settima

tvmovie

L'homme à la valise [The Man with the Suitcase] (Chantal Akerman, 1983)

Mar

11

close quarters

L'homme à la valise (1983)

Henri (Jeffrey Kime) and the woman (Chantal Akerman) at a claustrophobically small table, each eating their breakfast. The woman has a baguette, a bowl of coffee, and a cigarette. Henri takes up most of the table with a serving tray holding a whole box of Pelletier toast, a plastic milk bottle, and a coffee pot. He's also manspreading. DP: Maurice Perrimond.

Close quarters: US premiere of 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016).

 

A filmmaker (Akerman) reluctantly hosts a guest (the always imposing Jeffrey Kime) in her already cramped quarters. His increasingly expanding presence in volume, sight and sound are insufferable for the quiet cineast.

Tarry-Dan Tarry-Dan Scarey Old Spooky Man (John Reardon, 1978)

Jan

10

Tarry-Dan Tarry-Dan Scarey Old Spooky Man (1978)

Tarry-Dan (Paul Curran) observing kids at the school's gate. DP: Peter Bartlett.

Operation Ganymed [Helden, verloren im Staub der Sterne] (Rainer Erler, 1977)

Jan

7

moons

Operation Ganymed (1977)

Jupiter rising. DP: Wolfgang Grasshoff.

Moons for Galileo Galilei's observation of Jupiter's four largest moons in 1610: Ganymede and Callisto on January 7, and Europa and Io on January 8.

“I therefore concluded and decided unhesitatingly, that there are three stars in the heavens moving about Jupiter, as Venus and Mercury round the Sun; which at length was established as clear as daylight by numerous subsequent observations. These observations also established that there are not only three, but four, erratic sidereal bodies performing their revolutions round Jupiter… the revolutions are so swift that an observer may generally get differences of position every hour.”

– Galileo Galilei, Sidereus Nuncius (”Starry Messenger”), 1610

A spacecraft named Ganymede II returns back to Earth after its expedition to Jupiter's moons followed by 1500 days stuck in space. The Earth they find, is deserted.

The Night That Panicked America (Joseph Sargent, 1975)

Oct

30

1938

The Night That Panicked America (1975)

Paul Shenar as Orson Welles. DP: Jules Brenner.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News.”

Śledztwo [The Investigation] (Marek Piestrak, 1974)

Oct

28

Śledztwo (1974)

A person offscreen shoots a handgun. DP: Edward Kłosiński.

Medium (Jacek Koprowicz, 1985)

Oct

2

Medium (1985)

A man in an impeccable, light-colored suit. His nose is bleeding. DPs: Jerzy Zieliński & Wit Dąbal.

Die Konsequenz [The Consequence] (Wolfgang Petersen, 1977)

Jun

17

prison grub

Die Konsequenz (1977)

Thomas (Ernst Hannawald), the warden's son, and convicted homosexual Martin (Jürgen Prochnow) sharing a mug, a meal, a cell. DP: Jörg-Michael Baldenius.

“I think it's really rotten of them to lock you up like this for making love to a boy.”

– Thomas Manzoni

Kontrakt [The Contract] (Krzysztof Zanussi, 1980)

Jun

4

Coca-Cola

Kontrakt (1980)

Two middle-aged men in discussion with a woman, semi off-screen, holding a drink. There's food covered with a napkin and a wineglass in front of the men. Behind the men, the maid – a tense woman cradling many small Coca-Cola bottles – looks on. DP: Slawomir Idziak.

Angst vor der Angst [Fear of Fear] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975)

Nov

29

freebie: Housewife Day

Angst vor der Angst (1975)

Margot (Margit Carstensen) seeing herself reflected twice in a triple mirror. We see her from the back, which blocks out the third reflection. DP: Jürgen Jürges.

November 3 redux

“I'm calm. I'm completely calm. You can leave me alone now”

– Margot

Culloden [The Battle of Culloden] (Peter Watkins, 1964)

Jul

27

Bagpipe Appreciation Day

Culloden (1964)

John Hunt Leigh in Culloden, pìobaireachd “ceòl mór” (litt. piping “great music”). DP: Dick Bush.

Great Highland #bagpipes, or a' phìob mhòr as they're called in Scottish Gaelic, are traditionally played on the battlefield. Peter Watkins' Culloden moves the senseless bloodshed from 1960s Vietnam to the Scottish Highlands of 1746.

“And wherever he went, he took with him his music, his poetry, his language and his children… thus within a century of Culloden, the English and the Scottish lowlanders had made secure forever their religion, their commerce, their culture, their ruling dynasty.”

– narrator

The most clearly it's seen in the men's eyes. That stare we recognise all too well from the many images that reached the west in the 60s, ever before and after.