Set in the mountains for International Mountain Day

 

1943. With the family preparing for Christmas, old man Temnikar hears the sound of a trumpet. The patriarch sees it as his calling to follow – and kill – the White Guardists who visited his mountain farm looking for wounded Partisans.

“The mattress is soft and there're hangers in the closet and stationary with “Bates' Motel” printed on it in case you want to make your friends back home envious.”

– Norman Bates

Lights on water for the final day of Féte des Lumiéres, 2025

“In Sicily, Italian is not the language of the poor.”

– title card

A special soldier for National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (USA)

“They sent me out by plane to a boarding school. But I ran away. There's a war on. I can't cram some stupid stuff when it's a war.”

– Ivan

A twelve-year old boy works as a scout for the Soviet army. His age and size make him an inoffensive figure in the war-scarred landscape. But inside, he's brooding for revenge.

A hot air balloon*

 

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for December has a few dateless themes. This is one of them.

– I've never seen a film like this before.

– Oh, it's different, alright.

A temple*

“Now consummate the sacrifice in your throat of flame, o father and mother, o god and goddess, o father and mother, o father and son, o god and goddess! Voracious creator! Roaring ardent hunger…”

The world's first epic film and the debut of – the later hugely popular – strongman Maciste.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for December has a few dateless themes. This is one of them.

World AIDS Day: conquering fear.

“J’ai mal, mais la douleur me rassure. Son souvenir me donne du plaisir.”

An uptight, white accountant in odds with himself, sees a Black masseur at a Turkish bathhouse. Antoine experiences a relieve – an atonement – through the pain, and forms a bond with the man. After an injury, Antoine must learn to come to terms with his fears. Based one Tennessee Williams' Desire and the Black Masseur (One Arm and Other Stories, 1948).

A memorable fire or fireplace scene*

“Oh, my God, Gerald! Shall I die?”

– Gudrun Brangwen

Oddly, one barely remembers the fireplace.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for November is, again, not date-based, but follows a sloppy schmaltzy all-American Thanksgiving-y narrative. Trying to make it work my way.

“The day they put jerks into orbit, you won't stop rotating soon!”

– Comissaire Joss, le Pacha