view
The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)
Jul
20
1940
spoiler warning: click to toggle image
The July 21 headline. DP: Elwood Bredell.
“Don't ask a dying man to lie his soul into Hell.”
– Lt. Sam Lubinsky
view
Jul
17
MacConnachie (Robert Shaw, standing and peering upwards) and Ansell (Malcolm McDowell, squatting and facing away) in a barren landscape. Both have their hands tied behind their back. DPs: Henri Alekan, Peter Suschitzky & Guy Tabary.
“I'll tell you what though, Mac. There'll be no more games from now on.”
– Ansell
view
La dame dans l'auto avec des lunettes et un fusil [The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun] (Anatole Litvak, 1970)
Jul
10
Vendredi
A man with a lot of swagger and rolled up blueprints is about to enter a room with a prominent Coca-Cola machine and a jazzy leather swivel chair on display. An electronic flip clock tells the time and date. It's 17:52. DP: Claude Renoir.
view
باب الحديد [Bab el-Hadid / Cairo Station / The Iron Gate] (Youssef Chahine, 1958)
Jul
8
Abu-Sri (Farid Shawqi) with Hannumah (Hind Rostom) perched on top of a large wooden crate. DP: Alevise Orfanelli.
Luggage, a trunk, or a suitcase*
“My job allows me to read about strange incidents, but what I see here is often even stranger. And the strangest thing of all happened one day after midday prayer.”
– Madbouli, newspaper salesman
Among the hustle and bustle of Cairo's travellers, there are those making a living. The pitiful Qenawi (Youssef Chahine) peddles newspapers, unioniser Abu-Sri moves said travellers' luggage, and Hannumah (Hind Rostom), all hips and bosom and Abu-Sri's, sells cold drinks. Qenawi wants her.
view
Lonesome (Pál Fejős, 1928)
Jul
3
Sat
“You've won a doll and a kiss. I'll give you the doll and your girl can give you the kiss!”
– Coney Island barker
view
Black Friday (Arthur Lubin, 1940)
Jun
13
DP: Elwood Bredell.
view
Point de chute [Falling Point] (Robert Hossein, 1970)
Jun
4
Global Running Day
Catherine (Pascale Rivault) running. DP: Daniel Diot.
view
Angst [Fear] (Gerald Kargl, 1983)
May
23
National Title Track Day
1: K. Out. Out. DP: Zbigniew Rybczynski.
“The fear in her eyes and the knife in the chest. That's my last memory of my mother. That's why I had to go to prison for four years, even though she survived.”
– opening lines
What stabs you harder in the chest than Klaus Schulze's synth-driven killing spree?
view
Invasión [Invasion] (Hugo Santiago, 1969)
Mar
9
Bobby Fischer – 1943
Don Porfirio (Juan Carlos Paz) in front of a map of Aquileia. DP: Ricardo Aronovich.
Strategy for Bobby Fischer's birthday (1943).
People meticulously plan, move, and countermove in response to an invasion.
view
O 5º Poder [O Quinto Poder / The Fifth Power] (Alberto Pieralisi, 1962)
Jan
27
television
A woman sprawled out on the ground. A man tries to revive her while another reaches out in concern. DP: Özen Sermet.
Turn on your television on the day* in 1926 John Logie Baird demonstrated the first working TV.
An unknown foreign agent manipulates Brazil's radio en television antennas to emit subliminal messages to the oblivious population. Slowly, society descends into violent chaos.
O 5º Poder precedes Ray Nelson's story Eight O'Clock in the Morning by one, and John Carpenter's adaptation They Live by 26 years. But what's much more fascinating is this film's place in Brazilian history: right between Professor Baskarán's – hypnotist Carlos Pedregal – televised mass hypnosis experiments from 1958, and the violent coup of 1964.
In how far was the population primed for this revolt? And how much, are you?
* In reality this was on January 26, 1926.
