settima

theatre

The Monkey Talks (Raoul Walsh, 1927)

Dec

14

Monkey Day

The Monkey Talks (1927)

Jocko (Jacques Lerner) in embrace with his Olivette (Olive Borden). Amazingly, Lerner does not wear a mask; it's all the work of makeup craftsman Jack Pierce. DP: L. William O'Connell.

A monkey for (unofficial) Monkey Day.

 

September 30, 1955 (James Bridges, 1977)

Sep

30

1955

September 30, 1955 (1977)

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.

White Woman (Stuart Walker, 1933)

Aug

1

White Woman (1933)

Horace H. Prin (Laughton) and Judith Denning (Lombard) in a promotional photo. DP: Harry Fischbeck.

“You'll go under like all the others.”

– Judith Denning

Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, 1948)

Jun

9

Rope (1948)

A man in a dark suit has his clenched hand on top of a stack of fancy gilded dinner plates. He's holding a piece of rope, just an ordinary household article. DPs: William V. Skall & Joseph A. Valentine.

“Mr. Cadell got a bad leg in the war for his courage. And you've got your sleeve in the celery, Mr. Phillip.”

– Mrs. Wilson

Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1959)

Jun

7

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

Catherine (Elizabeth Taylor) and a man in white, seen from the back, eating alfresco near a beach. DP: Jack Hildyard.

“My son – Sebastian – and I constructed our days. Each day we would carve each day like a piece of sculpture, leaving behind us a trail of days like a gallery of sculpture until suddenly, last summer.”

– Mrs Vi Venable

Rain (Lewis Milestone, 1932)

May

13

canned tamales

Rain (1932)

Sadie Thompson (Joan Crawford) looking for canned tamales in the pantry of the island's only convenience store. DP: Oliver T. Marsh.

“We seem to hear the winds of reform whistling down the chimney. Whereas the low hussy frolics off to buy her supper. Where do you keep your canned tamales, partner?”

– Sadie Thompson

L'amore (Roberto Rossellini, 1948)

Apr

22

alms

L'amore (1948)

Nannina (Anna Magnani) in “Il miracolo”, ascending a staircase while eating her alms. DP of this segment: Aldo Tonti; DPs “Una voce umana”: Robert Juillard & Otello Martelli.

“The madwoman has received your grace.”

– Nannina

گاو [Gaav / The Cow] (Dariush Mehrjui, 1969)

Dec

27

چای

Gaav (1969)

Two man sit against a white plastered, adobe wall. As one plays the setar, the other accepts a glass of chaii (black tea) from a square hole in the wall. DP: Fereydon Ghovanlou.

“I'm not Hassan. I'm his cow.”

楢山節考 [Narayama-bushi kō / The Ballad of Narayama] (Keisuke Kinoshita, 1958)

Dec

11

International Mountain Day

楢山節考 (1958)

Tatsuhei (Teiji Takahashi) with his mother Orin (Kinuyo Tanaka) in a bamboo carrier on his back. She's combing his hair. Around them the mountain range. DP: Hiroshi Kusuda.

Travel mountains on International Mountain Day

 

A starving community has come to the agreement that the elders approaching the age of seventy are to be carried up Narayama mountain to die. The day prior to the mountain's festival, sixty-nine year old Orin prepares to leave, carried by her son Tatsuhei.

“This winter… I'm going to the mountain. My mother went to the mountain, as did the mother-in-law of our home. So I have to go too.”

– Orin

In Keisuke Kinoshita's highly stylised 楢山節考, the arguably cruel (and most likely fictional) practice – of 姥捨て [ubasute, abandoning an old woman] – is superbly abstracted. Narration, dramatic lighting, colour filters and very obviously a soundstage underline that what we're watching is not a film, but a kabuki play.

The Bat Whispers [The Bat] (Roland West, 1930)

Nov

19

Play Monopoly Day

The Bat Whispers (1930)

Board and planchette at the ready for a little game of Ouija. DPs: Ray June (23mm) & Robert H. Planck (70mm).

It's just a little game. But then you wonder if Ouija, the Wonderful Talking Board is actually just that. Two neat little ladies playing that quirky 1891 novelty game in Roland West's The Bat Whispers summon the aforementioned bat, black-clad fiend and Batman predecessor.

– Get the Ouija board. – It's got the Bible on top of it, keeping it quiet.

Who is he? What does he want? And how can he be stopped? Do you know the answer?
YES NO
GOOD BYE