Evening
SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL #1
Slowly the evening puts on the garments
held for it by a rim of ancient trees;
you watch: and the lands divide from you,
one going heavenward, one that falls;
and leave you, to neither quite belonging,
not quite so dark as the house sunk in silence,
not quite so surely pledging the eternal
as that which grows star each night and climbs—
and leave you (inexpressibly to untangle)
your life afraid and huge and ripening,
so that it, now bound in and now embracing
grows alternately stone in you and star.
—Rainer Maria Rilke
(From The Book of Images, translated by Edward Snow, North Point Press, 1991)
A Film Spectrum
I am feeling very pleased with myself in my progress with one of my New Year’s resolutions: I vowed to make an effort to see more films this year (in the cinema, rather than on DVD). So far I have seen three in January: The Punk Singer, Her, and Saving Mr Banks – three films that are all very different from one another.
The first I saw by accident, but the ridiculous concatenation of circumstances involved in this accident indicate that I was fated to see it. I was in fact meant to see the French film Rust and Bone (also apparently very good). But a series of fortunate events (broken down trams, last-minute cab rides, an out-of-place private party, a closing-down cinema, bad signage, a misplaced ticket and a blasé usher) lead me to feel I had fallen down the rabbit-hole, groping around for a seat in a dark cinema and bemusedly watching The Punk Singer.
a series of fortunate events … lead me to feel I had fallen down the rabbit-hole
The Punk Singer
I have never been into punk music and know little about the scene, but this did not stop my fascination and very real enjoyment in this documentary directed by Sini Anderson, about Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of punk band Bikini Kill and dance-punk trio Le Tigre. A passionate and outspoken firebrand, Hanna reluctantly took on the mantle of figurehead of the riot grrrl movement, becoming an icon of the feminist movement amongst a new generation of women. She was a force to be reckoned with, but suddenly, in 2005, she faded from the music scene. The documentary accounts for two decades of her life through archival footage and intimate interviews with Hanna and many others in the industry, and is truly engrossing and inspiring.
Her
A strange combination of sci-fi and rom-com, Spike Jonze’s Her was simply a fun night at the movies. I was initially very dubious about the premise, that of a man (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his computer operating system (seductively voiced by Scarlett Johansson). It was a difficult concept to believe, but sometimes those stories – if they’re done right – can be the most interesting. Her was.
Filmed beautifully, the science fiction world Jonze created is not so far from our future as to seem fantastical; rather, the technology (and the psychology behind the people using it) is entirely believable and convincing. Although I found the dénouement absolutely right, I thought the very final scene unnecessarily ambiguous, and a little too smugly clever. Still, a thought-provoking and very good film, especially for its genre. Also, the men’s fashion is worth a good giggle. I can only hope I will start seeing it on the streets soon!
I have two words for you: Harry and High-Pants. Click image to read more about the costuming of Her.
I am not a Tom Hanks fan at all. Never have been. I am proud to say I still have not seen Forrest Gump (except bits of it I caught in my peripheral vision while seated sideways – so as not to inadvertently glance at the tv – and couldn’t drown out with my walkman when I was once trapped on an interstate coach between Merimbula and Melbourne). I have managed to avoid Philadelphia, Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile and all the other schmaltzy propaganda he has been involved in. Nor was I ever particularly into Mary Poppins, but I do like Emma Thompson.
Saving Mr Banks
When I first saw the trailer for Saving Mr Banks, directed by John Lee Hancock, I was caught by surprise. I knew nothing of this story at all, or about PL Travers, and very little about Walt Disney, but the trailer caught my attention … It was obviously a good one, considering my avowed dislike of Hanks’ film history! A fictionalised recounting of PL Travers’ life, the author of the Mary Poppins books, and the story of how it came to be produced by Disney is truly interesting. It takes us into the processes of transforming a children’s book into a script for a musical, which is fascinating enough, but the personalities involved in the making of it add such depth and humanity.
Travers is an astonishing woman with a very forceful personality – her antics in the Disney studios made me alternately gasp and laugh. All the actors were great, playing their characters with sympathy and subtlety. I found the flashbacks to Travers’ childhood in Australia an absorbing and revealing counterpoint – Colin Farrell as Travers’ father had a wonderful rapport with his children (who else would so perfectly play the feckless Irishman?). The film is truly moving, a melding of heartbreak and hope.
The Bonus Film I Saw on DVD
And the bonus film I saw yesterday on DVD: Holy Motors. This is an arty French film written and directed by Leos Carax that was well received by many critics and audiences, although it was sold to me by a close friend as a film she and her husband hated so much they could not watch more than twenty minutes of it. She exhorted me to see it just so she could hear what I thought of it. With such accolades, how could I resist?
We follow the adventures of one man (Denis Lavant) chauffeured in his limo from appointment to appointment, each more strange and inexplicable than the last. His entire character changes with each stop, he passes through death into a new life, and it is impossible to decipher what is real and what is not.
I did not hate it however. I watched it through to the end, although I occasionally found myself feeling impatient with its sense of smug arty cleverness and had a feeling of wanting it to hurry along. Both beautiful and grotesque, I found it entertaining enough, although I remain unconvinced about its world (unlike with the world of Her) – it just seemed to be trying too hard to impress its audience. Perhaps it was too grandiose, too over-the-top to draw me in – its strangeness was too gaudy. And as for the very final scene with the limos (in entirely deserving all-caps): ATROCIOUS! Silly, unnecessary, and undermining the entire film. It is natural to seek clarification, understanding; to decode and decipher the hidden clues within a film such as this, but sometimes there are no answers. What is then left? The answer should be ‘art’, but in my view, Holy Motors is a paean to style over substance. I was left feeling dissastisfied.
But Wait, There’s More!
Right off the top of my head – if we’re talking mysterious cinematic puzzles – one of my all-time favourite films is Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad. Much has been written about this controversial 1961 film that fascinated and baffled critics and audiences alike, but its characters also populate an inexplicable and shadowy world that almost defies comprehension. It is poetically shot in black and white Cinemascope, carrying the mood of a dream one can’t quite remember, and ‘is a riddle of seduction, a mercurial enigma darting between a present and past which may not even exist, let alone converge’. [Rotten Tomatoes]
A film still of Last Year at Marienbad, with Giorgio Albertazzi and Delphine Seyrig
In an overblown baroque European hotel a man approaches a woman and tries to convince her they were romantically involved the year before – the woman denies it is so. Her husband is an intruder, a somewhat shadowy and sinister figure in the background. Time and space shifts along with truth and fiction to an almost indistinguishable degree. But logic has no place in this universe – it is a matter of indifference – what matters is the art of storytelling. And Resnais’ is a master – Carax cannot compare. This film holds me absolutely spellbound every time I watch it.
Delphine Seyrig in a film still of Last Year at Marienbad
The Holiday Spirit
It’s the first of February, the first day of my holidays, and so very aptly the February page of my 2014 calendar features an illustration titled The Holiday Spirit. This 1917 Vogue cover is by Helen Dryden.
This fashion illustration is just charming, isn’t it? It seems to be based on the forlorn little love triangle of Pierrot, Columbine and Harlequin – Columbine is married to the sad clown Pierrot, but falls in love with the more romantic Harlequin, thereby breaking Pierrot’s heart. She seems heartless, but love is like that sometimes – Cupid’s arrows strike where they will. Something to remember for Valentine’s Day coming up this month …
Happy February!
Father of Fashion Photography – Edward Steichen
Model Marion Morehouse in a bouffant dress and actress Helen Lyons in a long sleeve dress by Kargère, 1926Art Deco fashion and photography – two loves of mine – meet gloriously in the National Gallery of Victoria’s exhibition Edward Steichen & Art Deco Fashion, which comprises over two hundred photographs and over thirty garments.
Edward Steichen (1879–1973), an American photographer born in Luxembourg, bought his first camera in 1895 at 16 out of curiosity: a secondhand Kodak box ‘detective’ camera. By 1903, until 1917, he was the most frequently featured photographer in the groundbreaking magazine Camera Work. Steichen’s photographs of landscapes and portraits hover between ethereal beauty and sculptural studies rendered in light and shade, though this exhibition focuses on his work in fashion, which had its inception in 1911.
On George Bahers yacht: June Cox wearing unidentified fashion; E. Vogt wearing fashion by Chanel and a hat by Reboux; Lee Miller wearing a dress by Mae and Hattie Green and a scarf by Chanel; Hannah Lee Sherman wearing unidentified fashion, 1928
Actress Carlotta Monterey wearing a diamond head bandeau by Cartier, and a white ermine wrap with a white fox collar, 1924Steichen was encouraged by Lucien Vogel, the publisher of Jardin des Modes and La Gazette du Bon Ton, to promote fashion as a fine art through the use of photography. His subsequent photos of Paul Poiret’s gowns for the magazine Art et Décoration are regarded as the first modern fashion photographs ever published – he went on to become the chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair. His work turned fashion photography on its head, and influenced generations of photographers after him.
Model Marion Morehouse (left) and unidentified model wearing dresses by Vionnet, 1930The graceful, flowing lines of the fashion of that era between the wars encapsulate sartorial elegance for me, and many of the garments of that time (especially those on the more minimalist side) still look effortless and modern today, nearly a hundred years later. The garments chosen to accompany Steichen’s visionary pictures are suberb; perfectly curated; and can only make one gasp and marvel at the imaginative designs and construction; at the incredible detail of decorative beading. They bring Steichen’s photographs into brilliant life.
Model wearing a shawl of crepe de chine painted by Russian artists, 1924
Princess Nathalie Paley wearing sandals by Shoecraft, 1934There is also a short documentary film in the exhibition showing Steichen working in his studio (complete with a gaggle of editorial onlookers), giving a fascinating insight into the working methods of one of the first fashion photographers of the twentieth century. One cannot be but struck how very different it was from today, how much effort was expended to achieve certain effects, and how we take for granted what is possible today. And yet in spite of the limitations, Steichen’s entire oeuvre of photography is sublimely beautiful and must still remain amongst the greatest works in the history of photography.
The exhibition runs until March 2. I might even go again.
Actress Gloria Swanson, 1924
Actress Alice Brady dressed for the play Sour Grapes, 1926
Actress Marlene Dietrich, 1934
Actor Gary Cooper, 1930
A Gift From Morpheus
A Dark Secret :: 14 // 01 // 2014You know those dreams you have when you nod off for just a few moments? They’re short, but pungent. Mine are often lurid, strange – I am suddenly plunged into another world. Without so much as first dipping a toe in the water, I am completely submerged. It’s like an exciting adventure, bringing new meaning to the term ‘armchair travel’.