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Last Summer (Frank Perry, 1969)
Mar
25
Walk In The Sand Day
One of the boys striking a threatening pose with a stick aimed at Sandy (Barbara Hershey aka Barbara Seagull). In the foreground a brooding Rhoda (the fantastic Catherine Burns). DPs: Enrique Bravo & Gerald Hirschfeld.
During a #summer #vacation on #FireIsland, two young men come across Sandy, an attractive young woman with an injured #seagull. While nursing the bird back to life, the relationship between the three deepens. A second girl, the much younger Rhoda (the breathtaking Catherine Burns) is taken in by the trio.
“What are you going to do with the rest of your life? Sit on the shore and watch?”
– Sandy
Set almost entirely on a sunny #beach, Frank Perry's Last Summer may be one of the most claustrophobic films you'll ever watch.
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愛情萬歲 [Ai qing wan sui / Vive L'Amour] (Tsai Ming-liang, 1994)
Mar
24
Flatmates Day
In a black-tiled bathroom, a black dress and black shoes are fitted. DPs: Pen-Jung Liao & Ming-Kuo Lin.
May Lin is a real estate agent who meets up with a man in the bare, too sterile flat she brokers. Another man who took the key of the same dwellings for his own cause, decides to settle in.
Over time, the apartment serves not only as the space where events take place, but locks and guides the flatmates through their compulsions.
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Un soir, un train [One Night, a Train] (André Delvaux, 1968)
Mar
20
French Language Day
Mathias (Montand) and Anne (Aimée) walk through a round archway. Both have a different focus and are on opposite sides of the arch as a foreshadowing of their parting. DP: Ghislain Cloquet.
A Walloon language professor and his French set designer fiancée are at an impasse. While his Flemish students vocally protest against more Walloon influence at their uni, the couple – who superficially speak the same #language, #French – struggles to find the right words. They meet, part ways, then find each other again on a train that at morning turns out to be standing still in the middle of nowhere. The man, now without her, disembarks and with two acquaintances who also were on that train tries to find out where he and she are.
André Delvaux's Un soir, un train is a masterpiece about finding the right language in a fractured world.
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The Damned [These Are the Damned] (Joseph Losey, 1962)
Mar
19
National Automatic Door Day
An 11-year old boy, Henry (Kit Williams), opens a featureless door in a rock surface for a drenched King (Oliver Reed). DP: Arthur Grant.
An American tourist visiting Dorset is tricked by a prostitute, then falls victim to a youth gang controlled by volatile con King – a still very green Oliver Reed at his meanest. The trickster is King's sister, who confides in the American hoping to escape her brother's incestuous advances.
“I'm strange, all right! I'll show you just how strange I am!”
– King
The couple elopes to a nearby island, closely followed by King and his gang, where they find a group of #children, all contently living in an underground lab, with #AutomaticDoors only they can control.
They are the damned.
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Un homme et une femme A Man and a Woman] (Claude Lelouch, 1966)
Mar
18
International Sports Car Racing Day
Jean-Louis Trintignant driving a Matra single-seater at the Autodrome de Montlhéry [caption taken from a photo from the same session]. Behind him his uncle Maurice in a Maserati Tipo 151/1. DP: Claude Lelouch.
A man and a woman meet and fall in love. The woman – Anouk Aimée – still mourns the loss of her stuntman husband, while the man – Jean-Louis Trintignant – is alone since his partner took her life, incapable of dealing with his near-fatal #crash at #LeMans.
“It's foolish to refuse happiness.”
#Trintignant came from a family obsessed with race car driving and was an avid amateur driver himself. His uncle, the #GrandPrix racer Maurice Trintignant, can be seen driving a #Maserati Tipo 151/1 during the race scene.
A deceptively simple film by Claude Lelouch, with an equally breezy soundtrack by Francis Lai.
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Une femme douce [A Gentle Woman / A Gentle Creature] (Robert Bresson, 1969)
Mar
14
National Write Your Story Day
Dominique Sanda as “elle” – “she” – a nameless woman. She peers out of a window, her face partially obscured by the muntin. DP: Ghislain Cloquet.
A young woman jumps out of a window, leaving behind her husband, an #antiques dealer. Sitting in their bedroom with the body lying in state, the widower remembers her. In his memory, she is nameless, abstract, a state not a life..
Robert #Bresson's Une femme douce is closely adapted from Fyodor #Dostoyevsky Кроткая [Krotkaya / A Gentle Creature] (1876).
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Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
Mar
12
Academy Award For Best Picture
The Man and Wife kiss in the countryside. Suddenly, the backdrop changes to the hustle and bustle of the big city. Carts, both horse and engine driven, come to a halt for the lovers. DPs: Charles Rosher & Karl Struss.
Sunrise was bestowed the award for “Best Unique and Artistic Picture” on that first Oscar night. The first and last time that ever happened; in 1930, the price was scrapped and replaced by “Outstanding Picture” aka “Best Picture”. And that one went to the much more American-patriotic Wings (1927).
Also rightfully awarded in '29 were Janet Gaynor (Best Actress in a Leading Role), Charles Rosher and Karl Struss (Best #Cinematography), while Rochus Gliese was nominated for Best #ArtDirection.
“This song of the Man and his Wife is of no place and every place; you might hear it anywhere, at any time.”
– opening title card
Sunrise is a fantastic tour de force, and it winning that award should make you feel hopeful for the future of cinema. Instead, the current list of nominees and winners is, at least to me, a checklist of what to avoid for ever.
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Malá morská víla [The Little Mermaid] (Karel Kachyňa, 1976)
Mar
3
National Dress In Blue Day
The little mermaid (Miroslava Safránková) in her wonderful sea-blue dress, puts a coral-red rose in her blue hair. DP: Jaroslav Kučera.
Miroslava Safránková plays Hans Christian Andersen's doomed little mermaid – Malá morská víla in Czech – who falls in love with a mortal and gives up her beautiful voice to be with him. Sadly, the mortal, a prince, doesn't recognize his mute saviour and doesn't return his love.
“The other day I got caught in some fishermen's net. Of course, I had to drown them. I couldn't allow them to touch me, could I?”
– the little mermaid
The wonderful soundtrack is by Zdeněk Liška who also composed music for Ikarie XB 1 (Jindřich Polák, 1963) and Spalovač mrtvol (Juraj Herz, 1969).
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I fidanzati [The Fiancés / The Engagement] (Ermanno Olmi, 1963)
Feb
21
Brazilian Carnival
Revellers at the Sicilian carnival parade with confetti all around them. Centred Giovanni (Carlo Cabrini), eyes shut. DP: Lamberto Caimi.
A carnival-like parade.
“Do you still go dancing at night? I've stopped going. There are no dance halls here. But that's not the only reason. I was used to dancing with you. I'm not comfortable with other girls.”
– Giovanni in a letter to Liliana
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Le genou de Claire [Six Contes Moraux V: Le genou de Claire / Claire's Knee] (Éric Rohmer, 1970)
Feb
17
National Tennis Pro Day
Touching Claire's knee. DP: Néstor Almendros.
“Every woman has her most vulnerable point. For some, it's the nape of the neck, the waist, the hands. For Claire, in that position, in that light, it was her knee.”
– Jerome