settima

1980s

Les trois couronnes du matelot [Three Crowns of the Sailor] (Raúl Ruiz, 1983)

Jul

25

1958

Les trois couronnes du matelot (1983)

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

Zig-Zag – le jeu de l'oie (Une fiction didactique à propos de la cartographie) [Snakes and Ladders] (Raúl Ruiz, 1980)

Jul

5

Zig-Zag (1980)

An anthropomorphic map with contour lines sketching out a man's head (via). DP: Alain Montrobert.

Traveling to my vacation destination, a map or globe*

“It appears obvious that the territory is the sum of all the maps, the result of an infinite addition. Or a contrary, the territory is what is left when we remove all the sets of lines, drawings, traces and colors which are covering it. Its existence becomes doubtful.”

– H., via

A man, H., joins two others playing jeu de l'oie (Game of the Goose), a board game associated with labyrinths and pilgrimage. While the three play, the game opens up maps and new roads to explore.

 

Following my own Bales' rules, I cannot pick a title twice. See Zig-Zag as an avatar of Raúl Ruiz's O Território [The Territory] from 1981.

 

Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu (David Loeb Weiss, 1980)

Jul

1

1978

Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu (1980)

All set for the July 2, 1978 edition of The New York Times, hot off the press.

Production of the last hot type copy of The New York Times on the nigh of July 1, 1978. The ETAOIN SHRDLU in the title refers to the accidental string of letters that sometimes would end up in print when using the hot type method.

 

That Linotype setting, and narration, was provided by Carl Schlesinger. That same old, but now digitally set New York Times, provided a lovely farewell when the man passed. Read it here

蠱​ [Gu / Bewitched] (Chih-Hung Kuei, 1981)

Jun

30

蠱 (1981)

Exorcising demons. DP: Hsin-Yeh Li.

Le démon dans l'île [Demon Is on the Island / Demon of the Island] (Francis Leroi, 1983)

Jun

28

1947

Le démon dans l'île (1983)

Dr. Gabrielle Martin (Anny Duperey) reads her digital patient file. It mentions her day of birth, June 28, 1947. DP: Jacques Assuérus.

“Don't think too much, it could affect your health, Gabrielle.”

– Dr. Marshall

Лісова пісня. Мавка [Lisova pisnya. Mavka / A Story of the Forest: Mavka] (Yuri Ilyenko, 1981)

Jun

7

National Trails Day

Лісова пісня. Мавка (1981)

Mavka (Lyudmila Efimenko) and the Spirit of the Forest (Boris Khmelnitskiy). DP: Yuri Ilyenko.

A movie that takes place in nature for National Trails Day (USA)

 

Mavka, a forest nymph, falls in love with mortal Lukash, who in his turn is punished by the Spirit of the Forest for marrying another mortal instead. Curse upon curse, Lukash is turned into a wolf, and Mavka into a weeping willow.

 

The colours, mood and impact of the four seasons on mortal and sprite alike is there, not only made visible by Ilyenko's ethereal, spiralling camera, but somewhere blooming deep inside us, observing.

Red & Rosy (Frank Grow, 1989)

Jun

3

Red & Rosy (1989)

Big Red (Rico Martinez) in his hotrod. DPs: Frank Grow, Ralph Hawkins & Rico Martinez.

ビリィ★ザ★キッドの新しい夜明け [Birī za kiddo no atarashii yoake / The New Morning of Billy the Kid] (Naoto Yamakawa, 1986)

May

31

National Utah Day

Birī za kiddo no atarashii yoake (1986)

Director Naoto Yamakawa directing Billy the Kid (Hiroshi Mikami) on site in Utah (via) DP: Kenji Takama.

An actor, director or character from Utah – National Utah Day (USA)

 

Billy the Kid steps out of a huge poster of Monument Valley right into a Tokyo bar and becomes its bar keeper. Together with a samurai, a WW2 G.I, Marx-Engels (not a typo), the Japanese weather service number 177 and others, he keeps the tavern safe from various thugs roaming the streets.

Angst [Fear] (Gerald Kargl, 1983)

May

23

National Title Track Day

Angst (1983)
Klaus Schulze (1983)

1: K. Out. Out. DP: Zbigniew Rybczynski.
2: Klaus Schulze at work in 1983 (via)

A killer title track for National Title Track Day (USA)

“The fear in her eyes and the knife in the chest. That's my last memory of my mother. That's why I had to go to prison for four years, even though she survived.”

– opening lines

What stabs you harder in the chest than Klaus Schulze's synth-driven killing spree?

Anayurt Oteli [Motherland Hotel] (Ömer Kavur, 1987)

May

14

Receptionist Day

Anayurt Oteli (1987)

Receptionist Zebercet. DP: Orhan Oğuz.

A receptionist or secretary for Receptionist Day

 

The proprietor and receptionist of a small hotel welcomes a new guest. The woman, her name she doesn't tell, stays for only one night with the promise to return the following week. The receptionist waits.