A [favourite] movie kiss for National Kissing Day (USA*), not to be confused with International Kissing Day aka World Kiss Day which falls on July 6.

“I don’t have the inhibitions that a practicing Catholic would in that I’m not paralysed by the sacredness of the text, nor do I have the inhibitions of a lapsed Catholic who would view approaching the story of Jesus as compromising his Marxist beliefs, of sinking back into conformity.”

– PPP, via

An neorealist, straightforward adaptation of the Gospel of Matthew, populated by non-actors (“Jesus” is a 19-year Catalan trade unionist picked for his resemblance to El Greco's Christ), intellectuals, and anachronistic characters based on biblical art through the ages.

 

According to said Gospel, apostle Judas kissed prophet Jesus to signal to the police who of the 13 men present was the one to arrest.

 

Interestingly, the word Matthew chose to describe the kiss is καταφιλέω, the same word used by philosopher Plutarch to describe the kiss between Alexander the Great and his eunuch Bagoas

 

* no one wants to kiss you anymore, America

Someone surfing or skateboarding for either International Surfing Day or Go Skateboarding Day

 

José Mojica Marins' protégé Ivan Cardoso dabbled in short form horror movies. This one features a young hippie vampire who, after being defeated in beachy black-and-white Prague, hikes a ride to Super 8 Brazil. Can't help but notice a bit of (Charlie) Mansonsploitation going on, but that may be just me.

A character who is always on the GO [sic] for World Productivity Day

“I am the great traitor. There must be no other. Anyone who even thinks about deserting this mission will be cut up into 198 pieces. Those pieces will be stamped on until what is left can be used only to paint walls. Whoever takes one grain of corn or one drop of water… more than his ration, will be locked up for 155 years. If I, Aguirre, want the birds to drop dead from the trees… then the birds will drop dead from the trees. I am the wrath of God. The earth I pass will see me and tremble. But whoever follows me and the river, will win untold riches. But whoever deserts…””

– Don Lope de Aguirre

Conquistador Don Lope de Aguirre drives his men deep into the Peruvian jungle, to El Dorado

A scene with a cat for Garfield the Cat Day (USA)

 

A mother and daughter who are raped and murdered by a rogue samurai, return as cat-shaped onryō, vengeful spirits.

A character in panic mode on International Panic Day

“Have you seen Mr Tavernier tonight?”

Julien Tavernier has a plan about how to run off with his boss' wife. There's just this one snag. No time to panic, c'est cool c'est cool.

A [favourite] child character for Youth Day (ZA)

“Into my heart an air that kills From yon far country blows: What are those blue remembered hills, What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went And cannot come again.”

– narrator, after A.E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad

A group of children plays. It's sunny and lovely in the Forest of Dean, a day to remember for as long as one lives. The war, the second one, is one of the adults' plays and far away from the children's much simpler life. It seeps through, though. You may run around, imagining being a fighter bomber, putt-putt-putting while you do so. And your uncle, your uncle!, is a parachutist! And maybe your dad is missing and your mum is doing something that involves bed sheets, and the other kids are mean about that. That too. That too is the cruelty of blue remembered hills.

A musician in a film role for O'Shea Jackson Sr. aka Ice Cube's birthday (1969).

“Janitor of lunacy Paralyze my infancy Petrify the empty cradle Bring hope to them and me

Janitor of tyranny Testify my vanity Mortalize my memory Deceive the devil's deed”

– Nico, Janitor of Lunacy (Desertshore, 1970)

Accompanied and inspired by Nico's Desertshore, the musician tracks the barren landscapes of Iceland, Egypt's Sinai, and Death Valley with her son Christian (Ari) in tow.

A [favourite] soldier in film for Army Day (USA). I can not in all seriousness link to any official website in fear of throwing up, so please follow along here

“That’s how I will probably die, left like a poor old rag on the battlefield. When you know this is going to happen to you, your body suddenly becomes something terribly precious to you. This flesh, soft and warm is yours; a personal belonging not to be discarded like an awful piece of meat. You find yourself thinking about this, realizing what a wonderful thing your body is, and what an awful and wrong thing it is to maltreat it.”

Watkins takes the anonymous slaughter of the masses on the battlefield inside, into the body and mind of a young soldier.

An unlucky character on Friday the 13^th

“I'd even lose at hopscotch these days.”

– Bob Montagné

Bob gambles, and always wins. But then he starts losing. Not just games, also his friends.

A [favourite] movie couple for Loving Day (USA)

“Sometimes everything seems just like a dream. It's not my dream, it's somebody else's. But I have to participate in it. How do you think someone who dreams about us would feel when he wakes up. Feeling ashamed?”

– Eva

After Vargtimmen (1968), the second of Bergman's Ullmann/Von Sydow cycle. It was followed by En passion (1969).

 

Against the backdrop of war, a violinist couple tends a garden – and marriage – on the island of Fårö.