settima

France

La baie des anges [Bay of Angels] (Jacques Demy, 1963)

Aug

6

mercredi

La baie des anges (1963)

The bank where Jean Fournier (Claude Mann) works. A wall calendar, slightly tilted, reads Août 6 Mercredi. DP: Jean Rabier.

“Life has its tricks. Its oddities.”

– Jackie Demaistre

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.

 

La boulangère de Monceau [The Bakery Girl of Monceau] (Éric Rohmer, 1963)

Jul

28

un gâteau

La boulangère de Monceau (1963)

“Un gâteau.”

– young man

La vérité [The Truth] (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1960)

Jul

25

La vérité (1960)

Bardot and two men in a café. She has her head on Sami Frey's shoulder while the other man kisses her arm. The table in front of them holds a full ashtray and small coffee cups. DP: Armand Thirard.

 

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.

 

L'argent [Money] (Robert Bresson, 1983)

Jul

22

L'argent (1983)

A man at an ATM holds on to a Visa credit card with tweezers. DPs: Pasqualino De Santis & Emmanuel Machuel.

Everything's expensive: someone is a at bank or ATM*

 

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 fate of the two uneven lovers slowly come to their logical conclusion.