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.
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
Estate violenta [Violent Summer] (Valerio Zurlini, 1959)
Jul
25
1943
A large radio on a small pedestal. A perpetual wall calendar next to it reads DOMENICA 25 LUGLIO. DP: Tino Santoni.
“There’s something almost poetic about finding a hairpin in the bath. It’s like the sole of my foot has been pierced by poetry.” 簪 [Kanzashi / Ornamental Hairpin] (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1941)
Jul
24
relaxation
Men relaxing at a roten-buro, an outdoor onsen. DP: Suketarō Inokai.
Someone goes to a spa, beach, or retreat*
– Nanmura, via
Relaxing at an onsen, a soldier steps on the titular kanzashi. Now injured with too much time on his hands, he and his fellow nosy patrons go out looking for its owner.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
“We still remember our high wall. Even the day we first climbed it, filled with curiosity. The sadness of the discoveries of those years seemed devastating to us. Then we wondered how we could have forgotten it so suddenly.” Vysoká zeď [The High Wall] (Karel Kachyňa, 1964)
Jul
23
The young man (Vít Olmer) rests in the sun with Jitka (Radka Dulíková) observing him. DP: Josef Vaniš.
Someone is in an ambulance or hospital*
– prologue
It's summer in Prague. Jitka, a girl on the cusp of womanhood, follows a stray cat and finds a tall hospital wall. Behind it, a young man in a wheelchair rests. The girl and the man connect.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
“The most revolting film I have ever seen” La grande bouffe (Marco Ferreri, 1973)
Jul
21
Andréa Ferréol in a promotional photo. Food styling by actor/food writer Giuseppe Maffioli, DP: Mario Vulpiani.
A character pigging out*
– Mary Whitehouse, via
Four hedonistic gourmands throw a party of the flesh, of meat, of lust, and death.
* 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
“Grünes Licht für ehrgeizige, strebsame und arbeitswillige junge Menschen.”Die glücklichen Minuten des Georg Hauser [The Happy Minutes of Georg Hauser] (Mansur Madavi, 1974)
Jul
20
A smiling Georg Hauser (Walter Bannert) with one of his many attractive secretaries. DP: Mansur Madavi.
“It would be thrilling if you were willing,
and if it can never be, pity me,
for you were born to be kissed,
I can’t resist, you are temptation,
and I am yours!” Estate violenta [Violent Summer] (Valerio Zurlini, 1959)
Jul
19
Roberta (Eleonora Rossi Drago) and Carlo (Jean-Louis Trintignant). DP: Tino Santoni.
Characters go on a date, or fall in love*
– Nacio Herb Brown & Arthur Freed, Temptation (1933)
On a beautiful summer day in Rimini, Carlo, the handsome son from a bourgeois home, saves a little girl and becomes infatuated with the girl's mother, a young widow years his senior. Set in July 1943, the events in the outer world (poss. spoilers) and the faith of the two uneven lovers slowly come to their logical conclusion.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.