#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 8: A spotlight on #StepIntoTheSpotlightDay

“I'm the king of the silent pictures. I'm hiding out till talkies blow over.”

Warren Beatty plays Mickey, a #StandUpComedian who has it all, then gambles it all away. Well, that's the first 5 minutes of Arthur Penn's Mickey One (1965). Beatty is out of his element, and the movie's still too indebted to the cheery 60s to carry that New American Cinema grit. There are several great small surreal moments that are carried by uncredited character actors alone. And then there's a sole spotlight, stealing it all away.

#film #cinema #ArthurPenn #WarrenBeatty #Chicago #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 9: #EasterSunday freebie

James Stewart is Elwood P. Dowd. An ordinary man with an extraordinary claim: his best friend is an invisible, six feet three and a half inches-tall #pooka – a mythological Celtic, shapeshifting creature – who in Mr Dowd's case resembles a rabbit called #Harvey. Elwood's sister and niece, who also occasionally see the furry goblin, have their relative send to a sanatorium where the doctors and us viewers learn more about this curious case.

Harvey (1950), based on Mary Chase's #PulitzerPrize Play with the same name, is guaranteed to bring a smile on your face, this humbug's scout's honour! Have a nice #Easter, CineMastodons!

#film #cinema #HenryKoster #JamesStewart #púca #ShapeShifters #Easter #comedy #drama #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 10: Siblings on #NationalSiblingsDay

#Sisters Ester and Anna arrive with Anna's son Johan in the small Central European town of Timoka. The country verges on the brink of war. Ester is sick and confined to her hotel room. Anna roams Timoka's establishments, Johan wanders the hotel corridors.

It's hard to watch #Bergman's Tystnaden [The #Silence] (1963) without Kubrick's ghosts sidling in. #Tystnaden however doesn't need consternation to cause dread. The interaction and lack thereof between the three leads and the few extras translate into something merely tangible and evermore frightful.

#film #cinema #IngmarBergman #IngridThulin #GunnelLindblom #JörgenLindström #Sweden #existentialism #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 11: Ride a #submarine on #NationalSubmarineDav

Karel Zeman was a Czech film maker who seemingly magically combined live action with #StopMotion #animation. In his Vynález zkázy [A Deadly Invention] (1958), loosely based on #JulesVerne's Face au Drapeau, a professor is kidnapped by a fiendish count who wants to get his hands on a terrible super-weapon. Underwater pursuits commence! Based on the engravings that accompany the Verne story, Zeman came up with fantastic highly stylised in-camera effects that make the sets, actors and props resemble cross-hatched etchings.

That's more than enough words, here's the #trailer https://yewtu.be/watch?v=9ZLfe5xad4U

#film #cinema #Czechoslovakia #KarelZeman #JulesVerne #satire #science #SciFi #adventure #ZdeněkLiška #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 12: An only child (no, make that two!) on #NationalOnlyChildDay

An amazing adventure in the unusual!

Young Jill – played by the tragically doomed Lora Lee Michel – grows up on a ranch in an undisclosed African country (aka “Africa”) with her father. One day, two porters pass her house carrying an orphaned baby #gorilla. Smitten, she wants and gets the ape, names it Joe, and raises it until the simian reaches exceptional size. That's when a couple of showman collecting exotic menagerie for a Hollywood nightclub come across the odd couple. After long consideration and desperate for money, Jill decides to take Joe to the States where the two become an overnight cabaret sensation. But like Kong before him, Joe is not made for the concrete jungle.

One decade and a Hays Code later, the people who brought the world King Kong (1933) present Mighty Joe Young (1949): more drama, more spectacle, and superior special effects by Marcel Delgado, Ray #Harryhausen and Willis O'Brien et al. A box-office dud ánd Academy Award for Special Effects winner, Mighty Joe Young is now recognised as an #animation classic. In particular the nightclub scenes (keep your eyes peeled for Phil “The Swedish Angel” Olafsson!) are a wonderful display of the magic of #StopMotion.

#film #cinema #MightyJoeYoung #ErnestBSchoedsack #RuthRose #MerianCCooper #JohnFord #MarcelDelgado #RayHarryhausen #WillisHOBrien #WillisOBrien #TerryMoore #LoraLeeMichel #PhilOlafsson #animation #StopMotionAnimation#FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

@12pt9 #Bales2023FilmChallenge April 13: Focus on #plants on #InternationalPlantAppreciationDay

#KirlianPhotography is the #pseudoscience that claims that plants can communicate telepathically. In The Kirlian Witness (Jonathan Sarno, 1978), Rilla (I can't believe she's not a rapper) interrogates her dead sister's plant to find out who killed her. Not to be confused with the alternative cut The Plants are Watching.

#film #cinema #telepathy #esotheric #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 14: A dolphin spotted on #NationalDolphinDav

Shot on location in #Greece, sponge diver Phaedra (Sophia Loren) makes a splash when she finds an ancient statue of A Boy on a Dolphin*, rumoured to bring good luck to her town. Her attempts to sell it to the highest bidder makes not only the bronze but also her the object of desire of an honest archaeologist and an unscrupulous playboy antiques dealer.

* not only the title of this movie bus also possibly a reference to #Arion, son of the inhabitants of Lesbos (would that make this movie a bit too wild for 1957?), or #Taras, son of Poseidon and Satyrion. According to Greek legend, both mythological characters were saved by #dolphins.

#film #cinema #Hydra #AegeanSea #JeanNegulesco #AlanLadd #CliftonWebb #SophiaLoren #dolphins #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/ @12pt9

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 15: Erased on #RubberEraserDay

Jōhatsu, literally “evaporation” is the Japanese term for people disappearing without a trace. Salesman Tadashi Oshima is one of them. Director Shôhei Imamura, together with Oshima's fiancé Yoshie Hayakawa and actor Shigeru Tsuyuguchi created an investigative #documentary looks into this man, his possible whereabouts, and the others that are gone. 人間蒸発 [Ningen jôhatsu / A Man Vanishes] (1967) is a fascinating exploration of aspects of 1960s Japanese society that make jōhatsu distinct from similar, worldwide events.

#film #cinema #Japan #ArtTheatreGuild #蒸発 #jōhatsu #jôhatsu #johatsu #jouhatsu #ShôheiImamura #ShigeruTsuyuguchi #ToshirôMayuzumi #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 16: Cash for #NationalCashDay

Good-for-nothing Willi (Charly Wierzejewski) is in trouble. After yet another run-in with the law, and yet again meeting the wrong people at the wrong time, he falls in love with a destitute street worker (Eva Mattes). Now he really needs #money so he can support himself, her, and her kid. He tries his hand at renting himself out to a rich homosexual [homosexuality was illegal in 1970s W Germany], then moves forward to robbing the money transporter of a local supermarket with his pimp buddy. But as usual, Willi is in trouble.

Shot on location in #Hamburg's red-light district St. Pauli, Supermarkt (Roland Klick, 1974) is gritty, unpleasant and has an authenticity rarely seen in other films of this genre. An absolute recommendation.

#film #cinema #WestGermany #RolandKlick #CharlyWierzejewski #EvaMattes #StPauli #crime #heist #robbery #drama #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 17: Stressed out on #NationalStressAwarenessMonth

Stressed?‽ Who's got time to be stressed when there's a business to be run!!? Tom Palazzolo's Jerry’s Deli [Jerry] from 1974 is a great character study of not only a character, but a whole time period inhabited by characters. The titular Jerry is Jerry Meyer, owner and proprietor of a Chicagoan deli that happened to be right next to Palazzolo's film lab. You wanna eat? Now, eat! Wanna order? Whaddaya waiting for?? Order!! Roast beef on rye please. On RYE!?!

#film #cinema #TomPalazzolo #JerryMeyer #Chicago #food #documentary #charisma #delicatessen #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 18: Exercise on #NationalExerciseDay

Europeans are not too worried about certain things. Having a body for instance is something good. Instead of shame, you take care for it with regular exercise and plenty of fresh air. Preferably both. In Germany this is called #Freikörperkultur, sometimes confused with nudism.

In 1925, Wilhelm Prager released his Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit – Ein Film über moderne #Körperkultur [Ways to Strength and Beauty], showing the human in various stages of exercise and undress. We see sportspeople – including future-Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller and then-movie mountaineer Leni Riefenstahl – world leaders (Rockefeller and Mussolini, though the latter was cut from re-releases) and dancers such as Josephine Baker, Bac Ishii, and the scandalous Anita Berber. The film was mostly aimed at women, who by then were part of the workforce, sitting at desks in modern Metropolises. So modern it was that people were encouraged to complete their Wege-collection of trading cards, which came with their cigarettes. Good thing they're all #outdoors.

#film #cinema #Ufa #Weimar #Germany #FreshAir #documentary #gymnastics #FKK #WilhelmPrager #JohnnyWeissmuller #JosephineBaker #BacIshii #AnitaBerber #dance #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 19: Hanging out on #NationalHangingOutDay

Part of the never-realised #SuperStar-studded The Poor Little Rich Girl Saga, #Warhol's Afternoon (1965) documents a day in the life of doomed socialite Edie Sedgwick. Miss Sedgwick and her entourage (#Ondine, Dorothy Dean, Arthur Loeb, and Donald Lyons) spend an afternoon at Edie's place. The stars – bored and beautiful – chat, drink and do drugs. “Isn’t it wonderful that we can be just friends?”

#film #cinema #AndyWarhol #EdieSedgwick #RobertOlivo ##PoorLittleRichGirl #PoorLittleRichGirlSaga #TheFactory #drugs #boredom #documentary #art #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge Today, April 20 is SOLD! on #NationalAuctioneersDay

Werner #Herzog travels to New Holland, #Pennsylvania to witness the 1976 World #Livestock Auctioneer Championship. #Cattle is weighed and paraded in front of the buyers, and the 53 contestants have a few minutes to auction the animals off to the highest bidder. We see glimpses of the audience. New Holland is the land of the money-eschewing #Amish, descendants of German-speaking Swiss, whose dress, ways and speech found an ideal state in an increasingly convoluted world. While money rolls, the Amish hand out their home-baked pies to the Championship onlookers. To German-as-Apfeltorte Herzog, the auction is bewildering, the “last #poetry possible, the poetry of #capitalism”. In keeping with Herzog's poetic, ecstatic truth, Bruno S. too travels to America and encounters the auctioneers in Stroszek (1977).

#film #cinema #WernerHerzog #WestGermany #Americana #documentary #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 21: A fiddler for #FiddlersFrolic

In Mayan worldview, mortals move along the horizontal, gods along the vertical plane. A boy travels both worlds, united by music and wonder.

Juanito, a #Mixquic boy with hypersensitive hearing finds solace from the hustle of #MexicoCity in the silence of the chinampas – the pre-Hispanic man-made agricultural plots in lake #Xochimilco. There he plays his cardboard fiddle for the nature around him, until the sound from a real violin reaches him. The violinist, an old hermit who lives on one of the #chinampas, takes the boy in and teaches him how to master his hand-built instrument Yanco. When the man dies, the boy goes out at night to be able to play Yanco. In a changing world where the living and the dead used to naturally cross paths, the strings stir different to some.

The #Nahuatl film Yanco (Servando González / Mohy Quandour, 1961) is a small cinematic miracle that begs for a beautiful restoration akin to how കുമ്മാട്ടി [Kummatty] (Govindan Aravindan, 1979) opened up the world to indigenous filmmaking.

#film #cinema #Mexico #ServandoGonzález #MohyQuandour #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @bales1181 @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge (catch up) April 22: Rain on #AprilShowersDay

The opening scene of #Kurosawa's 羅生門 [#Rashômon / Rashomon] (1950).

#film #cinema #Japan #AkiraKurosawa #Rashomon #crime #samurai #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @bales1181 @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 23: Step into my mad lab on #WorldLaboratoryDay

Dr. Tube (Séverin-Mars) invents a powder that distorts reality and promptly tests it out on some oblivious test subjects, who quickly can no longer recognise the world around them. The brilliance of La folie du Docteur Tube [The Madness of Dr. Tube] (1915) is its use of practical in-camera effects that makes us, the viewer, experience the hallucinogen. This little folly by the great Abel Gance features Albert Dieudonné in a small part, who later would again work with Gance in his Napoleon (1927), as Napoléon Bonaparte.

Now take a nice deep breath here (trust me, I'm a doctor): https://cinemathequefr.github.io/henri/film/48677-la-folie-du-docteur-tube-abel-gance-1915/

#film #cinema #France #AbelGance #SéverinMars #AlbertDieudonné #laboratory #SciFi #comedy #SilentFilm #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @bales1181 @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 24: Screaming!! on #ScreamDay

One joyous day, Pvt. Wilhelm gave his dear life for movie geeks everywhere. The Gary Cooper (super duper!) #western Distant Drums (1951) is the origin of what's known as the Wilhelm scream. During a dramatic action scene, our dearly beloved private is hit in the thigh with an arrow. The bloodcurdling #scream was part of a sounds effect reel voiced by Sheb Wooley, known better for his 1958 rock n rolll novelty song “The Purple People Eater” than fighting off hostile natives. Later, other screamers popped up in anything from A Star Is Born (1954) to Reservoir Dogs (1992). And yes, even a long time ago. In a galaxy far far away.

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=CzOHw0wWNTQ

#film #cinema #WilhelmScream #SoundEffect #ShebWooley #western #Raoul Walsh #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @bales1181 @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 25: license plates on #LicensePlatesDay

Hitman Jef Costello (Alain Delon) coolly drives a #Citroën DS 21 to his garagiste (André Salgues), who routinely switches the license plates in a beautifully wordless, efficiently lit scene in Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï (1967).

#film #cinema #JeanPierreMelville #AlainDelon #AndréSalgues #NeoNoir #cars #CitroënDS #goddess #crime #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @bales1181 @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 26: An Australian in the lead on #HugAnAustralianDay

Skip the hugging. John Hillcoat's deeply unpleasant debut Ghosts… of the Civil Dead (1988) is based on the book In the Belly of the Beast (1981), a collection of excerpts of letters between prisoner Jack Henry Abbott and author Norman Mailer. True to the book's format, Ghosts consists of disjointed vignettes of monologues, #CCTV footage, title cards, and prisoners' phone calls. For the last 37 months, these filters inform the observer, the hypermodern #supermax Central Industrial Prison has been in permanent lockdown. The cast, a mix of professional actors and ex-cons, and the location, a clean factory-style hangar in the middle of the Australian desert, underscore the underlying raw brutality of the unfolding events.

The #industrial soundtrack is by Bad Seeds Nick Cave (co-writer and starring as Maynard), Mick Harvey, and Blixa Bargeld from when they were still closer to being birthday boys than morose crooners.

#film #cinema #Australia #crime #prison #PrisonSystem #SciFi #BookAdaptation #prisoners #JackHenryAbbott #NormanMailer #NickCave #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @bales1181 @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 27: #Morse code heard on #MorseCodeDay

Jean #Cocteau's Orphée [Orpheus] (1950) – here the mythological poet and musician is personified by Jean Marais – accompanies a fallen young poet transported to the Underworld by car. The car radio plays fragments of poetry, interrupted by #MorseCode. When back in this world, #Orphée obsesses over the lines of radical poetry he heard and returns to the car's radio to retrieve them.

Morse code and other industrial sounds serve as a soundscape for Cocteau's characters. They swerve in and out of it, sometimes fully aware of them (Orpheus himself is attuned to the #poetry to be found in emergency radio broadcasts), sometimes passing through like a mirage.

#film #cinema #JeanCocteau #MusiqueConcrète #GeorgesAuric #SoundDesign #soundscapes #JeanMarais #mythology #SamuelMorse #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @bales1181 @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

@12pt9 #Bales2023FilmChallenge April 28 (catch-up): A #comedy to watch with kids on #CleanComedyDay

https://write.underworld.fr/12pt9/once-upon-a-time-or-maybe-twice-there-was-an-unearthly-paradise-called

#film #cinema #TheBeatles #YellowSubmarine #musical #animation #LSD #PopArt #drugs #psychedelic #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @bales1181 @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

[I have to improvise my posts now that I'm on a server with only 500 characters to my disposal]

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 29: looking through a #telescope on #InternationalAstronomyDay

As in Enrico Novelli's Un matrimonio interplanetario [A Marriage in the Moon] (1910), interplanetary #romance blooms in Аэлита [Aelita: Queen of Mars] (Yakov Protazanov, 1924).

(cont. https://write.underworld.fr/settima/bales2023filmchallenge-april-29-looking-through-a-telescope-on)

#film #cinema #YakovProtazanov #USSR #SovietUnion #constructivism #Shostakovich #SilentFilm #Astronomy #propaganda #agitprop #SciFi #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge

#Bales2023FilmChallenge April 30: A wild hairdo for #HairstyleAppreciationDay (and #Walpurgis too!)

Wild with today's eyes, it is not. Yet Rosemary's “very in” #VidalSassoon #PixieCut was a shocking affair in 68. Suddenly, in her lunch break, Mia/Rosemary transformed from timid waif to women's lib.

(cont. https://write.underworld.fr/settima/bales2023filmchallenge-april-30-a-wild-hairdo-for-hairstyleappreciationday)

#film #cinema #witches #horror #FilMastodon #CineMastodon #RomanPolanski #MiaFarrow #JohnCassavetes #IraLevin #BookAdaptation #fashion @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 1: Showing loyalty on #LoyaltyDay

Yukio Mishima was, besides an aesthete, a fierce proponent of Japanese nationalism. In 憂國 [Yūkoku / #Patriotism or the Rite of Love and Death] (1966), based on his 1960 story, Mishima himself is palace guard Lt. Shinji Takeyama.

(cont. https://social.horrorhub.club/@settima@write.underworld.fr/110294507203324791)

#film #cinema #DomotoMasaki #YukioMishima #YoshikoTsuruoka #CoupDEtat #Japan #JapanArtTheatreGuild #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @bales1181 @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 2: a foster child for #NationalFosterCareDay

The town's muse tragically drowns, taking her newborn child with her. The girl floats down the river and is picked up by an older, childless couple who gladly raise her as their own.

cont. https://write.underworld.fr/settima/bales2023filmchallenge-may-2-a-foster-child-for-nationalfostercareday

Mutya ng Pasig [Muse of Pasig] (Richard Abelardo, 1950) is well worth your time on a slowly meandering, hot summer night.

#film #cinema #folklore #Philipines #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 3: filmed in #Montana on #NationalMontanaDay

Jon Jost's Last Chants for a Slow Dance (1977) took me aback on my first watch. Tom (Tom Blair) is out there looking for work. Out of the way of his wife and into the heart of Montana. On a slow moving road trip, dragging and scorching like hot tar, we accompany him and some of the vapid interactions with others out there

cont https://write.underworld.fr/settima/bales2023filmchallenge-may-3-filmed-in-montana-on-nationalmontanaday

#film #cinema #JonJost #USA #RoadMovie #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 4: Someone praying on (for?) #NationalDayOfPrayer

Simón is a stylite, living in the Syrian #desert on top of a pillar, close to God, #praying. As with anyone who believes in sin, or desires to be free of sin, sin comes to Simón, as this is #Buñuel's Simón del desierto [San Simeón del desierto aka Simon of the Desert] (1965).

cont. https://write.underworld.fr/settima/bales2023filmchallenge-may-4-someone-praying-on-for

#FilMastodon #CineMastodon @bales1181 @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 5: A #concert on #NationalConcertDay

On a grand ocean liner, friends, colleagues and admirers have come together to scatter a beloved #opera diva's ashes. During a visit to the boiler room an operatic competition unfolds accompanied with the pulsating rhythm of the steam liner's bloated belly.

cont. https://social.horrorhub.club/@settima@write.underworld.fr/110317339622807033

#film #cinema #FedericoFellini #PinaBausch #music #satire #comedy #drama #Italy #France #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 6: Ordering a beverage on #BeverageDay

At a poolside party, the swimmer appears. He notes that the houses in between his hosts' and his are connected by a “river” of pools and decides to swim home, from one pool to the other, foolishly, superficially meeting people, crashing suburban pool parties, increasingly irrational.

(cont. https://write.underworld.fr/settima/bales2023filmchallenge-may-6-ordering-a-beverage-on-beverageday)

#film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon #FrankPerry #BurtLancaster @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 7: Glued to #NationalPasteUpDay

In a strange other England, a train on its way to #Canterbury pulls into the station. When Alison disembarks a stranger pours #glue in her hair. She's the 11th, the policeman said. It's the glue man, the townsfolk know. Like the pilgrims in #Chaucer's poem, the travellers journey towards the closure of this mystifying case.

cont https://social.horrorhub.club/@settima@write.underworld.fr/110328186619277675

#film #cinema #hauntology #UK #PowellPressburger #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 9: A teacher for #TeacherAppreciationDay

A goodnight #kiss on the lips was all it takes for 14-year old Manuela to fall for her teacher, Fräulein von Bernburg. Then, after celebrating her rousing performance as the male lead in Don Carlos, Manuela gaily blurts out that yes, she is indeed in love with her teacher! This lack of discipline can't go unpunished, with devastating results.

cont https://write.underworld.fr/settima/what-you-call-sin-i-call-the-great-spirit-of-love-which-takes-a-thousand

#film #cinema #LGBT @film #FilMastodon #CineMastodon

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 10: Filmed in #Washington for #NationalWashingtonDay

An uneventful night at the Crisis Clinic, psychology student Alan Newell takes his books to study. Then a woman calls. She's drowsy. She has taken barbiturates and wants to talk while slipping away. While Alan fights to keep the woman on the line, attempts are made to trace the call.

cont https://write.underworld.fr/settima/bales2023filmchallenge-may-10-filmed-in-washington-state-for

#SydneyPollack #SidneyPoitier #QuincyJones #FilMastodon #CineMastodon

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 11: A big ego on #WorldEgoAwarenessDay

Pretty boy Lonnie gets what he wants. And he wants to be out of where he came from, and he wants to be wanted and rich. And he's got the looks and the voice and the ego. So he gets it, the getting out and the love and the money. And then some. And then some. And then.

cont. https://write.underworld.fr/settima/its-not-my-fault-that-opportunity-came-my-way

#film #cinema #JamesLandis #SchuylerHayden #VilmosZsigmond #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @bales1181 @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 12: A hospital setting on #NationalHospitalDay

A strange man arrives at Dr Holst's #hospital. So strange he's send to the psychiatric ward. This man, Steinmetz, insists on the doctor's help. He can materialise things but living beings is what he wants. He has an OP in his home, it can be done there. While the doctor refuses, Steinmetz evolves

https://write.underworld.fr/settima/bales2023filmchallenge-may-12-a-hospital-setting-on-nationalhospitalday

#JensRavn #ValdemarHolst #JohnPrice #PrebenNeergaard #LotteTarp #SciFi #FilMastodon #CineMastodon

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 14: Someone hurts their back on #SpinalCordInjuryAwarenessDay

A brawl over a woman. That's what breaks The Great Phroso. After recovery, a year later, he finds himself a paraplegic and his stolen wife dead in a church with an infant next to her. To Africa he takes the child – it's the other man's, the ivory trader's – and carefully, vengefully raises her.

cont. https://write.underworld.fr/settima/how-did-god-ever-put-a-thing-like-you-on-this-earth

#film #cinema #TodBrowning #LonChaney #LionelBarrymore #PreCode

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 15: Someone putting on or removing stockings on #NationalNylonStockingDay

Legs legs #legs and then some! While Miss Bi… Miss Rich (#ClaireDodd) chats with Nan's boss Chester Kent (#JamesCagney), Nan (#JoanBlondell) absent-mindedly puts on two #stockings on one (lovely) leg, removes it, then slips it onto the other: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=6HCXA4wrZgo

#LloydBacon #PreCode #musical #BusbyBerkeley #film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

https://write.underworld.fr/settima/meow

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 16: Someone barbecues on #NationalBarbecueDay

However regarded as a lesser #Tati, Trafic [Traffic] (1971), is another display of lovingly choreographed insanity, notably a #CarCrash that makes me wonder if this was Tati's attempt to transpose Godard's Week-end [Weekend] (1967) into a pleasant, pre-May 68 France.

(cont. https://write.underworld.fr/settima/where-are-you-going-mr)

#JacquesTati #MonsieurHulot #France #Italy #comedy #cars #food #film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 17: Filmed in Idaho on #NationalIdahoDay

A disaster has struck the future world. A private one, Karen's sister has had an accident. A global one, so severe that a Government project is put in place in the #Idaho desert and in different points in time. Teenagers are send 56 years ahead to repopulate the land. Then, without warning or reason, The Project shuts down.

Cont: https://write.underworld.fr/settima/esto-perpetua

#SciFi #film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 18: Appreciating #art on #InternationalMuseumDay

African art with such a deep significance were, w/i the bounds of Western civilisation, “things”. Through the editing, photography & dialogue they speak to the viewer, escaping the institute's walls. This voice was enough for the CNC to cut ⅔ of the film; the segment that's not blatantly #AntiColonial, was to be watched.

☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/when-men-die-they-enter-into-history

#ChrisMarker #Resnais #documentary #film #cinema #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 19: An activist on #MalcolmXDay

'Twas the week before Xmas & Santa Claus arrives. An army of Santas bring cheer, song & hot cocoa to delighted shoppers, then visit the shutdown GM factory. Day 7 Santa visits Magasin & in the true spirit of Xmas hands out books. Staff starts pummelling the Santas, ripping off beards. Children, in tears, their dreams of a just world shattered.

☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/here-santa-opens-a-factory-with-1000-workers

#JonBangCarlsen #documentary #film #cinema #CineMastodon @film