settima

romance

La perle [The Pearl] (Henri d'Ursel, 1929)

Dec

15

National Wear Your Pearls Day

La perle (1929)

A giddy Kissa Kouprine as the jewellery salesgirl. A pearl necklace jauntily dangles from her suspender. DP: Marc Bujard.

Pearls worn for National Wear Your Pearls Day. No one said those pearls were to be worn in the obvious place.

Ascenseur pour l'échafaud [Elevator to the Gallows] (Louis Malle, 1958)

Dec

13

croissants

Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958)

Mr Tavernier (Maurice Ronet) taking a bite out of a croissant while dialling a number in a lively French café. A blonde behind him shows an interest. DP: Henri Decaë.

“Have you seen Mr Tavernier tonight?”

Laura (Otto Preminger + Rouben Mamoulian, 1944)

Dec

11

Laura (1944)

Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) interrupts arsine newspaper columnist Waldo Lydecker (a delicious Clifton Webb) with her designs during his lunch. DPs: Joseph LaShelle & Lucien Ballard.

“I don't use a pen. I write with a goose quill dipped in venom.”

– Waldo Lydecker

The Unknown (Tod Browning, 1927)

Dec

3

Let's Hug Day

The Unknown (1927)

Someone's hugged on Let's Hug Day [sic]. Target girl Nanon (Joan Crawford) hugs her circus partner, Alonzo (Lon Chaney) the knife thrower. Her tight embrace may reveal his secret. DP: Merritt B. Gerstad.

Nanon Zanzi (Joan Crawford) is mortally afraid of men. Of their grabbing, grasping, groping hands. This is why she only trusts her knife throwing partner Alonzo the Armless (Lon Chaney). What she doesn't know is that Alonzo and his 4'10”/1,47 m accomplice Cojo (that great staple of precode horror Tufei Filhela aka John George), use the #circus to hide from the long arm of the law, who is looking for a murderer with a deformed thumb. Who would suspect an armless man?

“Men! The beasts! God would show wisdom if he took the hands from all of them!”

– Nanon Zanzi

As mighty as Alonzo may be, the incomparable Lon Chaney owes much to armless violinist and knife thrower “Judge” Paul Desmuke. Story goes that Desmuke taught Chaney his knife act in two months. More probable is that some of the more impressive close-up scenes show the Judge's, not Chaney's, feet.

 

Like Alonzo, The Unknown has lost some flesh. Until 1968, only mangled bootlegs were available; a complete print was considered non-existent. Five years later, news broke about film reels of unknown origin labelled inconnu – [the] unknown, somewhere in the bowels of the Cinémathèque Française.

 

Some 14 minutes, outlining the Armless' background, are still missing. Do check your attic.

La Belle et la Bête [Beauty and the Beast] (Jean Cocteau + René Clément, 1946)

Nov

28

Giving Tuesday

La Belle et la Bête (1946)

The most beautiful flower, a rose, in La Bête's enchanted garden. DP: Henri Alekan.

Just before leaving home for a business trip, a father asks his three daughters what he can bring them as a return gift. The eldest two ask for silly, extravagant things. A monkey! A parrot! The youngest simply wishes the most beautiful flower which the father finds in an enchanted garden, guarded by a terrible beast. And will pay for with his life unless he gives his youngest away to the beast, to die in his place.

– Can such miracles really happen? – You and I are living proof.

#Cocteau and Clément's La Belle et la Bête is of course based on Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's fairy-tale, which on its turn was based on the classic myth of Cupid and Psyche.

Lonesome (Pál Fejős, 1928)

Nov

20

A Beautiful Day

Lonesome (1928)

Our lovebirds holding out on the Human Roulette, one of the many dizzying Steeplechase attractions of Coney Island. DP: Gilbert Warrenton.

Two hopelessly lonely hearts meet each other at Coney Island, spending the most wonderful day in each other's company. Pál Fejős' joyful Lonesome was made just when motion pictures became talkies, and new and more modern novelties were expected by the audience. Fejős delivers, with sound and musical inserts, and the occasional – almost shocking – burst of colour.

– Nice day, isn't it? – Yes, isn't it! – It's swell. It's perfect.

With light touches of Murnau's groundbreaking Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) and Jean Vigo's more experimental À propos de Nice (1930), Lonesome depicts the exuberance of youth with an optimism soon to be lost to the vices of history.

Hellzapoppin' (H.C. Potter, 1941)

Oct

24

National Crazy Day

Hellzapoppin' (1941)

Olsen and Johnson break all the walls. DP: Elwood Bredell.

“Any resemblance between HELLZAPOPPIN’ and a motion picture is purely coincidental”

– tagline

The Leather Boys (Sidney J. Furie, 1964)

Oct

17

National Motorcycle Ride Day

The Leather Boys (1964)

Pete (Dudley Sutton) in his black leather tiger jacket waiting for Reggie (Colin Campbell). He leans against a window pane while Reggie drives up. It's raining and Reg is merely a blur. DP: Gerald Gibbs.

心中天網島 [Shinjū: Ten no Amijima / Double Suicide] (Masahiro Shinoda, 1969)

Oct

10

International Stage Management Day

心中天網島 (1969)

Jihei (Kichiemon Nakamura ) and his children with a stagehand visible between them. DP: Tōichirō Narushima.

心中天網島 is based on a 1721 文楽 [#bunraku] puppet theatre play]. As traditional in this style of theatre, the puppeteers are in full view of the audience wearing all-black cloaks. 心中天網島 does the same, but substitutes the puppets with flesh and blood actors.

 

The puppeteers are 黒衣 [kuroko, litt. “black clad”, though there are colour variations depending on the scene's requirements], guiding the performers towards their destiny.

The Animal (Walter Ungerer, 1976)

Sep

30

National Ghost Hunting Day

The Animal (1976)

Jo (Jo Moore) in the couple's cabin. She's seen reflected in a mirror, together with what appears to be an older woman in an old photograph. DP: Walter Ungerer.