settima

italy

Le fantôme de la liberté [The Phantom of Liberty] (Luis Buñuel, 1974)

Mar

9

World Kidney Day

Le fantôme de la liberté (1974)

Five adults and a child at a large table. They're all seated on toilets. One of the men is defecating. DP: Edmond Richard.

Eating is taboo, and relieving oneself is performed on a toilet at a communal table in Luis Buñuel's Le fantôme de la liberté. The farce strings together events from #Buñuel's life (who was 74 by the time he made this film), with dreams remembered by both Buñuel and co-writer Jean-Claude Carrière.

“Madrid was filled with the stench of – pardon my language – food. It was indecent.”

– le professeur des gendarmes

The title references the opening sentence from Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto (1848): “A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of communism.”. What follows is a wonderful, free-flowing pastiche performed by a sublime cast.

I fidanzati [The Fiancés / The Engagement] (Ermanno Olmi, 1963)

Feb

21

Brazilian Carnival

I fidanzati (1963)

Revellers at the Sicilian carnival parade with confetti all around them. Centred Giovanni (Carlo Cabrini), eyes shut. DP: Lamberto Caimi.

A carnival-like parade.

“Do you still go dancing at night? I've stopped going. There are no dance halls here. But that's not the only reason. I was used to dancing with you. I'm not comfortable with other girls.”

– Giovanni in a letter to Liliana

Le voleur de crimes [Crime Thief] (Nadine Trintignant, 1969)

Feb

20

National Handcuff Day

Le voleur de crimes (1969)

Jean Girod (Jean-Louis Trintignant) handcuffed in the back of a cell van. DP: Pierre Willemin.

Germania anno zero [Germany Year Zero] (Roberto Rossellini, 1948)

Feb

6

National Sickie Day

Germania anno zero (1948)

Edmund (Edmund Köhler) walking through rubble in a post-apocalyptic Berlin. DP: Robert Juillard.

Twelve-year-old Edmund – the oldest kid to survive – works to support his whole family including his sick bedridden father while the remains of what was a thousand-year empire lies in rubbles around them.

– I don't go to school anymore.

– Why not? You don't like the new teachers?

– I have to work now.

Following Roma città aperta (1945) and Paisà (1946) of #Rossellini's unofficial war trilogy.