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Compulsion (Richard Fleischer, 1959)
Jun
29
coffee
A squeaky young Stockwell and Varsi at a diner. We're looking in from the outside through an open window. The place is busy but she's all enthralled by his wit and intellect (and looks for sure). DP: William C. Mellor.
“Europe, a Stutz Bearcat, the best restaurants. You fellas really have a hard life, don't you?”
– Harold Horn, DA
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Muerte de un ciclista [Death of a Cyclist / Age of Infidelity] (Juan Antonio Bardem, 1955)
Jun
28
National Insurance Awareness Day
Juan (Alberto Closas) looking out at María José (Lucia Bosè) and the car after the crash. The cyclist is never shown. The scene echoes Beckett's Waiting for Godot. DP: Alfredo Fraile.
“He's still alive.”
Striking about Bardem's Muerte de un ciclista is its outsiderness in the Spanish film landscape. By adopting the visual language of both Italian #Neorealismo and Hollywood #melodrama, Bardem elegantly circumvents #Francoist censorship.
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Jeopardy (John Sturges, 1953)
Jun
25
National Camp Counts Day
– Aw, mom. You always talk about civilization.
– Don't knock it, son.
John Sturges' Jeopardy is a thrilling reverse home invasion based on Maurice Zimm's radioplay A Question of Time. Without falling into the trap of an illustrated radio broadcast, the haunting photography by Victor Milner, small, intense cast, short runtime and claustrophobic sets make for a very modern, economic thriller.
And Barbara Stanwyck the type of heroine we wouldn't see much of until decades later.
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Le trou [The Hole / The Night Watch] (Jacques Becker, 1960)
Jun
25
care package
Butchering a care package – butter, sausage and other joys of life – for contraband. DP: Ghislain Cloquet.
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Le trou [The Hole / The Night Watch] (Jacques Becker, 1960)
Jun
19
International Box Day
The prisoners keep themselves occupied with making cardboard folding boxes. The second man from the right is the novel's author and real-world (ex-) inmate José Giovanni aka Jean Keraudy as Roland Darbant. DP: Ghislain Cloquet.
Inmates preoccupy themselves with making cardboard boxes. While working together, talking, gaining trust, plans for an escape unfold.
“Hello. My friend Jacques Becker recreated a true story in all its detail. My story. It took place in 1947 at La Santé prison.”
– Jean Keraudy as himself
Le trou is based on a real prison escape and introduced by one of the men involved, Jean Keraudy.
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Les trois couronnes du matelot [Three Crowns of the Sailor] (Raúl Ruiz, 1983)
Jun
5
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Les trois couronnes du matelot [Three Crowns of the Sailor] (Raúl Ruiz, 1983)
Jun
4
National Week Of The Ocean
The sailor (Jean-Bernard Guillard) on his ship. DP: Sacha Vierny.
A man murders another and meets a drunk sailor. The drunk then tells the murderer about his life on the sea. Les trois couronnes du matelot is of course never a straightforward crime film. It's Raúl Ruiz, it never is.
“I got nothing out of this crime except the ring he offered me many times; several hundred marks; a collection of old coins, of no value; and a long letter where he advised me to leave the country.”
– the student
The sailor drinks, celebrates and mourns the women and men of his past, we all get drunk on life while the dark water closes itself again above our heads.
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Who Killed Teddy Bear (Joseph Cates, 1965)
Jun
3
A square 1960s man – Jan Murray as Lt. Dave Madden – smugly pouring himself a stiff drink. DP: Joseph C. Brun.
“I don't find you the least bit amusing, Lieutenant Whatever-your-problem- is!”
– Norah Dain
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Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
May
27
Golden Gate Bridge
A pensive Novak in black in front of a sunlit Golden Gate Bridge. DP: Robert Burks.
A bridge to celebrate the 1937 Golden Gate Bridge opening.
“Here I was born, and there I died. It was only a moment for you; you took no notice.”