The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Gordon Davidson, 1972)
May
17
1968
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Director Gordon Davidson and the defense attorney (David Spielberg) on set. DP: Haskell Wexler.
“I sit in the subway sometimes, on buses, or the movies, and I look at the people next to me and I think… 'What would you say if I told you I was a witch?'”
Bell Book and Candle (Richard Quine, 1958)
Mar
12
Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak) and her Siamese, Pyewacket. DP: James Wong Howe.
– Queenie
Night Must Fall (Karel Reisz, 1964)
Feb
2
roast
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A man mostly off screen carves meat of some sort. Surely it's symbolic. DP: Freddie Francis.
“So, this month becomes the month of Scrawdyke.”
Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (Stuart Cooper, 1974)
Scrawdyke
2
Malcolm Scrawdyke (John Hurt), disgruntled art student. DP: John Alcott.
– Malcolm Scrawdyke
Balada pro banditu [Ballad for a Bandit] (Vladimír Sís, 1979)
Dec
24
Christmas Eve – Nikolas
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The bandit and his bride. DP: Viktor Růžička.
A Nikolas or Nicholas for Christmas Eve.
The tale of legendary highwayman Nikola Šuhaj from Koločava.
3. November 1918 [Third of November 1918] (Edwin Zbonek, 1965)
Nov
3
1918
A calendar page for November 3, 1918. It's a Sunday. DP: Rudolf Sandtner.
Takes place on November 2 and 3.
September 30, 1955 (James Bridges, 1977)
Sep
30
1955
Jimmy J. (Richard Thomas) in the lobby of his movie theatre, looking at the poster for Elia Kazan's East of Eden (1955). DP: Gordon Willis.
“Today is the first day of a life of sacrifice.”
地獄門 [Jigokumon / Gate of Hell] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1953)
Aug
4
orange
The shrine's torii as seen in the film. Vermilion contains mercury, which not only acts as a preservative but is also believed to ward off evil. DP: Kōhei Sugiyama.
Orange: a building or structure*
– Moritoo Endō
Partially filmed near the 厳島神社 (Itsukushima Shrine) with its striking vermilion torii.
Shot on Eastmancolor, relatively cheap and globally available, and influenced by Hollywood colour melodramas of the time, in particularly Rudolph Maté's Mississippi Gambler (1953) (source), and in its turn greatly influenced the implementation of colour in global cinema to come.
Jigokumon won two Academy Awards in 1955, for Best Costume Design and Best Foreign Language Film.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
“You'll go under like all the others.”
White Woman (Stuart Walker, 1933)
Aug
1
Horace H. Prin (Laughton) and Judith Denning (Lombard) in a promotional photo. DP: Harry Fischbeck.
– Judith Denning
“Don't know why
There's no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather
Since my man and I ain't together
Keeps raining all of the time Oh, yeah
Life is bad
Gloom and misery everywhere
Stormy weather, stormy weather
And I just can get my poor self together
Oh, I'm weary all of the time
The time, so weary all of the time When he went away
The blues walked in and met me
Oh, yeah if he stays away
Old rocking chair's gonna get me
All I do is pray
The Lord will let me
Walk in the sun once more Oh, I can't go on, can't go on, can't go on
Everything I have is gone
Stormy weather, stormy weather
Since my man and I, me and my daddy ain't together
Keeps raining all of the time
Oh, oh, keeps raining all of the time
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah raining all of the time
Stormy stormy
Stormy weather
Yeah”
The Tempest (Derek Jarman, 1979)
Jul
28
Sailors dancing in a room wildly decorated with guirlandes and flowers (via). DP: Peter Middleton.
Local nightlife: people dancing or at a show*
– Elisabeth Welch, Stormy Weather (Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler, 1933)
A radiant Goddess (Elisabeth Welch) performs the torch song Stormy Weather. Enchanted sailors dance.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.