settima

BookAdaptation

Manden der tænkte ting [The Man Who Thought Life] (Jens Ravn, 1969)

May

12

National Hospital Day

Manden der tænkte ting (1969)

A man in black (Preben Neergaard) seen from the back looks into an operating room. DP: Witold Leszczyński.

A strange man arrives at neurosurgeon Dr Max Holst's #hospital one day. So strange in fact that he's promptly send to the psychiatric ward. This man, a Mr Steinmetz, insists on the doctor's help. He can materialise things – look see here's a cigar – but living things is what he wants. This bird, it died. Can the doctor help? No no, not the bird, the brain! Steinmetz has set up a theatre in his home, it can be done there. While the doctor, however tempted, refuses, Steinmetz evolves.

“We are now entering the century of the soul!”

– Steinmetz

Manden der tænkte ting intrigues in its clinical monotonous settings, its pale late-60s stock, and precise composition. Early Cronenberg – Stereo (Tile 3B of a CAEE Educational Mosaic) (1969) and Crimes of the Future (1970) – comes to mind and, of course Lars von Trier's majestic Riget [The Kingdom] (1994 – 2022). But only Jens Ravn mastered this strangling lightness. Slowly, while you count backwards. Now you no longer feel the straps. 10… 9… …

The Swimmer (Frank Perry + Sydney Pollack, 1968)

May

6

Beverage Day

The Swimmer (1968)

Swimmer Ned Merrill (Burt Lancaster) reaching for a drink handed to him by someone offscreen. DP: David L. Quaid.

At a poolside #CocktailParty, the swimmer appears. He notes that the houses in between his hosts' and his are connected by a “river” of #pools and decides to swim home, from one pool to the other, superficially meeting people, crashing suburban pool parties, in an increasingly irrational state.

“And the water up there. Remember? That transparent, light green water. It felt different. God, what a beautiful feeling. We could've swum around the world in those days.”

– Ned Merrill

憂國 [Yūkoku / Patriotism or the Rite of Love and Death] (Yukio Mishima, 1966)

May

1

Loyalty Day

憂國 (1966)

Shinji Takeyama (Yukio Mishima) and Reiko (Yoshiko Tsuruoka). In a quiet framed still, Shinji lays on a tatami mat in full uniform. Reiko rests her head on his chest. Both have their eyes closed. DP: Kimio Watanabe.

Japanese author Yukio Mishima was, besides an aesthete, a fierce proponent of Japanese nationalism. In 憂國, based on his short 1960 story, Mishima plays palace guard Lt. Shinji Takeyama. Despite being one of the instigators of an ultra-nationalist coup, Takeyama decides he cannot overthrow the government as it would mean having to kill his friends and be disloyal to the Emperor. Returning home, he and his bride Reiko (Yoshiko Tsuruoka) perform #切腹 (#seppuku / #HaraKiri), as in line with Takeyama's #samurai heritage.

 

Yūkoku is a #SilentFilm that plays out like #Noh #theatre, with an extreme emphasis on the beauty and love of death and loyalty respectively.

 

After Mishima's own seppuku in 1970, his widow ordered all copies of Yūkoku to be destroyed. In 2005, in Mishima's house, a pristine copy was uncovered in a tea box.

Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)

Apr

30

Hairstyle Appreciation Day

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

A promotional photo for Rosemary's Baby. Sassoon cuts Farrow's hair while she looks intensely in an offscreen mirror. Around them, several pressmen with recording equipment are visible. DP: William A. Fraker.

Wild with today's eyes, it is not. Yet Rosemary's “very in” Vidal Sassoon #PixieCut was a shocking affair in 68. Director Roman #Polanski flew in Vidal Sassoon – the world's hottest hairdresser – all the way from London, to cut Mia Farrow's hair in a boxing-ring-turned-pressroom. All of a sudden, in her lunch break, Mia/Rosemary transformed from timid waif to women's lib.

“It's by Vidal Sassoon. It's very in.”

– Rosemary Woodhouse

Both the lady's movie husband Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes) and real-world husband Frank Sinatra were incensed by the bold move. Of course, in Rosemary's Baby the haircut is Rosemary's attempt to make sense of the changing world around her. Moving to a new city, an unexpected pregnancy, all those lovely new neighbours to socialise with… a girl needs to feel in control!

Limonádový Joe aneb Konská opera [Lemonade Joe or The Horse Opera] (Oldřich Lipský, 1964)

Apr

27

Kola Loka

Limonádový Joe aneb Konská opera (1964)

A tough cowboy takes a bite out off a fiddle. DP: Vladimír Novotný.

“The Kola Loka is the law!”

– Limonádový Joe

Ghosts… of the Civil Dead (John Hillcoat, 1988)

Apr

26

Hug An Australian Day

Ghosts… of the Civil Dead (1988)

One of the inmates near a small window. The light's cold. DPs: Paul Goldman & Graeme Wood.

John Hillcoat's deeply unpleasant debut is based on In the Belly of the Beast (1981), a collection of excerpts of letters between prisoner Jack Henry Abbott and author Norman Mailer. True to the book's format, Ghosts consists of disjointed vignettes of monologues, #CCTV footage, title cards, and prisoners' phone calls.

 

For the last 37 months, these filters inform the observer, the hypermodern #supermax Central Industrial Prison has been in permanent lockdown. The cast, a mix of professional actors and ex-cons, and the location, a clean factory-style hangar in the middle of the Australian desert, underscore the underlying raw brutality of the unfolding events.

 

“Officer, come here. I wanna spit in your fucking eye!”

– Maynard

The #industrial soundtrack is by Bad Seed Nick Cave (co-writer and starring as Maynard), Mick Harvey, and Blixa Bargeld from when they were still closer to being birthday boys than morose crooners.

羅生門 [Rashōmon] (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)

Apr

22

April Showers Day

羅生門 (1950)

Two men sheltering from torrential rain in the gate of a wooden temple. DP: Kazuo Miyagawa.

“It sounded interesting, at least while I kept out of the rain. But if it's a sermon, I'd sooner listen to the rain.”

– commoner

Boy on a Dolphin (Jean Negulesco, 1957)

Apr

14

National Dolphin Day

Boy on a Dolphin (1957)

Phaedra (Sophia Loren) posing victoriously on the bow of a sailboat, with the statue, still in its ropes after hoisting it off the ocean floor, behind her. DP: Milton R. Krasner.

Shot on location in Greece, sponge diver Phaedra (Sophia Loren) makes a splash when she finds an ancient statue of a boy on a dolphin, rumoured to bring good luck to her town. Her attempts to sell it to the highest bidder makes not only the bronze but also her the object of desire of an honest archaeologist and an unscrupulous antiques dealer playboy.

“Our paths have crossed and re-crossed: in Dresden, Rotterdam, Florence – wherever the Nazis looted. Raphaels, Rembrandts, even down to a dreary little china pot, which belonged to Madame Pompadour… there was always Captain Jim Calder of the U.S. Army, restoring priceless objects to their rightful owners – a typical middle-class gesture.”

– Victor Parmalee

Boy on a dolphin is not only the title of this movie but also possibly a reference to #Arion, son of the inhabitants of Lesbos (would that make this movie a bit too wild for 1957?), or #Taras, son of Poseidon and Satyrion. According to Greek legend, both mythological characters were saved by #dolphins.

Vynález zkázy (1958)

Vynález zkázy (1958)

April 11: ride a #submarine on #NationalSubmarineDav

Vynález zkázy [A Deadly Invention] (Karel Zeman, 1958)

“Jules Verne was a dreamer. He was a dedicated follower of technology, but he saw it through his own eyes, and the eyes of his time. But with his vast imagination, he created a whole world of magical things imbued with a delightful naiveté, which charms us even today.” —Karel Zeman

Karel Zeman was a Czech film maker who seemingly magically combined live action with stop motion animation. In his Vynález zkázy, loosely based on Jules Verne's Face au Drapeau [Facing the Flag aka For the Flag] (1896), a fiendish count kidnaps a professor to get his hands on a terrible super-weapon. Underwater pursuits commence!

Vynález zkázy (1958)

Based on the engravings that accompany the Verne story, Zeman came up with fantastic, highly stylised in-camera effects that make the sets, actors and props resemble cross-hatched etchings.

That's more than enough words for such a spectacle. Watch the trailer

#Bales2023FilmChallenge #KarelZeman #JulesVerne #LuborTokos #StopMotion #animation #fantasy #adventure #SciFi #BookAdaptation #trailer #Czechoslovakia #1950s ★★★½

#ToDo

Fail Safe (Sidney Lumet, 1964)

Apr

5

National Nebraska Day

Fail Safe (1964)

General Black (Dan O'Herlihy) being briefed. DP: Gerald Hirschfeld.

The one that got bombed by Strangelove.

“You're talking about a different kind of war.”

– General Stark

Both Lumet's Fail Safe and #Kubrick's #ColdWar comedy came out in 1964, right after the #CubaCrisis. The world was awash with the realisation that the bomb, The Bomb, wasn't merely proverbial flexing. And when crisis happens, there are two options. One is to laugh, the other is to grasp. Sadly for Lumet, and the world, his Fail Safe was released while everyone was still too busy chuckling.