settima

ExperimentalFilm

Zig-Zag – le jeu de l'oie (Une fiction didactique à propos de la cartographie) [Snakes and Ladders] (Raúl Ruiz, 1980)

Jul

5

Zig-Zag (1980)

An anthropomorphic map with contour lines sketching out a man's head (via). DP: Alain Montrobert.

Traveling to my vacation destination, a map or globe*

“It appears obvious that the territory is the sum of all the maps, the result of an infinite addition. Or a contrary, the territory is what is left when we remove all the sets of lines, drawings, traces and colors which are covering it. Its existence becomes doubtful.”

– H., via

A man, H., joins two others playing jeu de l'oie (Game of the Goose), a board game associated with labyrinths and pilgrimage. While the three play, the game opens up maps and new roads to explore.

 

Following my own Bales' rules, I cannot pick a title twice. See Zig-Zag as an avatar of Raúl Ruiz's O Território [The Territory] from 1981.

 

The Governor (Stan Brakhage, 1977)

Jul

4

1976

And July 20

“On July 4, 1976 I and my camera toured the state of Colorado with governor Richard D. Lamm, as he traveled in parades with his children, appeared at dinners, lectured, etc. On July 20, I spent the morning in his office in the state capitol and the afternoon with himself and his wife in a television studio, then with Mrs. Lamm greeting guests to the governor’s mansion and finally with Governor Lamm in his office again. These two days of photography took me exactly one year to edit into a film which wove itself thru multiple superimpositions into a study of light and power.”

– Stan Brakhage

Die glücklichen Minuten des Georg Hauser [The Happy Minutes of Georg Hauser] (Mansur Madavi, 1974)

Jun

25

National Day of Joy

Die glücklichen Minuten des Georg Hauser (1974)

In a moment of total bliss, Georg Hauser (Walter Bannert) wrecks a car (via). DP: Mansur Madavi.

A character who is happy on the National Day of Joy (USA)

“Grünes Licht für ehrgeizige, strebsame und arbeitswillige junge Menschen.”

Georg Hauser's life is a drag. He gets up to drive his car to the same office to do the same thing surrounded by the same people everyday, just to make money to do the same thing all over again. Then, his glasses break and the new pair makes him see things a bit differently.

L'immortelle (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1963)

Jun

23

Sat

L'immortelle (1963)

A man's hand holds a crumbled up diary page for Saturday June 23. There are no calendar entries. DP: Maurice Barry.

“You're a foreigner and you're lost.”

La Femme Bourreau [A Woman Kills] (Jean-Denis Bonan, 1968)

May

20

1943

La Femme Bourreau (1968)

A dark-haired woman lounging on a bed. DP: Gérard de Battista.

“Hélène Picard, born in Lyon, May 20, 1943. A child in care, she is reported as a runaway, a thief and unstable.”

Katar [Cold] (Hieronim Neumann, 1984)

May

6

Childhood Depression Awareness Day

Katar (1984)

One little girl sneeze even bursts the camera! A – psik (achoo)! DP: Zbigniew Kotecki.

A child with health struggles for Childhood Depression Awareness Day (USA)

“Spotkał katar Katarzynę – A – psik! Katarzyna pod pierzynę – A – psik!”

– Jan Brzechwa, Katar (via)

A little girl has the sniffles, sees the doctor, and so happily spreads the bug all over town. A quirky animated short based on a poem by Jan Brzechwa.

Normalsatz [Ordinary Sentence] (Heinz Emigholz, 1982)

Apr

30

1975

Normalsatz (1982)

A woman, seated on a bed, speaks to a second woman who is pressed against the side of a bookcase. Still via. DP: Heinz Emigholz.

Part of the Trilogie der Siebziger Jahre (“Trilogy of the Seventies”).

Le moindre geste [The Slightest Gesture] (Jean-Pierre Daniel, Fernand Deligny + Josée Manenti, 1962–1964, 1971)

Apr

2

World Autism Awareness Day

Le moindre geste (1971)

Yves (Yves Guignard), resting. Deligny wrote a lot about the lack of words, and how it stays close to the heart of cinema. Still (and a wonderful essay) via. DP: Josée Manenti.

An autistic actor or character for World Autism Awareness Day

“Celui qui n’a jamais rien dit

a cinquante ans d’âge

et ne dira jamais rien

s’est appris à lire

dans les moindres gestes”

– Fernand Deligny, Essi & Copeaux. Derniers écrits et aphorismes, via

Fernand Deligny was an educator who promoted play and exploration, as opposed to drugs and force, to open up the lives of young nonverbal, autistic people. We follow Yves Guignard, one of Deligny's “patients”, who, in his own wordless rhythm shows us his world.

 

Over time, the film was forgotten and even lost, until it was found in a tree, then completed with a narrative and soundtrack in 1969, selected for the 1971 Cannes Film Festival and praised by Cahiers du Cinéma, lost once more, and eventually – with support of Chris Marker – restored and brought to a wider audience.

L'immortelle (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1963)

Mar

12

National Hitchcock Day

L'immortelle (1963)

A woman in silhouette (Françoise Brion) enters a building. The setup is perfectly symmetrical except a beam of light passing through the opened doors that highlight's the woman's presence, adding a sense of wrong to the scene. DP: Maurice Barry.

A favourite non-Hitchcock mystery for National Hitchcock Day (USA).

“You're a foreigner and you're lost.”

Le Songe Des Chevaux Sauvages [Dream of the Wild Horses] (Denys Colomb de Daunant, 1960)

Mar

10

ithrah69's birthday

Le Songe Des Chevaux Sauvages (1960)

Camargue horses galloping through a haze of water and dreams. DPs: Denys Colomb de Daunant & André Costey.

A film ithrah69 may like for their birthday.

 

Filmmaker and photographer Colomb de Daunant's spiritual sequel to Crin blanc : le cheval sauvage [White Mane] (1953) and Glamador (1958) follows the same wild Camargue horses in their dreams.

 

The accompanying music is performed on a Cristal Baschet, a glass instrument key to several avant-garde films. I refer to John Coulthart's writeup about Le Songe, which links through to an article about the Cristal Baschet.