settima

crime

少年 [Shōnen / Boy] (Nagisa Ōshima, 1969)

May

6

少年 (1969)

The boy in his school uniform (Bin Amatsu) at a table in a traditional Japanese room with his meal untouched. A man eats next to the kid who glances at someone or something offscreen. The table is set for three. DPs: Seizō Sengen & Yasuhiro Yoshioka.

El chacal de Nahueltoro [Jackal of Nahueltoro] (Miguel Littin, 1969)

May

2

soup

El chacal de Nahueltoro (1969)

The man (Nelson Villagra) just handed a tin plate to kind Rosa (Shenda Román) for a refill while they talk about his life. DP: Héctor Ríos.

Full title: En cuanto a la infancia, andar, regeneración y muerte de Jorge del Carmen Valenzuela Torres, quien se hace llamar también José del Carmen Valenzuela Torres, Jorge Sandoval Espinoza, José Jorge Castillo Torres, alias el Campano, el Trucha, el Canaca, el Chacal de Nahueltoro.

Série noire (Alain Corneau, 1979)

Apr

9

canned pilchards

Série noire (1979)

Franck Poupart (Patrick Dewaere) about to dig into a can of pilchards. A pile of French women's magazine “marie claire” is next to him on an otherwise bare coffee table. DP: Pierre-William Glenn.

太陽の墓場 [Taiyō no hakaba / Grave of the Sun / The Sun's Burial] (Nagisa Ōshima, 1960)

Mar

31

太陽の墓場 (1960)

An empty-looking woman eats something while a scrawny man in a pork pie hat and dirty shirt eyes her. Next to the woman a bulking bearded guy, cleaning his nails. DP: Takashi Kawamata.

“Empires, the past – they're beyond me! Will things change for the better? Will bums like these disappear? And the slums too? Come on. Tell us!”

– Hanako

Max et les ferrailleurs [Max and the Junkmen] (Claude Sautet, 1971)

Mar

16

Max et les ferrailleurs (1971)

Lily (Schneider) and Max (Piccoli) at a small table decked with good food, good wine, and quite a few wads of cash. DP: René Mathelin.

Devil Doll (Lindsay Shonteff, 1964)

Mar

15

sandwiches

Devil Doll (1964)

A large knife amongst rather minuscule triangular tea sandwiches. A miniature wooden barrel holding toothpicks is right there for your sandwich stabbing convenience. DP: Gerald Gibbs.

Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)

Mar

12

Pickpocket (1959)

Michel (Martin LaSalle) in a busy café, observing. An emptied water glass next to the thief should make him look like a paying guest. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.

“Can we not admit that certain skilled men, gifted with intelligence, talent or even genius, and thus indispensable to society, rather than stagnate, should be free to disobey laws in certain cases?”

– Michel

Mord und Totschlag [Degree of Murder] (Volker Schlöndorff, 1967)

Mar

4

juice

Mord und Totschlag (1967)

A pensive Marie (Anita Pallenberg) drinking something red from a bottle with a green straw. DP: Franz Rath..

The Naked City (Jules Dassin, 1948)

Feb

10

Popsicles

The Naked City (1948)

A New York precinct. Across the street an ice cream vendor. Several kids are standing around the man's cart while one of them – a chunky monkey – leans against the nearest fire hydrant. A scruffy man in fedora walks past holding a Popsicle. DP: William H. Daniels; still photographers: Bert Anderson & Arthur “Weegee” Fellig.

“Another day, another ball of fire rising in the summer sky. The city is quiet now, but it will soon be pounding with activity. This time yesterday, Jean Dexter was just another pretty girl, but now she's the marmalade on 10,000 pieces of toast.”

– narrator

Crime Wave [The City Is Dark] (André De Toth, 1953)

Jan

29

dinner for two

Crime Wave (1953)

Ellen Lacey (Phyllis Kirk) serving a bunch of punks (Bronson (2nd from the left, and Ted de Corsia (right) the food she prepared for herself and her husband Steve (Gene Nelson). DP: Bert Glennon.

“You know, it isn't what a man wants to do, Lacey, but what he has to do. Now take me – I love to smoke cigarettes, but the doctors say I can't have them. So what do I do? I chew toothpicks, tons of them.”

– Det. Lt. Sims