Die große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner [The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner] (Werner Herzog, 1974)
Mar
13
Walter Steiner, flying. DP: Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein.
Die große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner [The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner] (Werner Herzog, 1974)
Jan
25
Chamonix 1924 Winter Olympics
Live footage of Steiner preparing for his flight. DP: Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein.
Winter sports in celebration of the Chamonix 1924 Winter Olympics.
– Walter Steiner
In a film that is as much about Herzog as it is about Steiner, we follow the soft-spoken woodcarver in preparation of his definitive ski flight in Planica, Yugoslavia.
“Art and science encounter each other when they seek exactitude.”
Escrime [Fencing] (Étienne-Jules Marey, 1890)
Jan
4
revolvers
Footage of Marey at work. Note the mobility of his invention. (via).
A revolver to commemorate Samuel Colt's sale of 1 000 revolvers to butcher Captain Samuel Walker in 1847.
– Étienne-Jules Marey
However, where there is bloodshed, there can be art. Scientist Étienne-Jules Marey studied movement, and further adapted an existing revolver-style camera gun invented by astronomer Jules Janssen in 1874. The revolution in Marey's invention was not in the least in its mobility. Unlike Muybridge, whose locomotion experiments required a huge, cumbersome setup, Marey could strap on his “gun”, and shoot moving footage while following his target around. His chronophotograph Escrime can be considered Marey's first successfully captured moving footage.
“I still think it would be wonderful to have a man love you so much he'd kill for you.”
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)
May
16
doubles
Guy Haines (Farley Granger) and Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), two strangers on a train. DP: Robert Burks.
– So what is your goal in life then? – Satisfaction of the present. The sword, and nothing else.
剣 (小説) [Ken / The Sword] (Kenji Misumi, 1964)
Dec
29
Tick Tock Day
One of the kendōka kneeled on the floor in gruelling punishment faces a clock on the wall, while the other students continue their training. DP: Chikashi Makiura.
A clock face for Tick Tock Day, USA.
After World War II, the Japanese martial arts of #kendo was banished by the occupying forces in an attempt to “remove and exclude militaristic and ultra-nationalistic persons from life”. With that in mind, it makes complete sense that nationalist author and former kendo practitioner Yukio Mishima wrote a short story – Sword, originally published in literary magazine Shincho in 1963 – about the art.
Both the story and Kenji Misumi's 1964 film adaptation follow arrogant kendo student Jiro, played by sublime kabuki actor Raizō Ichikawa who also appears in an earlier Mishima adaptation, 炎上 [Enjō / The Temple of the Golden Pavilion / Conflagration] (1958).
“We come to life, we die… It's a perpetual renewal. How boring.”
剣 (小説) [Ken / The Sword] (Kenji Misumi, 1964)
Dec
6
rice
Young people eating. An older woman in kimono scoops rice from an electric rice cooker. When read from right to left, this scene – as are numerous others in Chikashi Makiura's photographed 剣 (小説) – are split into tradition and modernity. DP: Chikashi Makiura.
– Mibu
Goshogaoka [御所ケ丘] (Sharon Lockhart, 1998)
Nov
6
Play Basketball Day
Girls from the Moriya City Goshogaoka junior high school girl basketball team practising their blocking technique. Cibachrome print © Sharon Lockhart, 1997 (via).
Within the boundaries of Sharon Lockhart's static camera, girls from Goshogaoka junior high school practice #basketball. In six uninterrupted 10 minute scenes, we see them warm up and train several typical moves, shots, and blocks. With the camera set in one position, some of the action happens off-screen, resulting in unrehearsed synchronised choreography.
“So where do we go from here?”
O něčem jiném [Something Different] (Věra Chytilová, 1963)
Nov
3
Housewife Day
Věra (Věra Chytilová) looks out of a window. Everything is grey. DP: Jan Čuřík.
In Věra Chytilová's O něčem jiném, parallel storylines, one filmed as a documentary the other as a fictional drama, of two women are shown.
– Eva
Olympic gymnast Eva (Eva Bosáková) undergoes a gruelling training regime. Housewife Věra (Věra Uzelacová) feels neglected by her husband. Both ruminate on a different life.
“I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; Handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; Only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I’m so mean I make medicine sick.”
Muhammad Ali, the Greatest [Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee] (William Klein, 1974)
Sep
4
Mouthguard Day
A randomly picked screenshot showing Muhammad Ali fighting George Foreman. Each and every scene of a William Klein film is a photograph. DPs: Étienne Becker, William Klein, Richard Suzuki & Patrice Wyers.
– Muhammad Ali
“Ich werde mich entschlossen verirren.”
Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter [The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick] (Wim Wenders, 1972)
Jul
28
National Soccer Day
Trainer, reserve players and goalkeeper Bloch on the bench after the latter has been removed from the match. Bloch (Arthur Brauss) has his upper body turned away from the others' and sits with only half of his backside on the bench. DP: Robby Müller.
A lot of #soccer there's not, in Wim Wenders' Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter. What we do have happens almost right at the start. After a foul, the titular goalkeeper Bloch (Arthur Brauss) is removed from the match. Frustrated he leaves and finds himself roaming the streets of #Vienna where he picks up boxoffice girl Gloria (Erika Pluhar). In the morning he kills her and travels to the countryside, waiting for the police to arrest him.
– Peter Handke
Die Angst is an early, perfect example of Junger Deutscher Film (”New German Cinema”). Its cinematic thanks to Robby Müller's observant eye and Peter Handke's precise language, both describing scenes and performers as if observed through a fourth wall.
A very slow burning road movie, a Taxi Driver in reverse if you will, that doesn't suffer the neurotic showmanship of its Hollywood counterpart.