Zahrada [The Garden] (Jan Švankmajer, 1968)
Oct
25
Jiří Hálek and Luděk Kopřiva as Josef and Frank. DP: Svatopluk Malý.
Könnyű testi sértés [Tight Quarters] (György Szomjas, 1983)
Oct
16
Csaba (Károly Eperjes) and Miklós (Péter Andorai) in their reluctantly shared apartment. Every frame is claustrophobically filled with people, including the television. DP: Ferenc Grunwalsky.
– What are you gonna do with tons of apples? They can't be sold! Ask any apple farmer! They just pile up and rot!
– The apple farmers?
– No. The apples!
Äppelkriget [The Apple War] (Tage Danielsson, 1971)
Sep
17
National Apple Dumpling Day
Locals and a centaur – half man, half papier-mâché – enjoy a drink. DP: Lars Swanberg.
Apples, or dumplings, for National Apple Dumpling Day (USA)
A beautiful, picturesque part of Sweden will become… Deutschneyland! At least, that's the brilliant business plan Herr Volkswagner has. But the local apple farmers – a large family that's half human, half mythological creatures – have no need for an amusement park on their grounds.
血は渇いてる [Chi wa kawaiteru / Blood Is Dry] (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1960)
Sep
11
The September 11 copy of a scandal magazine. It costs 30 yen. DP: Tōichirō Narushima.
Petit à petit [Little by Little] (Jean Rouch, 1970)
Sep
3
Skyscraper Day
Damouré (Damouré Zika) measures a Parisian with craniology callipers. No skyscraper in this still, but there's scaffolding. DP: Jean Rouch.
A skyscraper for Skyscraper Day (USA)
In the sequel to Rouch's Jaguar (1967), Damouré wants a high rise for his Niger business with “as many floors as he has wives”. He decides to travel to Paris to learn about the construction of such building, and what made Paris to the Paris of today. While there, he gets distracted by the peculiarities of the French natives. Worried about Damouré's increasingly puzzling postcards, his company sends out Lam (Lam Ibrahim Dia) to bring him home.
– A house like yours must be such a job!
– Oh, a leaf! Ah, yes it's a chore.
– Admit it, you love it.
Mon oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958) / Koolhaas Houselife (Ila Bêka + Louise Lemoine, 2008)
Aug
29
grey
A delivery man in front of the gates of Villa Arpel (via), and custodian Guadalupe Acedo working the lift in Maison à Bordeaux. DP of Mon Oncle: Jean Bourgoin.
[A favourite] colour: grey*
Approaching the 60s, Mr Hulot finally switches from black-and-white to colour. Suddenly, we see that his suit is a beigeish grey and so is the Arpels' house, that modernist masterpiece designed by Tati. The beloved luddite struggles with hypermodern people and their hypermodern constructs, much alike the future Hulot from Playtime (1967).
In similar absurd fashion, Guadalupe Acedo, cleaning lady, works her way through Rem Koolhaas' Maison à Bordeaux (1998) in Bêka and Lemoine's Koolhaas Houselife (2008). Too steep are the stairs, too leaky everything else. Levelheaded, she does her thing; a small beacon of romantic practicality in a world of absurd efficiency.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
Czułe miejsca [Tender Spots] (Piotr Andrejew, 1981)
Aug
28
1998
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Janek (Michał Juszczakiewicz) and Ewa (Hanna Dunowska) in embrace on a bed. DPs: Jerzy Zieliński & Ryszard Lenczewski.
– Men are extinct. – They were not mammoths!
Seksmisja [Sexmission] (Juliusz Machulski, 1984)
Aug
9
Two poor captured extinct men enjoying breakfast and cigarettes. DP: Jerzy Łukaszewicz.
Marie II: “But I'm happy.”
Marie I: “I'm so happy, too.”
Sedmikrásky [Daisies] (Věra Chytilová, 1966)
Jul
25
a girls' night out
Marie I and Marie II (Jitka Cerhová and Ivana Karbanová respectively) having a heck of a time. DP: Jaroslav Kučera.
A girls' night out: women having fun on their own[???]*
Two young women called Marie pull destructive, anarchist pranks.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
Dillinger è morto [Dillinger Is Dead] (Marco Ferreri, 1969)
Jul
25
1934
Glauco (Michel Piccoli) reading the July 25, 1934 Chicago Daily Tribune that he found in the pantry. The headline states CLEAR UP DILLINGER MYSTERY. DP: Mario Vulpiani.