settima

green

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.

 

Хлебный день [Khlebnyy den / Bread Day] (Sergei Dvortsevoy, 1998)

Aug

10

green

Хлебный день (1998)

The old folks pushing the cart past the hamlet's name sign. With thick brush strokes, almost too much for the small rectangle, it reads TOWNSHIP NR. 3. DP: Alisher Khamidkhodzhaev.

Green: a building or structure*

“That's all the people we've got now. We'll get there somehow.”

Where the old folks' hands push the cart, the green's paler. That doesn't change anything about its importance. A lifeline, bread, is delivered once a week and with delivered, it means that the carriage is left on the rails, several kilometers away from Zhikharevo, or Township Nr. 3, which in its turn is about 80 km away from Saint Petersburg. It takes the seniors about two hours to get the wagon to their hamlet. We get to witness ten minutes or so. It lasts a lifetime.

 

As of 2002, only three people lived in Zhikharevo. I wonder how the wain comes home now.

 

花樣年華 [Fa yeung nin wah / In the Mood for Love] (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)

Mar

17

Irish-American Heritage Month

花樣年華 (2000)

A close-up of a pea-green phone with Mrs. Chan's (Maggie Cheung) hands resting on the receiver. Her dress is a bright green, with an abstract graphic in white. DPs: Christopher Doyle, Pun Leung Kwan & Ping Bin Lee.

Green for Irish-American Heritage Month (USA)

“He remembers those vanished years. As though looking through a dusty window pane, the past is something he could see, but not touch. And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct.”

– caption