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Taxi zum Klo (Frank Ripploh, 1980)
Sep
2
Christa McAuliffe 1948 – 1986
Frank (Frank Ripploh) teaching kids about the human body on an anatomy dummy. DP: Horst Schier.
A teacher for what would have been Christa McAuliffe's birthday.
“Ich mag Männer, bin 30 Jahre alt, von Beruf Lehrer.”
– Frank Ripploh
Frank Ripploh is a sexual ethics and biology teacher by day, and hedonistic gay man and aspiring pornographer by night. When Frank Ripploh, the man, publicly came out in 1978 in the tabloid Stern, he lost his teaching job and did become that filmmaker. Taxi zum Klo – litt. taxi to the john/loo – is his story. A frank pre-AIDS pre-Internet pre-victimhood depiction of male gay culture in West Germany. Maybe raw, possibly misogynist, definitely true to life.
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La horse [Horse] (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1970)
Aug
28
1923
Francis Grutti's (Armando Francioli) ID, handled by someone wielding a large stamp. His birthday is August 28, 1923. DP: Walter Wottitz.
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Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955)
Aug
14
Bavaria
Celebrating Oktoberfest [in September/October] and the Bavarian royals [rip]: a royal character or family*
“The painter takes his time. He doesn't like her dress. He doesn't like her gloves. One day he asks her if she dares pose for him – all in pink. She dares! And the king, enraptured by her pose, offers her a palace!”
– circus master
Maria Dolores Porriz y Montez, Countess von Landsfeld, Lola Montès for short, now a circus attraction, once the mistress to Ludwig I, King of Bavaria. While her fellow circus performers play Lola's former lovers, the ringmaster tells her story.
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Der Stand der Dinge [The State of Things] (Wim Wenders, 1982)
Aug
13
1942
Friedrich Munro's (Patrick Bauchau) Hollywood, Ca address and date of birth: August 13, 1942. DPs: Henri Alekan, Fred Murphy & Martin Schäfer.
– You know, I take pictures, photographs, but I never really thought in black and white before I saw our rushes. Do you know what I mean? You can see the shape of things.
– Life is in colour, but black and white is more realistic.
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Sinong lumikha ng yoyo? Sinong lumikha ng moon buggy? [Who Invented the Yoyo? Who Invented the Moon Buggy?] (Kidlat Tahimik, 1979)
Jul
20
1969
A Bavarian onion dome with the date July 20, 1969 superimposed over it. DP: Kidlat Tahimik.
“Fantastic! You are a first class dilettante!”
– Kidlat's proud parents
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Götter der Pest [Gods of the Plague] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970)
Jul
16
Someone complains about costs or prices*
– We'll go to an island and live from fishing and hunting. And the sun will shine and it will never rain. And we'll eat lobster and drink wine.
– …
– Why not?
– Because it's too expensive.
– Why too expensive?
– It's just too expensive.
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Bildnis einer Trinkerin – Aller jamais retour [Portrait of a Female Drunkard. Ticket of No Return] (Ulrike Ottinger, 1979)
Jul
15
Sie, German for “she/her”, hungover in her fabulous yellow nappa leather outfit (via). DP: Ulrike Ottinger.
Someone is hungover*
“Ein Psychogramm zweier ungewöhnlicher, aber auch extrem unterschiedlicher Frauen. Die eine, reich, exzentrisch, ihre Gefühle maskenhaft verbergend, trinkt sich bewusst zu Tode. Sie ist der Fall, der in der Statistik nicht erscheint, weil entweder zu Hause unter Valium gehalten oder unter Verschluss in einer Privatklinik. Die andere ist arm und trinkt sich unbewusst zu Tode. Sie erscheint in der normalen Statistik als Typ der haltlosen Trinkerin”
– U.O., via
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La Soufrière – Warten auf eine unausweichliche Katastrophe [La Soufrière: Waiting for an Inevitable Catastrophe] (Werner Herzog, 1977)
Jul
13
Someone at a theme park or national park*
“Telephones were still working, we are told, and the air-conditioning and refrigerators in many houses were still on.”
– narrator
The highest peak in the Parc national de la Guadeloupe is called La Grande Soufrière. The volcano had erupted before and was bound to do soon again. Hastily, the 76,000 islanders were evacuated with one farmer staying put. For Herzog reason to halt the editing of Herz aus Glas and make his way to the island.
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Die endlose Nacht [The Endless Night] (Will Tremper, 1963)
Jul
6
The bold and the beautiful stuck at Tempelhof. And yes, one could smoke there. DP: Hans Jura.
(People at) an airport*
It's foggy at Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof, the Allies' airbridge to the West, and all the planes into and out of West Berlin are grounded. In any other metropolis this could mean taking a train, enjoy the city's nightlife or maybe just a bed for the night. In post-Wall bureaucracy-happy West Berlin, this means endless waits with strangers. And so, with nowhere to go, a Polish jazz band mingles with British spouses, a lonely South African farmer, a model and her beau.
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Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes [Aguirre, the Wrath of God] (Werner Herzog, 1972)
Jun
20
World Productivity Day
Don Lope de Aguirre (Kinski), his eyes focussed. DP: Thomas Mauch.
“I am the great traitor. There must be no other. Anyone who even thinks about deserting this mission will be cut up into 198 pieces. Those pieces will be stamped on until what is left can be used only to paint walls. Whoever takes one grain of corn or one drop of water… more than his ration, will be locked up for 155 years. If I, Aguirre, want the birds to drop dead from the trees… then the birds will drop dead from the trees. I am the wrath of God. The earth I pass will see me and tremble. But whoever follows me and the river, will win untold riches. But whoever deserts…””
– Don Lope de Aguirre
Conquistador Don Lope de Aguirre drives his men deep into the Peruvian jungle, to El Dorado