#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

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 20: A band director/conductor for #NationalBandDirectorsDay

In the children's #film Valahol Európában [It Happened in Europe] (Géza von Radványi, 1947), a band of plundering feral orphans hiding out in a ruined castle find an old disillusioned pacifist conductor (Artúr Somlay) who's waiting out the war.

#GézaVonRadványi #ArtúrSomlay #Hungary #war #WWII #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 21: It's the end of the world on the #EndOfTheWorld

It's another schoolday in rural America when the #NuclearAttack alarm starts ringing. A teacher, instructed to calmly walk the kids home, tries to keep the youngest ones oblivious of the impending doom. While the children walk, talk and sing, this thing up there, in the sky and in the mind, grows bigger.

#FrankPerry #EleanorPerry #LoisDickert #drama #film #ColdWar #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film ★★★★½

#Bales2023FilmChallenge

I somehow almost and often do forget to mention the #film's title. This is Ladybug Ladybug (Frank Perry, 1963).

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 22: A seaside town for #NationalMaritimeDay

Night Tide (#CurtisHarrington, 1961): on the #SantaMonica pier, sailor Johnny (#DennisHopper) falls in love with one of the attractions of the local sideshow, Mora the Mermaid. As people warn Johnny about the faith of Mora's previous suitors, captivated, he becomes convinced that she is a real siren, planning his downfall.

☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/night-tide-1961

#mermaids #Thelema #film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 23: Freebie: Father and son (March 4 redux)

Not a film you can be prepared for, Padre padrone [My Father My Master aka Father and Master] (Taviani, 1977). The author, Gavino Ledda, hands a stick – that stick – to the actor who plays his part. There we are, in Sardinia, beautiful Sardinia. A boy in class, learning. His father barges in.

☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/padre-padrone-1977

#film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 24: Someone prepares #food for someone else on #NationalCaterersAppreciationDay

At night, a small group of prostitutes frequent a local 面薄 [mee pok] eatery. One of them, Bunny), caught the hawker's eye, but she's not interested in a #MeePok​Man (fish ball). Then, a car crash. Bunny is left for dead in front of the eatery. He takes her in, preparing endless meals

Mee Pok Man (#EricKhoo, 1995) ☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/bo-mian-lao-1995

#film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 25: Tap dancing on #TapDanceDay

Dušan Makavejev's Nevinost bez zaštite [Innocence Unprotected] (1968) is a treasure trove. Of fantastic people, feats, footage, and genres. We sit down to watch #Serbia's first feature talkie and are joined by the people who created it. While they speak, and occasionally burst out into song, we meet Dragoljub!, the movie's lead with the jaws of steel.

☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/nevinost-bez-zastite-1968

#film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 26: A Dracula movie for
#WorldDraculaDay

A black forest. A man walks through, holding a smoke machine. Then a carriage with a familiar coachman. #Dracula! Where are we? No, not 19th century #Transylvania. The film stock reveals bullet holes in ancient walls, and beyond these walls a ladder, maybe scaffolding. #PerePortabella's 1971 Cuadecuc, vampir is a hyper-reality.

☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/cuadecuc-vampir-1971

#JesúsFranco #vampires #film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 27: A bridge to celebrate the #GoldenGateBridge opening in 1937

Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958).

#AlfredHitchcock #Hitchcock #PierreBoileau #ThomasNarcejac #JamesStewart #KimNovak #mystery #drama #crime #thriller #romance #BookAdaptation #USA #1950s ★★★½

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 28: Hungry on #WorldHungerDay

In Mrinal Sen's আকালের সন্ধানে [Akaler Sandhane / In Search of Famine] (1982), a Calcutta film crew arrives in a small Bengal town to make a film about the 1943 #BengalFamine. Initially, their arrival sparks joy and wonder but while filming, the participants – travelling back and forth between 43 and 80, Calcutta and rural Bengal, and reality and re-enactment – face the one constant, #famine.

#cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 29: Mountains on #MountEverestDay

Grauzone (Fredi M. Murer, 1979) takes place in a Swiss valley where former Bergler (mountain people) live a modern, comfortable life on summits made of concrete instead of rock. When rumours about a #pandemic stir an ancient, unnamed fear, a young prosperous couple find that what they believed was concrete, solid, immovable, suddenly shows signs of a shift.

☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/grauzone-1979-5mn2

#film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge May 31: Filmed in Utah on #NationalUtahDay

With Sure Fire (1990), director #JonJost accomplishes that what Lynch tries. A mundane gem with an ominous undertow, but all without the need for mystery or eccentric characters. Just #Utah, and its people.

☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/sure-fire-1990

#film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 1: Dinosaurs on #DinosaurDay

In 1914, a brontosaurus named Gertie and a comic strip creator called Winsor McCay travelled the land – animated and real – with a chalk talk, a live performance in which an artist would chat and draw on a blackboard in real time. With the movies young and promising, Gertie's leap to celluloid was made the very same year ☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/gertie-the-dinosaur-1914

#WinsorMcCay #comedy #dinosaurs #animation #film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 2: Filmed in #Italy on #RepublicDayItaly

An idealised, hypermodern interpretation of Classical Roman architecture, #EUR feels alien and inhumane and serves as a perfect backdrop for the events a last man on earth may come up against.

The Last Man on Earth (1964) ☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/the-last-man-on-earth-1964

#horror #VincentPrice #film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 3: a bear for #NationalBlackBearDay

As part of a witty surprise, Lucía arranged a #bear and 3 sheep for the dinner party she's thrown for her guests. However, the joke's not appreciated and in the run of the evening they find that they cannot leave the salon. While the animals roam the house, the elite's faced with hunger, primal urges, and no motivation to leave.

El ángel exterminador (1962) ☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/el-angel-exterminador-1962

#film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 4: On the ocean during #NationalWeekOfTheOcean

Raúl Ruiz's Les trois couronnes du matelot (1983) aka Three Crowns of the Sailor.

Blog post to follow.

#film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 6: University on #NationalHigherEducationDay

A ripple went through #France in the early months of 68. Police invaded Sorbonne university and 20 000 stood up against the police. Somewhere in that crowd were those whose interest went beyond the main spectacle: the toppling of the new ancien regime. Filmmaker #WilliamKlein pushes the eye through the masses.

Grands soirs & petits matins aka May Days (1978) ☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/grands-soirs-and-petits-matins-1978

#documentary #CinémaDirect

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 7: A tailor on #NationalTailorsDay

1 litre of vodka is the wager for correctly guessing a woman's dress size. Of course, tailor Józef doesn't need to guess and that 1 litre later, finds himself walking through space. When he comes round from his coma, he builds an observatory where, with his home-made telescope, he dreams of finding an unknown planet, and discovers the world around him

Planeta krawiec [The Planet Tailor] (1983) ☞https://write.underworld.fr/settima/planeta-krawiec-1983

#film @film

From tailor to sailor.

For #Bales2023FilmChallenge June 8: Mutiny on #BountyDay, the most famously visualized mutiny in cinema #history, Sergei Eisenstein's Броненосец Потёмкин [Bronenosets Potemkin / Battleship #Potemkin] (1925)

#USSR #SergeiEisenstein #film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 9: filmed in Uganda for #NationalHeroesDayOfUganda

In 1974, German-Swiss #BarbetSchroeder, privileged diplomat's son, already knew more than enough about how to select framing and manipulate timing. The result, Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait [General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait aka No One Can Run Faster Than a Rifle Bullet] (1974) is a prime example of the neo-colonialist gaze ☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/general-idi-amin-dada-autoportrait-1974

#film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 10: A main character wears a cape for #SupermanWeek

Capes, cloaks, and mantles are everywhere in Dieterle and Reinhardt's lavishly outfitted A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935). The dreamlike #CostumeDesign by #MaxRée and the uncredited #MiloAnderson is as much as a personality as #Shakespeare's characters are. Any reports of Kenneth Anger's presence as the Changeling Prince are greatly exaggerated.

#film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon #CostumeDesign @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 11: Say Hi! on #SayHiDay

The #telephone as a character in
#PhillipsSmalley & #LoisWeber's nail-biting Suspense (1913) ☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/suspense-1913

#film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 12: Child labour in a movie on #ChildLaborDay

“This isn’t playtime, kids, it’s work.” –Charles Lamont, Baby Burlesk director

In the #BabyBurlesk Kid 'N' Hollywood [aka Kid in Hollywood] (#CharlesLamont, 1933), #ShirleyTemple plays a Hollywood hopeful called Morelegs Sweettrick, who gets her break when the star doesn't feel like showing up (kids, right? no discipline).

☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/kid-n-hollywood-1933

#film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

Oof, lots of catching up to do… But first

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 16: A Richard for #NationalRichardDay

Richard Wagner comes in many forms in Ken Russell's Franz Liszt #musical #biopic-#fantasy extravaganza #Lisztomania (1975). A sailor Dracula is not in the least the most outrageous one.

#KenRussell #film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

“You know, I wish I had my board with me… even if I could just wax it once in a while.” —Lt. Doolittle

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 17: Surfing on #InternationalSurfingDay

On the other side of outer space, far far away from crypto-fascist space operas and existentialist odysseys, is a little stoner cosmos where a small, dilapidated starship manned by long-haired freaks drifts about. This is #JohnCarpenter's Dark Star (1974).

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

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 18: An #aquarium on #CleanYourAquariumDay

A middle-class Austrian family – father, mother and their ten year old daughter – live a mundane, almost ritualised life. There's work, school, social obligations. Stuff to maintain and food to prepare. Patients to see and fish to feed. Constant repetition begets chaos.

Der siebente Kontinent [The Seventh Continent ] (1989) ☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/der-siebente-kontinent-1989

#MichaelHaneke #film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 19: Cardboard boxes on #InternationalBoxDay

Inmates preoccupy themselves with making cardboard boxes. While working together, talking, gaining trust, plans for an escape unfold. Le trou [The Hole aka The Night Watch] (Jacques Becker, 1960) is based on a real #PrisonEscape and introduced by one of the men involved, Jean Keraudy ☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/le-trou-1960

#film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 20: Filmed in #Argentina on #NationalFlagDay

A slum survives next to a railroad bridge. When the train travelling from the city shows up, the children who are old and gutsy enough run along and yell tire dié! toss me a dime! Some of them make more than their parents do. Fernando Birri's Tire dié (1958) is a sobering account of #poverty and how it's as much a part of life's schedule as a slow running train on a rickety bridge. #film #cinema #documentary @film

> Welcome home, Ethan.

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 21: Filmed in #Arizona on #NationalArizonaDay

John Ford's The Searchers (1956)

#JohnFord #JohnWayne #NatalieWood #western #drama #USA #1950s

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 23: A typewriter for #NationalTypewriterDay

Office worker Josef K. is brought to trial and at no point told what he is accused of, if anything. #Kafka was a trained lawyer working as an insurance agent in an impossible artifice world of reports & precise wording. W/i its extended logic a man can get perplexedly lost, either within the walls of his #office or one's bed.

#OrsonWelles' Le procès ☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/le-proces-1962

#film #cinema #FilMastodon #CineMastodon @film

#Bales2023FilmChallenge #BalesBonus Joan #Crawford as Flaemmchen [“Little Flame”] in Edmund Goulding's Grand Hotel (1932)

#JoanCrawford #film #PreCode #typewriters

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 24: Someone swimming on #'SwimALapDay

In his 1973/74 A Bigger Splash, cinematographer and filmmaker #JackHazan juxtaposes #DavidHockney working on “Portrait of an Artist” with speculative scenes about the creation of the work and the disintegration of Hockney's & Schlesinger's relationship. It did create a splash, in particular in its ordinary depiction of a homosexual relationship ☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/a-bigger-splash-1973-74

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

#Bales2023FilmChallenge June 26: Sarah on #NationalSarahDay

Commissioned for a West-German TV series, filmmaker #HarunFarocki visits artist #SarahSchumann in her Berlin studio. The resulting documentary, Ein Bild von Sarah Schumann (1978), shows the process of creating one art piece over the course of nine weeks. Schumann's work in that period consists of collage portraits of women important in her life. ☞ https://write.underworld.fr/settima/ein-bild-von-sarah-schumann-1978

#documentary #feminism #FineArt #TVMovie #ShortFilm #1970s