Something short for winter solstice.

“He's growing! Look! See how he's growing! I have seen the Lord! The Lord! The Lord!”

– Schugger-Leo

On the eve of World War 2, little Oskar – just three years old – decides he doesn't want to grow anymore.

Candles for Diwali*. Today's and tomorrow's theme are virtually interchangeable.

 

When an old crone gives birth to a beautiful baby, a young virgin claims the child as hers. With the Immaculately Conceived wonder put on display – to the child's contemporaries, the court of Cosimo de' Medici attending a reenactment of the events, and us film viewers – He protects the false Virgin from losing her chastity and blurs the walls between staging and gospel.

 

* “Diwali, one of the major religious festivals in Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, lasting for five days from the 13th day of the dark half of the lunar month Ashvina to the second day of the light half of the lunar month Karttika. The corresponding dates in the Gregorian calendar usually fall in late October and November.” (source).

A temple*

“Now consummate the sacrifice in your throat of flame, o father and mother, o god and goddess, o father and mother, o father and son, o god and goddess! Voracious creator! Roaring ardent hunger…”

The world's first epic film and the debut of – the later hugely popular – strongman Maciste.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for December has a few dateless themes. This is one of them.

 

Takes place on the night of November 26-27, 1940.

“Mister Moldovan, this is not for the first time that a criminal case is entrusted to you. It is precisely your political objectivity that made us choose you.”

– Alexandru Dincă

Takes place on November 2 and 3.

 

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.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.

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.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.

Orange: a building or structure*

“Today is the first day of a life of sacrifice.”

– Moritoo Endō

Partially filmed near the 厳島神社 (Itsukushima Shrine) with its striking vermilion torii.

 

Shot on Eastmancolor, relatively cheap and globally available, and influenced by Hollywood colour melodramas of the time, in particularly Rudolph Maté's Mississippi Gambler (1953) (source), and in its turn greatly influenced the implementation of colour in global cinema to come.

 

Jigokumon won two Academy Awards in 1955, for Best Costume Design and Best Foreign Language Film.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.