settima

france

Le Horla [The Horla] (Jean-Daniel Pollet, 1966)

Aug

19

violet

Le Horla (1966)

The narrator enters a violet-blue room via a lavender-purple corridor (via). DP: Jean-Jacques Rochut.

Violet: a building or structure *

“Is it the form of the clouds, or the tints of the sky, or the colours of the surrounding objects which are so changeable, which have troubled my thoughts as they passed before my eyes? Who can tell?”

– Guy de Maupassant, Le Horla, 1887 (via)

Objects and rooms have distinct colours ranging from the deepest blues and violets to a pale lavender, a muted silver and shocks of yellow. The usage of colour in Le Horla is striking throughout and reminds me of how Van Gogh's paintings became increasingly colourful as his madness enveloped him.

 

Procès de Jeanne d'Arc [The Trial of Joan of Arc] (Robert Bresson, 1962)

Aug

17

forgiveness

Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (1962)

Jeanne (Florence Delay) bound to the stake. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.

Holi: someone is forgiven (forgiveness being an important aspect of Holi)*

“Pray for me. I forgive the evil done me.”

– Jeanne d'Arc

Jeanne trusts her delusions to forgive the people who brought her to justice.

 

Le camion [The Lorry] (Marguerite Duras, 1977)

Aug

16

indigo

Le camion (1977)

His Saviem, possibly an SM170. DP: Bruno Nuytten.

Indigo: a building or structure*

Him: It’s a film? Her: It would have been a film.

A truck, both the narrative structure and his (Depardieu's character) material representation. She – the director – and he – the lead actor – do a read-though while discussing her script. A communist truck driver picks up a female hitchhiker. They discuss the landscape, the cosmos, pointlessness, communism of course. All the while, the indigo truck plods on.

 

Trois couleurs: Bleu [Three Colors: Blue] (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993)

Aug

15

cerulean

Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993)

Julie (Juliette Binoche) in a blue wallpapered room, observes blue beads suspended in front of a window with a cerulean sky and ocean behind it. Throughout the story, her clothing changes from white, to black, to the darkest charcoal blue, to Prussian blue. DP: Slawomir Idziak.

Cerulean, or blue: in food or fashion*

“I'm just fine. I have everything here. I have the TV. You can see the whole world”

– the mother

How could I not pick at least one instalment of Kieślowski's Trois couleurs trilogy. Here's blue, the liberté of the tricolor. Blue occurs as the sky to fall through, the room without life, and the cloth that binds.

 

Le 15/8 (Chantal Akerman + Samy Szlingerbaum, 1975)

Aug

15

Le 15/8 (1975)

Chris Myllykoski. DPs: Chantal Akerman & Samy Szlingerbaum.

Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955)

Aug

14

Bavaria

Lola Montès (1955)

The crowned royal mistress on display in glorious Eastmancolor (via). DP: Christian Matras.

Celebrating Oktoberfest [in September/October] and the Bavarian royals [rip]: a royal character or family*

“The painter takes his time. He doesn't like her dress. He doesn't like her gloves. One day he asks her if she dares pose for him – all in pink. She dares! And the king, enraptured by her pose, offers her a palace!”

– circus master

Maria Dolores Porriz y Montez, Countess von Landsfeld, Lola Montès for short, now a circus attraction, once the mistress to Ludwig I, King of Bavaria. While her fellow circus performers play Lola's former lovers, the ringmaster tells her story.

 

Il fiore delle mille e una notte [Arabian Nights] (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1974)

Aug

13

cerulean

Il fiore delle mille e una notte (1974)

The entrance of the Shah Mosque as seen in the film. The seven colours of the tile work are reflected in the extras' costumes. DP: Giuseppe Ruzzolini.

Cerulean, or blue: a building or structure*

“Eh, i sogni a volte insegnano male, Dùnya, perché la verità intera non è mai in un solo sogno, la verità intera è in molti sogni.”

One of the many exotic locations is the مسجد شاه, [Masjed-e Shah, or Shah Mosque] in Iran with its otherworldly blue and blue-adjacent tiles.

 

Der Stand der Dinge [The State of Things] (Wim Wenders, 1982)

Aug

13

1942

Der Stand der Dinge (1982)

Friedrich Munro's (Patrick Bauchau) Hollywood, Ca address and date of birth: August 13, 1942. DPs: Henri Alekan, Fred Murphy & Martin Schäfer.

– You know, I take pictures, photographs, but I never really thought in black and white before I saw our rushes. Do you know what I mean? You can see the shape of things.   – Life is in colour, but black and white is more realistic.

Il deserto rosso [Red Desert] (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964)

Aug

12

green

Il deserto rosso (1964)

Valerio (Valerio Bartoleschi) and his mother Giuliana (Monica Vitti) in an arid industrial landscape. Giuliana wears a brilliant green coat, its shade between pea green and moss green, depending on the drabness of the surroundings. DP: Carlo Di Palma.

Green, in food or fashion*

“She'd discovered a small beach far from town, with crystal-clear water and pink sand. She loved that spot. The colors of nature were so beautiful, and there was no noise. She'd leave only when the sun did too.”

– Giuliana

Antonioni's first film in colour beautifully utilises Vitti's brilliance – of her auburn hair, her porcelain teint, her vivid costumes (by Paola Carloni) – against the drab landscape.

 

E-clip-se (Chris Marker, 1999)

Aug

11

1999

E-clip-se (1999)

A young woman or child at the Jardin des plantes de Paris wears protective glasses while looking up in amazement during the August 11, 1999 solar eclipse, her baguette a vague memory. DP: Chris Marker.