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Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht [Nosferatu the Vampyre] (Werner Herzog, 1979)
Oct
22
eternal returns
Adjani, Kinski, and Herzog on set. DP: Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein.
[A favourite] horror remake*
“I never thought I could be friends with a German again. But here I am… Werner is somehow like Murnau brought back to life.”
– Lotte Eisner visiting the set of Herzog's Nosferatu (via)
Coming back to Murnau's expressionist masterpiece was Herzog's bridge between the films made by the grandfathers of German cinema and his era. Herzog, born in 1942 Munich, noted this void created by that philistine regime and felt that, by picking up the thread cut a quarter of a century earlier, German culture could see a restoration to its (non-nationalistic) greatness. Thus a menagerie of rats and actors was released in a reluctant, bourgeois Dutch town.
But that's a story for another generation to draw upon.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for October is horror-themed as opposed to date-based, and is all about favourites. Expect non-horror and films I believe to be relevant instead.
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La chute de la maison Usher [The Fall of the House of Usher] (Jean Epstein, 1928)
Oct
21
A favourite horror film adapted from a book or short story*
“Everything in this masterpiece contributes to its unity: the absolute mastery of editing and rhythm; slow motion, superimpositions, tracking shots, the mobile camera all play their roles and never gratuitously. The photographic quality, worthy of the most learned German operators, the lighting of the sets which envelops them in mystery, the sets themselves, neither realistic nor stylized, but as if sketched; the acting neither realistic nor expressionist, and yet adapted to the fantastic, to the violence; to the pauses; to the blur.”
A groundbreaking expressionist interpretation of Poe's inner horrors. Many of the tropes so common in later horror films, are fully fledged and present here.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for October is horror-themed as opposed to date-based, and is all about favourites. Expect non-horror and films I believe to be relevant instead.
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Swissmade [Swiss Made 2069] (Fritz E. Maeder, Fredi M. Murer + Yves Yersin, 1968)
Oct
20
Alien
A man hooked up to a device with tubes dreams about a strange, unsettling creature. Just out of a frame someone (H.R. Giger himself) works on the being with a grinder. DPs: Witold Lesiewicz, Fritz E. Maeder & Fredi M. Murer.
[A favourite] Alien [“alien”?] movie*
Three segments envision the future of the Swiss Confederation. In the Fredi M. Murer instalment 2069 – oder wo sich Futorologen und Archäologen gute Nacht sagen, an alien visits surveillance state Switzerland. The visitor in question is designed by H.R. Giger, and glimpses of the XX121 xenomorph are present in its exoskeletal core.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for October is horror-themed as opposed to date-based, and is all about favourites. Expect non-horror and films I believe to be relevant instead.
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Nattmara [Nightmare] (Arne Mattsson, 1965)
Oct
19
Tue
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Hands hold up a small diary. The camera is focussed on Tuesday the 19th of October, 1965. Handwriting, a chicken scrawl, reads CITROEN A66692 MAJ BERG ✝. Besides that the week is uneventful. DP: Max Wilén.
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1943-1997 ['43 – '97] (Ettore Scola, 1997)
Oct
16
1943
The boy (Francesco Cencioni) on the run in a locked down town. DP: Carlo Tafani.
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Könnyű testi sértés [Tight Quarters] (György Szomjas, 1983)
Oct
16
Csaba (Károly Eperjes) and Miklós (Péter Andorai) in their reluctantly shared apartment. Every frame is claustrophobically filled with people, including the television. DP: Ferenc Grunwalsky.
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La vérité [The Truth] (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1960)
Oct
15
1959
Gilbert (Sami Frey) and Dominique (Brigitte Bardot). DP: Armand Thirard.
The day of the court case. Numerous other dates are mentioned, all in flashbacks.
– The Paris Court of Appeals, meeting on October 15, 1959, pursuant to the charges against Dominique Marceau.
– With a girl like that, truth may be the best defense for once.
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狂った一頁 [Kurutta ichipėji / A Page of Madness] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)
Oct
14
silent cinema
A masked inmate (Eiko Minami) dances. The shot of the dancer is superimposed over a shot of her cel's bars, putting the viewer in the position of the husband witnessing – or is he hallucinating – an inescapable nightmare (via). DP: Kōhei Sugiyama.
A [favourite] silent horror film*
Incomplete and, despite the generally accepted popular Occidental opinion, not a horror film. Oh, to have seen this narrated by Musei Tokugawa…
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for October is horror-themed as opposed to date-based, and is all about favourites. Expect non-horror and films I believe to be relevant instead.
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駅 [Eki / Station] (Yasuo Furuhata, 1981)
Oct
12
Eiji Mikami (Ken Takakura) and Kiriko (Chieko Baishō) watching TV in her quiet bar. She sings along with her favourite song. DP: Daisaku Kimura.
Set 278 days before the start of the Tokyo Olympics.
“One can meet only god at such hour.”
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Le passager de la pluie [Rider on the Rain] (René Clément, 1970)
Oct
10
Mélancolie 'Mellie' Mau (Marlène Jobert) and Col. Harry Dobbs (Charles Bronson), dancing. DP: Andréas Winding.
– You expect me to eat that?
– Americans live on ketchup and milk. I'm a whiz at geography.