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Trafic [Traffic] (Jacques Tati, 1971)
May
16
National Barbecue Day
A man prepares a steak on his nifty Renault 4 Altra grill (there's a pun), observed by M. Hulot and a perplexed Dutch customs officer. In the background a sign in Dutch that requests to refrain from smoking. DPs: Eduard van der Enden & Marcel Weiss.
Monsieur Hulot – who in his final appearance happens to be an automobile designer – travels to a car show in Amsterdam to demonstrate his latest creation, a camper van par excellence. The vehicle of course accommodates the latest gadgets, such as a collapsible grill.
“Where are you going, Mr. Hulot?”
However regarded as a lesser #Tati, Trafic, is another display of lovingly choreographed insanity, notably a #CarCrash that makes me wonder if this was Tati's attempt to transpose Godard's Week-end (1967) into a pleasant, pre-May 68 France.
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Οι Τεμπέληδες της Εύφορης Κοιλάδας [Oi tembelides tis eforis koiladas / The Idlers of the Fertile Valley] (Nikos Panayotopoulos, 1978)
May
15
The maid (Olga Karlatos) patiently feeding the father (Vasilis Diamantopoulos) in bed. DP: Andreas Bellis.
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Limonádový Joe aneb Konská opera [Lemonade Joe or The Horse Opera] (Oldřich Lipský, 1964)
Apr
27
Kola Loka
A tough cowboy takes a bite out off a fiddle. DP: Vladimír Novotný.
“The Kola Loka is the law!”
– Limonádový Joe
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Jerry's Deli [Jerry] (Tom Palazzolo, 1974)
Apr
17
National Stress Awareness Month
Jerry Meyer in his sandwich place, taking orders.
Stressed?‽ Who's got time to be stressed when there's a business to be run!!? Tom Palazzolo's Jerry’s Deli is a great character study of not only a character, but a whole time period inhabited by characters. The titular Jerry is Jerry Meyer, owner and proprietor of a Chicagoan deli that happened to be right next to Palazzolo's film lab. You wanna eat? Now, eat! Wanna order? Whaddaya waiting for?? Order!! Roast beef on rye please.
“On RYE!?!”
– Jerry Meyer
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O Território [The Territory] (Raúl Ruiz, 1981)
Apr
2
Nature Day
A man and woman, plus a little girl perched on the man's shoulders, hike through an illusory landscape. DP: Henri Alekan.
Two American families, adults and their children, go on a #HikingTrip somewhere in the south of France. They find themselves increasingly lost, not only in #nature but also in and among themselves.
Supposedly based on a real troublesome event and riddled with much filmmaking adversity, O Território nearly stranded as much as the hikers did. In support, #WimWenders used the same cast for his Der Stand der Dinge (1982), about a film crew's attempt to remake #RogerCorman's Day the World Ended (1955).
In a wonderful, unscripted circular way, Corman was one of the executive producers of Ruiz's film.
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洞 [Dóng / The Hole] (Tsai Ming-liang, 1998)
Mar
22
National Sing It Out Day
The man upstairs and the woman upstairs, both dressed in that perfectly cool, 1960s Chinese style, break out in song in their crumbling apartment block The woman's singing voice is legendary Grace Chang's. DP: Pen-Jung Liao.
In a #plague-ridden Taiwan, it rains relentlessly. The #rain and a #virus forces people to retreat. In Hsiao Kang's crumbling building, a plumber inadvertently punches a hole from his floor to the unnamed woman's below. While she, another victim of the #disease, holes up in her apartment they struck up a strange detached relationship.
Between the endless downpour and frantic #food hoarding, in her heart a #musical sings.
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On the Marriage Broker Joke as Cited by Sigmund Freud in “WIT AND ITS RELATION TO THE UNCONSCIOUS” or Can the Avant-Garde Artist Be Wholed (Owen Land, 1977)
Mar
16
National Panda Day
Two fake pandas in a black-and-white room, seated on zebra-striped chairs. The floor has black-and-white square tiles and the walls black-and-white polkadots. Framed behind them, two black squares with white passe-partouts.
Owen Land explores meaning, wit, and #WordPlay, and manages to unite the #marketing of #umeboshi #plums in a wide variety of vessels, the brokering of #brides, and pandas discussing #Freud in all of the above contexts.
“My film is going to be introduced by a fake panda and it’s going to be about Japanese salted plums among other things.”
– FIRST PANDA
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Françoise Durocher, Waitress (André Brassard, 1972)
Feb
9
freebie: Customer Service Day
23 actresses and one person in drag play the part of Québécois waitress Françoise Durocher in seven monologues.
“One grilled cheese, two slices of toast, two coffees. One pepper steak no chili and a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. Two glasses of milk. One plate of spare ribs. A chicken in a basket with three cups of honey. One lean smoked meat sandwich with pickles and mustard. One two-cream coffee and two club sandwiches. Two clubs.”
– Françoise Durocher
Watch the short on the NFB website.
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Alice's Restaurant (Arthur Penn, 1969)
Jan
13
Stephen Foster Memorial Day
Arlo (Arlo Guthrie, son of legendary folk musician Woody) jams with his film-dad Pete Seeger. DP: Michael Nebbia.
A songwriter as the lead.
“This song is called 'Alice's Restaurant', and it's about Alice. And the restaurant. But Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant, that's just the name of the song. And that's why I called the song 'Alice's Restaurant'.
– Arlo Guthrie, intro to “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” (1967)