view
3615 code Père Noël [Deadly Games / Dial Code Santa Claus] (René Manzor, 1989)
Dec
4
Santa's List Day
A letter to Santa on Santa's List Day (USA). A man in a grey overcoat and yellow scarf at a public Minitel terminal. On the display the code 3615 and an 8-bit illustration of Santa Claus carrying his bag with presents. The sack holds a smaller Minitel device with the text PERE NOEL. DP: Michel Gaffier.
Aah France… Land of old wine, old cheese, old art, and Internet access in the early 80s. Prestige project of Président Giscard, France was determined to take a technological leap. Any French man, woman and child could borrow a Minitel – a PC-like videotex device – from the national telecommunications services. For those who didn't have landline there were numerous public terminals throughout the land. The machine gave the people access to a phonebook (convenient!), the news (smart!), same-day delivery shopping(!) and sexting (ooh la la!). All these services were accessible via a code starting with 3615 followed by a string of letters. Dial 3615 ULLA to text with a sexy lady – some telecom employee pretending to be one – and 3615 PERE NOEL for Santa Claus. The real one, of course.
9 year old whizkid Thomas (Alain Lalanne aka Alain Musy) is dead set on proving that Santa is real and not some weirdo looking for a gullible kid to play with. A trap is set, and the boy waits.
“You know Mum, I don't have to write to Santa anymore. There's an easier way, through Minitel.”
– Thomas
3615 code Père Noël is definitely not your cutesy little Christmas romp. The violence is not cartoonish, the bandit is more Manson than moist. The boy's disillusionment in the adults around him is a perfect mirror of “Santa's” lonely attempts to communicate and be accepted. However, Thomas' mom didn't lie about one thing; that seeing Santa on Christmas Eve turns you into an ogre. Or an adult, as the grownups call it.
view
Lights (Marie Menken, 1966)
Dec
1
National Christmas Lights Day
It took experimental filmmaker Marie Menken three years to shoot Lights. From midnight until 1 AM, she filmed New York's window displays during the holiday season, using her camera, motion, colour, and available light sources as her paintbrush.
“There is no why for my making films. I just liked the twitters of the machine, and since it was an extension of painting for me, I tried it and loved it. In painting I never liked the staid and static, always looked for what would change the source of light and stance, using glitters, glass beads, luminous paint, so the camera was a natural for me to try—but how expensive!”
– Marie Menken, c. 1966
Filming at night helped to avoid unwanted interruptions of people and cars, but turned out to be problematic for her hand-cranked #Bolex, which kept stalling in NYC's icy winter nights.
view
Em bé Hà Nội [The Little Girl of Hanoi] (Hải Ninh, 1974)
Nov
30
Day of Remembrance for All Victims of Chemical Warfare
The titular little girl walking past a wall covered in bullet holes. DP: The Dan Tran.
Operation Linebacker II, sometimes euphemistically referred to as the #Christmas bombings, was the outcome of a 1972 agreement between US war criminal and future Nobel Prize winner Henry #Kissinger and Vietnamese general Lê Đức Thọ. During an 11 day period, a staggering 20000 tons of shells were dropped on the cities of Hà Nội [#Hanoi] and Hải Phòng [#Haiphong], killing at least 1624 civilians.
“Peace is at hand.”
Film as you may know it approaches the #Vietnam war from one of two perspectives. There is your heroic propaganda, reducing the Vietnamese to cruel vermin to be rooted out by brave Americans. That list is endless and I'm tired. Then on the other hand there's levity, song and dance and a swish of sentiment with Hair and the unforgivable Good Morning, Vietnam; the, see it wasn't too bad we brought “them” rock 'n' roll and bubblegum-approach. And only once upon a time there was The Deer Hunter. However none of these see the Vietnamese, regardless of North or South, as people. A backdrop perhaps, as exotic as foliage.
Showing what happened on the ground, other than the faith of Phan Thị Kim Phúc or Nguyễn Văn Lém, something beyond the fetishisation of helpless victimhood, is essential to put a face on things. And a voice in people's mouths.
view
Weihnacht (Roland Klick, 1963)
Nov
24
Black Friday
The miracle of Christmas, as seen in a fancy shop window. A dress shirt is on display among Sputnik-style decorations and an entranced toddler is reflected in a gilded mirror. From across the street, “Woolworth's” in neon text bounces off the window pane. DPs: Jochen Cerhak & Roland Klick.
A little boy takes in the magic of pre-Christmas, while the adults rush and worry about all that must to be bought.
view
Hellzapoppin' (H.C. Potter, 1941)
Oct
24
National Crazy Day
Olsen and Johnson break all the walls. DP: Elwood Bredell.
“Any resemblance between HELLZAPOPPIN’ and a motion picture is purely coincidental”
– tagline
view
Dejlig er den himmel blå [Lovely Is the Blue Sky] (Jon Bang Carlsen, 1975)
May
19
Malcolm X Day
The Julemandshæren (“Santa Claus Army”) at Magasin, just after their arrest (image credit: Mother Jones, Dec. 1977). The performance was archived for prosperity in the documentary Dejlig er den himmel blå. DPs: Jimmy Andreasen, Morten Bruus, Dirk Brüel, Teit Jørgensen & Freddy Tornberg.
'Twas the week before Christmas. Not too far from Copenhagen a helicopter lands, carrying #SantaClaus and a Christmas angel. A small welcome orchestra plays carols, after which the party makes its way to the Danish capital. There, more Santas join the duo.
“Here Santa opens a factory with 1000 workers”
– banner next to a Julemandshæren-occupied factory
Over the course of several days they bring cheer, song and hot chocolate to delighted Copenhagen Christmas shoppers. Then they show up at a local bank, demanding low-interest loans. Then, in support of the laid-off workers, they unroll a large banner at the recently shutdown General Motors factory. On the final day, Santa Claus visits Magasin, the Danish version of Macy's. In the true spirit of Christmas the Julemandshæren hands out the store's books to thrilled customers. Magasin staff is not amused. Some of them start pummelling the Santas, ripping off beards to prove that these are crooks, not real #Santas. Small children are in tears, their dreams of a just world shattered.
view
Il posto [The Job] (Ermanno Olmi, 1961)
Apr
3
World Party Day
Two office workers awkwardly dancing cheek to cheek at the company Christmas party. She's in her finest cocktail dress and pearls, he listlessly wears a mock sheriff's hat. DP: Lamberto Caimi.
To support his family, small-town boy Domenico moves to Milan in the hope to find a job. Eventually he's employed, as a clerk in a drab office replacing a senior worker who died. While the days drag on, only interrupted by coffee shop small talk with fellow teenager Antonietta, the Christmas office #party draws nearer.
“My wife gave me a big kiss this morning. I only get kisses once a month, on payday.”
– Sartori
With the dark absurdity of coming out of fascism and having to run a real-world country with a naive ineptitude – represented by the too-large-borrowed-from-father-suits – and pretence childlike bureaucratic procedures, Olmi's Il posto is a wonderfully sharp observation of postwar Italy.
view
Multiple SIDosis (Sid Laverents, 1970)
Mar
27
National Acoustic Soul Day
There's a handful of notable amateur films in the National Film Registry. One of them is the Zapruder film, another Sid Laverents' Multiple SIDosis.
“In terms of sheer entertainment value, I think that it demonstrated that one eccentric genius alone in his garage can rival the best of the Hollywood studios””
– Ross Lipman, UCLA Film & Television Archive restorationist
view
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.