1943-1997 ['43 – '97] (Ettore Scola, 1997)
Oct
16
1943
The boy (Francesco Cencioni) on the run in a locked down town. DP: Carlo Tafani.
Happy Birthday to John [Happy Birthday John Lennon] (Jonas Mekas, 1995)
Oct
9
1972
A rectangular birthday cake with a chocolate acoustic guitar spells out Happy Birthday John From Yoko And The Whole World. Presumed DP: Jonas Mekas.
On October 9th, 1972 an exhibition of John and Yoko's art – designed by the Master of the Fluxus movement, George Maciunas and curated by David Ross – opened at the Syracuse Museum of Art in New York. On the same day, an unusual group of John and Yoko's friends, including Ringo Starr, Allen Ginsberg, and Paul Krasner, gathered to celebrate John's birthday.
Spectres of the Spectrum (Craig Baldwin, 1999)
Oct
4
A scene from the TV series Science in Action (1950—1966) showing Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier. DP: Bill Daniel.
“I'm just fine. I have everything here. I have the TV. You can see the whole world”
Trois couleurs: Bleu [Three Colors: Blue] (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993)
Aug
15
cerulean
Julie (Juliette Binoche) in a blue wallpapered room, observes blue beads suspended in front of a window with a cerulean sky and ocean behind it. Throughout the story, her clothing changes from white, to black, to the darkest charcoal blue, to Prussian blue. DP: Slawomir Idziak.
Cerulean, or blue: in food or fashion*
– the mother
How could I not pick at least one instalment of Kieślowski's Trois couleurs trilogy. Here's blue, the liberté of the tricolor. Blue occurs as the sky to fall through, the room without life, and the cloth that binds.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
E-clip-se (Chris Marker, 1999)
Aug
11
1999
.png)
A young woman or child at the Jardin des plantes de Paris wears protective glasses while looking up in amazement during the August 11, 1999 solar eclipse, her baguette a vague memory. DP: Chris Marker.
“That's all the people we've got now. We'll get there somehow.”
Хлебный день [Khlebnyy den / Bread Day] (Sergei Dvortsevoy, 1998)
Aug
10
green
The old folks pushing the cart past the hamlet's name sign. With thick brush strokes, almost too much for the small rectangle, it reads TOWNSHIP NR. 3. DP: Alisher Khamidkhodzhaev.
Green: a building or structure*
Where the old folks' hands push the cart, the green's worn off. That doesn't change anything about its importance. A lifeline, bread, is delivered once a week and with delivered, it means that the carriage is left on the rails, several kilometers away from Zhikharevo, or Township Nr. 3, which in its turn is about 80 km away from Saint Petersburg. It takes the seniors about two hours to get the wagon to their hamlet. We get to witness ten minutes or so. It lasts a lifetime.
As of 2002, only three people lived in Zhikharevo. I wonder how the wain comes home now.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
“Just when I really needed a raincoat, he returned to my side. It would be so great if it could rain forever.”
墮落天使 [Do lok tin si / Fallen Angels] (Wong Kar-Wai, 1995)
Aug
7
yellow
The killer's agent (Michelle Reis) rides an escalator in a yellow and black underground station. She wears an all-black outfit and yellow nail polish (via). DP: Christopher Doyle.
Yellow: a building or structure*
– Punkie
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
Sombre (Philippe Grandrieux, 1998)
Jun
3
World Bicycle Day
Cycling fans along the route. DPs: Philippe Grandrieux & Sabine Lancelin.
A film scene with a bike for World Bicycle Day
Jean (Marc Barbé) follows the route of the Tour de France. He sees women, picks them up, takes them out. Claire, infatuated with him, is taken in by his darkness. At night, the cyclists continue the course.
