May 8 is both director Rossellini and Bergman's character Karen's #birthday.

“What mystery, what beauty.”

– Karen

Oz artist and Tiny Tim aficionado Martin Sharp explores Tiny's 1979 world record singing attempt at Sydney Luna Park and the devastating Ghost Train Fire a few months later on June 9. Sadly, Sharp never managed to complete his vision. The sole reason Street of Dreams is out there as a rough VHS bootleg is thanks to Tiny's custodian spirit. “I know Mr Sharp believes in me so much — and I praise the Lord for that — and maybe he's made a cult movie which at the very least will survive as a museum piece.”, he said, insisting that Sharp would release a rough cut for the Brighton Festival.

“I'm right here to stay, When I'm old and gray, I'll be right in my prime, Living in the sunlight, Loving in the moonlight, Having a wonderful time!”

– Tiny Tim, Livin' In The Sunlight, Lovin' In The Moonlight (God Bless Tiny Tim, 1968)

Very much like Mr Tim and a carnival ride ablaze, Street of Dreams is its own beast. Growling, off, unpolished, a blaze – ablaze – out of control. Satanic panic that for once feels truthful, cheery almost. Hallelujah, and God bless Tiny Tim!

“It was the morning of December 31, 1999 when I returned, at last, to judge the living and the dead. Though still, and perhaps always, I had my doubts.”

Something tall*

 

In this very early kaiju moving picture, Buddha returns and goes on a sightseeing trip through Japan.

 

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

Saint Lucy's Day: wearing a garland. Today's and yesterday's theme are virtually interchangeable.

“Kneel before her son. I've had a dream. She's the incarnation of the Goddess, Kali.”

– Kalikinkar Roy

Doyamoyee's father-in-law, and worshipper of Kali, has a dream. The young woman is the goddess' avatar. Locals come to visit the house, and Doyamoyee too starts believing in her divinity.

Candles for Diwali*. Today's and tomorrow's theme are virtually interchangeable.

 

When an old crone gives birth to a beautiful baby, a young virgin claims the child as hers. With the Immaculately Conceived wonder put on display – to the child's contemporaries, the court of Cosimo de' Medici attending a reenactment of the events, and us film viewers – He protects the false Virgin from losing her chastity and blurs the walls between staging and gospel.

 

* “Diwali, one of the major religious festivals in Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, lasting for five days from the 13th day of the dark half of the lunar month Ashvina to the second day of the light half of the lunar month Karttika. The corresponding dates in the Gregorian calendar usually fall in late October and November.” (source).

A theme park*, or in this case, amusement park.

“Just take it from me I'm just as free as any daughter I do what I like Just what I like and how I love it

I'm right here to stay when I'm old and gray I'll be right in my prime Living in the sunlight, loving in the moonlight Having a wonderful time”

– Tiny Tim, Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight (Al Sherman & Al Lewis, 1930), from God Bless Tiny Tim (1968)

Tiny Tim is a personal hero of mine. A decade after his mainstream TV debut, Tiny's career had taken a tumble but he still was – God bless him – Tiny Tim, and he performed a two-hour-and-seventeen-minute singing marathon at Luna Park Sydney. Just months after that, tragedy hit the park's Ghost Train ride. A fire, arson as it was determined decades later, killed seven. Fellow Tiny-aficionado and OZ artist Don Lane saw a connection between these two events and spend years cutting and editing the musical marathon, nude drunken interview and disaster footage, and Tiny wandering around a mirror maze into a narrative.

 

Lane passed in 2013 and, in respect of his family's wishes, Street of Dreams remains unfinished.

 

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

 

“Well, there are more ways than one of getting close to your ancestors. Follow the old road, and as you walk, think of them and of the old England. They climbed Chillingbourne Hill, just as you. They sweated and paused for breath just as you did today. And when you see the bluebells in the spring and the wild thyme, and the broom and the heather, you're only seeing what their eyes saw. You ford the same rivers. The same birds are singing. When you lie flat on your back and rest, and watch the clouds sailing, as I often do, you're so close to those other people, that you can hear the thrumming of the hoofs of their horses, and the sound of the wheels on the road, and their laughter and talk, and the music of the instruments they carried. And when I turn the bend in the road, where they too saw the towers of Canterbury, I feel I've only to turn my head, to see them on the road behind me.”

– Thomas Colpeper, JP