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Gothic (Ken Russel, 1986)
Oct
1
Frankenstein
Percy Shelley (Gabriel Byrne), Mary Shelley (Natasha Richardson) and Dr Polidori (a deliriously delicious Timothy Spall). DP: Mike Southon.
A [favourite] Frankenstein film.
One wet, ungenial summer in 1816, lovers Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley, and Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont, visited a dear friend at Villa Diodati. That friend was Lord Byron, exiled and residing in the Swiss villa with his physician Dr John Polidori
“There are no ghosts in daylight. You'll get used to our nights at Diodati. A little indulgence to heighten our existence on this miserable Earth. Nights of the mind, the imagination. Nothing more.”
– Lord Byron
Forced indoors, over the cause of three days they turned to the occult, to laudanum, to stories from the Fantasmagoriana, and the horrors of their own. That summer, Frankenstein saw the light of day.
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Charlie Is My Darling [Rolling With The Stones] (Peter Whitehead, 1966)
Sep
28
Ben E. King – 1938
Charlie sheepishly smells a carnation (via), Brian can be seen in the background. DP: Peter Whitehead.
Soul or rhythm and blues for Ben E. King's birthday.
“Let's face it; the future as a Rolling Stone is very uncertain.”
– Brian Jones
While then-manager Oldham's dream of an all-Stones A Clockwork Orange never manifested, there was an attempt to counter The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night (1964). That too, failed. Instead, Charlie became a cinéma vérité roadmovie of the Stones' touring Ireland in 1965. Whitehead's camera is there for Charlie.
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Snow (Geoffrey Jones, 1963)
Sep
27
Stockton and Darlington Railway – 1825
A steam locomotive ploughing through the snow using her cowcatcher. DP: Wolfgang Suschitzky.
A steam locomotive to celebrate the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825, the world's first public railway to use steam locomotives.
The Big Freeze of 1963 was one of the coldest winters recorded in British history. It was during this winter that filmmaker Geoffrey Jones was commissioned by British Transport Films to make a documentary about the British Railways Board. With the freeze setting in, Jones ran the footage in preparation of post-production, and was struck by the blackness of the locomotives against the white of the many feet of snow. This smaller experimental project became Snow. Accompanied by a stretched out version of the jazz tune Teen Beat, and BBC Radiophonic Workshop's own Daphne Oram, Snow is an improbable hypnotic trip in an impossible landscape.
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Hail the New Puritan (Charles Atlas, 1987)
Sep
22
Fall
As it says on the tin, it's Mark E. Smith of The Fall (via). DP: John Simmons.
The Northern Hemisphere welcomes the autumn equinox
“Those flowers, take them away;
they’re only funeral decorations.
This is The Fall and this is a drudge nation.
Your decadent sins will wreak discipline.
You puritan, you shook me.
I wash every day.”
A fictional day in the life of choreographer Michael Clark, company, and friends in preparation of the dance piece New Puritans.
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A Sunday in September (James Hill, 1961)
Sep
17
1961
Television documentary about the nuclear disarmament demonstration at Trafalgar Square on September 17, 1961 (description via aforementioned link in the caption).
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The War Game (Peter Watkins, 1966)
Sep
16
“In the next world war, I believe that both sides could stop before the ultimate destruction of cities so that both sides could retire for a period of ten years or so of post-attack recuperation, in which world wars four to eight could be prepared.”
– a leading American nuclear strategist
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Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men (David Hinton, 1989)
Sep
14
Patrick Swayze – 2009
Dancing, or Patrick Swayze who passed away on this date in 2009.
“I caused dreams which caused death … this is my crime.”
– Dennis Nilsen
Dennis Nilsen was a lonesome, closeted gay man in Thatcher's London, whose desperation lead to multiple horrific killings. He'd ritually bathe and dress the bodies, and held on to them for company. Radical dance troupe DV8's interpretation of Nilsen's transgressions explores the horror of the act in suffocating beauty.
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Friendship's Death (Peter Wollen, 1987)
Sep
9
1970
Bill Paterson and Tilda Swinton as Sullivan and Friendship. DP: Witold Stok.
“What will happen when your machines become intelligent? When they become autonomous? When they have private thoughts? You humans look down on your machines because they're man-made. They're a product of your skills and labour. They weren't even domesticated like animals were. You see them simply as extensions of yourself, of your own will. I can't accept that. I can't accept subhuman status simply because I'm a machine based on silicon rather than carbon, electronics rather than biology. If I sound fanatical, it's because I've been trapped in a time warp. In a world where the full potential of machines hasn't been guessed at. A world where I have to wear a human disguise to be accepted? I came here too late. It will all end before the computers that already control the fate of the world have reached the point where they wanted to survive.”
– Friendship
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The Year of the Sex Olympics (Michael Elliott, 1968)
Sep
7
ESPN – 1979
The people of a suspiciously 60s looking future critically watch the audience of a reality TV show called The Hungry Angry Show.
Sports watching on TV for ESPN's debut.
“Sex is not to do. Sex is to watch.”
– Nat Mender
All that's on TV is pornography and violence. Welcome to the Year of the Sex Olympics.
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Corridor of Mirrors (Terence Young, 1948)
Sep
3
Mifanwy (Edana Romney) anachronistically smoking a cigarette. DP: André Thomas.