settima

dystopia

Spectres of the Spectrum (Craig Baldwin, 1999)

Oct

4

Spectres of the Spectrum (1999)

A scene from the TV series Science in Action (1950—1966) showing Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier. DP: Bill Daniel.

Soy leyenda (Mario Gómez Martín, 1967)

Oct

3

zombies

Soy leyenda (1967)

Robert Neville (Moisés Menéndez) looking out over an empty rooftop. DP: Jesús Ocaña.

(A favourite) zombie movie*

 

Now, settima. Of all the zombie movies in the world you had to pick a vampire story? Why yes. Yes I did.

“Again he shook his head. The world's gone mad, he thought. The dead walk about and I think nothing of it. The return of corpses has become trivial in import. How quickly one accepts the incredible if only one sees it enough!”

– Richard Matheson, I Am Legend (1954)

Just like my actual favourite zombie film, that one from 1968, Soy leyenda is based on Richard Matheson's post-apocalyptic horror novel I Am Legend (1954). The story describes a world where the living have become undead vampire-like creatures. A lone man tries to rationalise that new world through reason and science, and legend.

 

In the man's mind, the undead become the familiar, the vampire. In our mind, watching this, we believe to see the foreshadowing of the popculture zombie. The abandoned well-known landscapes, the ceaseless repetition of what the old life had instilled, the normalcy of the grotesque. Oh how familiar they have become.

 

* 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.

The Year of the Sex Olympics (Michael Elliott, 1968)

Sep

7

ESPN – 1979

The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968)

The people of a suspiciously 60s looking future critically watch the audience of a reality TV show called The Hungry Angry Show.

Sports watching on TV for ESPN's debut.

“Sex is not to do. Sex is to watch.”

– Nat Mender

All that's on TV is pornography and violence. Welcome to the Year of the Sex Olympics.

Czułe miejsca [Tender Spots] (Piotr Andrejew, 1981)

Aug

28

1998

Czułe miejsca (1981)

Janek (Michał Juszczakiewicz) and Ewa (Hanna Dunowska) in embrace on a bed. DPs: Jerzy Zieliński & Ryszard Lenczewski.

Nineteen Eighty-Four (Rudolph Cartier, 1954)

Aug

18

indigo

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954)

Winston Smith (Peter Cushing). We only see his frail looking back with the identifier KZ-6090, and his name SMITH W.

Indigo, in food or fashion*

“He moved over to the window: a smallish, frail figure, the meagreness of his body merely emphasized by the blue overalls which were the uniform of the party. His hair was very fair, his face naturally sanguine, his skin roughened by coarse soap and blunt razor blades and the cold of the winter that had just ended. “

– George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) (via)

Memoirs of a Survivor (David Gladwell, 1981)

Apr

20

Easter Sunday

Memoirs of a Survivor (1981)

A Victorian family, all dressed in white, marvel at an enormous egg in an ornate room. DP: Walter Lassally.

Eggs for Easter Sunday.

“The walls of the room seemed to hold stories untold, whispering in the quiet.”

– Doris Lessing, The Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)

In a dystopian Britain, D (Julie Christie) survives while taking care of a sullen teenage girl, and visiting a mirage behind the walls.

The Bed Sitting Room (Richard Lester, 1969)

Mar

22

National Goof-off Day

The Bed Sitting Room (1969)

The BBC (Frank Thornton) bringing you the news (still via). DP: David Watkin.

A truly silly film for National Goof-off Day (USA)

“I am the BBC as you can see, and here was the last news.”

– The BBC

Czułe miejsca [Tender Spots] (Piotr Andrejew, 1981)

Jul

7

ice cream

Czułe miejsca (1981)

Ewa (Hanna Dunowska) licks melting ice cream with Janek (Michał Juszczakiewicz) looking on. DPs: Jerzy Zieliński & Ryszard Lenczewski.

Punishment Park (Peter Watkins, 1971)

Dec

13

U.S. National Guard Birthday

Punishment Park (1971)

Military men arresting one of the dissidents. A man in black uniform and white helmet interacts directly with the camera c.q. the viewer. DPs: Joan Churchill & Peter Smokler.

The National Guard shows up: U.S. National Guard Birthday, USA.

 

A European camera crew follows a diverse group of American minor dissidents – pacifists, feminists, communists – who are given the choice to spend decades in federal prison, or three days in Bear Mountain Punishment Park, chased by National Guardsmen and law enforcement officers. If they manage to capture the American flag, they're free to go.

“America is as psychotic as it is powerful and violence is the only goddamn thing that will command your attention.”

– Defendant Lee Robert Brown

While the washed-out 16mm footage and references to #Nixon may tell you otherwise, Punishment Park remains a gut-punching portrait of a timeless America.

Decoder (Muscha, 1984)

Sep

28

International Right To Know Day

Decoder (1984)

In a crumbling bunker, the High Priest (Genesis P-Orridge) lectures about information. DP: Johanna Heer.

“Information is like a bank. Some of us are rich. Some of us are poor, with information. All of us can be rich. Our job, your job, is to rob the bank. To kill the guard. To go out there to destroy everybody who keeps, and hides, the whole information. Simple. Special. Information. Power.”

– The High Priest