Les Enfants du Paradis

Last night I went and saw Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise). I am a big fan of French cinema, yet I had never seen this classic film before. The film was over three hours in length.

The movie centers around Garance, a woman who is loved by four different men. Frederick, Lacenaire, Baptiste, and Count Eduard of Monteray. Garance only truly loves one of the men, Baptiste, the mime. Baptiste is tragically beautiful in not only the way that he looks, but as well as in the way that he moves and behaves.

The movie's ending tears at your heart. I left the theater with dampened red eyes, and a woman who was walking behind me was sobbing.

Les Enfants du Paradis is a masterpiece for the heart and soul.

An interesting thing to note is that this movie was filmed during the Nazi occupation of France.

Cry Baby & 1950's Fashion

The other night Chris and I went and watched Cry Baby at a local movie theater.
I saw this movie when it first came out back in 1990 with my friend and her mom. I have watched the movie since then- but, only on the small screen. So, it was a real treat to see this fun campy adventure on the big screen again. The night we went and saw the movie my outfit for the evening was part drape and part square. The square part of my ensemble was my full skirt (Traci Lord's character Wanda states "I wouldn't be caught dead in a full skirt") and the drape part of my ensemble was my seamed black fishnet tights, black eyeliner and deep red lipstick. Being a fan of 1950's fashion I enjoy both the full skirted look and the wiggle dress. I highly recommend going out and renting Cry Baby and relishing in it's fashion, comedy, drama and musical sequences!

Jacques Tati's Trafic

Last night Chris and I went and saw Trafic atop the Hotel deLuxe's parking garage. The film is one of a series of films shown each summer atop the parking garage by the NW Film Center. The atmosphere at these events is always fun and enjoyable. There is live music and there are great views of sunset/dusk lit buildings.
1971's Trafic is about a camping van that Monsieur Hulot has designed and has to take from Paris to Amerstdam for a car show. There are all sorts of fun antics and thoughtful imagery in this movie. For the fashion lover there is the smart wardrobe of Maria, The Public Relation Representative to drool over. Maria drives a sporty little yellow convertible in which she changes outfits, she evens stores her hats in the spare tire compartment (click here to watch a clip that features this scene)!

The Great Gabbo

I find ventriloquist dummies to be quite creepy, and I enjoy relishing in their creepiness while watching old TV programs like The Twilight Zone episode "The Dummy" or movies like the one we watched last night, The Great Gabbo, a film in which Erich von Stroheim stars as "The Great Gabbo", a mad and talented ventriloquist who performs with his dummy "Otto". In the movie Gabbo can't express his feelings to the song and dance girl that he loves, so Otto does the talking for him. Besides the creepy yet sweet Otto, the movie also features fantastic costumes in the musical numbers, and a cool spider web set in the Caught in the Web of Love segment (this segment must have been the basis for the sassy and entertaining Joi Lansing Web of Love Scopitone video).

Greta Garbo in Mata Hari & Four Fabulous Faces

Some people share their birthday with Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn or Myrna Loy, I share mine with Mata Hari. I never really knew much about her other than she was a femme fatale spy.

Last night we watched the 1931 Mata Hari movie which stars Greta Garbo. This film is loosely based on Mata Hari's life. Garbo plays such a mesmerizing version of Mata Hari that you don't really care if it's accurate or not. This movie had me gasping with amazement at some of the lavish, decadent over the top outfits that Garbo was wearing including an outfit that involved intriguing gold lame leggings or tights (you can check out a film clip featuring the ensemble on You Tube, look closely at how sensuously she closes the curtains towards the end of the clip [Garbo's gowns were designed by Adrian]). Greta Garbo's beauty and talent shine in this movie.

Speaking of the beauty of Garbo, I was lucky enough to come across an incredible hardback book titled Four Fabulous Faces, which contains tons of photos of Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford and Gloria Swanson. I have only just begun ogling this weighty tome, and so far it proves to be fascinating.

For any Silver Screen and Old Hollywood fan I would most definitely recommend watching Mata Hari and reading Four Fabulous Faces.

The Plot Against Harry

Last night we watched 1969's The Plot Against Harry

The movie starts out suddenly with no intro other than the name of the movie on the screen. It's about Harry, a Jewish numbers racketeer, who gets out of jail and goes about trying to make good with his life. Other than reading the description on the back of the movie we knew nothing of it and were surprised by it's unusual cinematography. I was trying to remember what movie it reminded me of when Chris said it reminded him of 1984's Stranger Than Paradise, and that was the movie I was trying to think of- so, the cinematography style is Stranger Than Paradise with some of 2001's The Royal Tenenbaums thrown in for good measure.

Vintage Buster Keaton Movies

Chris and I have been watching quite a lot of Buster Keaton movies lately.
His movies are always guaranteed to make us laugh, and I find Buster to be so handsome in his old silent films!
Two fun ones that we watched recently were Seven Chances and Balloonatic.
The image at the top of this post is a scan of an Artist Trading Card that Chris made. The image of Buster Keaton is from old black and white movie wrapping paper that I have, Chris cut out the inner shirt area and collaged a vintage wine label underneath and then glued it onto a more modern background image.

The Pink Panther

As a kid I was always watching reruns of old movies on t.v. I really thought the Pink Panther series was funny- but, I don't think that I saw the original Pink Panther movie until I was in my twenties.

1963's The Pink Panther has everything you could want to help keep you entertained: the hilarious Peter Sellers, the dashing David Niven, a young Robert Wagner, the classical beauty Capucine, the pouty Claudia Cardinale, elegant costumes for Capucine and Claudia Cardinale by Yves Saint-Laurent, a catchy and entertaining musical performance by Fran Jeffries (who I think Lady Miss Kier of Deee-lite bears a strong resemblance to), and a costume party filled with over the top costumes!

Mon Oncle

The other night we were delighted by the movie Mon Oncle.
Jacques Tati portrays a man who lives a happy life in the perfectly imperfect traditional Paris which is juxtaposed against the imperfectly perfect modern Paris that his sister, brother-in-law and nephew live in.
The movie features many funny and amusing scenes, and also offers up an intriguing critique of traditional Parisian life compared to modern Parisian life.
Besides starring in Mon Oncle, Jacques Tati also was the movie's writer, director and producer!
The d.v.d that we rented also included the short Jacques Tati movie L'Ecole des Facteurs which also proved to be a delight.

A Christmas Carol

Christmas Carol is a true holiday classic that I grew up watching on t.v. during Christmas time.

My husband and I watched it the other night, and that was the first time I had seen it in a long time, perhaps the first time I had seen it in my adult life.

Alastair Sim's Scrooge is full of bah humbug until he is greeted in the middle of the night by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley who warns him to change his greedy selfish ways and informs Scrooge that he will receive visits from three ghosts during the middle of the night.

A fun treat for Avengers fans is Patrick Macnee's performance as the young Jacob Marley.

The copy of Christmas Carol that we rented also included an animated version of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer that was a fun little treat to watch.