settima

ShortFilm

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.

L'eclisse del 17 aprile [An Eclipse of the Sun] (1912)

Apr

17

1912

L'eclisse del 17 aprile (1912)

Scientists in impeccable suits observing the 1912 solar eclipse. The colour used for tinting this scene, a turquoise, indicates moonlight/dusk. Image source: Cineteca di Bologna (via).

絵を描く子どもたち [E o kaku kodomotachi: jidōga o rikai suru tame ni / Children Who Draw] (Susumu Hani, 1956)

Mar

13

Youth Art Month

絵を描く子どもたち (1956)

A little girl painting. DP: Shizuo Komura.

An artistic child for Youth Art Month (USA).

 

Small children work with clay, paint, and other materials. Under the camera's watchful eye, we see their work come to life.

Le Songe Des Chevaux Sauvages [Dream of the Wild Horses] (Denys Colomb de Daunant, 1960)

Mar

10

ithrah69's birthday

Le Songe Des Chevaux Sauvages (1960)

Camargue horses galloping through a haze of water and dreams. DPs: Denys Colomb de Daunant & André Costey.

A film ithrah69 may like for their birthday.

 

Filmmaker and photographer Colomb de Daunant's spiritual sequel to Crin blanc : le cheval sauvage [White Mane] (1953) and Glamador (1958) follows the same wild Camargue horses in their dreams.

 

The accompanying music is performed on a Cristal Baschet, a glass instrument key to several avant-garde films. I refer to John Coulthart's writeup about Le Songe, which links through to an article about the Cristal Baschet.

สัตว์วิกาล [Sud Vikal / Vampire] (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2008)

Mar

2

Dr. Seuss' birthday

สัตว์วิกาล (2008)

Applying blood to attract the Nok Phii. It's cold. DP: Chaisiri Jiwarangsan.

Imaginary animals or food for Theodor “Dr.” Seuss Geisel's birthday (1904).

“I like the settings where the lights and desire cross path. The desire to communicate with the invisibles in the darkness, or in memory, or in the future. It's always related to cinema and we as insects that are drawn to lights.”

– Apichatpong Weerasethakul, via

Villagers in the north of Thailand reported a rare sighting of a male and female Nok Phii, an elusive species of bird that feeds on animals' blood. It is unknown if the sighting was reliable, and if this vampire does, or ever did, exist.

Even: As You and I (Roger Barlow, Harry Hay + LeRoy Robbins, 1937)

Feb

27

Even: As You and I (1937)

A film editor struggling with a long strip of celluloid. DP: Hy Hirsh.

憂國 [Yūkoku / Patriotism or the Rite of Love and Death] (Yukio Mishima, 1966)

Feb

26

1936

憂國 (1966)

Reiko (Yoshiko Tsuruoka) walking through her lover's blood, her kimono drenched. DP: Kimio Watanabe.

Covers February 26–28, 1936.

”'I know how you feel,' Reiko says quietly. 'And I will follow you wherever you go.'”

– intertitles

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You? (Stuart Hamisch, 1958)

Feb

24

technology

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You? (1958)

Straight after dinner, the child returns to his teevee while his mother stands silently in the doorway.

A film about technology on what would've been Steve Jobs' 70th birthday

“The most precious thing that we all have with us, is time.”

– Steve Jobs

A nuclear family goes about their machine-driven day while slowly forgetting to communicate.

Unsere Afrikareise [Our Trip to Africa] (Peter Kubelka, 1966)

Feb

22

National Wildlife Day

Unsere Afrikareise (1966)

A frame (source) shows a freshly killed zebra on its side. The film stock's perforations and sound track are visible. DP: Peter Kubelka.

Wild animals for this year's first National Wildlife Day (USA). A second one is on September 4.

“For me, Afrikareise is, in its own genre, the most intense sound film that exists. Sound and images are in synch like in nature (even if it isn’t about the natural sound of something). The sound becomes the acoustic portrait of the visual action.”

– Peter Kubelka, via

Commissioned to film a rich Austrian couple's hunting trip, Kubelka sat on the material for several years before editing it in something more than the sum of its parts.

War Machine (Duvet Brothers, 1984)

Jan

21

the passing of Orwell

War Machine (1984)

A repurposed TV still of a battle ship billowing thick black smoke with the text WAR MACHINE superimposed over it.

A scratch video from 1984 on the date George Orwell died (1950). Date of production is either 84 or 85.