settima

mystery

The Last Broadcast (Stefan Avalos + Lance Weiler, 1998)

Dec

15

1995

The Last Broadcast (1998)

An anxious looking camera man in the woods on grainy VHS stock. DP: Lance Weiler.

“At 10 PM, in what will be the last broadcast, Fact or Fiction goes live.”

– David Leigh, the filmmaker

The Lickerish Quartet (Radley Metzger, 1970)

Dec

5

The Lickerish Quartet (1970)

A 70s couple in a grainy black-and-white still. The frame looks damaged, suggesting a stag reel. The seemingly nude blonde pours a drink for her dark-haired man. She holds the cork between her teeth, seducingly. DP: Hans Jura.

– I've never seen a film like this before.

– Oh, it's different, alright.

L'ange et la femme [The Angel and the Woman] (Gilles Carle, 1977)

Dec

3

L'ange et la femme (1977)

Gabriel (Lewis Furey) and the woman he named Fabienne (Carole Laure). DP: François Protat.

A caregiver*

 

A woman is brutally murdered and taken home by a young man. This man – this angel – takes away her wounds, returns her to life, and nurses her. They fall in love.

 

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

Belle (André Delvaux, 1973)

Nov

28

Belle (1973)

Belle (Adriana Bogdan) in front of her cabin on the moors. DPs: Ghislain Cloquet & Charles Van Damme.

El escapulario [The Scapular] (Servando González, 1968)

Nov

20

El escapulario (1968)

Padre Andrés (Enrique Aguilar). DP: Gabriel Figueroa.

The Big Combo (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955)

Nov

15

1946

The Big Combo (1955)

A man's hand holds up a photo negative of a black-and-white picture, showing two men and a woman, and the date 11-15-46 underneath. DP: John Alton.

“I'm trying to run an impersonal business. Killing is very personal. Once it gets started, it's hard to stop.”

– Mr. Brown

E tanta paura [Plot of Fear] (Paolo Cavara, 1976)

Nov

14

1975

spoiler warning: click to toggle image E tanta paura (1976)

Two newspaper clippings in a scrapbook, one of them with the date November 14. DP: Franco Di Giacomo.

 

The Mystery of the Mary Celeste [Phantom Ship] (Denison Clift, 1935)

Nov

11

The Mystery of the Mary Celeste (1935)

Anton Lorenzen (Bela Lugosi). DPs: Eric Cross & Geoffrey Faithfull.

“No, I never left the wheel; not for a moment.”

– Anton Lorenzen

Das Gold der Liebe [The Gold of Love] (Eckhart Schmidt, 1983)

Nov

9

Das Gold der Liebe (1983)

DAF-fan Patricia (Alexandra Curtis). DP: Bernd Heinl.

“Oh keiner macht's wie du, Wie du so traut sich's keiner, So wie du”

– DAF – El Que (Gold und Liebe (1981)

Outer Space (Peter Tscherkassky, 1999)

Oct

26

Outer Space (1999)

Barbara Hershey as Carla Moran. DP of The Entity: Stephen H. Burum.

[Favourite] psychological horror*

“A premonition of a horror film”

– tagline

Real horror is not found in broken dinner plates or corpuscular masses of light. It's in what the mind does with that input, in how those lux morph into human-like shapes. In how gusts of wind becomes larynx-touched voices. Cut up the neatly filed research papers and be left with the whispers of the mind.

 

* 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.