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Le tombeau d'Alexandre [The Last Bolshevik] (Chris Marker, 1993)
Feb
25
Warsaw Pact
Still from a Medvedkin film. Silhouettes in light of Lenin and Stalin facing each other are projected above a crowd of people. DP of Le tombeau d'Alexandre: Chris Marker.
“Alexandre Ivanovitch Medvedkine est le seul cinéaste russe né en 1900. (…) Son énergie, son courage, ses illusions, ses désillusions, ses compromissions, ses bagarres avec les bureaucrates, ses illuminations prophétiques, ses aveuglements, volontaires ou non, son humour indestructible et la lumière déchirante que l’effondrement de l’URSS jette rétrospectivement sur toute sa vie, ce sont ceux de toute une génération, et c’est le portrait de cette génération que j’entends tracer à travers le portrait d’un ami.”
– press kit (via)
A film essay using the life and work of filmmaker Aleksandr Medvedkin to tell the story of communism. Medvedkin traveled the Soviet Union with his Kinopoezd or Cinetrain (also Agit-train), a moving film production train with the sole purpose to create Agitprop while documenting the Five Year Plan.
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Sebastiane (Paul Humfress + Derek Jarman, 1976)
Feb
18
Pluto Day
Sebastian (Leonardo Treviglio) sits on a rock in a barren landscape. Two men in the distance, and a sheep, all have their backs turned to him. DP: Peter Middleton.
“His body is golden like molten gold. This hand of his… will smooth away these wounds. Justin, he is as beautiful as the sun. This sun which caresses me… is his burning desire. He is Phoebus Apollo. The sun… is his… burning kiss.”
– Sebastian
Sebastian, member of the Emperor's personal guard, is exiled after an incident. He finds himself on a rocky outpost, and the object of the other men's lust. One of them – a centurion rejected by the Christian boy – subjects Sebastian to torture and eventually lifts him up martyrdom.
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儀式 [Gishiki / The Ceremony] (Nagisa Ōshima, 1971)
Jan
1
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Roj [The Swarm] (Miodrag 'Mića' Popović, 1966)
Dec
12
International Day of Neutrality
The judge and the woman. DP: Milorad Marković.
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Touche pas à la femme blanche [Don't Touch the White Woman!] (Marco Ferreri, 1974)
Nov
23
potato chips
“Whoever dies for the country hasn't lived in vain. I, on the contrary, will live for the country because I'm not that stupid.”
– George A. Custer
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Grands soirs & petits matins [May Days] (William Klein, 1978)
May
24
1968
Sorbonne students discussing the political situation with an elderly Parisian man. DPs: William Klein & Bernard Lutic.
“Soyez réalistes, demandez l'impossible”
– May 68 slogan
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Culloden (Peter Watkins, 1964)
Apr
16
1746
“Sir Thomas Sheridan, Jacobite military secretary. Suffering advanced debility and loss of memory. Former military engagement, 56 years ago. Sir John MacDonald, Jacobite captain of cavalry. Aged, frequently intoxicated, described as 'a man of the most limited capacities.' John William O'Sullivan, Jacobite quartermaster general. Described as 'an Irishman whose vanity is superseded only by his lack of wisdom.' Prince Charles Edward Stuart, Jacobite commander in chief. Former military experience: 10 days at a siege at the age of 13.”
– narrator
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شكاوى الفلاح الفصيح [El-Fallâh el-fasîh / The Eloquent Peasant] (Chadi Abdel Salam, 1970)
Dec
23
National Farmers Day – India
The peasant (Ahmed Marei) in a stone temple, flanked by scribes. DP: Mustafa Imam.
4000 years ago, Egypt, Middle Kingdom. A peasant, leading his mules past a stream of water, is tricked. With his animals gone, he pleads to the Pharaoh to restore Maʽat, harmony.
“He's a peasant. Without looking into his situation, words are all he has.”
Chadi Abdel Salam is not only this film's director, but also a trained architect, later set and costume designer. His eye wordlessly speaks the passing of time in the smallest of details. The withering of ferns, desert sand staining linen, the Sun merging with skin. At once, the universal presence of the gods becomes visible.
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儀式 [Gishiki / The Ceremony] (Nagisa Ōshima, 1971)
Nov
11
World Origami Day
A man kneeled in front of a Shintō altar. Ceremonial origami, known as origata or girei origami can be seen hanging from the altar. This is 幣帛 [heihaku], an offering made of cloth or paper. DP: Tōichirō Narushima.
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Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz + Rouben Mamoulian, 1963)
Aug
26
National Spark The World Day

Like Rome, Cleopatra wasn't built in a day. Joseph L. Mankiewicz's epic studio breaker took six years to make and, despite it being the highest-grossing film of 1963, didn't break even until 1973. Was it a #flop? A classic flop but a flop nevertheless?
“There are never enough hours in the days of a queen, and her nights have too many.”
– Cleopatra
The star – the Queen – Elizabeth Taylor demanded an unprecedented one million dollar fee, 10,3 million in 2023 US dollars. Liz's movie dressing table hold trinkets especially designed by luxury brand Bulgari, blink and you'll miss them. The Pharaoh's lavish costumes, all 65 of them (created by Irene Sharaff who would dress Taylor again as #Cleopatra's counterpart Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)), cost almost 195K dollar (ca. 2 million today), and of course those 20 000 extras, shipped from God-knows-where to Hollywood on the Tiber to shoot one scene, had to look like their 2000 year old counterparts, and be fed, and housed.
Is it all bad? Cleopatra is one of those movies that so many – and that includes obsessive cinephiles – will get around to watch. Eventually. All four hours of it. I'm still holding out, but ooh, the spectacle!