Fuoco! [Fire!] (Gian Vittorio Baldi, 1968)
Aug
15
Ferragosto

The statue of the Virgin with a bullet hole right through her eye. DP: Ugo Piccone.
Someone opens fire on August 15, the day of Ferragosto and the Virgin's Assumption
Fuoco! [Fire!] (Gian Vittorio Baldi, 1968)
Aug
15
Ferragosto

The statue of the Virgin with a bullet hole right through her eye. DP: Ugo Piccone.
Someone opens fire on August 15, the day of Ferragosto and the Virgin's Assumption
黒蜥蜴 [Kurotokage / Kuro tokage / Black Lizard] (Kinji Fukasaku, 1968)
Aug
4

The Black Lizard (Akihiro Miwa) in embrace with Detective Akechi (Isao Kimura). DP: Hiroshi Dōwaki.
Mitt hem är Copacabana [My Home Is Copacabana] (Arne Sucksdorff, 1965)
Aug
2

The favela children on the beach, playing with kites and mingling with the rich kids. DP: Arne Sucksdorff.
A kite in celebration of 浜松まつり, the Hamamatsu Kite Festival, which takes place on May 3–5*
Favela kids steal kites and sell them on in this Copacabana-set Nordic drama.
Toninho Carlos de Lima, Rico in the movie, was not a homeless kid from the favelas but lived in a house with his family when he was send to Sweden to promote Mitt hem är Copacabana. A wealthy Swedish couple offered to adopt him, and his natural mother reluctantly gave in hoping to prevent a life of crime for her son (source). That too, dear reader, is colonialism.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
“It's a lot of work, ya know, just staying alive.”Gli intoccabili [Machine Gun McCain] (Giuliano Montaldo, 1969)
Jul
30
1968

Man's hands hold up the July 30, 1968 San Francisco Chronicle. The headline reads GANGLAND FEUD EXPLODES: TWO CUT DOWN BY MACHINE GUN. It's a Tuesday. DP: Erico Menczer.
– Rosemary Scott
Dillinger è morto [Dillinger Is Dead] (Marco Ferreri, 1969)
Jul
25
1934

Glauco (Michel Piccoli) reading the July 25, 1934 Chicago Daily Tribune that he found in the pantry. The headline states CLEAR UP DILLINGER MYSTERY. DP: Mario Vulpiani.
“On the night of July 25, 1958 I killed Ladislaw Zukarevitch, antique dealer, my mentor, my master in the art of polishing diamonds, my tutor at Warsaw Theological School.”Les trois couronnes du matelot [Three Crowns of the Sailor] (Raúl Ruiz, 1983)
Jul
25
1958

Prostitute María (Nadège Clair) sitting on her bed. The bed is covered in dolls. DP: Sacha Vierny.
– the student
L'argent [Money] (Robert Bresson, 1983)
Jul
22

A man at an ATM holds on to a Visa credit card with tweezers. DPs: Pasqualino De Santis & Emmanuel Machuel.
Everything's expensive: someone is a at bank or ATM*
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
“I thought you'd be hungry, maybe.” La piscine [The Swimming Pool] (Jacques Deray, 1969)
Jul
20

Marianne (Romy Schneider) and Harry (Maurice Ronet) shopping. Note the plethora of atypical-for-France ingredients, and how the packaging hasn't changed up to today. DP: Jean-Jacques Tarbès.
Shopping for food*
Schneider and Ronet's characters go get their groceries in a tiny, surprisingly well-stocked-with-Asian-food-items French corner shop, ánd manage to find all the ingredients needed. One rookie mistake: Uncle Ben's. Of all the rice in the world…
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
“Don't ask a dying man to lie his soul into Hell.”The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)
Jul
20
1940
spoiler warning: click to toggle image

The July 21 headline. DP: Elwood Bredell.
– Lt. Sam Lubinsky
“You knew who I was when I came here today. But you were surprised to see me alive, weren't you? But I'm not alive, Mrs. Philips. Sure, I can stand here and talk to you. I can breathe and I can move. But I'm not alive. Because I did take that poison, and nothing can save me.”D.O.A. [Dead on Arrival] (Rudolph Maté, 1949)
Jul
18

A man's hand signs a car rental contract dated July 18. DP: Ernest Laszlo.
– Frank Bigelow
The Life Magazine displayed at the San Francisco newspaper stand where Frank Bigelow stops is the issue of September 12, 1949, with Yugoslavia's leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito on the cover.