settima

drama

Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)

Sep

6

Sun

Pickpocket (1959)

The newspaper of Sunday, September 6, announcing a derby. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.

“The pickings were poor and not worth the risk.”

– Michel

Homicidal (William Castle, 1961)

Sep

6

Homicidal (1961)

Man's hands hold a picture of Emily (Joan Marshall). DP: Burnett Guffey.

“We've been to Haunted Hills, and through Tinglers, and even Ghosts... but now we're going to meet a group of people who just happen to be… Homicidal.”

– William Castle, introduction

Le vampire de Düsseldorf [The Vampire of Dusseldorf] (Robert Hossein, 1965)

Sep

5

Le vampire de Düsseldorf (1965)

Robert Hossein as Peter Kuerten [sic]. DP: Alain Levent.

Petit à petit [Little by Little] (Jean Rouch, 1970)

Sep

3

Skyscraper Day

Petit à petit (1970)

Damouré (Damouré Zika) measures a Parisian with craniology callipers. No skyscraper in this still, but there's scaffolding. DP: Jean Rouch.

A skyscraper for Skyscraper Day (USA)

 

In the sequel to Rouch's Jaguar (1967), Damouré wants a high rise for his Niger business with “as many floors as he has wives”. He decides to travel to Paris to learn about the construction of such building, and what made Paris to the Paris of today. While there, he gets distracted by the peculiarities of the French natives. Worried about Damouré's increasingly puzzling postcards, his company sends out Lam (Lam Ibrahim Dia) to bring him home.

Flic Story [Cop Story] (Jacques Deray, 1975)

Sep

3

1947

Flic Story (1975)

A close-up of a man's feet hastily walking along a corridor. Superimposed it reads 3 SEPTEMBRE 1974. DP: Jean-Jacques Tarbès.

Taxi zum Klo (Frank Ripploh, 1980)

Sep

2

Christa McAuliffe 1948 – 1986

Taxi zum Klo (1980)

Frank (Frank Ripploh) teaching kids about the human body on an anatomy dummy. DP: Horst Schier.

A teacher for what would have been Christa McAuliffe's birthday.

“Ich mag Männer, bin 30 Jahre alt, von Beruf Lehrer.”

– Frank Ripploh

Frank Ripploh is a sexual ethics and biology teacher by day, and hedonistic gay man and aspiring pornographer by night. When Frank Ripploh, the man, publicly came out in 1978 in the tabloid Stern, he lost his teaching job and did become that filmmaker. Taxi zum Klo – litt. taxi to the john/loo – is his story. A frank pre-AIDS pre-Internet pre-victimhood depiction of male gay culture in West Germany. Maybe raw, possibly misogynist, definitely true to life.

Endişe [Anxiety] (Yılmaz Güney + Şerif Gören, 1974)

Sep

1

Labor Day

Endişe (1974)

A Kurdish worker in the cotton fields. She looks straight into the camera while two others continue their work. DP: Kenan Ormanlar.

The Industrial Revolution, or unions, for Labor Day (USA)

 

Kurdish seasonal cotton pickers fear losing their job when mechanisation is preferred by their overseers. While unionising, Cevher, one of the workers – tries to stay out of the hands of his enemies, who want him because of a blood feud.

Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller, 1963)

Aug

30

1954

Shock Corridor (1963)

Inpatient Stuart (James Best) in one of the many scenes that appear to bear some of the seeds of Mark Frost & David Lynch's Twin Peaks (1990–1991). DPs: Stanley Cortez & Samuel Fuller.

“Life is a messy weapon.”

– Pagliacci

Les créatures [The Creatures] (Agnès Varda, 1966)

Aug

29

Les créatures (1966)

Mylène (Catherine Deneuve) and Edgar (Michel Piccoli) Piccoli playing checkers at a small table. DPs: Willy Kurant, William Lubtchansky & Jean Orjollet.

“Everything is rotten. Decadence is everywhere. Why fight it?”

La horse [Horse] (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1970)

Aug

28

1923

La horse (1970)

Francis Grutti's (Armando Francioli) ID, handled by someone wielding a large stamp. His birthday is August 28, 1923. DP: Walter Wottitz.