Your Safety First (George Gordon, 1956)
Oct
5
2000
The protagonist, voiced by George O'Hanlon, reading an ad for tomorrow's car in the October 5, 2000 newspaper.
Your Safety First (George Gordon, 1956)
Oct
5
2000
The protagonist, voiced by George O'Hanlon, reading an ad for tomorrow's car in the October 5, 2000 newspaper.
TV reporter: We are not alone in the world. An increase of national income in developing countries is absolute requirement for world peace at the end of this century. Martti Tuomola: Bullshit.Ihmemies [Wonderman] (Antti Peippo, 1979)
Sep
21
Peace Day
Olli Ruusunen (Antti Litja) in a diner enjoying a small hamburger with a cup of coffee (via). DPs: Pekka Aine & Juha-Veli Äkräs.
The words “world peace” are spoken on Peace Day aka International Day of Peace
Former child prodigy Olli Ruusunen (Antti Litja) has received special brain capacity training at the Buffalo Institute in the US. Paid for by a Finish company, the idea is that Olli will act as a “rationaliser”, drastically overhauling the inner workings of the company. After getting rid of the entire management team, Olli – like others who have gone through the same training program – becomes increasingly strange. Olli decides to disappear.
Die Republik der Backfische [The Republic of Flappers] (Constantin J. David, 1928)
Sep
20
1928
The Berliner Zeitung (a rag of a paper that's still around to this day) of September 20, 1928. It blares something about America and Graf Zeppelin, the then-new airship. DP: Mutz Greenbaum.
Depending on the language version you watch, you'll see a 1928 newspaper headline dated September 20 (a Thursday), January 10 (a Tuesday), or January 9 (a Monday).
– What are you gonna do with tons of apples? They can't be sold! Ask any apple farmer! They just pile up and rot!
– The apple farmers?
– No. The apples!Äppelkriget [The Apple War] (Tage Danielsson, 1971)
Sep
17
National Apple Dumpling Day
Locals and a centaur – half man, half papier-mâché – enjoy a drink. DP: Lars Swanberg.
Apples, or dumplings, for National Apple Dumpling Day (USA)
A beautiful, picturesque part of Sweden will become… Deutschneyland! At least, that's the brilliant business plan Herr Volkswagner has. But the local apple farmers – a large family that's half human, half mythological creatures – have no need for an amusement park on their grounds.
“Stop shooting! Stop democracy!”Hullumeelsus [Безумие / Madness] (Kaljo Kiisk, 1968)
Sep
15
International Day of Democracy
Windisch (Jüri Järvet) pacing, blending in with a white-clad inmate. DP: Anatoliy Zabolotskiy.
On the International Day of Democracy, the word “democracy” is spoken.
– Person Nr. 1
The Gestapo arrives to liquidate the inmates of a mental hospital. Then Windisch, plainclothes Nazi, brings them a letter: there's a special commando hiding amidst the 583 patients. Interrogating them slowly pushes Windisch among them.
“In all my years of practice, I've never seen anything so sweet. A rosebud.”Sweet Movie (Dušan Makavejev, 1974)
Sep
13
International Chocolate Day
The most virgin, Miss 1984 (Carole Laure), bathing in chocolate. DP: Pierre Lhomme.
Chocolate for International Chocolate Day (Milton S. Hershey's birthday)
– Dr. Mittelfinger
Miss Canada, winner of the “most virgin” contest, escapes her rich, milk tycoon husband into a world of anarchy, lust, and sugar.
Petit à petit [Little by Little] (Jean Rouch, 1970)
Sep
3
Skyscraper Day
Damouré (Damouré Zika) measures a Parisian with craniology callipers. No skyscraper in this still, but there's scaffolding. DP: Jean Rouch.
A skyscraper for Skyscraper Day (USA)
In the sequel to Rouch's Jaguar (1967), Damouré wants a high rise for his Niger business with “as many floors as he has wives”. He decides to travel to Paris to learn about the construction of such building, and what made Paris to the Paris of today. While there, he gets distracted by the peculiarities of the French natives. Worried about Damouré's increasingly puzzling postcards, his company sends out Lam (Lam Ibrahim Dia) to bring him home.
“Ich mag Männer, bin 30 Jahre alt, von Beruf Lehrer.”Taxi zum Klo (Frank Ripploh, 1980)
Sep
2
Christa McAuliffe 1948 – 1986
Frank (Frank Ripploh) teaching kids about the human body on an anatomy dummy. DP: Horst Schier.
A teacher for what would have been Christa McAuliffe's birthday.
– Frank Ripploh
Frank Ripploh is a sexual ethics and biology teacher by day, and hedonistic gay man and aspiring pornographer by night. When Frank Ripploh, the man, publicly came out in 1978 in the tabloid Stern, he lost his teaching job and did become that filmmaker. Taxi zum Klo – litt. taxi to the john/loo – is his story. A frank pre-AIDS pre-Internet pre-victimhood depiction of male gay culture in West Germany. Maybe raw, possibly misogynist, definitely true to life.
Happy End (Oldřich Lipský, 1967)
Sep
1
1889
Butcher Bedřich Frydrych (Oldřich Lipský), born September 1, 1889 in Trumberk. DP: Vladimír Novotný.
– A house like yours must be such a job!
– Oh, a leaf! Ah, yes it's a chore.
– Admit it, you love it.
Mon oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958) / Koolhaas Houselife (Ila Bêka + Louise Lemoine, 2008)
Aug
29
grey
A delivery man in front of the gates of Villa Arpel (via), and custodian Guadalupe Acedo working the lift in Maison à Bordeaux. DP of Mon Oncle: Jean Bourgoin.
[A favourite] colour: grey*
Approaching the 60s, Mr Hulot finally switches from black-and-white to colour. Suddenly, we see that his suit is a beigeish grey and so is the Arpels' house, that modernist masterpiece designed by Tati. The beloved luddite struggles with hypermodern people and their hypermodern constructs, much alike the future Hulot from Playtime (1967).
In similar absurd fashion, Guadalupe Acedo, cleaning lady, works her way through Rem Koolhaas' Maison à Bordeaux (1998) in Bêka and Lemoine's Koolhaas Houselife (2008). Too steep are the stairs, too leaky everything else. Levelheaded, she does her thing; a small beacon of romantic practicality in a world of absurd efficiency.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.