settima

drama

Strategia del ragno [The Spider's Stratagem] (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)

Jun

15

Sat

Strategia del ragno (1970)

A clock face. It's 9:54 on Saturday June 15. DPs: Franco Di Giacomo & Vittorio Storaro.

The two-page story this film is based on – Jorge Luis Borges' Tema del traidor y del héroe [Theme of the Traitor and Hero] (1944) – takes place on January 3 and August 2.

“Instead of leaving this morning, I'm still here. Among friends.”

– Athos Magnani

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (Peter Watkins, 1959)

Jun

14

Army Day

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (1959)

That glance. Any soldier at any time. DP: Peter Watkins.

“That’s how I will probably die, left like a poor old rag on the battlefield. When you know this is going to happen to you, your body suddenly becomes something terribly precious to you. This flesh, soft and warm is yours; a personal belonging not to be discarded like an awful piece of meat. You find yourself thinking about this, realizing what a wonderful thing your body is, and what an awful and wrong thing it is to maltreat it.”

Watkins takes the anonymous slaughter of the masses on the battlefield inside, into the body and mind of a young soldier.

Bob le flambeur [Bob the Gambler] (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1956)

Jun

13

frites

Bob le flambeur (1956)

Anne (Isabelle Corey), a cute blonde with a beret, eats a fry (French, obviously) while giving us a side glance. It's all very proto-Vague. DP: Henri Decaë.

– I saw you the other morning, eating frites.

– I like frites.

Bob le flambeur [Bob the Gambler] (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1956)

Jun

13

Friday

Bob le flambeur (1956)

Bob (Roger Duchesne) at the tables, gambling. DP: Henri Decaë.

An unlucky character on Friday the 13th

“I'd even lose at hopscotch these days.”

– Bob Montagné

Bob gambles, and always wins. But then he starts losing. And not just games.

Black Friday (Arthur Lubin, 1940)

Jun

13

Black Friday (1940)

DP: Elwood Bredell.

Skammen [Shame] (Ingmar Bergman, 1968)

Jun

12

Loving Day

Skammen (1968)

Eva (Liv Ullmann) and Jan Rosenberg (Max von Sydow) (via). DP: Sven Nykvist.

A [favourite] movie couple for Loving Day (USA)

“Sometimes everything seems just like a dream. It's not my dream, it's somebody else's. But I have to participate in it. How do you think someone who dreams about us would feel when he wakes up. Feeling ashamed?”

– Eva

After Vargtimmen (1968), the second of Bergman's Ullmann/Von Sydow cycle. It was followed by En passion (1969).

 

Against the backdrop of war, a violinist couple tends a garden – and marriage – on the island of Fårö.

Le temps des loups [The Heist] (Sergio Gobbi, 1970)

Jun

12

1938

Le temps des loups (1970)

Dillinger (Robert Hossein) followed by Stella (Virna Lisi). DP: Daniel Diot.

 

Morte a Venezia [Death in Venice] (Luchino Visconti, 1971)

Jun

11

Say HI Day

Morte a Venezia (1971)

Von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde) and Tadzio (Björn Andrésen). DP: Pasqualino De Santis.

Characters say or wave hello on Say HI Day

 

A sickly composer meets and becomes infatuated with a boy during his stay in Venice.

The Thomas Crown Affair (Norman Jewison, 1968)

Jun

9

0609-Thomas-Crown-Affair1968.png

A newspaper covered in food scraps. Barely legible a large ad: BE A FINK FOR $25,000! WAS HE IN BOSTON ON JUNE 9TH? DP: Haskell Wexler.

“Left early. Please come with the money… or, you keep the Rolls. All my love,

Tommy”

O Menino e o Vento [The Boy and the Wind] (Carlos Hugo Christensen, 1967)

Jun

8

National Best Friends Day

O Menino e o Vento (1967)

The two friends in intimate embrace. DP: Antônio Gonçalves.

[Favourite] best friends in film for National Best Friends Day (USA)

“I'm going with this one.”

– Zeca de Curva, running into the storm

The close friendship between two young men raises suspicion when the younger of them disappears..