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Vergogna, schifosi!… [Dirty Angels] (Mauro Severino, 1969)
Aug
14
fruit
“Matto, caldo, soldi, morto… girotondo…”
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Strategia del ragno The Spider's Stratagem] (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
Apr
19
melon
Athos Magnani (Giulio Brogi) and Draifa (Alida Valli) sharing a meal. There's a carafe with water, a small vase with two flowers, wine glasses, and half a melon. Athos looks up, past us, towards something. DPs: Franco Di Giacomo & Vittorio Storaro.
“There's phrase that… 'A man is made of all men. He is equal to all and all are equal to him'.”
– Athos Magnani
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Space Coast (Ross McElwee + Michel Negroponte, 1979)
Jan
30
A woman and man eating at a wooden table. It's dark, there's one candle, and the guy wearing Ray-Bans® holding his #beer has got something to say.
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La baie des anges [Bay of Angels] (Jacques Demy, 1963)
Dec
23
pears
A blonde Moreau at a restaurant table with a man seen from the back. There are several semi-empty wine glasses and pears sliced lengthwise on a plate, covered with a napkin. Jeanne's character Jackie Demaistre is holding a small sheet of paper with a schematic drawing of a roulette wheel while throwing the man a sceptical glance. DP: Jean Rabier.
“We'll go back to Nice tomorrow. The Bay of Angels brings us luck.”
– Jean Fournier
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O slavnosti a hostech [A Report on the Party and Guests] (Jan Němec, 1966)
Nov
22
grapes
A man in tuxedo removes a grape seed from his mouth. He's seated at a wonderfully opulently set table in a birch forest. DP: Jaromír Šofr.
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Dutchman (Anthony Harvey, 1966)
Oct
3
Mean Girls Day
Clay (Al Freeman Jr.) reading a newspaper and minding his business on a subway train home. Just arrived on his car is Lula (Shirley Knight) and her endless supply of apples. DP: Gerry Turpin.
“Bet you can't eat just one.”
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Veneno para las hadas [Poison for the Fairies] (Carlos Enrique Taboada, 1986)
Sep
19
apples
Verónica (Ana Patricia Rojo) eating a red apple from a paper bag filled with fruit. The kitchen is spartan. DP: Lupe García.
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The Hypnotic Eye (George Blair, 1960)
Aug
29
National Lemon Juice Day
Suave hypnotist Desmond (Jacques Bergerac) and his lovely assistant Justine (Allison Hayes) using the magic of vitamin C to demonstrate to you, the viewer, how hypnotism works. DP: Archie R. Dalzell.
The Hypnotic Eye utilises what's called the movie gimmick. This one doesn't deploy anything hugely spectacular, no Percepto! seat vibrators (The Tingler (1959)) or Witchcraft (1964) witch deflectors or even a trained nurse on standby. There's a balloon. No spoilers here
“And now I am going to demonstrate to you the power of your own mind.”
– Desmond
There are also multiple moments where hypnotist Desmond (handsome future-Revlon-exec Jacques Bergerac) directly addresses you, the (wo)man in the audience. Because you too may laugh at that folly, that gimmick, that parlour trick. But who says it isn't real? Who says you really never went to see a hypnotism show…?
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La Belle et la Bête [Beauty and the Beast] (Jean Cocteau + René Clément, 1946)
Aug
15
a cornucopia of wonder
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.
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L'eclisse [The Eclipse] (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)
Jul
19
fruit
“I still can't figure out if it's an office, a market place, or a boxing ring. And maybe I don't even need to.”
– Vittoria
