settima

1980s

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

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

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.

Memoirs of a Survivor (David Gladwell, 1981)

Apr

20

Easter Sunday

Memoirs of a Survivor (1981)

A Victorian family, all dressed in white, marvel at an enormous egg in an ornate room. DP: Walter Lassally.

Eggs for Easter Sunday.

“The walls of the room seemed to hold stories untold, whispering in the quiet.”

– Doris Lessing, The Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)

In a dystopian Britain, D (Julie Christie) survives taking care of a sullen teenage girl, and visiting a mirage behind the walls.

The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood (Andy Jones + Michael Jones, 1976/1986)

Apr

17

Constitution Act, 1982

The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood (1976)

Faustus Bidgood, President. DP: Michael Jones.

A film set in Canada on the date the Constitution Act, 1982 was enforced. The rights of the Indigenous peoples remain undefined up to today.

“I'm dead as a doornail Though very high strung I can make loud noises Though I have no lung”

Clerk Faustus Bidgood dreams of becoming the president of Newfoundland and lead the province to secede from Canada.

 

Newfoundland's first and only all-Newfoundland film. It took ten years to complete.

Vagabunden Karawane [Vagabond’s Band] (Werner Penzel, 1980)

Apr

16

હડતાળ

Vagabunden Karawane (1980)

A member of Embryo plays a harmonium with a bemused साधु [sadhu] sitting behind him (still via). DPs: Pitt Koch & Helge Weindler.

A film set in India in remembrance of Gandhi's હડતાળ [hartal], a peaceful protest against the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, in the form of a nationwide fast and prayer on April 16, 1919.

“I had appealed to the people to fast on April 6, and the whole nation followed my call. Who was I? But it was the voice of God… India was awakened that day.”

– Mahatma Gandhi, via

In 1979, krautrock group Embryo toured Iran, Afghanistan and India by bus, while performing with local musicians and documenting their trip.

Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)

Mar

27

94th Academy Awards

Paris, Texas (1984)

Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) wandering the desert. DP: Robby Müller.

A film that I wish would have won the Academy Award for Best Picture in honour of the 94th Academy Awards (2022).

“The Dust has come to stay. You may stay or pass on through or whatever.”

– gas station sign