settima

romance

Το κορίτσι με τα μαύρα [To koritsi me ta mavra / A Girl in Black] (Mihalis Kakogiannis, 1956)

Jul

30

To koritsi me ta mavra (1956)

Marina (Ellie Lambeti) in the port of Hydra. DP: Walter Lassally.

Someone is sad, or cries*

 

A wealthy Athenian writer on holiday on Hydra falls for the morose Marina (Ellie Lambeti), one of the daughters of his widowed innkeeper, causing disruption in the close-knit island community.

 

Gli intoccabili [Machine Gun McCain] (Giuliano Montaldo, 1969)

Jul

30

1968

Gli intoccabili (1969)

Man's hands hold up the July 30, 1968 San Francisco Chronicle. The headline reads GANGLAND FEUD EXPLODES: TWO CUT DOWN BY MACHINE GUN. It's a Tuesday. DP: Erico Menczer.

“It's a lot of work, ya know, just staying alive.”

– Rosemary Scott

Sommaren med Monika [Summer with Monika] (Ingmar Bergman, 1953)

Jul

27

Sommaren med Monika (1953)

Monika (Harriet Andersson) and Harry (Lars Ekborg) rest in each other's arms. DP: Gunnar Fischer, still photography by Louis Huch.

Someone naps or sleeps*

“I guess we like each other a lot, huh?”

– Monika Eriksson

Estate violenta [Violent Summer] (Valerio Zurlini, 1959)

Jul

25

1943

Estate violenta (1959)

A large radio on a small pedestal. A perpetual wall calendar next to it reads DOMENICA 25 LUGLIO. DP: Tino Santoni.

 

Vysoká zeď [The High Wall] (Karel Kachyňa, 1964)

Jul

23

Vysoká zeď (1964)

The young man (Vít Olmer) rests in the sun with Jitka (Radka Dulíková) observing him. DP: Josef Vaniš.

Someone is in an ambulance or hospital*

“We still remember our high wall. Even the day we first climbed it, filled with curiosity. The sadness of the discoveries of those years seemed devastating to us. Then we wondered how we could have forgotten it so suddenly.”

– prologue

It's summer in Prague. Jitka, a girl on the cusp of womanhood, follows a stray cat and finds a tall hospital wall. Behind it, a young man in a wheelchair rests. The girl and the man connect.

 

La piscine [The Swimming Pool] (Jacques Deray, 1969)

Jul

20

La piscine (1969)

Marianne (Romy Schneider) and Harry (Maurice Ronet) shopping. Note the plethora of atypical-for-France ingredients, and how the packaging hasn't changed up to today. DP: Jean-Jacques Tarbès.

Shopping for food*

“I thought you'd be hungry, maybe.”

Schneider and Ronet's characters go get their groceries in a tiny, surprisingly well-stocked-with-Asian-food-items French corner shop, ánd manage to find all the ingredients needed. One rookie mistake: Uncle Ben's. Of all the rice in the world…

 

Estate violenta [Violent Summer] (Valerio Zurlini, 1959)

Jul

19

Estate violenta (1959)

Roberta (Eleonora Rossi Drago) and Carlo (Jean-Louis Trintignant). DP: Tino Santoni.

Characters go on a date, or fall in love*

“It would be thrilling if you were willing, and if it can never be, pity me, for you were born to be kissed, I can’t resist, you are temptation, and I am yours!”

– Nacio Herb Brown & Arthur Freed, Temptation (1933)

On a beautiful summer day in Rimini, Carlo, the handsome son from a bourgeois home, saves a little girl and becomes infatuated with the girl's mother, a young widow years his senior. Set in July 1943, the events in the outer world (poss. spoilers) and the faith of the two uneven lovers slowly come to their logical conclusion.

 

La collectionneuse [The Collector] (Éric Rohmer, 1967)

Jul

18

La collectionneuse (1967)

Daniel (Daniel Pommereulle), wrapped in bedsheets, and Adrien (Patrick Bauchau) rest in the grass. The colour of summer is courtesy of the master, DP Néstor Almendros (via).

Someone's all bundled up*. No list of summer films is complete without Éric Rohmer.

“I even tried not to think. I was face-to-face alone with the sea, far from cruises and beaches, fulfilling a childhood dream put off year after year. I lost myself completely in the play of shadow and light, sinking into a lethargy heightened by the water. That state of passivity, of complete availability, promised to last much longer than the euphoria of one’s first summer dip into the ocean. I could easily see myself spending a whole month this summer this way.”

– Adrien

An art dealer and his writer friend plan to spend the summer together in a villa on the Côte d'Azur. A young woman, a collector of sorts, disrupts their retreat.

 

สุดเสน่หา [Sud sanaeha / Blissfully Yours] (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2002)

Jul

17

Sud sanaeha (2002)

A hand picking skin in the water (via). DP: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom.

Someone with sunburn, or a skin condition*

“I treasure some kinds of old Thai disaster movies. Many of such tell a forbidden love story between a man and a woman that the mother earth destroyed them. Similarly, Blissfully Yours contains innocent narrative and simple characters. The settings are open landscapes and the disaster plot is there, except that it is transformed into another kind of disaster.”

– A.W., via

Min and Roong cherish their love among the uncertainty of his residence status. A old woman guards them, and soothes Min's blistered skin.

 

妻は告白する [Tsuma wa kokuhaku suru / A Wife Confesses] (Yasuzō Masumura, 1961)

Jul

15

1961

妻は告白する (1961)

An expert called into the court case studies an enlarged photograph of the supposed crime scene. DP: Setsuo Kobayashi.