– Get the Ouija board.
– It's got the Bible on top of it, keeping it quiet. “Bet you can't eat just one.” “Now, until the break of day,
Through this house each fairy stray…” “What you call sin, I call the great spirit of love, which takes a thousand forms.” “Harvey and I sit in the bars… have a drink or two… play the juke box. And soon the faces of all the other people they turn toward mine and they smile. And they're saying, 'We don't know your name, mister, but you're a very nice fella'.” The Bat Whispers [The Bat] (Roland West, 1930)
Nov
19
Play Monopoly Day
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.
Who is he? What does he want? And how can he be stopped? Do you know the answer?
YES
NO
GOOD BYE
心中天網島 [Shinjū: Ten no Amijima / Double Suicide] (Masahiro Shinoda, 1969)
Oct
10
International Stage Management Day
Jihei (Kichiemon Nakamura ) and his children with a stagehand visible between them. DP: Tōichirō Narushima.
心中天網島 is based on a 1721 文楽 [#bunraku] puppet theatre play]. As traditional in this style of theatre, the puppeteers are in full view of the audience wearing all-black cloaks. 心中天網島 does the same, but substitutes the puppets with flesh and blood actors.
The puppeteers are 黒衣 [kuroko, litt. “black clad”, though there are colour variations depending on the scene's requirements], guiding the performers towards their destiny.
Dutchman (Anthony Harvey, 1966)
Oct
3
Mean Girls Day
Clay (Al Freeman Jr.) reading a newspaper and minding his business on a subway train home. Just arrived on his car is Lula (Shirley Knight) and her endless supply of apples. DP: Gerry Turpin.
The haunting retelling (beware of spoilers) of #Wagner's The Flying Dutchman.
– advertising slogan
Медвежья свадьба [Medvezhya svadba / The Bear's Wedding] (Konstantin Eggert + Vladimir Gardin, 1925)
Sep
28
In preparation of the bear's wedding, a cook – wearing not much more than an apron and a toque blanche – stirs a huge kettle over a roaring fire. DPs: Eduard Tisse & Pyotr Yermolov.
U bent mijn moeder (Horst Königstein, 1984)
Sep
21
World Alzheimer's Day
Joop Admiraal in the role of his mother. During the monologue, the actor switches character and props.
A Midsummer Night's Dream (William Dieterle + Max Reinhardt, 1935)
Jun
10
Superman Week
Oberon (Victor Jory) – King of the Fairies – on his horse with Puck (Mickey Rooney) – a trickster sprite. While they ride of, Oberon's cape flows behind them through the trees, supported by the fae. A lot of the other-worldly fairy sparkle was accomplished by generous amounts of DuPont® cellophane and cinematographer Hal Mohr's contribution of trimming the trees with aluminium paint, cobwebs, and small metal particles. DP: Hal Mohr.
Capes, cloaks, and mantles are everywhere in Dieterle and Reinhardt's lavishly outfitted A Midsummer Night's Dream. The dreamlike #CostumeDesign by Max Rée and the uncredited Milo Anderson is as much as a personality as #Shakespeare's characters are.
– Oberon, Act 5, Scene 1
Any reports of Kenneth Anger's presence as the Changeling Prince are greatly exaggerated.
Mädchen in Uniform [Girls in Uniform] (Leontine Sagan + Carl Froelich, 1931)
May
9
Teacher Appreciation Day
Manuela (Hertha Thiele) in her Don Carlos costume with her beloved teacher, Frl. Von Bernburg (Dorothea Wieck). Note the similarity with Garbo vehicle Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933). DPs: Reimar Kuntze & Franz Weihmayr.
A goodnight #kiss on the lips was all it takes for 14-year old Manuela to fall for her teacher, Fräulein Von Bernburg. Then, while celebrating her rousing performance as the male lead in the play Don Carlos, Manuela gaily blurts out that yes, she indeed is in love with her teacher! This lack of discipline can't go unpunished, with devastating results.
– Fräulein Von Bernburg
Mädchen in Uniform with its all-female cast was, no… is!, a daring sapphic romantic drama based on a wildly popular play by Christa Winsloe. After multiple well attended screenings the film got banned in Germany because of its anti-authoritarian undertones, and almost banned in the US because of its lesbianism. Thankfully one of the picture's admirers – Eleanor Roosevelt – stepped in, resulting in a limited release.
憂國 [Yūkoku / Patriotism or the Rite of Love and Death] (Yukio Mishima, 1966)
May
1
Loyalty Day
Shinji Takeyama (Yukio Mishima) and Reiko (Yoshiko Tsuruoka). In a quiet framed still, Shinji lays on a tatami mat in full uniform. Reiko rests her head on his chest. Both have their eyes closed. DP: Kimio Watanabe.
Japanese author Yukio Mishima was, besides an aesthete, a fierce proponent of Japanese nationalism. In 憂國, based on his short 1960 story, Mishima plays palace guard Lt. Shinji Takeyama. Despite being one of the instigators of an ultra-nationalist coup, Takeyama decides he cannot overthrow the government as it would mean having to kill his friends and be disloyal to the Emperor. Returning home, he and his bride Reiko (Yoshiko Tsuruoka) perform #切腹 (#seppuku / #HaraKiri), as in line with Takeyama's #samurai heritage.
Yūkoku is a #SilentFilm that plays out like #Noh #theatre, with an extreme emphasis on the beauty and love of death and loyalty respectively.
After Mishima's own seppuku in 1970, his widow ordered all copies of Yūkoku to be destroyed. In 2005, in Mishima's house, a pristine copy was uncovered in a tea box.
Harvey (Henry Koster, 1950)
Apr
9
freebie: Easter Sunday
Promotional photo. James Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd, holding a stuffed anthropomorphic rabbit. Both man and bunny wear black hats and smile at the camera. DP: William H. Daniels.
James Stewart is Elwood P. Dowd. An ordinary man with an extraordinary claim: his best friend is an invisible, six feet three and a half inches-tall #pooka – a mythological Celtic, shapeshifting creature – who in Mr Dowd's case resembles a rabbit called Harvey. Elwood's sister and niece, who also occasionally see the furry goblin, have their relative send to a sanatorium where the doctors and us viewers learn more about this curious case.
– Elwood P. Dowd
Harvey, based on Mary Chase's #PulitzerPrizePlay with the same name, is guaranteed to bring a smile on your face, this humbug's scout's honour! Have a nice #Easter, CineMastodons!
Jagdszenen aus Niederbayern [Hunting Scenes from Bavaria / The Hunters and the Hunted] (Peter Fleischmann, 1969)
Apr
6
Sorry Charlie Day
The townspeople gather to prepare the communal harvest meal. A dead sow is laid out on an improvised table. DP: Alain Derobe.
A scandal, that's what it was! In the late 1960s, Peter Fleischmann picked the picturesque Catholic village of #Landshut as the backdrop for Jagdszenen aus #Niederbayern, the film adaptation of Martin Sperr's #TheatrePlay with the same name.
A young man named Abram – played by Sperr – returns to his family village. Soon the townspeople's thorns move from the in their eyes other disgraceful villagers to the much-needed mechanic.
Where did he return from? He was in prison. What for? For being a homosexual. He's a Drecksau (a filthy pig), his mother says. The village whore can't turn him around. A sow is slaughtered in real time in celebration of a successful #harvest and plans for the town's future are forged.
While created when West Germany's #Paragrafen175 was in place [1872–1994], illegality of same-sex relations], the homosexual aspect wasn't the main cause of the outrage. Some of the Landshutter villagers who played alongside the professional actors felt they were depicted as being backwards. This isn't a movie about hunting, sigted some. Lifting the veil of the prevalence of, a #Fernweh in a sense, that Germany (hush) was another.
Catholic Mass is a theatrical re-enactment of the life and suffering of the son of God. When rites outstay their meaning, when invocations turn routine, the worshippers lose sight.