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Plein soleil [Purple Noon] (René Clément, 1960)
Jun
15
croissants
Tom Ripley (Alain Delon) going though his passport over breakfast. Multiple passport photos, a fountain pen, and a magnifying glass take precedence over his fresh croissants. DP: Henri Decaë.
“Why bother having money when you can spend other people's?”
– Philippe Greenleaf
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Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, 1948)
Jun
9
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
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Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)
May
16
doubles
“I still think it would be wonderful to have a man love you so much he'd kill for you.”
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Nóz w wodzie [Knife in the Water] (Roman Polanski, 1962)
Apr
23
tomato soup
The couple – Jolanta Umecka as Krystyna and Leon Niemczyk as Andrzej – enjoy their little lunch for two of wine and canned soup while the young man (Zygmunt Malanowicz) mopes on the ship's bow. DP: Jerzy Lipman.
“I forgot the cucumbers.”
– Krystyna
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The Naked City (Jules Dassin, 1948)
Feb
10
Popsicles
A New York precinct. Across the street an ice cream vendor. Several kids are standing around the man's cart while one of them – a chunky monkey – leans against the nearest fire hydrant. A scruffy man in fedora walks past holding a Popsicle. DP: William H. Daniels; still photographers: Bert Anderson & Arthur “Weegee” Fellig.
“Another day, another ball of fire rising in the summer sky. The city is quiet now, but it will soon be pounding with activity. This time yesterday, Jean Dexter was just another pretty girl, but now she's the marmalade on 10,000 pieces of toast.”
– narrator
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High Sierra (Raoul Walsh, 1940)
Jan
19
Roy Earle (Bogart) pensively smoking an after-meal cigarette while Marie Garson (Lupino) looks on. DP: Tony Gaudio.
“Roy, this is the land of milk and honey for the health racket. Every woman in California thinks she's either too fat or too thin or too something.”
– 'Doc' Banton
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Invasión [Invasion] (Hugo Santiago, 1969)
Dec
27
maté
Don Porfirio (Juan Carlos Paz) pours water from a small kettle into a maté. DP: Ricardo Aronovich.
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Nasser Asphalt [Wet Asphalt] (Frank Wisbar, 1958)
Dec
20
National Greg Day
“Sie können sich einen anderen Beruf aussuchen. Sie sind ein toter Mann.”
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Si muero antes de despertar [If I Should Die Before I Wake] (Carlos Hugo Christensen, 1952)
Dec
19
National Hard Candy Day
Lucio (Néstor Zavarce) and his new friend sharing one of her fancy 10¢ lollipops. DP: Pablo Tabernero.
Lucio is the class clown, a ne'er-do-well relying on his police-dad's rank and classmates' homework. One of these classmates, a smart little girl, promises him fancy lollipops in exchange for protection. And she has a secret for him too, about the origin of the candy, and the nice man giving her those and other nice things. Under oath, she tells Lucio everything and then promptly disappears. With his friend gone, killed as he later finds out, and an oath weighing on his heart, what can Lucio do when another girl goes missing?
“Only a child can kill the monster.”
– narrator
Cornell Woolrich's haunting tales of childhood lost leaped from Ireland to Argentina. With some similarities with Fritz Lang's M (1931), this fairy-tale feels more oppressive; due to the helplessness of a boy's power in an adult world and his understanding of grown-up responsibilities. A restored version in wider circulation is long overdue.
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Laura (Otto Preminger + Rouben Mamoulian, 1944)
Dec
11
Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) interrupts arsine newspaper columnist Waldo Lydecker (a delicious Clifton Webb) with her designs during his lunch. DPs: Joseph LaShelle & Lucien Ballard.
“I don't use a pen. I write with a goose quill dipped in venom.”
– Waldo Lydecker
