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Il demonio [The Demon] (Brunello Rondi, 1963)
Oct
6
exorcism
While several men hold her down, Purif (Daliah Lavi) sticks out her tongue to the crucifix held up to her. DP: Carlo Bellero.
[A favourite] exorcism film*
“Blood of Christ. Demon. A curse upon this man. A curse that he will never forget me. Blood of my body. Until the grave. A curse that he will never forget me.”
– Purificazione
When a rejected young woman puts a curse on her heart's desire, the locals see nothing less than witchcraft. It is decided that Purif must be possessed, and exorcised.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for October is horror-themed as opposed to date-based, and is all about favourites. Expect non-horror and films I believe to be relevant instead.
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Le boucher [The Butcher] (Claude Chabrol, 1970)
Oct
3
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Sep
30
International Translation Day
“This mirror reflected a painting… with words. Chinese idiograms. 'The she-crane calls in the shadow. Her cheek answers.'”
– Alice Campos
Alice, the always fantastically brooding Florinda Bolkan, works as a translator when all of sudden she loses her job and finds herself on the small island of Garma. People tell her she has been there before, recently, but she knows this is not possible.
Some English-language posters try to sell Le orme as an action-ridden sci-fi giallo, but oh boy leave that perception behind and you're in for one unsettling treat! Le orme can be placed somewhere between Don't Look Now and that other Alice film, Chabrol's Alice ou la dernière fugue. Drifting and elegant, distant and claustrophobic.
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Un matrimonio interplanetario [A Marriage in the Moon] (Enrico Novelli, 1910)
Sep
12
Луна 2 – 1959
Aldovin (director and author of La Colonia Lunare (1908) meets his lovely Martian fiancée halfway, on the Moon.
To commemorate the launch (not landing) of the Луна 2 aka the Second Soviet Cosmic Rocket on September 12, 1959, we present The Moon.
According to Wikipedia, Luna 2 was the first spacecraft to touch the surface of the Moon, and the first human-made object to make contact with another celestial body. Well, Enrico Novelli went there first…
“Mars Daughter, You are fine. I am loving you and I should like very much to marry you.”
– Aldovin, Terrestrial Astronomer (Aldovin's radiotelegraph to Mars), via
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Die Delegation – Eine utopische Reportage [The Delegation] (Rainer Erler, 1970)
Sep
9
0 h 20 GMT
Reporter Will Roczinski (Walter Kohut) picks up mysterieus signals through the ether (via). DP: Charly Steinberger.
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Nostos: Il ritorno [Nostos: The Return] (Franco Piavoli, 1989)
Sep
6
Magellan expedition – 1522
A seafaring explorer in commemoration of Ferdinand Magellan's (almost) completed circumnavigation in 1522. The Portuguese Magellan was enlisted by Spain to gain access to the Moluccas' spices and other trading goods by sailing west instead of east, thus avoiding the heavily armed Portuguese and Dutch traders who were plundering Southeast Asia, its peoples and cultures.
“Calypso the lustrous goddess tried to hold me back,
deep in her arching caverns, craving me for a husband.
So did Circe, holding me just as warmly in her halls,
the bewitching queen of Aeaea keen to have me too.
But they never won the heart inside me, never.
So nothing is as sweet as a man's own country.”
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Mélodie en sous-sol [Any Number Can Win] (Henri Verneuil, 1963)
Sep
6
Tue
Mario (Henri Virlojeux), bathhouse proprietor. A nearby wall calendar reads mardi, septembre 6. DP: Louis Page.
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Nuits rouges [L'homme sans visage / Shadowman] (Georges Franju, 1974)
Sep
6
A faceless man in black wearing a red balaclava (Jacques Champreux) holds his right wrist, which is bleeding profusely. DP: Guido Bertoni.
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Le vampire de Düsseldorf [The Vampire of Dusseldorf] (Robert Hossein, 1965)
Sep
5
Robert Hossein as Peter Kuerten [sic]. DP: Alain Levent.
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Flic Story [Cop Story] (Jacques Deray, 1975)
Sep
3
1947
A close-up of a man's feet hastily walking along a corridor. Superimposed it reads 3 SEPTEMBRE 1974. DP: Jean-Jacques Tarbès.