Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Joseph Mankiewicz's world

After Alfred Hitchock, Orson Welles and a bit of Ken Russell, I've started watching and discovering Joseph Mankiewicz's cinema world.

1. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) is a love story of a young widow who finds her seaside cottage is haunted and forms a unique relationship with the ghost.



2. A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

One of the funniest and truest commentaries on married life. The three wives receive a letter stating that Addie Ross (whom we never see) has run off with one of their husbands... but which one?

This is a delightful film with fine performances all around and some of the best dialogue. The script is creatively brilliant. Celeste Holm's voice as a narrator (Addie Ross) is just hypnotizing.



3. House of Strangers is a 1949 film noir starring Edward G. Robinson, Richard Conte and Susan Hayward.

The film starts by Max Monetti leaving the prison and promising revenge on his brothers for their betrayal. Brilliant Edward G. Robinson plays Gino Monetti, the Italian immigrant, a rags-to-riches banker who runs his bank and his family with an iron fist.

Another well-written script and excellent actors!

The three mean brothers

Richard Conte as Max Monetti and Susan Hayward as Irene Bennett

Brilliant Edward G. Robinson as Gino Monetti

4. No Way Out is a 1950 racial drama. Sidney Poitier plays the young intern doctor. Richard Widmark as "the white trash" gives a performance of a pathologically obsessed racist. Linda Darnell plays perhaps the most interesting role because she switches back and forth, unable most of the time to figure out what side to take..

It's an excellent and daring film for its time.

Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell and Sidney Poitier

5. Suddenly, Last Summer is a 1959 mystery film based on the play of the same title by Tennessee Williams.

In 1930's New Orleans, a wealthy and eccentric older woman (Katharine Hepburn), wants a surgeon (Montgomery Clift) to perform a lobotomy on her niece (Elizabeth Taylor), for reasons that become clear toward the end of the film.

This macabre story involving homosexuality, incest, pedophilia, and even cannibalism must surely have been a shock to audiences in 1959.

Young and beautiful Elizabeth Taylor

Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift

There are still two Mankiewicz's films on my desk: Cleopatra (1963) and There Was a Crooked Man (1970) and I'd like to find All About Eve (1950) which is considered as one of his best.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Women in Love (1969)


Women in Love, the adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's novel, is the first Ken Russell's film I've seen. It follows the loves and lives of two sisters and two men in a mining town at the beginning of the 20th century. They are played by Glenda Jackson, Jennie Linden, Alan Bates and Oliver Reed.

Alan Bates and the fig


This is a very special film, striking and highly sensual.


It has many unforgettable scenes. One of them is Alan Bates at a picnic describing how to eat a fig. Another, famous one is the nude wrestling of two friends. Glenda Jackson's dancing in front of the bulls is brilliant !!

Glenda Jackson

Friday, January 22, 2016

Dumb and dumber

Just some thoughts about Americans from an American writer.

...there is a kind of emptiness of thought at large these days that is hard to overlook. The phenomenon is now widely known as the Dumbing Down of America..

Now don't get me wrong. I don't for a moment think that Americans are inherently more stupid or brain-dead than anyone else. It's just that they are routinely provided with conditions that spare them the need to think, and so they have got out of the habit.

American life is full of these crutches, sometimes to a quite astonishing degree.

The idea os to spare the audience having to think. At all. Ever.

from Bill Bryson  Notes from a Big Country 1999

Thursday, January 21, 2016

F for Fake

When the flush of a new-born sun fell first on Eden's green and gold,
Our father Adam sat under the Tree and scratched with a stick in the mould;
And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart,
Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves, "It's pretty, but is it Art?"
 
from The Conundrum of the Workshops by Rudyar Kipling
 


F for Fake (1973) is the last film made by the great magician and myth-maker Orson Welles.

It's a supremely entertaining movie packed with ideas, twists, surprises and fun. It is about art, about forgery, about what's real and what's not. One of the main characters is a famous Hungarian art forger Elmyr, who is said to have sold over a thousand Matisses, Modiglianis, Picassos, etc. to famous art galleries all over the world. And it's simply amazing watching him effortlessly reproducing the paintings of great masters..


The film is a fake documentary and is known for its unusual, ahead of time editing style.


Welles the narrator is an absolute delight. 

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Pochettes avec oreilles de lapin..

J'ai une grande collection de pochettes à la furoshiki avec noeud original qui ressemble aux oreilles de lapin. On peut y glisser des bijoux, des dragées de mariage, des bonbons d'anniversaire, des oeufs de Pâques, un parfum, des petits trésors de fille.. Elles feront l'emballage cadeau inoubliable et unique. Elles sont disponibles dans ma boutique TocHE-pOche











I do not know who I am... Extraordinary Mr Arkadin...


At times chaotic, crazy but a truly extraordinary film!

Mr Arkadin is Orson Welles 1955 film heavily butchered (even more than The Magnificent Ambersons) by the producers.

What fascinates me about the film are the eccentric characters from Arkadin's past. Akim Tamiroff as a down and out thief, Mischa Auer and the flea circus master scene, Katina Paxinou, the ruthless woman who had run a criminal gang in Europe and now lived with her ugly husband in Mexico, Michael Redgrave with his antique junk shop in Amsterdam..

Mischa Auer as the owner of a flea circus

Then there's a memorable insane masquerade ball with huge masks and people running, dancing and laughing all over the place.

The rocking boat scene with Patricia Medina stumbling around the room, giggling and taunting Mr Arkadin is incredible.

Probably the only weakness of the film is Arden's poor performance as the investigator of Arkadin's past.

And now I'm going to tell you about a scorpion. This scorpion wanted to cross a river, so he asked the frog to carry him. No, said the frog, no thank you. If I let you on my back you may sting me and the sting of the scorpion is death. Now, where, asked the scorpion, is the logic in that? For scorpions always try to be logical. If I sting you, you will die. I will drown. So, the frog was convinced and allowed the scorpion on his back. But, just in the middle of the river, he felt a terrible pain and realized that, after all, the scorpion had stung him. Logic! Cried the dying frog as he started under, bearing the scorpion down with him. There is no logic in this! I know, said the scorpion, but I can't help it - it's my character. Let's drink to character. 

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

The Stranger by Orson Welles (1946)


Loretta Young as a brand-new wife of professor Rankin

Well, as you can see from title, after a series of Alfred Hitcock's movies, I'm moving on to a new one on Orson Welles's gems.

Edward G. Robinson as Mr. Wilson

Orson Welles as Rankin/Kindler

In The Stranger (1946), an investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi. Orson Welles as Rankin/Kindler and Edward G. Robinson, who plays the investigator, are brilliant. Konstantin Shayne as Meinike (I'm travelling for health, I'm travelling for health..) is unforgettable either.

Konstantin Shayne as Konrad Meinike

Monday, January 18, 2016

The Age of Loneliness

It's worse than obesity, worse than smoking 15 cigarettes a day...

The British film-maker, Sue Bourne in her latest documentary, The Age of Loneliness, has turned her attention to loneliness. Though the majority of the interviewees are older widows and widowers, The Age of Loneliness is not just about getting older, there are younger people affected by the pressures of social media, mental illness, divorce and separation.

'...People of all ages missed someone to do nothing with. To chat idly. To sit next to...'

I've read a couple of interviews with Sue Bourne about making the film on the film offical website and about trying to identify 10 reasons for loneliness in the Guardian.



The Magnificent Ambersons


In the cinematographic world, Orson Welles's follow up to Citizen Cane, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) is almost unanimously considered as "one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the cinema" and viewing it in its present state is compared to "looking at the Venus Di Milo, or at a beautiful Greek vase that has been shattered.."

Although the film suffered butchery, it still remains a piece to admire: Orson Welles's mesmerizing voice as the narrator, the touching final credits which he reads, the story of the downfall of the upper-class family in America as it enters the industrial age, the funny opening sequence on changing fashion, the ball scene, the beautiful cinematography of Stanley Cortez, Agnes Moorehead as Fanny, Joseph Cotten's speech at the dinner table about the automobile..



I'm not sure George is wrong about automobiles. With all their speed forward they may be a step backward in civilization. May be that they won't add to the beauty of the world or the life of the men's souls, I'm not sure. But automobiles have come and almost all outwards things will be different because of what they bring. They're going to alter war and they're going to alter peace. And I think men's minds are going to be changed in subtle ways because of automobiles. And it may be that George is right. May be that in ten to twenty years from now that if we can see the inward change in men by that time, I shouldn't be able to defend the gasoline engine but agree with George - that automobiles had no business to be invented. 

I'll certainly add Booth Tarkington's novel the film is based on to my reading list this summer.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Mon jardin d'hiver.. Créateurs d'ALM

Voici quelques coups de coeur de mercredi.. En mauve, gris et vert.

Jardin d'hiver...
 Tous les créateurs et leurs boutiques sont ici.

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Mary Finnigan's Psychedelic Suburbia

I've just listened to an interesting interview with Mary Finnigan, David Bowie's ex land-lady and lover in 1969 in London about her new book and Bowie's biography : Psychedelic Suburbia. Sounds like an interesting read.



Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Book to read in 2016

I've decided to create a post where throughout this year I'll be adding books to read in 2016. I'll try to update it each time I hear of a new good book or an old classic I haven't read.

12. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)



11. The Cancer Whisperer by Sophie Sabbage. I've just heard an interview with the author in BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour and this woman sounds calm, courageous and honest.

10. Дядя Ваня, пьеса Антона Павловича Чехова 1896 года. Ну и все Чехова хочется перечитать.





9. Aldous Huxley Brave New World, published in 1932. Added on the advice of Monsieur Paul after our conversation about Nineteen Eighty-Four by English George Orwell




8. Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play which received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948.
Yesterday (27.01) I saw Mankiewicz's Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) a scary drama based on another Tennessee Williams's play.



7. D H Lawrence Women in Love (1920).
1969 Ken Russell's film adaption, which I've seen recently, is very interesting.



6. An updated account of Elmyr de Hory's life appears in Mark Forgy The Forger's Apprentice: Life with the World's Most Notorious Artist (2012). Could be a fun read too..



5. After Orson Welles's F for Fake I'm curious to read the art forger Elmyr's biography written by another forger Clifford Irving:
Clifford Irving Fake: the story of Elmyr de Hory: the greatest art forger of our time (1969)



4. Booth Tarkington The Magnificent Ambersons (1919)
 After seeing Orson Welles's great film you definitely want to read the story it's based on. I do.



3. Linn Ullmann (Ingmar Berman and Liv Ullmann's daughter) A Blessed Child (2005)



2. Mary Finnigan Psychedelic Suburbia (will be published on Friday January'8 2016) - added 16.01.07 after the BBC radio 4 interview with Mary Finnigan



1. Elizabeth Strout Olive Kitteridge (2008) - the Time Year Ahead issue announces her fifth novel, My Name is Lucy Barton, which will be published in 2016 but I'd like to start with the one that won the Pullitzer Prize



La saison de bouillottes. Bouillottes sèches, biensûr.

L'an dernier j'ai fait une bouillotte remplie de graines de riz pour le micro-onde et mon beau-père en était ravi ! Cette année j'ai essayé une moi-même et je ne veux plus dormir sans ma bouillotte quand il fait froid ! Comme d'habitude, le mode d'emploi est simple et rapide, en plus on évite les risques de brûlures. Les enfants les adorent aussi !

Par contre, cette fois j'ai changé la forme de la bouillotte (elle est devenue ronde) et pour la housse j'ai remplacé le coton par le polaire doux, chaud, agréable à toucher. J'ai aussi remplacé les boutons par la fermeture éclaire pour les raisons pratiques. Voici ce que ça donne :







Elles sont également disponibles dans ma petite boutique fait-main : TocHE-pOche

Monday, January 4, 2016

Etuis à lunettes à motif poupées russes, chats, Tour Eiffel...

Le début de chaque année m'inspire pour reprendre mon blog abandonné. Cette année 2016 n'est pas une exception. J'ai envie de partager ici mes nouveautés couture, mes notes à propos de films de Hitchcock que je regarde depuis Noël, mes recettes de cuisine et les actualités, etc..

On va voir combien de mois (semaines, jours) je vais tenir le coup et l'enthousiasme mais ce matin je suis prête de poster mes dernières créations cousues - étuis à lunettes de chez TocHE-pOche :