settima

arcs

L'inconnu de Shandigor; Les salauds vont en enfer

Jan

24

cuckoo clocks

L'inconnu de Shandigor (1967)
Les salauds vont en enfer (1955)

Top to bottom: L'inconnu de Shandigor (Jean-Louis Roy, 1967), Les salauds vont en enfer (Robert Hossein, 1955).

Watched on January 24 and 25 respectively.

Rosso sangue; Happy End; The Hang Up

Nov

2

axe

Rosso sangue (1981)
Happy End (1967)
The Hang Up (1969)

Top to bottom: Rosso sangue [Absurd] (Joe D’Amato, 1981), Happy End (Oldřich Lipský, 1967), The Hang Up (TonyVorno, 1969).

Watched on November 2, 4 and 7 respectively.

Plein soleil; Die Konsequenz

Jun

15

passports

Plein soleil (1960)
Die Konsequenz (1977)

Top to bottom: Plein soleil (René Clément, 1960), Die Konsequenz (Wolfgang Petersen, 1977).

Watched on June 15 and 17 respectively.

“I might not look it, but I've got lots of imagination.”

– Alain Delon as Tom Ripley in Plein soleil (1960)

Nóz w wodzie; The Lady from Shanghai

Apr

23

rigging

Nóz w wodzie (1962)
The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Top to bottom: Nóz w wodzie [Knife in the Water] (Roman Polanski, 1962), The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947).

Watched on April 23 and 26 respectively.

“Coil the bow-line into a sun shape.”

– Leon Niemczyk as Andrzej in Nóz w wodzie

Whistle on grass

L'amore (1948) Nóz w wodzie (1962)

April 22 & 23, 2024

“It's nice. Listen. It's like heaven. Just like heaven.” – Anna Magnani as Nannina in “L'amore”

L'amore (Roberto Rossellini, 1948) Nóz w wodzie [Knife in the Water] (Roman Polanski, 1962)

#Arcs #AnnaMagnani #FedericoFellini #ZygmuntMalanowicz #JolantaUmecka #grass #whistle #todo

Eclipse

Slnko v sieti (1963) L'éclipse du soleil en pleine lune (1907) Werckmeister harmóniák (2000) L’Eclisse (1962) That Cloud Never Left (2019) Wunder der Schöpfung (1920/25)

April 8, 2024

“Everything that lives is still. Are the hills going to march off? Will heaven fall upon us? Will the Earth open under us? We don't know. We don't know, for a total eclipse has come upon us.” –Lars Rudolph as János Valuska in “Werckmeister harmóniák”

Slnko v sieti [The Sun in a Net] (Štefan Uher, 1963) L'éclipse du soleil en pleine lune [The Eclipse: The Courtship of the Sun and Moon] (Georges Méliès, 1907) Werckmeister harmóniák [Werckmeister Harmonies] (Béla Tarr, 2000) L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962) That Cloud Never Left (Yashaswini Raghunandan, 2019) Wunder der Schöpfung [Our Heavenly Bodies] (Hanns Walter Kornblum, 1920/25)

#Arcs #MariánBielik #JanaBeláková #LarsRudolph #MonicaVitti #AlainDelon #eclipse #todo

Who, why, and what

This film blog, which is part of the fediverse, compliments my Mastodon musings and to a degree my Letterboxd logs. It consists of three parts:

The oldest is the Bales 2023 Film Challenge. This was a 2023 fediverse challenge where the participants had to post about a film based on the daily theme. 2023 wasn't the kindest year, and at one point I had to skip a title. And then more. And more. And in 2024 I'm still catching up. Read about it on Letterboxd. Note that blog posts are timestamped on their corresponding daily challenge; you may have to scroll all the way back a year, or follow the #Bales2023FilmChallenge, #Bales2024FilmChallenge (December only) and #Bales2025FilmChallenge tags.

Then there is the Film du jour. This too once was a Letterboxd list until a blogger, backed by LB, blatantly copied my list and ran off with my gold medal. That list is now private and the titles – auto-posted on Mastodon on the day they take place – can be found here under the tag #FilmDuJour. The titles repeat yearly, with more and more ingredients added. It's like the soup of the day, but in celluloid form. Delicious!

Talking about food. Over time I announced my film-watching-during-dinner on Mastodon with the hashtag #FilmDinner. Initially just with a nice/interesting still, but then I decided to post a screenshot of a food-related moment in said movie.

The most recent addition is #Arcs, journaling those odd moments where I watch two or more films in a row with very similar scenes or setups. That happens, more often than anticipated.