A [favourite] soldier in film for Army Day (USA). I can not in all seriousness link to any official website in fear of throwing up, so please follow along here

“That’s how I will probably die, left like a poor old rag on the battlefield. When you know this is going to happen to you, your body suddenly becomes something terribly precious to you. This flesh, soft and warm is yours; a personal belonging not to be discarded like an awful piece of meat. You find yourself thinking about this, realizing what a wonderful thing your body is, and what an awful and wrong thing it is to maltreat it.”

Watkins takes the anonymous slaughter of the masses on the battlefield inside, into the body and mind of a young soldier.

An unlucky character on Friday the 13^th

“I'd even lose at hopscotch these days.”

– Bob Montagné

Bob gambles, and always wins. But then he starts losing. And not just games.

A [favourite] movie couple for Loving Day (USA)

“Sometimes everything seems just like a dream. It's not my dream, it's somebody else's. But I have to participate in it. How do you think someone who dreams about us would feel when he wakes up. Feeling ashamed?”

– Eva

After Vargtimmen (1968), the second of Bergman's Ullmann/Von Sydow cycle. It was followed by En passion (1969).

 

Against the backdrop of war, a violinist couple tends a garden – and marriage – on the island of Fårö.

Characters say or wave hello on Say HI Day

 

A sickly composer meets and becomes infatuated with a boy during his stay in Venice.

A [favourite] animated character for Donald Duck Day (USA)

“In the evenings, the little Hedgehog went to the Bear Cub to count stars. They would sit on the log and sip tea, gazing at the starry sky. It hung on the roof, just behind the chimney. To the right of the chimney were the Bear Cub's stars and the stars to the left were the Hedgehog's”

– opening lines

On his way to visit his friend Bear Cub, Hedgehog finds himself in a dense mistbank. Strange sounds, and even stranger creatures, omit from it. And all he wanted was have strawberry jam and tea with his friend.

[Favourite] best friends in film for National Best Friends Day (USA)

“I'm going with this one.”

– Zeca de Curva, running into the storm

The close friendship between two young men raises suspicion when the younger of them disappears..

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