settima

Bales2025FilmChallenge

Una giornata particolare [A Special Day] (Ettore Scola, 1977)

Apr

19

National Hanging Out Day

Una giornata particolare (1977)

Antonietta (Sophia Loren) and Gabriele (Marcelo Mastroianni) on the roof of their building, clean sheets like a fort around them. DP: Pasqualino De Santis.

A clothesline in support of Project Laundry List's National Hanging Out Day (USA)

– As they say, 'Tidiness is the virtue of a mediocre mind.'

– Then I'm a genius.

La última cena [The Last Supper] (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1976)

Apr

18

Good Friday

La última cena (1976)

The count, Christ, flanked by two of his slaves, John and Thomas respectively. DP: Mario García Joya.

Good Friday: an occurrence during a Friday or weekend.

 

During Holy Week, a count visits his sugar mill on the day one of his slaves has escaped. Reluctant, overseer Don Manuel picks twelve slaves to join the count at his dinner table for a lecture about the possibility of happiness in slavery, all made up to resemble the Last Supper, with the count as Christ and the slaves as his apostles. Then conversation picks up, and the slaved men request, and are granted, a day off on Good Friday.

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.

Daïnah la métisse [Dainah the Mixed] (Jean Grémillon, 1932)

Apr

15

Titanic

Daïnah la métisse (1932)

Mechanic Michaux (Charles Vanel) and Daïnah (Laurence Clavius) on the Art Deco liner. DPs: Louis Page & Georges Périnal.

A cruise ship in remembrance of the sinking of the Titanic on April 14–15, 1912.

 

Mestiza Daïnah, who accompanies her illusionist husband on the luxury cruise ship he works on, loves to flirt and tease the other sex, including the ship's engineer Michaux. When she disappears, suspicion falls not only on Michaux, but also on her Black husband.

Drylanders [Un autre pays] (Don Haldane, 1962)

Apr

14

Great Depression

Drylanders (1962)

A woman runs from one wooden house to the other, barely visible in the dust whirling up around her (via). DP: Reginald H. Morris.

A film set during the Great Depression (or set in Oklahoma) on the date John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939.

 

A man who returns from the Boer War decides to become a wheat farmer, but – like so many others in North America – falls victim to the Dust Bowl.

悲愁物語 [Hishu monogatari / A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness] (Seijun Suzuki, 1977)

Apr

13

1997 Masters Tournament

悲愁物語 (1977)

Reiko, looking fabulous, dropped down next to a sand-filled bunker. DP: Masaru Mori.

Golf (or a tiger) in honour of Tiger Woods' 1997 Masters Tournament victory.

 

Reiko (Yoko Shiraki), a professional model – is groomed into playing the circuit by the editor of a golfing fashion magazine. The rookie's unexpected success draws in all sorts of fans, including the obsessive.

Test pilota Pirxa [Pilot Pirx's Inquest] (Marek Piestrak, 1979)

Apr

12

International Day of Human Space Flight

Test pilota Pirxa (1979)

Men and nonlinears to board the ship set for Saturn's Cassini Division. DP: Janusz Pawłowski.

A manned spaceship for the International Day of Human Space Flight

“He began thinking about the innocence of machines, about how man had endowed them with intelligence and, in doing so, had made them an accomplice of his mad adventures. About how the myth of the golem — the machine that rebelled against its creator — was a lie, a fiction invented by the guilty for the sake of self-exoneration.”

– Stanisław Lem, Opowieści o pilocie Pirxie (1968)

Commander Pirx is sent out on a secret mission to evaluate “nonlinears” – androids – to determine if they can be used for future space flights. In a blind test, androids and humans form a crew for Pirx to investigate and identify.

Ladri di biciclette [The Bicycle Thieves] (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

Apr

11

National Cheese Fondue Day

Ladri di biciclette (1948)

Bruno (Enzo Staiola) eating mozzarella. DP: Carlo Montuori.

Cheese or fondue for National Cheese Fondue Day (USA)

“Do you fancy a pizza? Come on, then! Come on, let's go! What the hell. We might as well go out in style. What's the point in worrying about it all?”

– Antonio Ricci