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Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955)
Aug
14
Bavaria
Celebrating Oktoberfest [in September/October] and the Bavarian royals [rip]: a royal character or family*
“The painter takes his time. He doesn't like her dress. He doesn't like her gloves. One day he asks her if she dares pose for him – all in pink. She dares! And the king, enraptured by her pose, offers her a palace!”
– circus master
Maria Dolores Porriz y Montez, Countess von Landsfeld, Lola Montès for short, now a circus attraction, once the mistress to Ludwig I, King of Bavaria. While her fellow circus performers play Lola's former lovers, the ringmaster tells her story.
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Il fiore delle mille e una notte [Arabian Nights] (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1974)
Aug
13
cerulean
Cerulean, or blue: a building or structure*
“Eh, i sogni a volte insegnano male, Dùnya, perché la verità intera non è mai in un solo sogno, la verità intera è in molti sogni.”
One of the many exotic locations is the مسجد شاه, [Masjed-e Shah, or Shah Mosque] in Iran with its otherworldly blue and blue-adjacent tiles.
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The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)
Aug
9
Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth) and husband Arthur Bannister (Everett Sloane) in the dizzying modernist finale. DP: Charles Lawton Jr..
“You need more than luck in Shanghai.”
– Elsa Bannister
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黒蜥蜴 [Kurotokage / Kuro tokage / Black Lizard] (Kinji Fukasaku, 1968)
Aug
4
The Black Lizard (Akihiro Miwa) in embrace with Detective Akechi (Isao Kimura). DP: Hiroshi Dōwaki.
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The Red Shoes (Michael Powell + Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
Aug
3
red
A ballerina's lower body in focus. She wears a long tulle off-white dress, slightly sheer, with her white stockings showing through slightly. Part of her right lower arm is visible, the hand clutched, a turquoise bracelet on the wrist. What stands out most are her ruby red ballet shoes that appear to move away from her. The backdrop is a dull, washed out carpet. DP: Jack Cardiff.
Red: best use of red in food or fashion*
“She looked at the red shoes, for she thought there was no harm in looking. She put them on, for she thought there was no harm in that either. But then she went to the ball and began dancing. When she tried to turn to the right, the shoes turned to the left. When she wanted to dance up the ballroom, her shoes danced down. They danced down the stairs, into the street, and out through the gate of the town. Dance she did, and dance she must, straight into the dark woods.”
– Hans Christian Andersen, De røde Skoe (1845, tranl. Jean Hersholt, 1949), via
Another one of The Archers' #Technicolor extravaganzas. This time, not to wow the worn-down post-war black-and-white audience, but as an an active storytelling instrument.
Built around Hans Christian Andersen's haunting tale De røde Skoe (1845).
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Night Has a Thousand Eyes (John Farrow, 1948)
Aug
3
Mentalist John Triton (Edward G. Robinson, middle) and two of his conspirators. DP: John F. Seitz.
A continuity error later on in the movie makes it August 4.
“I'd become a sort of a reverse zombie. I was living in a world already dead, and I alone knowing it.”
– John Triton
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Gli intoccabili [Machine Gun McCain] (Giuliano Montaldo, 1969)
Jul
30
1968
Man's hands hold up the July 30, 1968 San Francisco Chronicle. The headline reads GANGLAND FEUD EXPLODES: TWO CUT DOWN BY MACHINE GUN. It's a Tuesday. DP: Erico Menczer.
“It's a lot of work, ya know, just staying alive.”
– Rosemary Scott
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Sommaren med Monika [Summer with Monika] (Ingmar Bergman, 1953)
Jul
27
Monika (Harriet Andersson) and Harry (Lars Ekborg) rest in each other's arms. DP: Gunnar Fischer, still photography by Louis Huch.
Someone naps or sleeps*
“I guess we like each other a lot, huh?”
– Monika Eriksson
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簪 [Kanzashi / Ornamental Hairpin] (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1941)
Jul
24
relaxation
Men relaxing at a roten-buro, an outdoor onsen. DP: Suketarō Inokai.
Someone goes to a spa, beach, or retreat*
“There’s something almost poetic about finding a hairpin in the bath. It’s like the sole of my foot has been pierced by poetry.”
Relaxing at an onsen, a soldier steps on the titular kanzashi. Now injured with too much time on his hands, he and his fellow nosy patrons go out looking for its owner.
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L'argent [Money] (Robert Bresson, 1983)
Jul
22
A man at an ATM holds on to a Visa credit card with tweezers. DPs: Pasqualino De Santis & Emmanuel Machuel.
Everything's expensive: someone is a at bank or ATM*