Corridor of Mirrors (Terence Young, 1948)
Sep
3

Mifanwy (Edana Romney) anachronistically smoking a cigarette. DP: André Thomas.
Corridor of Mirrors (Terence Young, 1948)
Sep
3

Mifanwy (Edana Romney) anachronistically smoking a cigarette. DP: André Thomas.
“Remember love, remember love
Love is what it takes to dream”
Bed Peace [John and Yoko: The Bed-In] (John Lennon + Yoko Ono, 1969)
Aug
27
white

John and Yoko in their bed, all dressed in white, framed by flowers. DP: Nicholas D. Knowland.
White, in food or fashion*
– Yoko Ono, Remember Love (1969)
While the press expected the newlyweds' “bed-in” to be a scandalous nude affair, the two lovers showed up all in white – like angels, as John put it. Surrounded by journalists and friends, John and Yoko imaged peace.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
“Well, there are more ways than one of getting close to your ancestors. Follow the old road, and as you walk, think of them and of the old England. They climbed Chillingbourne Hill, just as you. They sweated and paused for breath just as you did today. And when you see the bluebells in the spring and the wild thyme, and the broom and the heather, you're only seeing what their eyes saw. You ford the same rivers. The same birds are singing. When you lie flat on your back and rest, and watch the clouds sailing, as I often do, you're so close to those other people, that you can hear the thrumming of the hoofs of their horses, and the sound of the wheels on the road, and their laughter and talk, and the music of the instruments they carried. And when I turn the bend in the road, where they too saw the towers of Canterbury, I feel I've only to turn my head, to see them on the road behind me.”A Canterbury Tale (Michael Powell + Emeric Pressburger, 1944)
Aug
27

Alison (Sheila Sim) looking out over the rolling hills of Kent with the Canterbury Cathedral somewhere out there. DP: Erwin Hillier.
– Thomas Colpeper, JP
“I first noticed it in Spring last year. […] It was from [my home] that I first saw it—its crest protruding over the roofs on the other side of the road. Surprised that I hadn’t noticed it before, I wondered what it was and then forgot about it for several weeks.” The Black Tower (John Smith, 1985—1987)
Aug
22
black

The black tower, visible from behind a brick wall (via)..
Black: a building or structure*
– narrator
A man becomes aware of a formerly unnoticed black tower. Surely it's nothing, yet as the weeks pass, its looming presence takes over.
The black tower was a real structure, first noticed by filmmaker John Smith when he moved to East London. The building, actually the upper part of a hospital's water tower, was painted pitch black, and on sunny days appeared to be a cutout in the sky. By framing the shots in such a way that only part of the surroundings is visible, and editing them in a narrative framework, Smith creates a new context suggesting movement. This style of montage called creative geography, or artificial landscape, was developed by Lev Kuleshov and enables filmmakers to expand existing material and narrative into something that usually is only available to prose poetry.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
“I, I find all kinds of witchcraft slightly nauseating and this I find absolutely disgusting.”The Plague of the Zombies (John Gilling, 1966)
Aug
20

A rather disgusting looking zombie carrying a young brunette in a flower dress. DP: Arthur Grant.
– Sir James Forbes
“He moved over to the window: a smallish, frail figure, the meagreness of his body merely emphasized by the blue overalls which were the uniform of the party. His hair was very fair, his face naturally sanguine, his skin roughened by coarse soap and blunt razor blades and the cold of the winter that had just ended. “Nineteen Eighty-Four (Rudolph Cartier, 1954)
Aug
18
indigo

Winston Smith (Peter Cushing). We only see his frail looking back with the identifier KZ-6090, and his name SMITH W.
Indigo, in food or fashion*
– George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) (via)
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
– You know, I take pictures, photographs, but I never really thought in black and white before I saw our rushes. Do you know what I mean? You can see the shape of things.
– Life is in colour, but black and white is more realistic.Der Stand der Dinge [The State of Things] (Wim Wenders, 1982)
Aug
13
1942

Friedrich Munro's (Patrick Bauchau) Hollywood, Ca address and date of birth: August 13, 1942. DPs: Henri Alekan, Fred Murphy & Martin Schäfer.
“She looked at the red shoes, for she thought there was no harm in looking. She put them on, for she thought there was no harm in that either. But then she went to the ball and began dancing. When she tried to turn to the right, the shoes turned to the left. When she wanted to dance up the ballroom, her shoes danced down. They danced down the stairs, into the street, and out through the gate of the town. Dance she did, and dance she must, straight into the dark woods.” The Red Shoes (Michael Powell + Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
Aug
3
red

A ballerina's lower body in focus. She wears a long tulle off-white dress, slightly sheer, with her white stockings showing through slightly. Part of her right lower arm is visible, the hand clutched, a turquoise bracelet on the wrist. What stands out most are her ruby red ballet shoes that appear to move away from her. The backdrop is a dull, washed out carpet. DP: Jack Cardiff.
Red: best use of red in food or fashion*
– Hans Christian Andersen, De røde Skoe (1845, tranl. Jean Hersholt, 1949), via
Another one of The Archers' #Technicolor extravaganzas. This time, not to wow the worn-down post-war black-and-white audience, but as an an active storytelling instrument.
Built around Hans Christian Andersen's haunting tale De røde Skoe (1845).
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
“Don't know why
There's no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather
Since my man and I ain't together
Keeps raining all of the time Oh, yeah
Life is bad
Gloom and misery everywhere
Stormy weather, stormy weather
And I just can get my poor self together
Oh, I'm weary all of the time
The time, so weary all of the time When he went away
The blues walked in and met me
Oh, yeah if he stays away
Old rocking chair's gonna get me
All I do is pray
The Lord will let me
Walk in the sun once more Oh, I can't go on, can't go on, can't go on
Everything I have is gone
Stormy weather, stormy weather
Since my man and I, me and my daddy ain't together
Keeps raining all of the time
Oh, oh, keeps raining all of the time
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah raining all of the time
Stormy stormy
Stormy weather
Yeah” The Tempest (Derek Jarman, 1979)
Jul
28

Sailors dancing in a room wildly decorated with guirlandes and flowers (via). DP: Peter Middleton.
Local nightlife: people dancing or at a show*
– Elisabeth Welch, Stormy Weather (Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler, 1933)
A radiant Goddess (Elisabeth Welch) performs the torch song Stormy Weather. Enchanted sailors dance.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.