settima

1980s

The Appointment (Lindsey C. Vickers, 1982)

May

14

Tue

The Appointment (1982)

“Subject, Sandy Fremont. The last positive sighting of the child was on her way home from a school orchestra rehearsal. This was on Tuesday May 14th at approximately 6:30 in the evening.”

Παραγγελιά! [Parangelia! / Request for a Song] (Pavlos Tasios, 1980)

May

13

Top Gun Day

Παραγγελιά! (1980)

A man dances the Zeibekiko, with another close to him. DPs: Sakis Maniatis & Kostas Papagiannakis.

Testosterone! for Top Gun Day (USA)

 

The Ζεϊμπέκικο (Zeibekiko) is a Greek dance, improvised by one man, alone. It's a dance that shows the performer's manliness, both his pride and his sorrows. Out of respect for the dancer, the others sit down, watch, and relate to him.

 

When the police enters the establishment – and this is 1973, the colonels ruled the naton – and interrupt the dancer, his older brother steps in.

アントニー・ガウディー [Antonio Gaudí] (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1984)

May

12

National Anthony Day

アントニー・ガウディー (1984)

A woman in shorts and T-shirt lounges on the serpentine mosaic bench in Parc Güell, which blues compliment her outfit. Planned as a housing development project, the park is a welcome break from the busy city for all Catalans, regardless of class. DPs: Junichi Segawa, Ryu Segawa & Yoshikazu Yanagida.

An actor, director or character named Anthony for National Anthony Day (USA).

“Everything comes from the Great Book of Nature. Human attainments are an already printed book.”

– Antoni Gaudí

Зеркало для героя [Zerkalo dlya geroya / Mirror for a Hero] (Vladimir Khotinenko, 1987)

May

8

1949

Зеркало для героя (1987)

Sergey Pshenichnyy (Sergey Koltakov) speaking to one of the 1940s farmers. DP: Evgeniy Grebnev.

Katar [Cold] (Hieronim Neumann, 1984)

May

6

Childhood Depression Awareness Day

Katar (1984)

One little girl sneeze even bursts the camera! A – psik (achoo)! DP: Zbigniew Kotecki.

A child with health struggles for Childhood Depression Awareness Day (USA)

“Spotkał katar Katarzynę – A – psik! Katarzyna pod pierzynę – A – psik!”

– Jan Brzechwa, Katar (via)

A little girl has the sniffles, sees the doctor, and so happily spreads the bug all over town. A quirky animated short based on a poem by Jan Brzechwa.

حاجی واشنگتن [Hajji Washington / Haji Washington] (Ali Hatami, 1983)

Apr

30

George Washington – 1789

Hajji Washington (1983)

The ambassador and guest in the embassy. The guest, a white cowboy peeling peanuts, leisurely rests on a Persian rug with a hookah by his side. The ambassador recites from a book, with his chaii within reach (via). DP: Mehrdad Fakhimi.

The White House, or set in Washington, DC, in commemoration of the first inauguration of George Washington in 1789.

 

Hajji Hossein-Gholi Noori was Iran's first ambassador to the United States in 1889. Stuck in DC, homesick, and without any US-based Iranians to serve, he slowly unravels

Normalsatz [Ordinary Sentence] (Heinz Emigholz, 1982)

Apr

30

1975

Normalsatz (1982)

A woman, seated on a bed, speaks to a second woman who is pressed against the side of a bookcase. Still via. DP: Heinz Emigholz.

Part of the Trilogie der Siebziger Jahre (“Trilogy of the Seventies”).

Bom Povo Português [The Good People of Portugal] (Rui Simões, 1980)

Apr

25

1974

Bom Povo Português (1980)

A young soldier triumphantly holds up his riffle. DPs: Manuel Barros, Mário Cabrita Gil, José Luís Carvalhosa, Gérard Collet, Acácio de Almeida, Russell Parker & José Reynès.

Takes places between April 25th, 1974 and November 25th, 1975, during the Revolução dos Cravos.

The Angelic Conversation (Derek Jarman, 1985)

Apr

23

William Shakespeare — 1564

The Angelic Conversation (1985)

Two men in tender embrace. DPs: Derek Jarman & James Mackay.

A Shakespearean play or quote for the Bard's (assumed) birthday (1564).

Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said Thy edge should blunter be than appetite, Which but to-day by feeding is allay’d, To-morrow sharpen’d in his former might:

So, love, be thou; although to-day thou fill Thy hungry eyes even till they wink with fullness, To-morrow see again, and do not kill The spirit of love with a perpetual dulness.

Let this sad interim like the ocean be Which parts the shore, where two contracted new Come daily to the banks, that, when they see Return of love, more blest may be the view;

Or call it winter, which, being full of care, Makes summer’s welcome thrice more wish’d, more rare.

– William Shakespeare, sonnet 56 (Fair Youth)

Accompanied by Coil's brooding lust and Judi Dench's solemn recital of 14 of Shakespeare's sonnets, men cross dreamlike landscapes and dark desires.

Hotel of the Stars (Jon Bang Carlsen, 1981)

Apr

21

Heartbreak Hotel

Hotel of the Stars (1981)

The setting for a dramatic reenactment, watched over by the King. DP: Alexander Gruszynski.

A film set in a hotel, or involving Elvis Presley, on the date Heartbreak Hotel topped the charts in 1956.

“I love to see myself in Technicolor.”

Once home to the stars, Hollywood's crumbling Montecito Hotel is now populated by drug dealers, prostitutes and the Tinseltown hopeful — extras hoping for that big break. They play the bit parts of their own re-enacted lives and dreams – some imagined, some real – whatever that may mean in Hollywood.