settima

1980s

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

আকালের সন্ধানে [Akaler Sandhane / In Search of Famine] (Mrinal Sen, 1982)

Sep

7

আকালের সন্ধানে (1982)

A clapperboard in the jungle. DP: K.K. Mahajan.

“Past. Presence. And future.”

Czułe miejsca [Tender Spots] (Piotr Andrejew, 1981)

Aug

28

1998

Czułe miejsca (1981)

Janek (Michał Juszczakiewicz) and Ewa (Hanna Dunowska) in embrace on a bed. DPs: Jerzy Zieliński & Ryszard Lenczewski.

The Music of the Spheres (G. Philip Jackson, 1983)

Aug

28

1994

The Music of the Spheres (1983)

Archive footage from the future dated August 28, 1994. DP: Nadine Humenick.

Al filo del hacha [Edge of the Axe] (José Ramón Larraz, 1988)

Aug

16

1978

spoiler warning: click to toggle image Al filo del hacha (1988)
spoiler warning: click to read

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.

Der Stand der Dinge [The State of Things] (Wim Wenders, 1982)

Aug

13

1942

Der Stand der Dinge (1982)

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.

Seksmisja [Sexmission] (Juliusz Machulski, 1984)

Aug

9

Seksmisja (1984)

Two poor captured extinct men enjoying breakfast and cigarettes. DP: Jerzy Łukaszewicz.

– Men are extinct.

– They were not mammoths!

8-8-88 Church of Satan Mansonite Rally (Boyd Rice, 1988)

Aug

8

1988

8-8-88 Church of Satan Mansonite Rally (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: ?.

Provocateur Boyd Rice and friends perform a Satanic rite on August 8, 1988; exactly 20 years minus one year minus one day after the Tate-LaBianca murders.

“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.

Carne de tu carne [Flesh of Your Flesh] (Carlos Mayolo, 1983)

Aug

6

1956

Carne de tu carne (1983)

A teenage boy reads out a handwritten letter to a teenage girl (via). DP: Gabriel Beristain.

 

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