“The other day I got caught in some fishermen's net. Of course, I had to drown them. I couldn't allow them to touch me, could I?”Malá morská víla [The Little Mermaid] (Karel Kachyňa, 1976)
Mar
3
National Dress In Blue Day
The little mermaid (Miroslava Safránková) in her wonderful sea-blue dress, puts a coral-red rose in her blue hair. DP: Jaroslav Kučera.
Miroslava Safránková plays Hans Christian Andersen's doomed little mermaid – Malá morská víla in Czech – who falls in love with a mortal and gives up her beautiful voice to be with him. Sadly, the mortal, a prince, doesn't recognize his mute saviour and doesn't return his love.
– the little mermaid
The wonderful soundtrack is by Zdeněk Liška who also composed music for Ikarie XB 1 (Jindřich Polák, 1963) and Spalovač mrtvol (Juraj Herz, 1969).
bookadaptation
“Maybe I'll get into the movies.”Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)
Feb
11
Global Movie Day
Nana (Anna Karina) crying in a dark movie theatre while watching Carl Theodor Dreyer's La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928). DP: Raoul Coutard.
A fascinating overlap with The Savage Eye (1959), a film #Godard must have been familiar with in 1962.
– Nana
“Your keeping this animal has meant all of us suffer!”飼育 [Shiiku / The Catch] (Nagisa Ōshima, 1961)
Feb
2
National Catchers Day
The nameless soldier (Hugh Hurd) in the barn. Another person is with him. The soldier looks away, at something offscreen. DP: Yoshitsugu Tonegawa.
In the summer of 1945, the people of a small Japanese village find a Black American helicopter pilot in one of their traps and lock him in the communal storeroom. While the war continues and the villagers wait for orders from above, the man – for the townspeople, his presence, this allegory – becomes something else.
飼育 shares more than a few themes with Đorđe Kadijević's Празник from 1967. The war's the same, any war is, and the Chetniks too capture a Black American pilot. Again, the villagers seem to share a folie, a madness, rooted in an unshaken belief – call it tradition or shared illusions foolishness or hope.
Accident (Joseph Losey, 1967)
Feb
1
Car Insurance Day
Anna (Jacqueline Sassard) on the backseat of a car, her head tilted back. DP: Gerry Fisher.
A car accident.
Shoot It Black, Shoot It Blue (Dennis McGuire, 1974)
Jan
29
Kansas Day
A white cop (Michael Moriarty) aims his gun at someone offscreen. DP: Bob Bailin.
“That very night I found myself in totally different circumstances.”Rekopis znaleziony w Saragossie [The Saragossa Manuscript] (Wojciech Jerzy Has, 1965)
Jan
22
Dzień Dziadka
Alfonse Van Worden (Zbigniew Cybulski) on set with the clapper loader next to him. DP: Mieczysław Jahoda.
– Don Roque Busqueros
Иконостасът [Ikonostasat / The Icon Stand] (Todor Dinov & Christo Christov, 1969)
Jan
15
World Religion Day
Icon maker Raphe (Dimitar Tashev) and Katerina (Violeta Gindeva) surrounded by the icon stand. The Holy Virgin can be seen in the background. DP: Atanas Tasev.
The cyclical story of the Christ envisioned as an icon maker, the creator of sacred images of the saints and the Holy.
When you know what to look for – the significance of bread, the judgement of the Pantocrator, the wheel that begets martyrs – Иконостасът speaks the language of the people, not of the ecclesiastic.
“Fran.”De man die zijn haar kort liet knippen [The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short] (André Delvaux, 1965)
Jan
12
freebie: Teacher Appreciation Day
Govert Miereveld (Senne Rouffaer) having his hair cut. DPs: Ghislain Cloquet & Roland Delcour.
A teacher, enthralled by one of his students, gets lost after she graduates.
– Govert Miereveld
Heavy and light, absurd and profane. An absolute recommendation.
“Grand Hotel… always the same. People come, people go. Nothing ever happens.”Grand Hotel (Edmund Goulding, 1932)
Jan
8
World Typing Day
Despite Flaemmchen – Joan Crawford in her breakout role – is introduced as a “little stenographess”, that's clearly a typewriter on her desk. DP: William H. Daniels.
– Flaemmchen