settima

revenge

みな殺しの霊歌 [Minagoroshi no reika / I, the Executioner] (Tai Katō, 1968)

Apr

3

1968

しの霊歌 (1968)

A newspaper headline for April 3, 1968: “COMPANY DIRECTOR'S WIFE NEWEST VICTIM”. DP: Keiji Maruyama.

“With bar hostesses, there's a type who are likely to be murdered.”

Que la bête meure [The Beast Must Die] (Claude Chabrol, 1969)

Jan

3

Que la bête meure (1969)

A hand writes 3 janvier in red ink on quad paper. DP: Jean Rabier.

 

Gina [Stone Cold Revenge] (Denys Arcand, 1975)

Dec

11

1952

Gina (1975)

Gina (Céline Lomez) stripping in front of a silver tinsel curtain. The silhouette of a woman is visible in the foreground. DP: Alain Dostie.

Иваново детство [Ivanovo detstvo / Ivan's Childhood] (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1962)

Dec

7

National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

Ivanovo detstvo (1962)

Ivan (Nikolay Burlyaev) scouting (via). DP: Vadim Yusov.

A special soldier for National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (USA)

“They sent me out by plane to a boarding school. But I ran away. There's a war on. I can't cram some stupid stuff when it's a war.”

– Ivan

A twelve-year old boy works as a scout for the Soviet army. His age and size make him an inoffensive figure in the war-scarred landscape. But inside, he's brooding for revenge.

하녀 [Hanyeo / The Housemaid] (Kim Ki-young, 1960)

Nov

13

Hanyeo (1960)

Adding one more ingredient. DP: Deok-jin Kim.

A memorable kitchen or cooking scene*

“Look at us. We're almost totally dependent on our maid. She cooks and washes for us, and is the first person to greet me when I come home from work. She is entirely at our service.”

– Dong-sik Kim

A housemaid works her way into a middle-class household and takes over the wife's tasks – cleaning, cooking, child rearing.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for November is, again, not date-based, but follows a sloppy schmaltzy all-American Thanksgiving-y narrative. Trying to make it work my way.

Fury (Fritz Lang, 1936)

Oct

26

1936

Fury (1936)

A distraught Joe Wilson (Spencer Tracy ) in the sheriff's office. DP: Joseph Ruttenberg.

 

藪の中の黒猫 [Yabu no naka no kuroneko / A Black Cat in a Bamboo Grove] (Kaneto Shindō, 1968)

Oct

13

藪の中の黒猫 (1968)

Two country women sit on the floor on tatami mats, eating from bowls using chopsticks. They look directly at us, seemingly interrupted. DP: Kiyomi Kuroda.

A mother and daughter who are raped and murdered by a rogue samurai, return as cat-shaped onryō, vengeful spirits.

 

하녀 [Hanyeo / The Housemaid] (Kim Ki-young , 1960)

Oct

12

rice

하녀 (1960)

A distraught looking woman appears to be force fed rice by a person just off-screen. DP: Kim Deok-jin.

“I won't cook for a concubine, even if today is the last day of my life.”

– Mrs Kim

Smrt si říká Engelchen [Death Is Called Engelchen] (Ján Kadár + Elmar Klos, 1963)

Sep

19

ER – 1994

Smrt si říká Engelchen (1963)

Pavel (Jan Kačer) recovering face-down in his hospital bed. DP: RudolfMilič.

An emergency room: ER debuts on this date in 1994.

 

A paralysed Czechoslovak partisan recovering from a shot in the back in an emergency ward, feverishly remembers the events that brought him to that moment. He particularly remembers Engelchen, the SS Sturmbannführer who killed his best friend and massacred the local villagers.

Jaider, der einsame Jäger [Jaider, the Lonely Hunter] (Volker Vogeler, 1971)

Sep

5

Mother Teresa

Jaider, der einsame Jäger (1971)

Gottfried John as Jaider (via). DP: Gérard Vandenberg.

Mother Teresa's death day: someone assists the poor. A Heimatfilm in reverse and Italowestern in disguise.

“Denn auf den Bergen, ja da ist die Freiheit, denn auf den Bergen ist es doch so schön, dort wo auf grauenhafte Weise der Jennerwein zugrund mußt gehn.”

Jennerwein-Lied, 19th c.

Jaider, just returned home from the Franco-Prussian War and incapable to find work, turns to poaching to feed himself and his impoverished town. Soon he leads a gang of poachers, who in their turn are hunted by Bavarian soldiers and state-sanctioned hunters. Loosely based on legendary “Jaider” (“hunter”) and poacher Georg Jennerwein.