200 Motels (Tony Palmer & Frank #Zappa, 1971)

I'm sure the people at home would be interested to know why such a large force as you is all dressed up like Frank Zappa. Tell us Larry, whats the deal?

#FilmDuJour #TonyPalmer #FrankZappa #USA #MothersOfInvention #RingoStarr #KeithMoon #music #musical #opera #absurdism #1970s ★★★★☆

Mahagonny [Number 18] (Harry Smith, 1980)

Mahagonny is filmmaker, artist, musicologist, and alchemist Harry Smith's mathematical analysis of Marcel Duchamp's masterpiece La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même [The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even], aka Le Grand Verre [The Large Glass], which was completed in 1923. It is set to Brecht and Weill's opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny [Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny] from 1930, which was an opera Smith was obsessed with while living in New York's Chelsea Hotel.

Read an interview with Jonas Mekas about Harry Smith and his Mahagonny.

#Bales2023FilmChallenge #HarrySmith #MarcelDuchamp #BertoltBrecht #KurtWeill #RoseFeliuPettet #AllenGinsberg #LotteLenya #JonasMekas #PattiSmith #art #mathematics #opera #ExperimentalFilm #USA #1980s

The Medium (Gian Carlo Menotti, 1951)

#FilmDinner #GianCarloMenotti #MariePowers #LeopoldoSavona #AnnaMariaAlberghetti #EnzoSerafin #drama #opera #FilmNoir #mystery #USA #Italy #1950s ★★★★☆

El ángel exterminador [The Exterminating Angel] (Luis Buñuel, 1962)

Everything was perfect, Lucía, despite – at this hour even lipstick begins to fade.

As part of a witty surprise, Lucía Nóbile (Lucy Gallardo) arranged a #bear and three #sheep for the lavish dinner party she's thrown for her fellow #opera-loving guests. However, the joke is not appreciated and in the cause of the evening – and a ruined dinner when the staff decides to go even before serving any of the #food – the company find that they cannot leave the salon. While the #animals roam the house, the elite are faced with hunger, primal urges, and no motivation to leave.

#Bales2023FilmChallenge #LuisBuñuel #LuisAlcoriza #SilviaPinal #LucyGallardo #GabrielFigueroa #Mexico #surrealism #outbreak #Ballardian #1960s ★★★★★

E la nave va [And the Ship Sails On] (Federico Fellini, 1983)

This is the funny thing abut sea voyages. After a few days, you feel as if you'd been sailing forever. You feel you've always known your fellow voyagers.

The opera world is in mourning. Edmea Tetua, the greatest singer of all time, has passed away. On a grande ocean liner, her friends, colleagues, admirers have come together to scatter Edmea's ashes near Erimo, the island she was born. During a tour of the ship, the passengers visit the boiler room where – urged on by the engine room crew – an impromptu operatic competition unfolds, all to the pulsating rhythm of the steamliner's bloated belly.

#Bales2023FilmChallenge #FedericoFellini #PinaBausch #GianfrancoPlenizio #GiuseppeRotunno #music #satire #opera #comedy #drama #Italy #France #1980s ★★★★☆