settima

FilmDuJour

Homicidal (William Castle, 1961)

Sep

6

Homicidal (1961)

Man's hands hold a picture of Emily (Joan Marshall). DP: Burnett Guffey.

“We've been to Haunted Hills, and through Tinglers, and even Ghosts... but now we're going to meet a group of people who just happen to be… Homicidal.”

– William Castle, introduction

Nuits rouges [L'homme sans visage / Shadowman] (Georges Franju, 1974)

Sep

6

Nuits rouges (1974)

A faceless man in black wearing a red balaclava (Jacques Champreux) holds his right wrist, which is bleeding profusely. DP: Guido Bertoni.

Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)

Sep

6

Sun

Pickpocket (1959)

The newspaper of Sunday, September 6, announcing a derby. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.

“The pickings were poor and not worth the risk.”

– Michel

Le vampire de Düsseldorf [The Vampire of Dusseldorf] (Robert Hossein, 1965)

Sep

5

Le vampire de Düsseldorf (1965)

Robert Hossein as Peter Kuerten [sic]. DP: Alain Levent.

Corridor of Mirrors (Terence Young, 1948)

Sep

3

Corridor of Mirrors (1948)

Mifanwy (Edana Romney) anachronistically smoking a cigarette. DP: André Thomas.

Dwaj panowie 'N' [Two Gentlemen 'N'] (Tadeusz Chmielewski, 1962)

Feb

29

Dwaj panowie 'N' (1962)

Elzbieta Brylska (Joanna Jedryka) and Sgt. Jan Dziewanowicz (Stanislaw Mikulski). DP: Jerzy Stawicki.

Private Property (Leslie Stevens, 1959/1960)

Jul

21

Private Property (1959 – 1960)

Duke (Corey Allen) and Boots (Warren Oates) “watching TV”. Ann Carlyle (Kate Manx) stripping for her husband is on. DP: Ted D. McCord.

Date watched, not the date in the movie. The quote was too good to leave it off this blog.

– He's got a calendar in there. – What day is it? – It's a broad in a cowboy hat. – Scooby doo bi doo ba ba.

Who, why, and what

This film blog, which is part of the fediverse, compliments my Mastodon musings and to a degree my Letterboxd logs. It consists of three parts:

The oldest is the Bales 2023 Film Challenge. This was a 2023 fediverse (and Twitter/X) challenge where the participants had to post about a film based on the daily theme. 2023 wasn't the kindest year, and at one point I had to skip a title. And then more. And more. And in 2024 I'm still catching up. Read about it on Letterboxd. Note that blog posts are timestamped on their corresponding daily challenge; you may have to scroll all the way back a year, or follow the #Bales2023FilmChallenge, #Bales2024FilmChallenge (December only) and #Bales2025FilmChallenge tags.

Then there is the Film du jour. This too once was a Letterboxd list until a blogger, backed by LB, blatantly copied my list and ran off with my gold medal. That list is now private and the titles – auto-posted on Mastodon on the day they take place – can be found here under the tag #FilmDuJour. The titles repeat yearly, with more and more ingredients added. It's like the soup of the day, but in celluloid form. Delicious!

Talking about food. Over time I announced my film-watching-during-dinner on Mastodon with the hashtag #FilmDinner. Initially just with a nice/interesting still, but then I decided to post a screenshot of a food-related moment in said movie.

The most recent addition is #Arcs, journaling those odd moments where I watch two or more films in a row with very similar scenes or setups. That happens, more often than anticipated.