settima

canada

Waiting for Fidel (Michael Rubbo, 1974)

Mar

8

International Women's Day

Waiting for Fidel (1974)

A group of six girls and two boys sing in celebration of International Women's Day. DP: Douglas Kiefer.

Time flies while waiting for Fidel, and before you know it, it's March 8.

 

 

This blog does not list holidays on their respective date, unless a film or scene happens to take place on one.

To Lavoisier, Who Died in the Reign of Terror (Michael Snow, 1991)

Mar

6

chemistry

To Lavoisier, Who Died in the Reign of Terror (1991)

Shot from below through a glass pane, a man pushes a sulphur-yellow substance around.

Chemistry: Dimitri Mendeleev presented his version of the periodic table on this date in 1869. He claimed to have had a dream in which he envisioned a table in which all the chemical elements were arranged according to their atomic weight (via).

Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794) was a French chemist who gave the first accurate scientific explanation of the mysteries of fire. He also provided the law of conservation of matter which states that matter can be neither created or destroyed.n His work and this film are situated between modern chemistry and alchemy. The film stages a drama of abstraction and theoretical realism. Everyday life seen photo-chemically and musically. The film is a materialist projected-image conversion of matter.”

– Michael Snow, via

The film stock was chemically altered, giving it an dreamlike quality.

Gina [Stone Cold Revenge] (Denys Arcand, 1975)

Dec

11

1952

Gina (1975)

Gina (Céline Lomez) in front of a silver tinsel curtain at the start of her stripact. DP: Alain Dostie.

The Music of the Spheres (G. Philip Jackson, 1983)

Aug

28

1994

The Music of the Spheres (1983)

Archive footage from the future dated August 28, 1994. DP: Nadine Humenick.

La maudite galette [Dirty Money] (Denys Arcand, 1972)

Aug

2

La maudite galette (1972)

At a depressing, fluorescent-lit bar, men gathered at small round tables smoke and drink. A single man in a brightly lit phone booth places a call. DP: Alain Dostie.

The Disappearance (Stuart Cooper, 1977)

Jun

21

cereal

The Disappearance (1977)

Jay Mallory (Donald Sutherland) eats cornflakes in a black-tiled kitchen in Habitat 67. At the other side of their hexagonal table, Celandine (Francine Racette) smokes a cigarette. DP: John Alcott.

Françoise Durocher, Waitress (André Brassard, 1972)

May

21

lunch break

Françoise Durocher, Waitress (1972)

Waitress Françoise Durocher, this may be Luce Guilbeault, on her lunch break. DP: Thomas Vámos.

“One grilled cheese, two slices of toast, two coffees. One pepper steak no chili and a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. Two glasses of milk. One plate of spare ribs. A chicken in a basket with three cups of honey. One lean smoked meat sandwich with pickles and mustard. One two-cream coffee and two club sandwiches. Two clubs.”

– Françoise Durocher

The Mills of the Gods: Viet Nam (Beryl Fox, 1965)

Sep

18

Air Force Birthday

The Mills of the Gods: Viet Nam (1965)

Drafted soldiers in a military chopper. One of them is reading Richard Wormser's Operation Crosbow (Dell Comics Movie Classics #590), another has his head slumped in his hands. DP: Erik Durschmied.

“Thus, I do not see what use there is in those mills of the gods said to grind so late as to render punishment hard to be recognized, and to make wickedness fearless”

– Plutarch, Moralia (1 A.D.)

Le temps d'une chasse [The Time of a Hunt / Once Upon a Hunt] (Francis Mankiewicz, 1972)

Sep

1

National Hotel Employee Day

Le temps d'une chasse (1972)

One of the men following Monique, one of the hotel employees (Luce Guilbeault, simply credited as “La Rousse”, “the redhead”) down the corridor. The young waitress (Frédérique Collin) can be seen in the door opening at the end of the hallway. DP: Michel Brault.

Le temps d'une chasse is the definition of unease. It starts at dawn, when two old friends pick up their buddy Richard (Marcel Sabourin) from the home he shares with his wife and son. The son, the wife insists, comes along. The men have planned a #hunting trip, in a cabin far away from #Montréal, far away from everything, with a beer-filled cooler at hand. The last they need is an underage kid towing along. But the boy comes along, she insists. With a trunk full of Dutch courage and a mouthful of boasting, the men find themselves at a hotel instead of the expected cabins.

“Tomorrow morning we'll get up early.”

Hotel days are short and its nights long and booze-filled, commanding their own temptation and regret.

Neighbours (Norman McLaren, 1952)

Aug

17

Neighbor Night

Neighbours (1952)

Neighbour on the Left (Jean Paul Ladouceur) and Neighbour on the Right (Grant Munro) upon discovering a small flower growing right on their properties' border. Two colourful, almost identical deckchairs can be seen on the lawn in the front and two cardboard façades of almost identical houses in the back. Both men wear almost identical beige slacks and blue shirts and sport a very similar hairstyle. DP: Wolf Koenig.

Norman McLaren's low-budget pixelation (animation created with live action footage) was groundbreaking in many aspects; even the soundtrack was painted directly onto the film stock.

“Love your neighbour”

– title card

Read more about its fascinating backstory and watch the short animation over at the National Film Board of Canada's website.