settima

fruit

簪​ [Kanzashi / Ornamental Hairpin] (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1941)

Mar

3

melon

Kanzashi (1941)

A traditional Japanese room with tatami mats. Boys at a table eat melon slices. A woman makes a phone call. The view through the window reveals a gnarly tree and a mountain in the background. DP: Suketarō Inokai.

 

Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält [Mark of the Devil] (Michael Armstrong + Adrian Hoven, 1970)

Nov

28

cheese

Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält (1970)

A young, pretty Udo Kier seated at a dinner table. There are various fruits on a platter and Udo's eating cheese. His outfit suggests the 18th century. DP: Ernst W. Kalinke.

“I accuse you of having trampled on the cross, of having ridden to the Sabbath, of throwing the Holy Cross of our Saviour into manure so that the skies grew dark, and the rain fell upon the earth!”

– Albino

Kladivo na čarodějnice [Witchhammer] (Otakar Vávra, 1970)

Oct

19

apples

Kladivo na čarodějnice (1970)

A woman in a tub lustfully bites into an apple, presented to her by a giddy maid. A second maid replenishes the bathwater. DP: Josef Illík.

 

Äppelkriget [The Apple War] (Tage Danielsson, 1971)

Sep

17

National Apple Dumpling Day

Äppelkriget (1971)

Locals and a centaur – half man, half papier-mâché – enjoy a drink. DP: Lars Swanberg.

Apples, or dumplings, for National Apple Dumpling Day (USA)

– What are you gonna do with tons of apples? They can't be sold! Ask any apple farmer! They just pile up and rot! – The apple farmers? – No. The apples!

A beautiful, picturesque part of Sweden will become… Deutschneyland! At least, that's the brilliant business plan Herr Volkswagner has. But the local apple farmers – a large family that's half human, half mythological creatures – have no need for an amusement park on their grounds.

Ovoce stromů rajských jíme [We Eat the Fruit of the Trees of Paradise] (Věra Chytilová, 1970)

Aug

6

orange

Ovoce stromů rajských jíme (1970)

Eva (Jitka Novákova) devouring oranges under a black umbrella (via). DP: Jaroslav Kučera.

Orange, food or fashion*

“Tell me the truth!”

– choir

An allegorical, psychedelic retelling of Genesis 3 and the Fall of Man

 

Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 1972)

Jul

24

cantaloupe

Silent Running (1972)

Bruce Dern as peace-loving Freeman Lowell aggressively eating a cantaloupe in space. DP: Charles F. Wheeler.

“It calls back a time when there were flowers all over the Earth… and there were valleys. And there were plains of tall green grass that you could lie down in – you could go to sleep in. And there were blue skies, and there was fresh air… and there were things growing all over the place, not just in some domed enclosures blasted some millions of miles out in to space.”

– Freeman Lowell

重慶森林 [Chung Hing sam lam / Chungking Express] (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994)

Apr

28

freebie: April

重慶森林 (1994)

Eating pineapple, expiration date May 1. DPs: Christopher Doyle & Wai Keung Lau.

A film set in April.

“We split up on April Fool's Day. So I decided to let the joke run for a month. Every day I buy a can of pineapple with a sell-by date of May 1. May loves pineapple, and May 1 is my birthday. If May hasn't changed her mind by the time I've bought thirty cans, then our love will also expire.”

– He Zhiwu, Cop 223

նռան գույնը [Sayat Nova / The Color of Pomegranates] (Sergei Parajanov, 1969)

Jan

11

journeys

նռան գույնը (1969)

A nun holds up an embroidered cloth depicting a dead Christ surrounded by mourning saints. Next to her a monk in black, resembling poet Sayat-Nova. Screenshot via Screenmusings. DP: Suren Shakhbazyan.

Garnets for January. The garnet is supposed to protect the traveller on his journey, and is named after the pomegranate with which it shares its bloodred colour.

“We sought asylum for our love, but the road led us out to the land of the dead.”

The story of a poet's spiritual journey. The poet, and poems the film is based on is ashough [lover, or travelling musician] Sayat-Nova (b. Harutyun Sayatyan).

Vergogna, schifosi!… [Dirty Angels] (Mauro Severino, 1969)

Aug

14

fruit

Vergogna, schifosi!… (1969)

A group of people in skimpy swimwear sits on space-agey white plastic seating – Archizoom's radical Superonda (1967) – while decadently eating luxurious tropical fruit from a round table that futuristically descends from the ceiling via a steel pole. DP: Angelo Lotti.

“Matto, caldo, soldi, morto… girotondo…”

Strategia del ragno The Spider's Stratagem] (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)

Apr

19

melon

Strategia del ragno (1970)

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