[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).

– A house like yours must be such a job! – Oh, a leaf! Ah, yes it's a chore. – Admit it, you love it.

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.

A girls' night out: women having fun on their own[???]*

Marie II: “But I'm happy.” Marie I: “I'm so happy, too.”

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.

 

 

A movie set in the USA for Independence Day (USA)

“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.

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.

A pet for National Hug Your Cat Day (USA) *

“Had I the time to keep a diary, I’d use that time to better effect; sleeping on the veranda”

– 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

A “member of a monarchy” for Tiara Day

“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.

A traffic accident: UN Global Road Safety Week *

“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.