settima

uk

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (Val Guest, 1961)

May

23

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)

Jeannie Craig (Janet Munro) trying to cool down in a bathtub. DP: Harry Waxman.

“Truly the light is sweet; and what a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to see the Sun.”

– Peter Stenning

The Appointment (Lindsey C. Vickers, 1982)

May

14

Tue

The Appointment (1982)

“Subject, Sandy Fremont. The last positive sighting of the child was on her way home from a school orchestra rehearsal. This was on Tuesday May 14th at approximately 6:30 in the evening.”

The Shout (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1978)

May

1

mutton

The Shout (1978)

Charles Crossley (Alan Bates) in Anthony Fielding's (John Hurt) kitchen. Despite being the outsider here, Crossley's presence takes central stage. DP: Mike Molloy.

The Devil Rides Out (Terence Fisher, 1968)

Apr

29

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

The menacing Mocata (Charles Gray). DP: Arthur Grant.

– Do you realise what today's date is, Rex?

– April the, er, 29th, why?

Culloden (Peter Watkins, 1964)

Apr

16

1746

Culloden (1964)

One of the clansman. The look in his eyes foreshadows the Vietnam War this films comments on. DP: Dick Bush.

“Sir Thomas Sheridan, Jacobite military secretary. Suffering advanced debility and loss of memory. Former military engagement, 56 years ago. Sir John MacDonald, Jacobite captain of cavalry. Aged, frequently intoxicated, described as 'a man of the most limited capacities.' John William O'Sullivan, Jacobite quartermaster general. Described as 'an Irishman whose vanity is superseded only by his lack of wisdom.' Prince Charles Edward Stuart, Jacobite commander in chief. Former military experience: 10 days at a siege at the age of 13.”

– narrator

Devil Doll (Lindsay Shonteff, 1964)

Mar

15

sandwiches

Devil Doll (1964)

A large knife amongst rather minuscule triangular tea sandwiches. A miniature wooden barrel holding toothpicks is right there for your sandwich stabbing convenience. DP: Gerald Gibbs.

A Zed & Two Noughts [Z+00 / ZOO] (Peter Greenaway, 1985)

Dec

27

Visit The Zoo Day

A Zed & Two Noughts (1985)

A zebra in a cage with the word ZOO in large blue lit capitals in the background. In the background a man. All but the lettering is black-and-white. DP: Sacha Vierny.

“In the land of the legless, the one-legged woman is queen.”

Muloorina (David Cobham, 1964)

Nov

17

Guinness World Records Day

Muloorina (1964)

The Bluebird parked amongst the crew's Jeeps. DPs: John Daniell, Ross King, Frank McKechnie, Ian Millar & Bob Wright.

Short in gorgeous Technicolor, Muloorina tells about a small, arid town in Australia that one day finds itself on the world's stage. Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, a local salt lake that hasn't seen a drop of rain in nine years, is the perfect spot for a landspeed record attempt by British daredevil Donald Campbell and his Bluebird.

 

A play of contrasts. The supersonic blue machine on the ancient white riverbed and the slowness of the eternal landscape versus something faster than should be possible. And meanwhile, the locals care for their land and animals, and wait for rain.

Mahler (Ken Russell, 1974)

Nov

12

World Pneumonia Day

Mahler (1974)

Gustav (Robert Powell) and Alma (Georgina Hale), both in a three piece suit with top hats. She's in a shadows, wearing a tight, black veil that completely conceals her features. DP: Dick Bush.

A sickly #GustavMahler (Robert Powell) and his wife Alma (Georgina Hale) dwell on their shared lives while travelling to Vienna by train. Storylines – circular like a journey, rondo like #Mahler's compositions – drift from the ordinary to the grotesque.

“I don't want to imitate nature. I want to capture its very essence. As if all the birds and the beasts die tomorrow and the world became a desert, when people heard my music – they would still know, feel, what nature was.”

– Gustav Mahler

This would be the composer's final tour. A train took him to a Vienna sanatorium where not much later he'd succumb to #pneumonia.

X the Unknown (Leslie Norman + Joseph Losey, 1956)

Oct

24

scoff

X the Unknown (1956)

Two soldiers on nightshift ready to eat. One of them hands a mess tin with grub to the other when there's a sound. DP: Gerald Gibbs.

– What's that? – Tea.