“Nobody shoves dirty money in my mouth.”The Naked Kiss (Samuel Fuller, 1964)
Jul
4
1961
A desk calendar reading July 4, 1961, with dirty, crumpled dollar bills thrown on top of it. DP: Stanley Cortez.
– Candy
“Nobody shoves dirty money in my mouth.”The Naked Kiss (Samuel Fuller, 1964)
Jul
4
1961
A desk calendar reading July 4, 1961, with dirty, crumpled dollar bills thrown on top of it. DP: Stanley Cortez.
– Candy
“You've won a doll and a kiss. I'll give you the doll and your girl can give you the kiss!”Lonesome (Pál Fejős, 1928)
Jul
3
Sat
An alarm clock informs us it's 7:15 while the calendar adds that it's the 3rd on a Saturday. Next to the alarm a crumpled up ladies' magazine. DP: Gilbert Warrenton.
– Coney Island barker
Il mare [The Sea] (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1962)
Jul
1
The actor (Umberto Orsini) looking out over the island. The claustrophobic framing of the hotel windows contrasts sharply with the openness of the sea. DP: Ennio Guarnieri.
My ideal vacation spot, country, city, town, or resort*
An island, in this case Capri (granted I've never been there), off-season, in a space and time lost in the mists. It'll occasionally rain and it's cold enough to dress up.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
“We Malays, we Filipinos, are not governed by the concept of time. We are governed by the concept of space. We don't believe in time. If you live in the country, you see Filipinos hang out. They are not very productive. That is very Malay. It is all about space and nature. [...] In the Philippine archipelago, nature provided everything, until the concept of property came with the Spanish colonizers. Then the capitalist order took control. [...] The concept of time was introduced to us when the Spaniards came. We had to do oracion [pray] at six o'clock, and start work at seven. Before it was free, it was Malay.”Florentina Hubaldo, CTE (Lav Diaz, 2012)
Jul
29
International Day of the Tropics
A small river in the outskirts of the jungle. A young woman sits in the water cradling an older woman, like a Pietà. A man, in the same water, is slumped in a wooden chair. A third woman is standing there, looking at us, her head slightly tilted. DP: Lav Diaz.
A film set in a tropical location for the International Day of the Tropics
– Lav Diaz, via
– Why do you always wear those dark glasses? – A souvenir of unrequited love for my homeland.Popiół i diament [Ashes and Diamonds] (Andrzej Wajda, 1958)
Jun
27
National Sunglasses Day
Maciek Chelmicki (Zbigniew Cybulski) wearing his sunglasses in a dark, almost German Expressionist space, embellished with meandros. DP: Jerzy Wójcik.
[The best] sunglasses in film for National Sunglasses Day (USA)
According to IMDb, the sale of sunglasses in Poland went through the roof after this film was released and Cybulski became his country's very own James Dean.
Ikarie XB 1 [Icarus XB 1] (Jindřich Polák, 1963)
Jun
26
An astronaut passing a perfectly symmetrical walkway, similar to the ones seen in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). DP: Jan Kališ.
“Grünes Licht für ehrgeizige, strebsame und arbeitswillige junge Menschen.”Die glücklichen Minuten des Georg Hauser [The Happy Minutes of Georg Hauser] (Mansur Madavi, 1974)
Jun
25
National Day of Joy
In a moment of total bliss, Georg Hauser (Walter Bannert) wrecks a car (via). DP: Mansur Madavi.
A character who is happy on the National Day of Joy (USA)
Georg Hauser's life is a drag. He gets up to drive his car to the same office to do the same thing surrounded by the same people everyday, just to make money to do the same thing all over again. Then, his glasses break and the new pair makes him see things a bit differently.
Sodrásban [Current] (István Gaál, 1964)
Jun
24
Swim a Lap Day
Friends swimming in a summer haze. DP: Sándor Sára.
A character who is swimming on Swim a Lap Day (USA)
A group of friends go swimming to celebrate the start of summer vacation, and relish those final moments before adult responsibly begins. It is only much later when they realise that one of them is missing.
“Paris, Paris, Paris
C'est sur la Terre un coin de paradis
Paris, Paris, Paris,
De mes amours c′est lui le favori
Mais oui, mais oui, pardi
Ce que j'en dis on vous l′a déjà dit
Et c'est Paris, qui fait la parisienne
Qu′importe, qu'elle vienne du nord ou bien du midi
Et c'est aussi le charme et l′élégance
Et l′âme de la France
Tout cela, mais c'est Paris”Touki bouki [Journey of the Hyena] (Djibril Diop Mambéty, 1973)
Jun
23
National Pink Day
Mory (Magaye Niang) and Anta (Myriam Niang) in romanticised European outfits. DP: Georges Bracher.
A character wearing pink on National Pink Day (USA), not to be confused with the much more poignant International Day of Pink
Joséphine Baker, Paris, Paris (Georges Zacharie Tabet)
Cowherd Mory and student Anta journey from Dakar to their new destination, the city of Paris.
“You're a foreigner and you're lost.”L'immortelle (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1963)
Jun
23
Sat
A man's hand holds a crumbled up diary page for Saturday June 23. There are no calendar entries. DP: Maurice Barry.