view
दुविधा [Duvidha / The Dilemma] (Mani Kaul, 1973)
May
3
National Paranormal Day
Lachhi, the bride (Raisa Padamsee). DP: Navroze Contractor.
view
غزل [Ghazal] (Masud Kimiai, 1975)
May
2
Brothers and Sisters Day
The two brothers in their forest. DP: Nemat Haghighi.
Brothers Hojjat and Zeini live in peace in the forest. When strangers cut down the trees, a city woman joins the couple. Despite the comfort she brings with structure, food, and a warm body, the men come to realise that she's a disturbance of their peace.
view
Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut [A Man Escaped] (Robert Bresson, 1956)
May
2
A hand with dirty nails writing on a scrap of paper with a pencil stump. It starts “Mai 2 Ma chère maman, Je suis à la pris[…]“. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.
“With nothing to do, no news and in terrible solitude, we were 100 unfortunates awaiting our fate. I had no illusions about my own. If I could only escape, run away…”
– Fontaine
view
Todo modo [One Way or Another] (Elio Petri, 1976)
May
1
National Day of Prayer
M. (Gian Maria Volontè) speaks to the gathered elite while a gypsum Christ multiplies bread and fishes. DP: Luigi Kuveiller.
“Have you ever tried to dress as a priest? Try it, at least once. It's a bit like being a woman. In summer the breeze enters under the genitals. You can go without briefs. Priests are half men and half women.”
– Don Gaetano
Inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, Italy's political leaders, industrialists, bankers, and business leaders gather for a retreat as an atonement for their past crimes of corruption and unethical practices, and to reinforce their power.
view
鬼の詩 [Oni no uta / Song of the Devil] (Tetsutaro Murano, 1975)
Apr
29
Jerry Seinfeld – 1954
Keima Kyo entertaining his audience by hanging numerous clay pipes from his face. DP: Yasuhiro Yoshioka.
Rakugo (落語, litt. “story with a fall”), is a style of Japanese comedy performed while seated. Armed with a few props, the rakugoka recites a comical monologue using pitch and gestures.
view
The Devil Rides Out (Terence Fisher, 1968)
Apr
29
The menacing Mocata (Charles Gray). DP: Arthur Grant.
– Do you realise what today's date is, Rex?
– April the, er, 29th, why?
view
Krakatit (Otakar Vávra, 1948)
Apr
26
International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day
A man on a darkened, concrete runway, running towards a man-made structure, a mirage. DP: Václav Hanuš.
With the experience of yet another world war, and two devastating applications of science biggest terror, Karel Čapek's 1922 novel Krakatit [“Krakatoa”] anticipated and moulded the decades to come.
And R.U.R. is now, just around the corner.
view
Memoirs of a Survivor (David Gladwell, 1981)
Apr
20
Easter Sunday
A Victorian family, all dressed in white, marvel at an enormous egg in an ornate room. DP: Walter Lassally.
Eggs for Easter Sunday.
“The walls of the room seemed to hold stories untold, whispering in the quiet.”
– Doris Lessing, The Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)
In a dystopian Britain, D (Julie Christie) survives while taking care of a sullen teenage girl, and visiting a mirage behind the walls.
view
La última cena [The Last Supper] (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1976)
Apr
18
Good Friday
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.
view
Culloden (Peter Watkins, 1964)
Apr
16
1746
“Sir Thomas Sheridan, Jacobite military secretary. Suffering advanced debility and loss of memory. Former military engagement, 56 years ago. Sir John MacDonald, Jacobite captain of cavalry. Aged, frequently intoxicated, described as 'a man of the most limited capacities.' John William O'Sullivan, Jacobite quartermaster general. Described as 'an Irishman whose vanity is superseded only by his lack of wisdom.' Prince Charles Edward Stuart, Jacobite commander in chief. Former military experience: 10 days at a siege at the age of 13.”
– narrator