Le vampire de Düsseldorf [The Vampire of Dusseldorf] (Robert Hossein, 1965)
Sep
5
Robert Hossein as Peter Kuerten [sic]. DP: Alain Levent.
Le vampire de Düsseldorf [The Vampire of Dusseldorf] (Robert Hossein, 1965)
Sep
5
Robert Hossein as Peter Kuerten [sic]. DP: Alain Levent.
Flic Story [Cop Story] (Jacques Deray, 1975)
Sep
3
1947
A close-up of a man's feet hastily walking along a corridor. Superimposed it reads 3 SEPTEMBRE 1974. DP: Jean-Jacques Tarbès.
“He won't listen to anybody. He's been very crazy all summer. Since June he's been trying to kill me.”Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975)
Aug
22
1972
Sal (John Cazale) and Sonny (Al Pacino) in the bank, holding out with their increasingly impatient hostages. DP: Victor J. Kemper.
– Leon
“The painter takes his time. He doesn't like her dress. He doesn't like her gloves. One day he asks her if she dares pose for him – all in pink. She dares! And the king, enraptured by her pose, offers her a palace!” Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955)
Aug
14
Bavaria
The crowned royal mistress on display in glorious Eastmancolor (via). DP: Christian Matras.
Celebrating Oktoberfest [in September/October] and the Bavarian royals [rip]: a royal character or family*
– circus master
Maria Dolores Porriz y Montez, Countess von Landsfeld, Lola Montès for short, now a circus attraction, once the mistress to Ludwig I, King of Bavaria. While her fellow circus performers play Lola's former lovers, the ringmaster tells her story.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
“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…””Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes [Aguirre, the Wrath of God] (Werner Herzog, 1972)
Jun
20
World Productivity Day
Don Lope de Aguirre (Kinski), his eyes focussed. DP: Thomas Mauch.
A character who is always on the GO [sic] for World Productivity Day
– Don Lope de Aguirre
Conquistador Don Lope de Aguirre drives his men deep into the Peruvian jungle, to El Dorado
“The fear in her eyes and the knife in the chest. That's my last memory of my mother. That's why I had to go to prison for four years, even though she survived.”Angst [Fear] (Gerald Kargl, 1983)
May
23
National Title Track Day
1: K. Out. Out. DP: Zbigniew Rybczynski.
2: Klaus Schulze at work in 1983 (via)
A killer title track for National Title Track Day (USA)
– opening lines
What stabs you harder in the chest than Klaus Schulze's synth-driven killing spree?
The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Gordon Davidson, 1972)
May
17
1968
Director Gordon Davidson and the defense attorney (David Spielberg) on set. DP: Haskell Wexler.
“Ich bin meine eigene Frau” (“I am my own woman/wife”)Ich bin meine eigene Frau [I Am My Own Woman] (Rosa von Praunheim, 1992)
May
16
Honor Our LGBT Elders Day
Ichgola Androgyn, Jens Taschner, and Charlotte von Mahlsdorf as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. DP: Lorenz Haarmann.
An LGBTQ actor, director, or character over 55 for Honor Our LGBT Elders Day (USA)
– Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, in response to her mother's request to settle and get married
The extraordinary life of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, Berliner, gender bender, Nazi killer (her own father, with a wooden rolling pin, mind you), prisoner, custodian, museum founder, barmaid, Stasi informer (arguably), den mother to the GDR's LGBT+ youngsters, but most of all, her own woman.
Παραγγελιά! [Parangelia! / Request for a Song] (Pavlos Tasios, 1980)
May
13
Top Gun Day
A man dances the Zeibekiko, with another close to him. DPs: Sakis Maniatis & Kostas Papagiannakis.
Testosterone! for Top Gun Day (USA)
The Ζεϊμπέκικο (Zeibekiko) is a Greek dance, improvised by one man, alone. It's a dance that shows the performer's manliness, both his pride and his sorrows. Out of respect for the dancer, the others sit down, watch, and relate to him.
When the police enters the establishment – and this is 1973, the colonels ruled the naton – and interrupt the dancer, his older brother steps in.
Yngsjömordet [Woman of Darkness] (Arne Mattsson, 1966)
May
11
Mother's Day
spoiler warning: click to toggle image
Anna Månsdotter (Gunnel Lindblom). DP: Lasse Björne.
A good or bad mother for Mother's Day.
Arranged by his widowed mother, Per Nilsson marries the wealthy judge's daughter Hanna. The wedlock remains unfulfilled as son and mother find satisfaction in each other. Hanna suspects something.
Based on the Yngsjö murder case, which at the time was considered more noteworthy for the mother/son relationship than the resulting tragedy.