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FilmDuJour

Зеркало для героя [Zerkalo dlya geroya / Mirror for a Hero] (Vladimir Khotinenko, 1987)

May

8

1949

Зеркало для героя (1987)

Sergey Pshenichnyy (Sergey Koltakov) speaking to one of the 1940s farmers. DP: Evgeniy Grebnev.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (Fritz Lang, 1956)

May

7

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)

Susan Spencer (Joan Fontaine) lighting Tom Garrett's (Dana Andrews) cigarette. DP: William E. Snyder.

“It's a weird, crazy idea, but that's the reason it intrigues me.”

– Tom Garrett

The Unholy Three (Tod Browning, 1925)

May

6

The Unholy Three (1925)

Tweedledee (Harry Earles), Hercules (Victor McLaglen), and Echo – The Ventriloquist (Lon Chaney). DP: David Kesson.

“It's spooky! It sounds… unholy!”

– Echo

My Name Is Julia Ross (Joseph H. Lewis, 1945)

May

5

My Name Is Julia Ross (1945)

Nina Foch as Julia Ross… or is she… Julia's lying on a made bed, looking over her shoulder at two middle-aged men and an elderly woman standing in the doorway to her room. DP: Burnett Guffey.

– You haven't forgotten us again, have you, Marion?

– You know perfectly well I'm Julia Ross!

Goya 3 de mayo [Goya, May 3rd] (Carlos Saura, 2021)

May

3

1808

Goya 3 de mayo (2021)

Saura's reconstruction of Goya's anti-war painting El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid (1814). DP: Sergio De Uña.

Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut [A Man Escaped] (Robert Bresson, 1956)

May

2

Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (1956)

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

The Devil Rides Out (Terence Fisher, 1968)

Apr

29

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

The menacing Mocata (Charles Gray). DP: Arthur Grant.

– Do you realise what today's date is, Rex?

– April the, er, 29th, why?

Willi Tobler und der Untergang der 6. Flotte [Willi Tobler and the Decline of the 6th Fleet] (Alexander Kluge, 1969)

Apr

27

Willi Tobler und der Untergang der 6. Flotte (1969)

One of many many handmade, overly complicated title cards. The date is May/June 42. DPs: Dietrich Lohmann, Thomas Mauch & Alfred Tichawsky.

And November 9, January 14, and January 21.

The Kirlian Witness (Jonathan Sarno, 1978)

Apr

27

The Kirlian Witness (1978)

A ficus hooked up to a polygraph. DP: João Fernandes.

“Based on a true occult event”

– tagline

Una farfalla con le ali insanguinate [The Bloodstained Butterfly] (Duccio Tessari, 1971)

Apr

26

Fri

Una farfalla con le ali insanguinate (1971)

Sarah Marchi (Wendy D'Olive) with Giorgio (Helmut Berger) in the background, just out of focus behind her. DP: Carlo Carlini.

“Because, in the way I see it, the killer could only be one of two types. Either a person who was seized by a sudden impulse and in all probability has no police record, or else, a sex maniac.”