settima

1980s

火まつり [Himatsuri / Fire Festival] (Mitsuo Yanagimachi, 1985)

Feb

16

water

火まつり (1985)

A man drinks from a small stream like an animal. DP: Masaki Tamura.

A Zed & Two Noughts [Z+00 / ZOO] (Peter Greenaway, 1985)

Dec

27

Visit The Zoo Day

A Zed & Two Noughts (1985)

A zebra in a cage with the word ZOO in large blue lit capitals in the background. In the background a man. All but the lettering is black-and-white. DP: Sacha Vierny.

“In the land of the legless, the one-legged woman is queen.”

Mahagonny [Number 18] (Harry Smith, 1980)

Dec

22

राष्ट्रिय गणित दिवस

Mahagonny (1980)

A mathematics focused movie for National Mathematics Day, India.

 

Mahagonny is filmmaker, artist, musicologist, and alchemist Harry Smith's mathematical analysis of Marcel Duchamp's masterpiece La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même [The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even], aka Le Grand Verre [The Large Glass], which was completed in 1923. It is set to Brecht and Weill's opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny [Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny] from 1930, which was an opera Smith was obsessed with while living in New York's Chelsea Hotel.

“My cinematic excreta is of four varieties:–batiked abstractions made directly on film between 1939 and 1946; optically printed non-objective studies composed around 1950; semi-realistic animated collages made as part of my alchemical labors of 1957 to 1962; and chronologically superimposed photographs of actualities formed since the latter year. All these works have been organized in specific patterns derived from the interlocking beats of the respiration, the heart and the EEG Alpha component and they should be observed together in order, or not at all, for they are valuable works, works that will live forever—they made me gray.”

– Harry Smith, via

Read an interview with Jonas Mekas about Harry Smith and his Mahagonny.

Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (Les Blank, 1980)

Dec

12

National 12 Hour Fresh Breath Day

Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980)

Three representatives of the garlic festival. Their tees read: THE GARLIC TO SHARE WITH A FRIEND, MINE DOESN'T STINK, and WE LEAVE YOU BREATHLESS. DP: Les Blank.

… for keeping the girls away.

 

Someone has bad breath on National 12-hour Fresh Breath Day, USA. “When he shows the 1978 film Always for Pleasure, about the food, music and indigenous culture of New Orleans, [Les Blank] has been known to whip up a pot of red beans and rice in the back of the theatre. [cont. below]

“Can you smell the garlic?”

– Alice Waters. During screenings, the audience would reply with “YES!”

“At presentations […] Blank can occasionally be spied tossing several heads of garlic into a toaster oven so that the aroma wafts over the audience at just the right mouth-watering moment.” (via)

Nostalghia [Nostalgia] (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1983)

Dec

10

Worldwide Candle Lighting Day

Nostalghia (1983)
Nostalghia (1983)

Hands shield something on stone steps. In the next shot, with the hands withdrawn, we see a small, lit candle. DP: Giuseppe Lanci.

“Feelings unspoken are unforgettable.”

– Andrei Gorchakov

3615 code Père Noël [Deadly Games / Dial Code Santa Claus] (René Manzor, 1989)

Dec

4

Santa's List Day

3615 code Père Noël (1989)

A letter to Santa on Santa's List Day (USA). A man in a grey overcoat and yellow scarf at a public Minitel terminal. On the display the code 3615 and an 8-bit illustration of Santa Claus carrying his bag with presents. The sack holds a smaller Minitel device with the text PERE NOEL. DP: Michel Gaffier.

Aah France… Land of old wine, old cheese, old art, and Internet access in the early 80s. Prestige project of Président Giscard, France was determined to take a technological leap. Any French man, woman and child could borrow a Minitel – a PC-like videotex device – from the national telecommunications services. For those who didn't have landline there were numerous public terminals throughout the land. The machine gave the people access to a phonebook (convenient!), the news (smart!), same-day delivery shopping(!) and sexting (ooh la la!). All these services were accessible via a code starting with 3615 followed by a string of letters. Dial 3615 ULLA to text with a sexy lady – some telecom employee pretending to be one – and 3615 PERE NOEL for Santa Claus. The real one, of course.

 

9 year old whizkid Thomas (Alain Lalanne aka Alain Musy) is dead set on proving that Santa is real and not some weirdo looking for a gullible kid to play with. A trap is set, and the boy waits.

“You know Mum, I don't have to write to Santa anymore. There's an easier way, through Minitel.”

– Thomas

3615 code Père Noël is definitely not your cutesy little Christmas romp. The violence is not cartoonish, the bandit is more Manson than moist. The boy's disillusionment in the adults around him is a perfect mirror of “Santa's” lonely attempts to communicate and be accepted. However, Thomas' mom didn't lie about one thing; that seeing Santa on Christmas Eve turns you into an ogre. Or an adult, as the grownups call it.

Kick That Habit (Peter Liechti, 1989)

Nov

16

National Andy Day

Kick That Habit (1989)

Andy Guhl of experimental Swiss music/art group Voice Crack playing metal wire strung along a room. DP: Peter Liechti.

Everything is noise. Everything is light. Everything is dark. Everything is motion. Everything is static. Everything is energy. Everything is lethargy. Everything is rhythm. Everything is chaos. Everything is silent

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Les Blank, 1980)

Nov

8

Cook Something Bold Day

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980)

Herzog prepares his left suede Clarks in Alice Waters' restaurant kitchen. DP: Les Blank.

After boiling for five hours in a concoction of #garlic, herbs, and stock, the shoe was ready to eat and #Herzog could keep his promise to fellow director Errol Morris.

“More shoes, more boots, more garlic.”

– Werner Herzog

Die schwarze Spinne [The Black Spider] (Mark M. Rissi, 1983)

Oct

20

Die schwarze Spinne (1983)

Christine (Beatrice Kessler) and her junkie friends eating the old man's food. DP: Edwin Horak.

“Nur ein leichtfertig Knechtlein, dem es gleichgültig war, regne oder sonnenscheine es in der Ernte, wenn nur das Jahr umging und der Lohn kam und zu jeder Essenszeit das Essen auf den Tisch, griff zum Löffel und berichtete Christine, daß noch keine Buche gepflanzet sei und alles gehe, als ob sie verhext wären.”

– Jeremias Gotthelf, Die schwarze Spinne (1842)

Almacita di desolato [Almacita, Soul of Desolato] (Felix de Rooy, 1986)

Oct

5

National Caribbean Civility Day

Almacita di desolato (1986)

Desolato's village priestess Solem (Marian Rolle). DP: Ernest R. Dickerson.