“Life has its tricks. Its oddities.”La baie des anges [Bay of Angels] (Jacques Demy, 1963)
Aug
6
mercredi
The bank where Jean Fournier (Claude Mann) works. A wall calendar, slightly tilted, reads Août 6 Mercredi. DP: Jean Rabier.
– Jackie Demaistre
“Life has its tricks. Its oddities.”La baie des anges [Bay of Angels] (Jacques Demy, 1963)
Aug
6
mercredi
The bank where Jean Fournier (Claude Mann) works. A wall calendar, slightly tilted, reads Août 6 Mercredi. DP: Jean Rabier.
– Jackie Demaistre
“I thought you'd be hungry, maybe.” La piscine [The Swimming Pool] (Jacques Deray, 1969)
Jul
20
Marianne (Romy Schneider) and Harry (Maurice Ronet) shopping. Note the plethora of atypical-for-France ingredients, and how the packaging hasn't changed up to today. DP: Jean-Jacques Tarbès.
Shopping for food*
Schneider and Ronet's characters go get their groceries in a tiny, surprisingly well-stocked-with-Asian-food-items French corner shop, ánd manage to find all the ingredients needed. One rookie mistake: Uncle Ben's. Of all the rice in the world…
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
La dame dans l'auto avec des lunettes et un fusil [The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun] (Anatole Litvak, 1970)
Jul
10
Vendredi
A man with a lot of swagger and rolled up blueprints is about to enter a room with a prominent Coca-Cola machine and a jazzy leather swivel chair on display. An electronic flip clock tells the time and date. It's 17:52. DP: Claude Renoir.
“Left early. Please come with the money… or, you keep the Rolls. All my love,The Thomas Crown Affair (Norman Jewison, 1968)
Jun
9
A newspaper covered in food scraps. Barely legible a large ad: BE A FINK FOR $25,000! WAS HE IN BOSTON ON JUNE 9TH? DP: Haskell Wexler.
Tommy”
“What year is it now? I forgot.”1999 A.D. (Lee Madden, 1967)
Jun
2
1999
Mother Karen (Marj Dusay) busy with online meal planning, her husband supervising her from the other screen. While she scheduling for Tuesday, June 2, 1999 in reality fell on a Wednesday. DP: Vilmos Zsigmond.
– Jamie
Les demoiselles de Rochefort [The Young Girls of Rochefort] (Jacques Demy, 1967)
APr
10
Siblings Day
Sisters Delphine and Solange Garnier mid-song, played by real-world sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac. DP: Ghislain Cloquet.
Siblings as main characters for Siblings Day (USA/Canada)
– Delphine & Solange
“One must confront vague ideas with clear images” La Chinoise, ou plutôt à la Chinoise: un film en train de se faire [La chinoise] (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
Mar
19
Howard University Protest
Yvonne (Juliet Berto) holed up behind piles of Mao's Little Red Book, wielding a machine gun. DP: Raoul Coutard.
Student activism to commemorate the March 19 1968 Howard University Protest
– slogan on a wall
Five Maoist students theorise, then practice a radical overthrow via terrorism.
Loosely based on Dostoyevsky's Бѣсы [The Possessed] (1871–72).
– How much did you win? – 500,000 in less than an hour. It's immoral, but no more than anything else. No more than poverty or ugliness.La baie des anges [Bay of Angels] (Jacques Demy, 1963)
Jan
9
Wheel of Fortune
Jean (Claude Mann) and Jackie (Jeanne Moreau) at a casino table. The tension is palpable. DP: Jean Rabier.
Good, or bad, fortune on the day Wheel of Fortune premiered in 1975.
– Do you play?
– Try me.The Thomas Crown Affair (Norman Jewison, 1968)
Jan
26
champagne
A production photo showing Thomas Crown (McQueen) and Vicki Anderson (Dunaway) sharing foods and drinks. Them seem enthralled with each other. DP: Haskell Wexler.
“We'll go back to Nice tomorrow. The Bay of Angels brings us luck.”La baie des anges [Bay of Angels] (Jacques Demy, 1963)
Dec
23
pears
A blonde Moreau at a restaurant table with a man seen from the back. There are several semi-empty wine glasses and pears sliced lengthwise on a plate, covered with a napkin. Jeanne's character Jackie Demaistre is holding a small sheet of paper with a schematic drawing of a roulette wheel while throwing the man a sceptical glance. DP: Jean Rabier.
– Jean Fournier