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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.
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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.
“The 17th of July. Comrade Anna is not lying!”
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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.
“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.”
– 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.
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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.”
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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.
“It's a good story today. Tomorrow, they'll wrap a fish in it.”
– Charles Tatum
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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
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.
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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.
“Had I the time to keep a diary, I’d use that time to better effect; sleeping on the veranda”
– The cat
* The event falls on June 4
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Jubilee (Derek Jarman, 1978)
May
24
Tiara Day
Bod (Jenny Runacre), wears a Crown Jewel-ish affair. Amyl Nitrate (Jordan) clutches her pearls. DP: Peter Middleton.
“Rule Britannia, Britannia, Britannia…”
– Amyl Nitrite
Queen Elizabeth I (Jenny Runacre) requests Her court occultist John Dee (Richard O'Brien) to show Her Majesty the future of Her kingdom, baroness Thatcher's rotten England, ruled over by a gang of nihilist women.
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Week-end (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
May
9
UN Global Road Safety Week
A terrible, bloody, car crash. There's cars on fire and several injured sprawled around. A lucky survivor exclaims MY HERMÈS HANDBAG! DP: Raoul Coutard.
“My Hermès handbag!”
– Corinne
The bourgeois make their way to the countryside, and find themselves in a cacophony of car crashes, primitive urges, and political uprisings.
* In 2025, this actually takes places from May 12 – 18.
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Todo modo [One Way or Another] (Elio Petri, 1976)
May
1
National Day of Prayer
M. (Gian Maria Volontè) speaks to the gathered elite while a gypsum Christ multiplies bread and fishes. DP: Luigi Kuveiller.
“Have you ever tried to dress as a priest? Try it, at least once. It's a bit like being a woman. In summer the breeze enters under the genitals. You can go without briefs. Priests are half men and half women.”
– Don Gaetano
Inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, Italy's political leaders, industrialists, bankers, and business leaders gather for a retreat as an atonement for their past crimes of corruption and unethical practices, and to reinforce their power.