settima

france

Muhammad Ali, the Greatest [Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee] (William Klein, 1974)

Sep

4

Mouthguard Day

Muhammad Ali, the Greatest (1974)

A randomly picked screenshot showing Muhammad Ali fighting George Foreman. Each and every scene of a William Klein film is a photograph. DPs: Étienne Becker, William Klein, Richard Suzuki & Patrice Wyers.

“I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; Handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; Only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I’m so mean I make medicine sick.”

– Muhammad Ali

Il grande silenzio [The Great Silence] (Sergio Corbucci, 1968)

Aug

26

horse

Il grande silenzio (1968)

A man in a heavy fur coat (Bruno Corazzari) is eating at a small table when Silenzio (Jean-Louis Trintignant) enters the small establishment. Outside the landscape is covered in snow. DP: Silvano Ippoliti.

– What do you want?

– We just want that horse of yours.

– You want my horse, there's an awful lot of ya. What are you gonna do with just one horse, anyhow?

– Eat it. We're gonna feed off that beast for at least a week.

Rosetta (Jean-Pierre Dardenne + Luc Dardenne, 1999)

Aug

24

National Waffle Day

Rosetta (1999)

Émilie Dequenne as the titular Rosetta, eating a Gaufre de Liège (a “Liège waffle” made with brioche-based dough and pearl sugar) as part of daily normalcy. DP: Alain Marcoen.

The city of Liège in Belgium's Walloon region is grey. The air seems forever stained by the heavy mining that for years made its inhabitants rich and sick. Here lives Rosetta (Émilie Dequenne), a young woman trying to keep herself and her alcoholic mother afloat with measly jobs while saving up enough money so she can, finally, leave the trailer park she's forced to call home.

“Your name is Rosetta. My name is Rosetta. You found a job. I found a job. You've got a friend. I've got a friend. You have a normal life. I have a normal life. You won't fall in a rut. I won't fall in a rut. Good night. Good night.”

– Rosetta

Directors Jean-Pierre and Luc #Dardenne once described this film as a war movie. It's pained, like the voices from the trenches that still scar the Belgian landscape. The camera – Alain Marcoen's – close, as if were following the girl through a rifle's scope. And raw, like the open wounds left behind by the mining companies.

More (Barbet Schroeder, 1969)

Aug

22

Munchies

More (1969)

Druggies Estelle (Mimsy Farmer) and Stefan (Klaus Grünberg) eating straight from a jar of honey and picking crumbs out of a loaf of bread. There's Coca-Cola product placement and half-eaten foods everywhere. DP: Néstor Almendros.

– You know what's really awful?

– No, tell me.

– Getting hooked. It's the end. But, if you only take one shot every once in awhile. Its no different than an occasional drink or cigarette.

Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)

Aug

19

National Potato Day

Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

Jeanne Dielman (Delphine Seyrig) eternally peeling potatoes for dinner in this gif from Fondation Chantal Akerman. DP: Babette Mangolte.

Jeanne Dielman routinely prepares meals, cleans the house, mothers her teenage son, and entertains men. Then something breaks and her carefully nurtured practices slowly unravel.

“I could have made mashed potatoes, but we're having that tomorrow.”

– Jeanne Dielman

Maléfices [Where the Truth Lies] (Henri Decoin, 1962)

Aug

16

milk

Maléfices (1962)

Ronga (Maîthé Mansoura accompanied by cheetah Nyète), sits on a straw-covered floor while holding a bowl with milk. There are potted plants and gardening equipment is placed against the wall. DP: Marcel Grignon.

La Belle et la Bête [Beauty and the Beast] (Jean Cocteau + René Clément, 1946)

Aug

15

a cornucopia of wonder

La Belle et la Bête (1946)

La Belle (Josette Day) at a fancy table stacked with good foods and nice wines. She's cleaning her fingernails with the silverware while a chagrined Bête (Jean Marais) looks on. As magical as the story are the production and set design by Christian Bérard, Lucien Carré, and René Moulaert. They breathed a soul into almost everything, including the candelabras. DP: Henri Alekan.

– Does he crawl on four legs? What does he eat and drink?

– I've given him water to drink on occasion. He would never eat me.

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

Aug

14

Les créatures (1966)

Edgar (Michel Piccoli) and Mylène (Catherine Deneuve) all dressed up for a home-cooked meal. On the wall behind them a huge framed mounted crab. DPs: Willy Kurant, William Lubtchansky & Jean Orjollet.

Le lit de la vierge (1969)

Marie/M. Magdalène (Zouzou) embracing a lost Jesus (Pierre Clémenti). She's wears a black tunic with a black headscarf, he a white outfit (long johns?) and a crown of thorns. She appears to speak to him. DP: Michel Fournier.

Le lit de la vierge (1969)

August 10: a Mary for #NationalMaryDay

Le lit de la vierge [The Virgin's Bed] (Philippe Garrel, 1969)

After the dust of May 68 had settled and it became clear that the promised revolution would never be, the young were lost. Filmed in an unscripted haze of drugs and dimmed hope, Le lit de la vierge brings back Jesus [Pierre Clémenti] – now mocked as an astray, confused man and representing the many once-hopeful of '68 – to the desert where he meets Marie, his mother the virgin and the prostitute Marie Magdalène, 60s scene girl Zouzou la twisteuse in a double role.

The mother/whore and hippie aspire a new revolution of sorts, exposing the beach under the pavement as a desert of contemplation.

A gif of Tina Aumont during the filming of “Le lit de la vierge”. From Frédéric Pardo's short psychedelic documentary “Home Movie, autour du 'Lit de la vierge” (1968). DP: Frédéric Pardo.

Home Movie, autour du 'Lit de la vierge' (1968)

#Bales2023FilmChallenge #PhilippeGarrel #Zouzou #PierreClémenti #TinaAumont #GroupeZanzibar #JohnCale #Nico #MichelFournier #France #Mai68 #drugs #religion #hippies #Morocco #1960s

#todo

L'œil du malin [The Eye of Evil / The Third Lover] (Claude Chabrol, 1962)

Aug

8

L'œil du malin (1962)

A table covered with a neatly ironed table cloth and on it, several stacks of flat and soup plates, plus silverware and nesting aluminium pans. DP: Jean Rabier.