settima

Canada

Reason Over Passion [La raison avant la passion] (Joyce Wieland, 1969)

May

19

Victoria Day

Reason Over Passion (1969)

A winding road. nearos oevr isoasnp. DP: Joyce Wieland.

A movie made or set in Canada for Victoria Day (Canada)

“sroena evor ssiapon”

– Pierre Trudeau

Joyce Wieland's heart and camera travel from the Canadian east coast all the way to the west. Cars drive by, suns set, suns rise, and Pierre Trudeau's motto rings on in 537 permutations.

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.

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.

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.

Waiting for Fidel (Michael Rubbo, 1974)

Mar

8

International Women's Day

Waiting for Fidel (1974)

A group of six girls and two boys sing in celebration of International Women's Day. DP: Douglas Kiefer.

Time flies while waiting for Fidel, and before you know it, it's March 8.

 

 

Film du Jour posts does not list holidays on their respective date, unless a film or scene happens to take place on one.

To Lavoisier, Who Died in the Reign of Terror (Michael Snow, 1991)

Mar

6

chemistry

To Lavoisier, Who Died in the Reign of Terror (1991)

Shot from below through a glass pane, a man pushes a sulphur-yellow substance around.

Chemistry: Dimitri Mendeleev presented his version of the periodic table on this date in 1869. He claimed to have had a dream in which he envisioned a table in which all the chemical elements were arranged according to their atomic weight (via).

Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794) was a French chemist who gave the first accurate scientific explanation of the mysteries of fire. He also provided the law of conservation of matter which states that matter can be neither created or destroyed.n His work and this film are situated between modern chemistry and alchemy. The film stages a drama of abstraction and theoretical realism. Everyday life seen photo-chemically and musically. The film is a materialist projected-image conversion of matter.”

– Michael Snow, via

The film stock was chemically altered, giving it an dreamlike quality.

Gina [Stone Cold Revenge] (Denys Arcand, 1975)

Dec

11

1952

Gina (1975)

Gina (Céline Lomez) stripping in front of a silver tinsel curtain. The silhouette of a woman is visible in the foreground. DP: Alain Dostie.

Gina [Stone Cold Revenge] (Denys Arcand, 1975)

Dec

5

فَاطِمَة بِنْت مُحَمَّد

Gina (1975)

Gina (Céline Lomez) waiting at an airport. DP: Alain Dostie.

A triumphant woman in commemoration of the martyrdom of Sayyida Fatimah al-Zahra

 

The Music of the Spheres (G. Philip Jackson, 1983)

Aug

28

1994

The Music of the Spheres (1983)

Archive footage from the future dated August 28, 1994. DP: Nadine Humenick.

La maudite galette [Dirty Money] (Denys Arcand, 1972)

Aug

2

La maudite galette (1972)

At a depressing, fluorescent-lit bar, men gathered at small round tables smoke and drink. A single man in a brightly lit phone booth places a call. DP: Alain Dostie.