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Where the Boys Are (Henry Levin, 1960)
Jul
21
Legal Drinking Age Day
While chatting up TV Thompson (Jim Hutton), Tuggle Carpenter (Paula Prentiss) presents a fake ID to prove that with her “25” years of age she's old enough to drink. The ID also states that despite her 5'10” (1,78m) frame, she's a petite 5'2” (1,57m). DP: Robert J. Bronner.
Where the Boys Are is chock-full of characters whose names appear to be straight space-travel-lifted from various #JohnWaters' movies: Tuggle Carpenter! TV Thompson! Lola Fandango! Dr. Raunch for Chrissakes!
“The boys come to soak up the sun, and a few carloads of beer. The girls come, very simply, because this is where the boys are.”
– narrator
We follow four female midwestern college students on #SpringBreak in Fort Lauderdale. Their objective is boys boys boys (and an even tan) and nothing, including being too young to drink, can stop them. This was one of the first post-Hayes Hollywood movies to address teenage sex yet despite all the innuendo (“What's your shoe size?” “13.” “Get in the car!”), it's all pretty clean. But without these girls, there wouldn't be any Dawn Davenport. And that would've ruined everybody's Christmas.
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L'eclisse [The Eclipse] (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)
Jul
19
fruit
“I still can't figure out if it's an office, a market place, or a boxing ring. And maybe I don't even need to.”
– Vittoria
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Flammes [Flames] (Adolfo Arrieta, 1978)
Jul
19
National Barbara Day
Barbara (Caroline Loeb) waking up to her fireman. DP: Thierry Arbogast.
Barbara wakes up believing a fireman entered her bedroom through the window. Her father reassures her there's nothing, just a children's story. Years later, the adult Barbara (Caroline Loeb), grown up, withdrawn, living with her father (Dionys Mascolo), tutor, half brother (Pascal Greggory), and a persistent longing for her fireman, sparks a scheme that forces the fire brigade to come to their house and climb through her window once again.
“It's you.”
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Flammes [Flames] (Adolfo Arrieta, 1978)
Jul
15
Barbara (Caroline Loeb) – in a patterned firetruck-red dress – descends a grande staircase. At the bottom of the stairs a long, beautifully set table with well-dressed guests. The seat at the head of the table is empty. DP: Thierry Arbogast.
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La piscine [The Swimming Pool] (Jacques Deray, 1969)
Jul
13
“Chinese food”
The two couples (Delon and Schneider, and Ronet and Birkin) awkwardly share dinner. There's wine in red glasses and the food, plated on rustic French dinnerware, is handled with chopsticks. DP: Jean-Jacques Tarbès.
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Ekstase [Ecstasy] (Gustav Machatý, 1933)
Jul
8
International Skinny Dip Day
Eva (Hedy Lamarr), swimming nude in a lake. DPs: Hans Androschin, Gerhard Huttula & Jan Stallich.
Eva (Hedy Lamarr) hangs her clothes over her horse's back, then – cut through a wonderfully voyeuristic moment – goes swimming in a lake. The foal, still carrying Eva's outfit, wanders off to find a stallion.
Ekstase is full of not so subtle, beautifully framed innuendo. #Horses are a recurring theme and make me wonder if it inspired the mustangs sequence in John Huston's The Misfits (1961), another story of doomed passion.
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Muerte de un ciclista [Death of a Cyclist / Age of Infidelity] (Juan Antonio Bardem, 1955)
Jun
28
National Insurance Awareness Day
Juan (Alberto Closas) looking out at María José (Lucia Bosè) and the car after the crash. The cyclist is never shown. The scene echoes Beckett's Waiting for Godot. DP: Alfredo Fraile.
“He's still alive.”
Striking about Bardem's Muerte de un ciclista is its outsiderness in the Spanish film landscape. By adopting the visual language of both Italian #Neorealismo and Hollywood #melodrama, Bardem elegantly circumvents #Francoist censorship.
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Gycklarnas afton [Sawdust and Tinsel] (Ingmar Bergman, 1953)
Jun
11
pancakes
Ringmaster Albert Johansson (Åke Grönberg) with Anne (Harriet Andersson) – holding a pot – standing over him. DPs: Hilding Bladh & Sven Nykvist.
– All I can offer is pancakes? Will they do?
– They'll do just fine.
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A Midsummer Night's Dream (William Dieterle + Max Reinhardt, 1935)
Jun
10
Superman Week
Oberon (Victor Jory) – King of the Fairies – on his horse with Puck (Mickey Rooney) – a trickster sprite. While they ride of, Oberon's cape flows behind them through the trees, supported by the fae. A lot of the other-worldly fairy sparkle was accomplished by generous amounts of DuPont® cellophane and cinematographer Hal Mohr's contribution of trimming the trees with aluminium paint, cobwebs, and small metal particles. DP: Hal Mohr.
Capes, cloaks, and mantles are everywhere in Dieterle and Reinhardt's lavishly outfitted A Midsummer Night's Dream. The dreamlike #CostumeDesign by Max Rée and the uncredited Milo Anderson is as much as a personality as #Shakespeare's characters are.
“Now, until the break of day,
Through this house each fairy stray…”
Any reports of Kenneth Anger's presence as the Changeling Prince are greatly exaggerated.