settima

drama

La baie des anges [Bay of Angels] (Jacques Demy, 1963)

Jan

9

Wheel of Fortune

La baie des anges (1963)

Jean (Claude Mann) and Jackie (Jeanne Moreau) at a casino table. The tension is palpable. DP: Jean Rabier.

Good, or bad, fortune on the day Wheel of Fortune premiered in 1975.

– How much did you win?

– 500,000 in less than an hour. It's immoral, but no more than anything else. No more than poverty or ugliness.

Mauvais sang [Bad Blood / The Night Is Young] (Leos Carax, 1986)

Jan

8

David Bowie – 1947

Mauvais sang (1986)

(Alex) Denis Lavant in a scene set to David Bowie's Modern Love. DP: Jean-Yves Escoffier.

A [favourite] scene featuring a Bowie song for David Bowie's birthday (1947).

“They pulled in just behind the fridge He lays her down, he frowns “Gee, my life's a funny thing Am I still too young?” He kissed her then and there She took his ring, took his babies It took him minutes, took her nowhere Heaven knows, she'd have taken anything”

– David Bowie, Modern Love (from Let's Dance, 1983)

Operation Ganymed [Helden, verloren im Staub der Sterne] (Rainer Erler, 1977)

Jan

7

moons

Operation Ganymed (1977)

Jupiter rising. DP: Wolfgang Grasshoff.

Moons for Galileo Galilei's observation of Jupiter's four largest moons in 1610: Ganymede and Callisto on January 7, and Europa and Io on January 8.

“I therefore concluded and decided unhesitatingly, that there are three stars in the heavens moving about Jupiter, as Venus and Mercury round the Sun; which at length was established as clear as daylight by numerous subsequent observations. These observations also established that there are not only three, but four, erratic sidereal bodies performing their revolutions round Jupiter… the revolutions are so swift that an observer may generally get differences of position every hour.”

– Galileo Galilei, Sidereus Nuncius (”Starry Messenger”), 1610

A spacecraft named Ganymede II returns back to Earth after its expedition to Jupiter's moons followed by 1500 days stuck in space. The Earth they find, is deserted.

Sevmek Zamanı [Time to Love] (Metin Erksan, 1965)

Jan

6

Muslim-American Heritage Month

Sevmek Zamanı (1965)

The man, the woman, and her portrait. DP: Mengü Yeğin.

“Study me as much as you like, you will not know me, for I differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be. Put yourself behind my eyes and see me as I see myself, for I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see.”

Rumi

Space Is the Place (John Coney, 1974)

Jan

5

Space Shuttle

Space Is the Place (1974)

Ra's arrival. DP: Seth Hill.

A film about space travel on the day Nixon announced the Space Shuttle program in 1972.

“I came from a dream that the Black man dreamed long ago. I’m actually a presence sent to you by your ancestors.”

Sun Ra

Sevmek Zamanı [Time to Love] (Metin Erksan, 1965)

Jan

4

fruit

Sevmek Zamanı (1965)

In a modernist room under renovation, two man idle through their lunch. The elder, a Sufi, plays his tanbur, the younger looks out of a window. There's a sense of melancholy. DP: Mengü Yeğin.

 

他人の顔 [Tanin no kao / The Face of Another] (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1966)

Jan

3

Tutankhamun's tomb

他人の顔 (1966)

Mr. Okuyama (Tatsuya Nakadai). DP: Hiroshi Segawa.

Bandages for that day in 1924 when Howard Carter came across Tutankhamun's sarcophagus.

“You'll feel better soon. Once you're used to the mask, you'll be a new man — one with no records, no past. A mind invisible to the world.”

– psychiatrist

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924)

Jan

2

dragons

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924)

Siegfried (Paul Richter), seen from the back, bathing in the blood of the slain dragon. On his left shoulder blade, a linden leaf. DPs: Carl Hoffmann, Günther Rittau & Walter Ruttmann.

Dragons or lizards, January's soul symbol.

Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen [Even Dwarfs Started Small] (Werner Herzog, 1970)

Dec

30

National Short Person Day

Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen (1970)

Some of the main cast members, with three women in focus. They're outdoors and several animals, including a kneeling dromedary, can be spotted in the background. DP: Thomas Mauch.

A short main character for National Short Person Day (USA).

“When we behave nobody cares. But when we are bad nobody forgets.”

– Hombré

Teorema [Theorem] (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968)

Dec

29

Independence Day of Mongolia

Teorema (1968)

The visitor (Terence Stamp) in intimate closeup. DP: Giuseppe Ruzzolini.

Someone finds their independence: Independence Day of Mongolia (Үндэсний эрх чөлөө, тусгаар тогтнолоо сэргээсний баярын өдөр).

“I no longer even recognize myself. What made me like the others has been destroyed. I was like everyone else, with many faults, perhaps, mine and those of the world around me. You made me different by taking me out of the natural order of things.”

– Pietro, the son