Среда [Sreda / Wednesday / Wednesday 19.7.1961] (Viktor Kosakovskiy, 1979)
Jul
19
Wed
Adult twins who, like director Kosakovskiy, were born on Wednesday 19, 1961. DP: Victor Kossakovsky.
“This future of yours Shelmerdine, when it's gonna begin? Today? Or, is it always tomorrow?”
Orlando (Sally Potter, 1992)
Jan
24
Billy Zane's birthday
Orlando (Tilda Swinton) and Shelmerdine (Billy Zane) in intimate embrace. DPs: Aleksey Rodionov & Andrew Speller.
A [favourite] Billy Zane film for his birthday (1966).
– Orlando
As ordered by Queen Elizabeth I (Quentin Crisp), nobleman Orlando remains young and traverses exotic scenery, civilisations, time, and gender.
Pождество обитателей леса [Rozhdestvo obitateley lesa / The Insects' Christmas] (Wladyslaw Starewicz, ca 1912)
Father Christmas makes a Christmas tree for the people of the forest.
Дед Мороз (Ded Moroz, or Old Man Frost) is the Slavic version of Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus. An ornament depicting the old grey climbs down a child's (or doll's) Christmas tree and sets off to the forest where he plants his magic staff to create a Christmas feast for the woodland animals.
The word “animation” means “a bestowing of life“. Like his ancestor in the arts Bernard Palissy and the ancient winter solstice celebration of the return of light that long ago spawned Christmas, Wladyslaw Starewicz's Insects' Christmas breathes life into real but inanimate beetles, dragonflies, and frogs. The illusion is complete as you effortlessly forget they are painstakingly animated.
From me to you, a little Christmas treat
#Bales2023FilmChallenge #WladyslawStarewicz #Russia #fantasy #animation #ShortFilm #Christmas #holidays #StopMotion #insects #animals #1910s ★★★★☆
Полустанок [Polustanok / The Halt] (Sergey Loznitsa, 2000)
Mar
17
World Sleep Day
People leaning back on the train station's benches, fast asleep. DP: Pavel Kostomarov.
In a small train station's waiting room, people #sleep. #Trains in the distance rumble along. #Snow covers footprints crossing nearby tracks and the wooden shed where travellers, strangers, huddle together in their shared fate. Pavel Kostomarov's cinematography and Sergey Loznitsa's direction capture the silence.
