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Trois couleurs: Bleu [Three Colors: Blue] (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993)
Aug
15
cerulean
Julie (Juliette Binoche) in a blue wallpapered room, observes blue beads suspended in front of a window with a cerulean sky and ocean behind it. Throughout the story, her clothing changes from white, to black, to the darkest charcoal blue, to Prussian blue. DP: Slawomir Idziak.
Cerulean, or blue: in food or fashion*
“I'm just fine. I have everything here. I have the TV. You can see the whole world”
– the mother
How could I not pick at least one instalment of Kieślowski's Trois couleurs trilogy. Here's blue, the liberté of the tricolor. Blue occurs as the sky to fall through, the room without life, and the cloth that binds.
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L'argent [Money] (Robert Bresson, 1983)
Jul
22
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*
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Le chagrin et la pitié [The Sorrow and the Pity] (Marcel Ophüls, 1969)
Jun
5
Sorry I Was on a Boat Day
“One thing I find appalling is when people who were [Vichy President] Pétain supporters come up to me and tell me what they did for the Resistance. Sometimes it's unreal. “Oh, Mr. Gaspard, if only you knew what we did, what I did for the Resistance.” Go ahead, pal, tell me all about it. I try to stay calm. I'm a salesman, and I want to sell my product. The company doesn't pay me to do politics and pick fights, so sometimes I find myself obliged to listen to a song and dance of some guy who shows me a drawer and gets his wife to confirm that there was indeed a revolver in that drawer during the war, a revolver which he was supposedly ready to use on the Germans. Only he never actually used it. History doesn't lie.”
And what is yours?
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La caduta degli dei (Götterdämmerung) [The Damned] (Luchino Visconti, 1969)
May
18
Visit Your Relatives Day
Martin Von Essenbeck (Helmut Berger) entertains the family. DPs: Pasqualino De Santis & Armando Nannuzzi.
“You must realize that today in Germany anything can happen, even the improbable, and it's just the beginning, Frederick. Personal morals are dead. We are an elite society where everything is permissible. These are Hitler's words. My dear Frederick, even you should give them some thought.”
– Aschenbach
The wealthy Von Essenbecks gather for a family dinner party. There is entertainment.
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Grauzone [Zones] (Fredi M. Murer, 1979)
Mar
21
1976
The anonymous, urgent newspaper announcement referencing the oath of secrecy considering a mysterious epidemic, starting March 21, 1976. It lists all the symptoms. DP: Hans Liechti.
Eine mysteriöse EPIDEMIE ist ausgebrochen.
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Mauvais sang [Bad Blood / The Night Is Young] (Leos Carax, 1986)
Jan
8
David Bowie – 1947
(Alex) Denis Lavant in a scene set to David Bowie's Modern Love. DP: Jean-Yves Escoffier.
A [favourite] scene featuring a Bowie song for David Bowie's birthday (1947).
“They pulled in just behind the fridge
He lays her down, he frowns
“Gee, my life's a funny thing
Am I still too young?”
He kissed her then and there
She took his ring, took his babies
It took him minutes, took her nowhere
Heaven knows, she'd have taken anything”
– David Bowie, Modern Love (from Let's Dance, 1983)
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Die Sage vom alten Hirten Xeudi und seinem Freund Reiman [The Legend of the Old Shepherd Xeudi and His Friend Reimann] (Hans-Jakob Siber, 1973)
Dec
11
International Mountain Day
The two friends setting off on their track of the Swiss mountains. Their chalet can be seen in the foreground. DP: Hans-Jakob Siber.
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Die Sage vom alten Hirten Xeudi und seinem Freund Reiman [The Legend of the Old Shepherd Xeudi and His Friend Reimann] (Hans-Jakob Siber, 1973)
Sep
3
potatoes
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Kick That Habit (Peter Liechti, 1989)
Nov
16
National Andy Day
Everything is noise. Everything is light. Everything is dark. Everything is motion. Everything is static. Everything is energy. Everything is lethargy. Everything is rhythm. Everything is chaos. Everything is silent
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Die schwarze Spinne [The Black Spider] (Mark M. Rissi, 1983)
Oct
20
Christine (Beatrice Kessler) and her junkie friends eating the old man's food. DP: Edwin Horak.
“Nur ein leichtfertig Knechtlein, dem es gleichgültig war, regne oder sonnenscheine es in der Ernte, wenn nur das Jahr umging und der Lohn kam und zu jeder Essenszeit das Essen auf den Tisch, griff zum Löffel und berichtete Christine, daß noch keine Buche gepflanzet sei und alles gehe, als ob sie verhext wären.”