larraz, 1988)
Aug
16
1978
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A computer screen with the admission date of Lillian Nebbs (Christina Marie Lane) in the psychiatric ward on August 16, 1978. Diagnosis: Psycho Amnesia [sic]. There are small pop magazine stickers on the display's bezel. DP: Tote Trenas.
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Der Stand der Dinge [The State of Things] (Wim Wenders, 1982)
Aug
13
1942
Friedrich Munro's (Patrick Bauchau) Hollywood, Ca address and date of birth: August 13, 1942. DPs: Henri Alekan, Fred Murphy & Martin Schäfer.
– You know, I take pictures, photographs, but I never really thought in black and white before I saw our rushes. Do you know what I mean? You can see the shape of things.
– Life is in colour, but black and white is more realistic.
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آداب بهاری [Adab-e Bahari / Rites of Spring] (Ali Asghar Agahbanaei, 1982)
Aug
11
spring
In a dewdrop hanging from a rose, the face of a smiling woman appears.
Dita e Verës, a pagan spring celebration from Albania, celebrated in March: a spring scene*
The restless anticipation of spring. Iran as it was before and after the 1979 toppling of the Shah. While the snow melts away, the Revolution takes place, and fresh buds appear on the rose bushes. A poem.
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Seksmisja [Sexmission] (Juliusz Machulski, 1984)
Aug
9
Two poor captured extinct men enjoying breakfast and cigarettes. DP: Jerzy Łukaszewicz.
– Men are extinct.
– They were not mammoths!
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8-8-88 Church of Satan Mansonite Rally (Boyd Rice, 1988)
Aug
8
1988
The marquee of the San Francisco Strand Theater. Mentioned are two films: animation A Bitter Message of Hopeless Grief by Jonathan Reiss (1988), and excellent Mansonsploitation drama The Other Side of Madness aka The Helter Skelter Murders by Frank Howard (1971). Also billed (what a night!) are NON and Secret Chiefs 3.Still (via). DP: ?.
“The entire world is rotten and corrupt… to us they're dead people who refuse to lay down, they're cadavers”
– Boyd Rice speaking to Geraldo Rivera (via)
Please note that the linked article is written by an dimwitted ignoramus completely oblivious of Boyd Rice's, and Anton LaVey's, prankster background.
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Les trois couronnes du matelot [Three Crowns of the Sailor] (Raúl Ruiz, 1983)
Jul
25
1958
Prostitute María (Nadège Clair) sitting on her bed. The bed is covered in dolls. DP: Sacha Vierny.
“On the night of July 25, 1958 I killed Ladislaw Zukarevitch, antique dealer, my mentor, my master in the art of polishing diamonds, my tutor at Warsaw Theological School.”
– the student