A movie that takes place in nature for National Trails Day (USA)

 

Mavka, a forest nymph, falls in love with mortal Lukash, who in his turn is punished by the Spirit of the Forest for marrying another mortal instead. Curse upon curse, Lukash is turned into a wolf, and Mavka into a weeping willow.

 

The colours, mood and impact of the four seasons on mortal and sprite alike is there, not only made visible by Ilyenko's ethereal, spiralling camera, but somewhere blooming deep inside us, observing.

[A] favourite horror movie villain for Robert Englund's birthday (1947).

“What is life? It is the beginning of death. What is death? It is the end of life! What is existence? It is the continuity of blood. What is blood? It is the reason to exist!”

– Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe), opening lines

In 1963, long before Freddy's got his claws, Brazil didn't have any horror films of its own. Then, José Mojica Marins woke up from uneasy dreams. He had seen himself being dragged across a cemetery by a dark figure, towards a grave with his name on it. Now wide awake in a pool of sweat, José became Josefel Zanatas – the true name of the godless undertaker from his dream.

 

Josefel, nicknamed Zé do Caixão, or Coffin Joe as he was rechristened for the English speaking world, would be Marins' alter ego in numerous movies and TV shows. His gnarly nails clawed their way past Brazil's censorship, dug themselves out of the pits of obscurity, and impaled themselves deep into this disciple's heart.

Someone makes an excuse on Sorry I Was on a Boat Day (USA)

“One thing I find appalling is when people who were [Vichy President] Pétain supporters come up to me and tell me what they did for the Resistance. Sometimes it's unreal. “Oh, Mr. Gaspard, if only you knew what we did, what I did for the Resistance.” Go ahead, pal, tell me all about it. I try to stay calm. I'm a salesman, and I want to sell my product. The company doesn't pay me to do politics and pick fights, so sometimes I find myself obliged to listen to a song and dance of some guy who shows me a drawer and gets his wife to confirm that there was indeed a revolver in that drawer during the war, a revolver which he was supposedly ready to use on the Germans. Only he never actually used it. History doesn't lie.”

– Émile Coulaudon aka Colonel Gaspard, former head of the French Resistance in Auvergne

Marcel Ophüls documents the people of Clermont-Ferrand as the microcosm of Vichy France, part of Europe's only country that happily collaborated with its occupier, Nazi Germany. What were their justifications, their excuses, their motivations? Was it survival, habit, greed? Comfort, conformity, obedience, fear?

 

And what is yours?

A character who is running on Global Running Day

 

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.

A [favourite]* fictional athlete for Dennis Haysbert's birthday (1954).

 

Close friends Hsiao-Tung and Yung-shen spend their time together, wandering about, eating dumplings, and training for athletics. Until one of them pushes too hard, leaving the other alone in his grief.

 

* this month's Bales' Challenge is marred with “favourites”, something I don't believe in. Instead, I stick to great cinema and will squeeze in a few LGBT-themed films for Pride Month.

A character who's a grouch for Oscar the Grouch Day (USA)

An actor, director or character from Utah – National Utah Day (USA)

 

Billy the Kid steps out of a huge poster of Monument Valley right into a Tokyo bar and becomes its bar keeper. Together with a samurai, a WW2 G.I, Marx-Engels (not a typo), the Japanese weather service number 177 and others, he keeps the tavern safe from various thugs roaming the streets.

A pet for National Hug Your Cat Day (USA) *

“Had I the time to keep a diary, I’d use that time to better effect; sleeping on the veranda”

– The cat

A school teacher's house cat observes and comments his household's going-ons as a microcosm of Japan's paradoxical Meiji period. The second adaptation of Sōseki Natsume's 1900s satirical novel.

 

* The event falls on June 4

The birth, life, death or teachings of Jesus on Ascension Day

“Ich bin nicht der offizielle Kirchenjesus, ich bin nicht euer Superstar.”

– Klaus Kinski

It is November 20. The Jesus Christus Erlöser tour brings Klaus Kinski to Berlin's Deutschlandhalle. His monologue, spoken from Jesus the revolutionary's perspective, brings out the hecklers. It's 1971, the post-68 generation is not satisfied with words. It wants to debate, dissect, and devour their Saviour.