Even: As You and I (Roger Barlow, Harry Hay + LeRoy Robbins, 1937)
Feb
27
A film editor struggling with a long strip of celluloid. DP: Hy Hirsh.
“My God. What am I doing in this place?”
Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie [The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie] (Luis Buñuel, 1972)
Feb
16
No One Eats Alone Day
The diners at a long table. DP: Edmond Richard.
People eat dinner together on No One Eats Alone Day*.
– Henri Sénéchal
The bourgeoisie meet for dinner in various settings, but never consume.
* this event takes place on the Friday of the second full week in February, which makes the 2025 date February 14.
“Mother, didn't you know there are children starving in Africa?”
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes, 1987)
Feb
4
A brunette Barbie doll representing Karen Carpenter makes a statement in front of the White House. DP: Barry Ellsworth.
– “Karen Carpenter”
“So, this month becomes the month of Scrawdyke.”
Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (Stuart Cooper, 1974)
Scrawdyke
2
Malcolm Scrawdyke (John Hurt), disgruntled art student. DP: John Alcott.
– Malcolm Scrawdyke
Macario (Roberto Gavaldón, 1960)
Jan
22
National Poverty in America Awareness Month
Macario (Ignacio López Tarso) passes a Día de los Muertos altar, stacked high with candles, human skulls and bones, and cempasúchil (marigolds), whose fragrant and colour lead the Dead back to their family on this revered day. DP: Gabriel Figueroa.
Poverty (National Poverty in America Awareness Month).
Macario, poor and hungry, wishes to eat a whole turkey all by himself on Día de los Muertos. When he finally has the opportunity, he is interrupted three times: by the Devil, by God, and by Death. With one of them, he shares his meal.
1. April 2000 [April 1, 2000] (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1952)
Jan
20
Inauguration Day
Austria's new Prime Minister (Josef Meinrad). DPs: Sepp Ketterer, Karl Löb & Fritz Arno Wagner.
Inaugurations for Inauguration Day (USA). In the future year 2000, on April 1, the newly-elected Prime Minister of Austria is inaugurated. Much to the shock of the Global Union, he declares Austria's independence!
“In this film, by showing certain basic aspects of a city, a way of life is put on trial… the last gasps of a society so lost in its escapism that it sickens you and makes you sympathetic to a revolutionary solution.”
À propos de Nice – point de vue documenté [À propos de Nice] (Boris Kaufman + Jean Vigo, 1930)
Jan
1
New Year's Day
Exuberant prostitutes, Jean Vigo (5th from the left), and people who appear to be men in drag, dance on a landing with confetti all around them. In the moving footage they can be seen high-kicking with increased vulgarity, the camera posed below them. DP: Boris Kaufman.
Confetti for New Year's Day.
– Jean Vigo in his manifesto Vers un cinéma social
儀式 [Gishiki / The Ceremony] (Nagisa Ōshima, 1971)
Jan
1
A boy in school uniform has his ear pressed against the ground. DP: Tōichirō Narushima.
“Whoever dies for the country hasn't lived in vain. I, on the contrary, will live for the country because I'm not that stupid.”
Touche pas à la femme blanche [Don't Touch the White Woman!] (Marco Ferreri, 1974)
Nov
23
potato chips
Two white Frenchmen – in a University of Columbia and a CIA sweatshirt respectively – comment on the “period piece” they're in. CIA man (Paolo Villaggio) stuffs his face with potato chips. DP: Étienne Becker.
– George A. Custer
Divorzio all'italiana [Divorce Italian Style] (Pietro Germi, 1961)
Nov
9
Ferdinando Cefalù (Mastroianni), all handsome and bored, at a table set with food and wine for one. DPs: Leonida Barboni & Carlo Di Palma.