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.
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.
The Music of the Spheres (G. Philip Jackson, 1983)
Aug
28
1994
Archive footage from the future dated August 28, 1994. DP: Nadine Humenick.
“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.” The Black Tower (John Smith, 1985—1987)
Aug
22
black
The black tower, visible from behind a brick wall (via)..
Black: a building or structure*
– narrator
A man becomes aware of a formerly unnoticed black tower. Surely it's nothing, yet as the weeks pass, its looming presence takes over.
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.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
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.
– 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.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.
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.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related.
– Men are extinct. – They were not mammoths!Seksmisja [Sexmission] (Juliusz Machulski, 1984)
Aug
9
Two poor captured extinct men enjoying breakfast and cigarettes. DP: Jerzy Łukaszewicz.
“The entire world is rotten and corrupt… to us they're dead people who refuse to lay down, they're cadavers”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: ?.
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.
– 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.
“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.”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.
– the student
L'argent [Money] (Robert Bresson, 1983)
Jul
22
A man at an ATM holds on to a Visa credit card with tweezers. DPs: Pasqualino De Santis & Emmanuel Machuel.
Everything's expensive: someone is a at bank or ATM*
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.