“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.” 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*
– 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.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
thriller
“You've won a doll and a kiss. I'll give you the doll and your girl can give you the kiss!”Lonesome (Pál Fejős, 1928)
Jul
3
Sat
An alarm clock informs us it's 7:15 while the calendar adds that it's the 3rd on a Saturday. Next to the alarm a crumpled up ladies' magazine. DP: Gilbert Warrenton.
– Coney Island barker
Point de chute [Falling Point] (Robert Hossein, 1970)
Jun
4
Global Running Day
Catherine (Pascale Rivault) running. DP: Daniel Diot.
A character who is running on Global Running Day
“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.”Angst [Fear] (Gerald Kargl, 1983)
May
23
National Title Track Day
1: K. Out. Out. DP: Zbigniew Rybczynski.
2: Klaus Schulze at work in 1983 (via)
A killer title track for National Title Track Day (USA)
– opening lines
What stabs you harder in the chest than Klaus Schulze's synth-driven killing spree?
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.
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.
Compartiment tueurs [The Sleeping Car Murder] (Costa-Gavras, 1965)
Nov
8
Eliane Darrès (Simone Signoret) – comédienne, by herself – takes a long hard look at her table-set-for-two. DP: Jean Tournier.
“So this is the team, ey? A priest, a detective near retirement, and a young moron rookie of a cop… Terrific.”Rosso sangue [Absurd / Monster Hunter] (Joe D'Amato, 1981)
Nov
2
spaghetti
Pretending to be set somewhere in the US, people watch an American Football match on TV. Being Italian, their go-to snack is spaghetti. DP: Joe D'Amato.
– Sgt. Ben Engleman
La horse [Horse] (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1970)
Aug
23
baguette
Auguste Maroilleur (Jean Gabin) at the head of a long table, covered in Good Things (wine, butter, coffee, and fresh milk). He cuts a baguette with his pocketknife. DP: Walter Wottitz.
“Matto, caldo, soldi, morto… girotondo…”Vergogna, schifosi!… [Dirty Angels] (Mauro Severino, 1969)
Aug
14
fruit
A group of people in skimpy swimwear sits on space-agey white plastic seating – Archizoom's radical Superonda (1967) – while decadently eating luxurious tropical fruit from a round table that futuristically descends from the ceiling via a steel pole. DP: Angelo Lotti.