settima

1980s

Psychic Confession (Danny Korem, 1982)

Oct

23

Psychic Confession (1982)

James Hydrick spins a one dollar bill – balanced on top of a pin, locked into an airtight, glass box – with the power of his own mind.

“My whole idea behind this in the first place was to see how dumb America was. How dumb the world is.”

– James Hydrick

Könnyű testi sértés [Tight Quarters] (György Szomjas, 1983)

Oct

16

Könnyű testi sértés (1983)

Csaba (Károly Eperjes) and Miklós (Péter Andorai) in their reluctantly shared apartment. Every frame is claustrophobically filled with people, including the television. DP: Ferenc Grunwalsky.

駅​ [Eki / Station] (Yasuo Furuhata, 1981)

Oct

12

駅 (1981)

Eiji Mikami (Ken Takakura) and Kiriko (Chieko Baishō) watching TV in her quiet bar. She sings along with her favourite song. DP: Daisaku Kimura.

Set 278 days before the start of the Tokyo Olympics.

“One can meet only god at such hour.”

Medium (Jacek Koprowicz, 1985)

Oct

2

Medium (1985)

A man in an impeccable, light-colored suit. His nose is bleeding. DPs: Jerzy Zieliński & Wit Dąbal.

Gothic (Ken Russel, 1986)

Oct

1

Frankenstein

Gothic (1986)

Percy Shelley (Gabriel Byrne), Mary Shelley (Natasha Richardson) and Dr Polidori (a deliriously delicious Timothy Spall). DP: Mike Southon.

A [favourite] Frankenstein film.

 

One wet, ungenial summer in 1816, lovers Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley, and Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont, visited a dear friend at Villa Diodati. That friend was Lord Byron, exiled and residing in the Swiss villa with his physician Dr John Polidori

“There are no ghosts in daylight. You'll get used to our nights at Diodati. A little indulgence to heighten our existence on this miserable Earth. Nights of the mind, the imagination. Nothing more.”

– Lord Byron

Forced indoors, over the cause of three days they turned to the occult, to laudanum, to stories from the Fantasmagoriana, and the horrors of their own. That summer, Frankenstein saw the light of day.

The Devil at Your Heels (Robert Fortier, 1981)

Sep

25

1976

The Devil at Your Heels (1981)

The location of the jump site, marked with a hand painted billboard: KEN CARTER'S JUMP SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION SAT. SEPT. 25 76 SEE A MAN JUMP A COUNTRY MILE! DP: Barry Perles.

ノーライフキング [No raifu kingu / No Life King] (Jun Ichikawa, 1989)

Sep

23

Nintendo – 1889

No raifu kingu (1989)

Makoto and his friends play with their video game console (via). DP: Osame Maruike.

Home video games: Nintendo was founded on this day in 1889.

 

It's the late 80s and Japan is in the midst of an economic and technological bubble. Like so many kids, Makoto (litt. “truth”) and his friends are obsessed with their game console. In anticipation of the release of the fourth instalment of their favourite game, rumours start doing the rounds. Some cartridges are cursed with the “No Life King”, meaning players who cannot complete the game, will die. The curse appears to spill over into the boys' real world. What if when you die in the game, you really really die…?

Hail the New Puritan (Charles Atlas, 1987)

Sep

22

Fall

Hail the New Puritan (1987)

As it says on the tin, it's Mark E. Smith of The Fall (via). DP: John Simmons.

The Northern Hemisphere welcomes the autumn equinox

“Those flowers, take them away; they’re only funeral decorations. This is The Fall and this is a drudge nation. Your decadent sins will wreak discipline. You puritan, you shook me. I wash every day.”

– The Fall, New Puritan (1979), via

A fictional day in the life of choreographer Michael Clark, company, and friends in preparation of the dance piece New Puritans.

Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men (David Hinton, 1989)

Sep

14

Patrick Swayze – 2009

Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men (1989)

Two of the male dancers performing. They're lying on a black-and-white tiled floor. There's a heaviness to their bodies. DP: Nicholas D. Knowland.

Dancing, or Patrick Swayze who passed away on this date in 2009.

“I caused dreams which caused death … this is my crime.”

– Dennis Nilsen

Dennis Nilsen was a lonesome, closeted gay man in Thatcher's London, whose desperation lead to multiple horrific killings. He'd ritually bathe and dress the bodies, and held on to them for company. Radical dance troupe DV8's interpretation of Nilsen's transgressions explores the horror of the act in suffocating beauty.

Friendship's Death (Peter Wollen, 1987)

Sep

9

1970

Friendship's Death (1987)

Bill Paterson and Tilda Swinton as Sullivan and Friendship. DP: Witold Stok.

“What will happen when your machines become intelligent? When they become autonomous? When they have private thoughts? You humans look down on your machines because they're man-made. They're a product of your skills and labour. They weren't even domesticated like animals were. You see them simply as extensions of yourself, of your own will. I can't accept that. I can't accept subhuman status simply because I'm a machine based on silicon rather than carbon, electronics rather than biology. If I sound fanatical, it's because I've been trapped in a time warp. In a world where the full potential of machines hasn't been guessed at. A world where I have to wear a human disguise to be accepted? I came here too late. It will all end before the computers that already control the fate of the world have reached the point where they wanted to survive.”

– Friendship