– 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.
血は渇いてる [Chi wa kawaiteru / Blood Is Dry] (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1960)
Jul
17
beer
A man and woman share a meal in a top-floor restaurant. The view is numerous identical modern buildings. She's smoking and they both clutch large beer mugs. Two dishes hold small bits of food with toothpicks stuck into them. DP: Tōichirō Narushima.
“The 17th of July. Comrade Anna is not lying!”
Ucho [The Ear] (Karel Kachyňa, 1970)
Jul
17
Party member, and rather drunk, Anna (Jiřina Bohdalová) and her newspaper hat at the officials' party. DP: Josef Illík.
“This film tells a story of rebels (played by real rats) and cops (played by real cats). After a long domination by cats, the rats escape from prison (this is their rebellion) and find refuge in Canada. There, they feed on organic produce from a garden where the grass hasn’t been sprayed with DDT.”
Rat Life and Diet in North America (Joyce Wieland, 1968)
Jul
4
Independence Day
Rats – gerbils actually – nibbling on the Stars and Stripes (via). DP: Joyce Wieland.
A movie set in the USA for Independence Day (USA)
– Jonas Mekas, via
French-Canadian patriot Joyce Wieland tells a fable of freedom.
Coincidentally, the Canadian city of Trois-Rivières, scene of the final battle of the American Revolutionary War, also celebrates an Independence Day on the fourth of July.
Divorzio all'italiana [Divorce Italian Style] (Pietro Germi, 1961)
Jul
3
A closeup of a man's hand holding up a diary. It's the third of July. DPs: Leonida Barboni & Carlo Di Palma.
Additionally, IMDb writes that “director Pietro Germi filmed a close-up of the front page of a newspaper announcing Yuri Gagarin's flight around the earth on April 12th 1961.”
“It's a good story today. Tomorrow, they'll wrap a fish in it.”
Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder, 1951)
Jun
17
A man holds up the first newspaper reporting on Leo Minosa's faith, dated June 17. The headline blares ANCIENT CURSE ENTOMBS MAN. DP: Charles Lang.
– Charles Tatum
ビリィ★ザ★キッドの新しい夜明け [Birī za kiddo no atarashii yoake / The New Morning of Billy the Kid] (Naoto Yamakawa, 1986)
May
31
National Utah Day
Director Naoto Yamakawa directing Billy the Kid (Hiroshi Mikami) on site in Utah (via) DP: Kenji Takama.
An actor, director or character from Utah – National Utah Day (USA)
Billy the Kid steps out of a huge poster of Monument Valley right into a Tokyo bar and becomes its bar keeper. Together with a samurai, a WW2 G.I, Marx-Engels (not a typo), the Japanese weather service number 177 and others, he keeps the tavern safe from various thugs roaming the streets.
“Had I the time to keep a diary, I’d use that time to better effect; sleeping on the veranda”
吾輩は猫である [Wagahai wa neko de aru / I Am a Cat] (Kon Ichikawa, 1975)
May
30
Hug Your Cat Day
The cat and his master, teacher Sneaze. DP: Kōzō Okazaki.
A pet for National Hug Your Cat Day (USA) *
– The cat
A school teacher's house cat observes and comments his household's going-ons as a microcosm of Japan's paradoxical Meiji period. The second adaptation of Sōseki Natsume's 1900s satirical novel.
* The event falls on June 4