Maléfices [Sorcery / Where the Truth Lies] (Henri Decoin, 1962)
Sep
10
Myriam Heller (Juliette Gréco) sharing a bed with Nyète, her cheetah. DP: Marcel Grignon.
Maléfices [Sorcery / Where the Truth Lies] (Henri Decoin, 1962)
Sep
10
Myriam Heller (Juliette Gréco) sharing a bed with Nyète, her cheetah. DP: Marcel Grignon.
“The pickings were poor and not worth the risk.”Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)
Sep
6
Sun
The newspaper of Sunday, September 6, announcing a derby. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.
– Michel
海底から来た女 [Kaitei kara kita onna / Woman from the Sea] (Koreyoshi Kurahara, 1959)
Sep
4
The mysterious sea woman (Hisako Tsukuba, who under the name Chako van Leeuwen went on to produce the Jawsploitation franchise Piranha) and a bewitched Toshio (Tamio Kawachi). Note how the boat's sail resembles a shark's dorsal fin. DP: Yoshihiro Yamazaki.
It's this month's Bales Challenges' dad's VaderJaws' birthday! Celebrating with Vader, or sharks, or churches, or Chvrches. Erm… let's stick to sharks.
A strange woman appears in the life of a young man. He falls in love with her, but the fishermen know. She's the wife of a shark killed years ago. And she's out for revenge.
Doing Hooptober parallel to Bales. Expect some contamination of the September/October posts.
“Ich mag Männer, bin 30 Jahre alt, von Beruf Lehrer.”Taxi zum Klo (Frank Ripploh, 1980)
Sep
2
Christa McAuliffe 1948 – 1986
Frank (Frank Ripploh) teaching kids about the human body on an anatomy dummy. DP: Horst Schier.
A teacher for what would have been Christa McAuliffe's birthday.
– Frank Ripploh
Frank Ripploh is a sexual ethics and biology teacher by day, and hedonistic gay man and aspiring pornographer by night. When Frank Ripploh, the man, publicly came out in 1978 in the tabloid Stern, he lost his teaching job and did become that filmmaker. Taxi zum Klo – litt. taxi to the john/loo – is his story. A frank pre-AIDS pre-Internet pre-victimhood depiction of male gay culture in West Germany. Maybe raw, possibly misogynist, definitely true to life.
Happy End (Oldřich Lipský, 1967)
Sep
1
1889
Butcher Bedřich Frydrych (Oldřich Lipský), born September 1, 1889 in Trumberk. DP: Vladimír Novotný.
“Everything is rotten. Decadence is everywhere. Why fight it?”Les créatures [The Creatures] (Agnès Varda, 1966)
Aug
29
Mylène (Catherine Deneuve) and Edgar (Michel Piccoli) Piccoli playing checkers at a small table. DPs: Willy Kurant, William Lubtchansky & Jean Orjollet.
“These people have faith in me, and I have faith in their faith.”
Guide [The Guide] (Vijay Anand, 1965)
Aug
20
fasting
A scruffy looking Raju (Dev Anand) wearing the orange shawl of a holy man. DP: Fali Mistry.
Ramadan [on the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, not mid-August]: someone atones or fasts*
– Swami Ji
Due to a simple misunderstanding, a farmer mistakes tour guide Raju for a holy man. When drought hits the land, the village fool tells the townspeople that Raju, now known as Swami Ji, will fast for twelve days to bring the rain. During his reluctant fast, Raju undergoes a spiritual transformation.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
“I'm just fine. I have everything here. I have the TV. You can see the whole world” Trois couleurs: Bleu [Three Colors: Blue] (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993)
Aug
15
cerulean
Julie (Juliette Binoche) in a blue wallpapered room, observes blue beads suspended in front of a window with a cerulean sky and ocean behind it. Throughout the story, her clothing changes from white, to black, to the darkest charcoal blue, to Prussian blue. DP: Slawomir Idziak.
Cerulean, or blue: in food or fashion*
– the mother
How could I not pick at least one instalment of Kieślowski's Trois couleurs trilogy. Here's blue, the liberté of the tricolor. Blue occurs as the sky to fall through, the room without life, and the cloth that binds.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
“The painter takes his time. He doesn't like her dress. He doesn't like her gloves. One day he asks her if she dares pose for him – all in pink. She dares! And the king, enraptured by her pose, offers her a palace!” Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955)
Aug
14
Bavaria
The crowned royal mistress on display in glorious Eastmancolor (via). DP: Christian Matras.
Celebrating Oktoberfest [in September/October] and the Bavarian royals [rip]: a royal character or family*
– circus master
Maria Dolores Porriz y Montez, Countess von Landsfeld, Lola Montès for short, now a circus attraction, once the mistress to Ludwig I, King of Bavaria. While her fellow circus performers play Lola's former lovers, the ringmaster tells her story.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
…und deine Liebe auch [And Your Love Too] (Frank Vogel, 1962)
Aug
13
1961
Eva (Kati Székely). Someone offscreen lits her cigarette. DP: Günter Ost.
Three people must decide what to do on August 13, 1961, the day the Berlin Wall goes up.