– Do you realise what today's date is, Rex? – April the, er, 29th, why?
The Devil Rides Out (Terence Fisher, 1968)
Apr
29
The menacing Mocata (Charles Gray). DP: Arthur Grant.
“Your new society sounds charming.”
The Last Man on Earth (Ubaldo Ragona + Sidney Salkow, 1964)
Jun
2
Republic Day – Italy
Dr. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) walking down the stairs of the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (aka the Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro aka the Colosseo Quadrato), with bodies scattered around him. DP: Franco Delli Colli.
Rome's EUR was Italy's site for the 1942 World's Fair, and meant as a showcase for #Mussolini's then-20 year old fascist state. Due to the outbreak of World War 2, EUR was never used for the Fair. Instead, the Italian Republic restored the project after the war and – quite appropriately if I may say so – turned it into a business district.
– Dr. Robert Morgan
An idealised, hypermodern interpretation of Classical Roman architecture, EUR feels alien and inhumane and serves as a perfect backdrop for the events a last man on earth may come up against.
Besides in The Last Man on Earth, EUR makes an appearance in L'Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962), Bertolucci's Il conformista (1970), Antonio Pietrangeli's Io la conoscevo bene (1965), and Peter Greenaway's The Belly of an Architect (1987).
“A strange calm possessed me. I thought more clearly than I had ever thought before – as if my mind were bathed in a brilliant light.”
The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 1957)
Mar
5
National Scott Day
Scott Carey (Grant Williams) standing in a palm of someone's hand, his arms outstretched as if pleading. DP: Ellis W. Carter.
Despite its sensationalist pulpy title and #ColdWar premise, Jack Arnold's adaptation of the Richard Matheson's The Shrinking Man (1956) is an existentialist treatise.
– Scott Carey
The Incredible Shrinking Man plays with the understanding of what it means to be acknowledged as a human, and one's place in the world. The story is told through the eyes of the titular Shrinking Man – Scott Carey – who after being exposed to strange fog, finds himself increasingly lost in this world.