Cesare Zavattini

Cesare Zavattini was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema.

Born in Luzzara, near Reggio Emilia in northern Italy in 1902, Zavattini studied law at the University of Parma, but devoted himself to writing. In 1930 he relocated to Milan, and worked for the book and magazine publisher Angelo Rizzoli.

After Rizzoli began producing films in 1934, Zavattini received his first screenplay and story credits in 1936. In 1935, he met Vittorio De Sica, beginning a partnership that produced some twenty films, including such masterpieces of Italian neorealism

In his only experience in Hollywood, Zavattini wrote the screenplay for The Children of Sanchez (1978) based on Oscar Lewis’s book of the same title, a classic study of a Mexican family. 

At the 11th Moscow International Film Festival in 1979, he was awarded the Honourable Prize for the contribution to cinema. In 1983 he was a member of the jury at the 13th Moscow International Film Festival.

Zavattini died in Rome on 13 October 1989. He was an atheist.

The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena)

The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena) is a 1973 Spanish drama film directed by Víctor Erice. The film was Erice's debut and is considered a masterpiece of Spanish cinema.

Six-year-old Ana lives in the manor house in an isolated Spanish village on the Castilian plateau with her parents Fernando and Teresa and her older sister, Isabel. The year is 1940, and the civil war has just ended with the Francoist victory over the Republican forces. Her aging father spends most of his time absorbed in tending to and writing about his beehives; her much younger mother is caught up in daydreams about a distant lover, to whom she writes letters. The entire family is only ever seen together in a single shot towards the end of the movie, there is no discussion. Ana's closest companion is Isabel, who loves her but cannot resist playing on her little sister's gullibility.

At the beginning of the film, a mobile cinema brings Frankenstein to the village and the two sisters go to see it. Ana finds the film more interesting than frightening; particularly the scene where the monster plays benignly with a little girl, then accidentally kills her. She asks her sister, "Why did he kill the girl, and why did they kill him after that?" Isabel tells her that the monster didn't kill the girl and isn't really dead; she says that everything in films is fake. Isabel says the monster is like a spirit, and Ana can talk to him if she closes her eyes and calls him: "It's me, Ana."

At the end of the film, Ana recalls what Isabel said about calling the monster, and she stands alone by her bedroom window and closes her eyes.

The film is full of hidden meanings. The disintegration of the family's emotional life is symbolic of the emotional disintegration of the Spanish nation during the civil war.

The barren empty landscape around the sheepfold represents Spain's isolation during the beginning years of the Francoist regime.

The film was made in 1973, when the regime was not as severe as it had been at the beginning; however it was still not possible to be openly critical of the regime. By making films rich in symbolism and subtlety, a message could be embodied in a film that would be accepted or missed by the censor's office.

Willie G.

William Godfrey "Willie G." Davidson (1933) is an American businessman and motorcycle designer, and the former senior vice president & chief styling officer of Harley-Davidson Motor Company.

He was also the head of Harley-Davidson's Willie G. Davidson Product Development Center in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. While being generally responsible for approving Harley-Davidson motorcycle designs, he also personally designed several motorcycles for Harley-Davidson, including the Super Glide and the Low Rider, which pioneered the factory custom motorcycle and created an intermediate line of motorcycles between their large touring models and their smaller Sportsters.

Willie G. Davidson is the son of former Harley-Davidson president William H. Davidson and the grandson of Harley-Davidson co-founder William A. Davidson. Consequently, he grew up around Harley-Davidsons. Davidson graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and went on to study at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, where he became aware of bike customization.

Before working for Harley-Davidson, Davidson worked for the design department of Ford Motor Company. Willie G. retired from Harley-Davidson in 2012. He is to remain involved as brand ambassador and in Special Design Projects as Chief Styling Officer Emeritus.

Laurita Siles from Fundación BilbaoArte Fundazioa

If only my Spanish, let alone Basque, language skills were better, I could relate here exactly what these photographers stand for. Alas, neither Spanish or Basque or my strong points.

The pictures were found on this website and I understand it is about an art project of Laurita Siles that celebrates the peasant life; a bicycle carding wool, for example.

The blackened face has to do with the carranzanas sheep; a breed at the edge of extinction.

Either way, fascinating pictures. 

Seydou Keïta

The great African portraitist Seydou Keïta lived in Bamako, Mali from 1921 to 2001. A self-taught photographer, he opened a studio in 1948 and specialized in portraiture. Seydou Keïta soon photographed all of Bamako and his portraits gained a reputation for excellence throughout West Africa.

 

Seydou Keïta was discovered in the West in the 1990s. His first solo exhibition took place in 1994 in Paris at the Fondation Cartier. This was followed by many others in various museums, galleries and foundations worldwide. He is now universally recognized as the father of African photography and considered one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century.

Basque Anthropology/Ethnography

Anthropology is the intellectual result of the comparative methods developed in the earlier 19th century. 

Theorists in such diverse fields as anatomy, linguistics, and ethnology, making feature-by-feature comparisons of their subject matters, were beginning to suspect that similarities between animals, languages, and folkways were the result of processes or laws unknown to them then. 

For them, the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was the epiphany of everything they had begun to suspect. Darwin himself arrived at his conclusions through comparison of species he had seen in agronomy and in the wild.

The study (sometimes scientific, often not) of people and ethnicities became very popular early last century.

The Basques, a unique people in Europe, were often portrayed on postcards, pointing out various characteristics in their appearance. 

Tagging

Cartoon (2007) held by the New Zealand National Library:

A tagger is annoyed that a mountain scene being painted by an artist wearing a Basque beret is on a part of the wall that he wants to tag.

Prieto Manuel Benitez

 (1912 - 1991) was a Spanish painter and medal sculptor.

Manolo Prieto in El-Puerto-de-Santa-María, 1929

His most well-known graphic work is a silhouette of the Osborne Bull (1956), originally an Osborne Group advertisement but so successful that it has become the “cultural and artistic heritage of the peoples of Spain” according to a court ruling.

He is also the author of various designs of medals, such as those found in the municipal museum of his hometown El Puerto de Santa María, some with erotic themes.

Prieto was also a recognized militant of the Spanish Communist Party. During the Spanish Civil War, he supported the Republican side and collaborated with drawings for Altavoz del Pueblo and newspaper El Sol, in addition to being artistic director of a newspaper for the V Army Corps. 

Later, during Franco's dictatorship, he illustrated articles in the national press under the pseudonym Teté, worked for theNational Factory of Currency and Stamps as sculptor of medals, and received numerous prizes. He achieved great recognition for his designs of bullfight posters.

The Junta de Andalucía registered its famous design of the bull, of which up to five hundred were distributed alongside hundreds of roads throughout the country.

Manolo Prieto once expressed his disappointment because, after all he had done in artistic matters, of the very different registers he had played in the plastic creation, he will end up being known, generally, as the author of the bull on the road.

British made Free French Airborne Beret

Sometimes, looking on Ebay for vintage berets, one comes across a real treasure.

This 1944 paratrooper’s beret for example, made by the” British Beret Basque Ltd.”

The beret was issued to commando’s/paratroopers of the "Free French", fighting the Nazi’s and Vichy French Government. 

The winged badge is numbered 875; a truly rare find. 

Breton Berets

A collection of vintage photo's of fishermen from Brittany, dated around 1900-1910. 

No Caps - Berets Only

I have come across a lot of stupid signs in my life; most of them pretty harmless like "No shirt, no shoes, no service" or "Don't sleep on the grass", but sometimes a sign can feel very offensive. 

The (Australian based) Bank of New Zealand for example, tells people entering the bank's premises to take off their hat and yes, that includes berets!

The sign shown here, offered by a French stationary supplier, should be used in any public (and private) space really, as far as I'm concerned. 

Going South

Tony, from Tasmania

From today, The Beret Project is on leave, until the 30th of this month; an exploratory mission further south from Wellington, to Tasmania.

Feeding a Wallaby, Tasmania

All orders placed over the next 10 days will ship on 30 March and whenever possible, questions will be responded to.

Tasmanian painter Max Angus

Serigraf Ball

 

A football is a clever assembly of pentagons and hexagons that must be combined to form a harmonious and colorful design. Simon Mutscher and Louis-Bernard Guillizzoni, two young friends from Nantes, became ball designers and launched their brand: Serigraf Ball. The two are complementary: Simon is a rugby fan, Louis-Bernard, a football fan.

French Resistance: Isabelle Nacry

One of the iconic photos of the French Resistance, pictruring Isabelle Nacry.

On September 9, 1944, the commander of the 8th Canadian Brigade, Brigadier Blackader, gave orders for the regrouping of his units to the North-East of Boulogne (St Martin les Boulogne, Pittefaux, Wimille), in order to deliver the final blow. The region was to be occupied by the 9th Brigade. In the center of La Capelle, the Canadian soldiers prepared to continue their journey. One of the German shells fell right in the center of the village: two FFI leaders, Marcel Caudevelle and Jean Legrand, were killed instantly. The command of the La Capelle free corps was then assumed by Isabelle Nacry, a first-time resistance fighter and liaison agent.

They continued their mission with rare efficiency beyond the capture of Boulogne (September 18) and until the neutralization of all German opposition. 

On Monday, November 8, 1944, in the Schramn barracks in Arras, during the parade, General Deligne awarded Isabelle Nacry the Croix de Guerre with citation, "showing the greatest courage, reasoned composure and the purest patriotism. Adored by her men, she never stopped commanding."