settima

France

Paparazzi (Jacques Rozier, 1963/1964)

Jul

29

Paparazzi (1964)

Brigitte Bardot and her co-star Michel Piccoli making a show of ascending the stairs of Casa Malaparte as seen through a paparazzo's lens. DP: Maurice Perrimond.

A character has a camera or takes photos*

 

It buzzes on the set of Le mépris. These mosquitos, the Italians say paparazzi, swarm La Bardot and making it merely impossible for anyone – themselves included – to do their job. But Bardot knows them, too well, and gives them what they want, when she wants it.

 

Les trois couronnes du matelot [Three Crowns of the Sailor] (Raúl Ruiz, 1983)

Jul

25

1958

Les trois couronnes du matelot (1983)

Prostitute María (Nadège Clair) sitting on her bed. The bed is covered in dolls. DP: Sacha Vierny.

“On the night of July 25, 1958 I killed Ladislaw Zukarevitch, antique dealer, my mentor, my master in the art of polishing diamonds, my tutor at Warsaw Theological School.”

– the student

Estate violenta [Violent Summer] (Valerio Zurlini, 1959)

Jul

25

1943

Estate violenta (1959)

A large radio on a small pedestal. A perpetual wall calendar next to it reads DOMENICA 25 LUGLIO. DP: Tino Santoni.

 

La grande bouffe (Marco Ferreri, 1973)

Jul

21

La grande bouffe (1973)

Andréa Ferréol in a promotional photo. Food styling by actor/food writer Giuseppe Maffioli, DP: Mario Vulpiani.

A character pigging out*

“The most revolting film I have ever seen”

– Mary Whitehouse, via

Four hedonistic gourmands throw a party of the flesh, of meat, of lust, and death.

 

La piscine [The Swimming Pool] (Jacques Deray, 1969)

Jul

20

La piscine (1969)

Marianne (Romy Schneider) and Harry (Maurice Ronet) shopping. Note the plethora of atypical-for-France ingredients, and how the packaging hasn't changed up to today. DP: Jean-Jacques Tarbès.

Shopping for food*

“I thought you'd be hungry, maybe.”

Schneider and Ronet's characters go get their groceries in a tiny, surprisingly well-stocked-with-Asian-food-items French corner shop, ánd manage to find all the ingredients needed. One rookie mistake: Uncle Ben's. Of all the rice in the world…

 

Estate violenta [Violent Summer] (Valerio Zurlini, 1959)

Jul

19

Estate violenta (1959)

Roberta (Eleonora Rossi Drago) and Carlo (Jean-Louis Trintignant). DP: Tino Santoni.

Characters go on a date, or fall in love*

“It would be thrilling if you were willing, and if it can never be, pity me, for you were born to be kissed, I can’t resist, you are temptation, and I am yours!”

– Nacio Herb Brown & Arthur Freed, Temptation (1933)

On a beautiful summer day in Rimini, Carlo, the handsome son from a bourgeois home, saves a little girl and becomes infatuated with the girl's mother, a young widow years his senior. Set in July 1943, the events in the outer world (poss. spoilers) and the faith of the two uneven lovers slowly come to their logical conclusion.

 

La collectionneuse [The Collector] (Éric Rohmer, 1967)

Jul

18

La collectionneuse (1967)

Daniel (Daniel Pommereulle), wrapped in bedsheets, and Adrien (Patrick Bauchau) rest in the grass. The colour of summer is courtesy of the master, DP Néstor Almendros (via).

Someone's all bundled up*. No list of summer films is complete without Éric Rohmer.

“I even tried not to think. I was face-to-face alone with the sea, far from cruises and beaches, fulfilling a childhood dream put off year after year. I lost myself completely in the play of shadow and light, sinking into a lethargy heightened by the water. That state of passivity, of complete availability, promised to last much longer than the euphoria of one’s first summer dip into the ocean. I could easily see myself spending a whole month this summer this way.”

– Adrien

An art dealer and his writer friend plan to spend the summer together in a villa on the Côte d'Azur. A young woman, a collector of sorts, disrupts their retreat.

 

สุดเสน่หา [Sud sanaeha / Blissfully Yours] (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2002)

Jul

17

Sud sanaeha (2002)

A hand picking skin in the water (via). DP: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom.

Someone with sunburn, or a skin condition*

“I treasure some kinds of old Thai disaster movies. Many of such tell a forbidden love story between a man and a woman that the mother earth destroyed them. Similarly, Blissfully Yours contains innocent narrative and simple characters. The settings are open landscapes and the disaster plot is there, except that it is transformed into another kind of disaster.”

– A.W., via

Min and Roong cherish their love among the uncertainty of his residence status. A old woman guards them, and soothes Min's blistered skin.

 

L'eclisse [The Eclipse] (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)

Jul

10

Mon

L'eclisse (1962)

Vittoria (Monica Vitti, bottom left) at the Borsa – the Rome Stock Exchange. A clock top-right indicates it's Monday, July 10, 12:31 pm.. DP: Gianni Di Venanzo.

“Everything's crashing here.”

– Vittoria's mother

La dame dans l'auto avec des lunettes et un fusil [The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun] (Anatole Litvak, 1970)

Jul

10

Vendredi

La dame dans l'auto avec des lunettes et un fusil (1970)

A man with a lot of swagger and rolled up blueprints is about to enter a room with a prominent Coca-Cola machine and a jazzy leather swivel chair on display. An electronic flip clock tells the time and date. It's 17:52. DP: Claude Renoir.