Dull, Depressing, Dismal, and Deadly!!! Miss Prescott forever!!!
Category Archives: Film
Always Must Do Everything Correctly…
I’ve been watching Grey Gardens nonstop for the past 72 hours. I’m unsure about whether these two women are completely possessed by their undiagnosed schizophrenia or the sanest women I have ever observed. In any case, there is something so enviable about total surrender to a life unaffected by the world’s opinions. I can’t figure out whether these women are my terrifying failure-deterrents, or who I should strive to become. Line after unscripted line, they seem to get life just right:
Big Edie: Oh, look. That cat’s going to the bathroom right behind my portrait.
Little Edie: Ughh, how awful.
Big Edie: No, I’m glad. I’m glad somebody’s doing something what they want to do!
Good Grief
Photographer Erwin Olaf has received a lot of attention for his Grief series. These images of women in “grief-striken” moments are definitely striking. But most of all I love his more beautiful, yet uncomfortably “inappropriate” work. It actually makes me squirmy, in an interesting way. The Mind of their Own series of portraits of children and adults with what appears to be Down’s Syndrome is riveting. I also adore the Royal Blood collection and portraits of Slovaks in his ProductPhotography for Borek Sipek. Olaf’s work has been commissioned for big brands from Levi’s to Microsoft, and Nokia, but his personal work, of course, is his best. Some of the nudes in on his site in the Chessmen and Squares series are definitely beyond my comfort zone but I have to stare at them anyway.
See his full body of work HERE. Make sure to view the short films. This is the man I want to direct my biopic.
Underrated Female #9: Sara Montiel
The gorgeous Sara Montiel is perhaps the hottest actress to have graced the Spanish screen. Born in 1928 in the Castile-La Mancha region of Spain, she was the first woman to flaunt her sexuality at a time when even a low-cut dress was not acceptable and went on to become the most comecially successful Spanish actress of the mid-twentieth century despite her tumultuous private life, string of divorces during the incredibly conservative and Catholic Francisco Franco dictatorship. Get the whole story
Green Away?
Whatever happened to Peter Greenaway? The Cook the Thief his Wife & Her Lover is one of my favorite visual movies ever. Greenaway’s amazing black comedy follows these four characters who come together at the lavish Hollandaise Restaurant, where a crime lord takes over an upscale restaurant while his wife begins a secretive affair with a silent, well read regular. The scenes are impeccable staged. Here’s a taste…
Underrated Female #7: Florinda Bolkan
Florinda Bolkan (né Florinda Soares Bulcao) was born in northeastern Brazil in 1941. Her father, Josè Pedro, was over 60 at the time. Widower and state deputy, his second marriage to Maria Hosana, an 18 year old Indios girl who barely knew how to write, gave him three wonderful children: Alina, Josè Maria and the youngest, Florinda. After graduation from secondary school, she managed to secure a job as Executive Hostess for Brazil’s national airline, Varig. Dissatisfied, she moved to Paris at 18, attended the Sorbonne, yet failed to find her place in her new city. After modestly turning down many modeling offers she returned to Brazil to find her way. Get the whole story
Underrated Female #7: Florinda Bolkan
Florinda Bolkan (né Florinda Soares Bulcao) was born in northeastern Brazil in 1941. Her father, Josè Pedro, was over 60 at the time. Widower and state deputy, his second marriage to Maria Hosana, an 18 year old Indios girl who barely knew how to write, gave him three wonderful children: Alina, Josè Maria and the youngest, Florinda. After graduation from secondary school, she managed to secure a job as Executive Hostess for Brazil’s national airline, Varig. Dissatisfied, she moved to Paris at 18, attended the Sorbonne, yet failed to find her place in her new city. After modestly turning down many modeling offers she returned to Brazil to find her way. Get the whole story
Underrated Female #6: Claudia Cardinale
The brilliantly talented Tunisian Italian Claudia Cardinale has to be one of the most physically perfect human beings ever created. She was born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardin in 1938 and had her break into films after winning a Tunisian beauty contest in 1957. Despite her very voluptuously feminine appearance, she had a very deep voice and had her voice dubbed in her early films. Cardinale made her film debut in Goha (1958) and later appeared in over seventy Italian and French films including a slew of Fellini films, most notable of which might be silver screen phenomenon 8 1/2.
Cardinale never made a real attempt to break into the American market since she was not interested in leaving Europe for extended periods of time. Her Hollywood films include Circus World (1964), The Pink Panther (1964) Blindfold (1965) and The Hell With Heroes (1968).
Bob Dylan obviously found her as perfect a creature as I do – her photograph appeared on his album Blonde On Blonde in 1966, but since the photo was used without Cardinale’s permission, it was removed from the cover art in later pressings. Keep Reading!!! Get the whole story
Big Bad Woolf
I can watch Virgina Woolf‘s Orlando a hundred million times and it’s still amazing. I could never understand why this movie is not the benchmark for all period films. Dark, witty, and unforgettable, this insane escapade follows the life of its simultaneous hero / heroine over a span of three centuries. Orlando is total sensory candy. Sally Potter nails the book and Tilda Swinton kills it on screen. Not to mention the Jimmy Sommerville music. This is my favorite scene.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1zHr6ienoc&hl=en&fs=1]
Deli Meat
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYo_SkERMNI&hl=en&fs=1]
Delicatessen. One of the coolest and strangely beautiful movies ever made – about sex, meat, the apocalypse, cannibalism, vegetarian rebels, and crowded quarters.
