viewColloque de chiens (1977)
Monique (Silke Humel, R) spending Christmas Eve in a bar, looking for a way out. She's speaking to an elderly man in an expensive tuxedo. Is this it? DP: Denis Lenoir; still photographer Patrice Morere.
December 24: the night before Christmas (Christmas Eve)
Colloque de chiens (Raúl Ruiz, 1977)
“Nobody knows why Monique, the cold and dry voiced whore, bears in her eyes the sadness and tiredness of her past.”
Filmed during an actors' strike, Raúl Ruiz's Colloque de chiens consists for the most part of still photographs with mixed in stolen moving footage of unsuspecting bystanders and stray dogs. Told in fotonovela format, we follow the pitiful account of Monique, who as a young girl, learns that her mother is not who she thinks she is. Rejected, she throws herself into a life of vice until she meets Henri, a handsome young television repairman. Together they buy a small café, and are happy for once. But the cyclical nature of life determines her faith.
Raúl Ruiz's work is, like Henri's modus operandi, determined by maps and patterns. Even in the short comically melodramatic breathe of Colloque de chiens, the map has been laid out for Ruiz's later, much more complex narrative.
Colloque opens in a barren landscape. There are the skeletal towers of a nearby city, and the endless barks of abandoned dogs. Obscured by tall reeds, a blown-up photograph of a young man. The face, soft and familiar, a distant memory.
“He wanted to be returned to the world of his childhood and to this woman who was perhaps waiting for him” –Chris Marker, dialogue from La Jetée (1962)
Amongst bare winter bushes a large photo of a friendly, young, familiar looking man. In the background against a grey sky multiple white apartment buildings.
#Bales2023FilmChallenge #RaúlRuiz #SilkeHumel #EvaSimonet #RobertDarmel #JorgeArriagada #DenisLenoir #PatriceMorere #drama #crime #melodrama #ShortFilm #photography #animals #gender #prostitution #France #1970s ★★★★☆
#todo
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شكاوى الفلاح الفصيح [El-Fallâh el-fasîh / The Eloquent Peasant] (Chadi Abdel Salam, 1970)
Dec
23
National Farmers Day – India
The peasant (Ahmed Marei) in a stone temple, flanked by scribes. DP: Mustafa Imam.
4000 years ago, Egypt, Middle Kingdom. A peasant, leading his mules past a stream of water, is tricked. With his animals gone, he pleads to the Pharaoh to restore Maʽat, harmony.
“He's a peasant. Without looking into his situation, words are all he has.”
Chadi Abdel Salam is not only this film's director, but also a trained architect, later set and costume designer. His eye wordlessly speaks the passing of time in the smallest of details. The withering of ferns, desert sand staining linen, the Sun merging with skin. At once, the universal presence of the gods becomes visible.
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گاو [Gaav / The Cow] (Dariush Mehrjui, 1969)
Dec
27
چای
Two man sit against a white plastered, adobe wall. As one plays the setar, the other accepts a glass of chaii (black tea) from a square hole in the wall. DP: Fereydon Ghovanlou.
“I'm not Hassan. I'm his cow.”
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Holubice [The White Dove] (František Vláčil, 1960)
Dec
9
Official Lost And Found Day
Michal (Karel Smyczek) finds the white dove perched on a sculpture. The artwork depicts a faceless boy. DP: Jan Čuřík.
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Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975)
Nov
26
Valentine's cake – alfresco
A piece of cake. With teeny tiny ants crawling all over it. Awww! DP: Russell Boyd.
“This we do for pleasure, so that we may shortly be at the mercy of venomous snakes and poisonous ants. How foolish can human creatures be.”
– Miss McCraw
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Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975)
Nov
26
World Lewis Day
A koala high up in a tree, observing one of the rescue operations. DP: Russell Boyd.
It's not possible to be in nature, one can only be absorbed by it.
“The vicinity is reknowned for its venomous snakes and poisonous ants of various species. It is, however, a geological marvel.”
– Mrs. Appleyard
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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.”
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Привързаният балон [Privarzaniyat balon / The Tied-Up Balloon] (Binka Zhelyazkova, 1967)
Oct
1
Balloons Around The World Day
The balloon sails along as a young woman in white (Janet Miteva) walks with it. DP: Emil Vagenshtain.
One day, a large blimp shows up over a small Bulgarian village. The townspeople, seeing the prosperity in all that beautiful silk and then some, go after it.
“It was fear that created the first gods.”
– Stratius
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Werckmeister harmóniák (Béla Tarr, 2000)
Sep
26
Shamu The Whale Day
A man in a dark hat and coat approaches the whale. The huge creature lays in an enormous open wooden crate in the middle of a town square. DPs: Patrick de Ranter, Miklós Gurbán, Erwin Lanzensberger, Gábor Medvigy, Emil Novák & Rob Tregenza.
“All I ask is that you step with me into the boundlessness, where constancy, quietude and peace, infinite emptiness reign.”
– János Valuska
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La caza [The Hunt] (Carlos Saura, 1966)
Sep
23
International Rabbit Day
One of the hunters, seen from the back, aims for a wild rabbit. When you look closely you can see the animal leap just out of frame. DP: Luis Cuadrado.
