fab it is

"The other day I put on a pair of old Jean Muir shorts I found at the back of the wardrobe and I felt fabulous. Mind you, nobody said anything about how I looked - not a compliment in sight - so maybe I didn't look that great. But, gosh, I felt fabulous."

joanna lumley remains absolutely fabulous after all these years. the terrific actress is a vegetarian (yes!) and activist. we need role models like her.

eddie marsan

"I used to do a lot of comedy. I don't know what happened. I think it's my face."

when i first saw this amazing actor in 'little dorrit' i was torn. he was a fascinating creep! the creep factor had everything to do with his character in the charles dickens story. the fascination was all due to his extraordinary acting. he's worked with many huge directors (woody allen, scorsese, mike leigh) and has a handful of films in production.

he became my favorite of the exceptional 'dorrit' cast.

pre-platinum

don't they look swell? julie christie, ursula andress, and catherine deneuve.

a jewel named christie

monroe moment of truth

funny, you don't look twenty-one.

marilyn's very first modeling photos have just surfaced. interestingly there is a wave of unrest running through the fashion industry right now regarding a model falsely claiming to be 16.

lying aside, i wish i had a profession locked up when i was a miserable teen.

stanley kubrick's 'lo'

kubrick may have twisted the novel 'lolita' around to please himself as well as the studios but he created a masterpiece that truly showcased the writer nabovov's brilliant humor. the 1997 remake was DREADFUL, even though j. irons was super. stanley died two years after the remake came out. alas, i can only hope he never watched it.

the future looked so bright she had to wear shades

Sue Lyon's outstanding performance as "Lolita" earned her the "Most Promising Female Newcomer" award at the 1963 Golden Globes.

sue followed with 'night of the iguana' which is a terrific movie. shortly after that she was gone from the big screen.

photo: lyon as nymphet 'dolores haze' from 'lolita'

the man in the mirror

'Vladimir Nabokov's original screenplay diverged greatly from the novel, but only a portion of it was used by Stanley Kubrick, even though Nabokov gets screen credit. Nabokov later published it as "Lolita: A Screenplay". The unused screenplay featured an Alfred Hitchcock-like cameo for Nabokov, who is referred to as "that nut with a butterfly net" (Nabokov was well known as an amateur lepidopterist). Although he generally admired the movie adaptation of his book, Nabokov regretted the waste of his time in writing a screenplay which was altered so drastically during filming.'-imdb

his lolita was 12. the film's lolita was 14. even though there was zero sex in the movie, the film studios had much to fear regarding the character's mentality. however, people still find 'lo' hard to take as well as hard to put down.

swank sinatra

real life

this exchanged smile did not make it into the film 'last tango in paris.' it was a decidedly tense scene when maria schneider begins to sense that brando's character maybe has a screw loose. i have read many stories about the difficulty she had making this film so it is a pleasure to see this snapshot.

saturday with steve

the man for all ages.

monroe

now that's a photo. before marilyn became an actress she was a highly successful model. she knew how to play to a camera from the start.

curly top

shirley temple, depression era superstar

what a face. the talented little darling made over 40 films in the thirties. she continued to make movies but the irresistible quality she had as a child could not be matched in her teenage years.

'fans of shirley's bought millions of dollars worth of products that had her likeness on them. Dolls, phonograph records, mugs, hats, dresses, whatever it was, if it had her picture on there they bought it. Shirley was box-office champion for the consecutive years 1935-36-37-38, beating out such great grown-up stars as Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Robert Taylor, Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford. By 1939, her popularity declined. Later, she served as an ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia.'-imdb

where did our love go?

today is jeremy irons birthday. to celebrate i choose this gorgeous snap of garbo whose birthday was yesterday. why? because i still adore greta but went from thinking irons was the greatest ever to not really caring. so, let's drink a toast to days gone by in the form of 'betrayal' and 'brideshead revisited.'

W.E.

madonna must be seeing the world through rose colored glasses. her passion to make a movie about the duke and duchess of windsor is about to hit the big screen. i have yet to read one account of them that arouses my curiosity.

the burtons on the other hand...

"After dinner, Taylor looks on in horror as Burton approaches the Duchess of Windsor and says: ‘You are without any question, the most vulgar woman I’ve ever met.’
Before long, he has picked up the 72-year-old Duchess and is swinging her around ‘like a dancing, singing dervish’. The room falls silent. Taylor is terrified that Burton will drop their hostess or fall down and kill her.
Arriving back at the Plaza Athénée, Taylor is furious, and locks her husband in the spare bedroom. He tries to kick the door down."

buster keaton: poetry in no motion

our lady of the camillias

Greta Garbo (Sep. 18, 1905 – 1990)

eternally anna

once again the great role of anna karenina will be coming to the screen. vivien leigh and garbo both gave it their all and now here comes keira knightley. she has a great cast alongside for the russian ride through the snow that leads back to where it all began.

i am glad emily watson is included. and matthew macfadyen. and michelle dockery. aaron johnson who is playing count vronsky, anna's lover, also played john lennon in 'nowhere boy.' jude plays the villain. this ought to be fun.

photo: keira in a super dress.

we knew you when

1988 We Think the World of You
1988 Track 29
1987 Prick Up Your Ears
1986 Sid and Nancy

these are the films i associate with the great actor gary oldman. however, between this list and the batman movies he's done tons of films. the man went from indie british to big budget spectaculars and everyone now knows what the brits knew back in the eighties. he is just so good.

the flip side of dirty harry

new mom

fantastic snap! Marion Cotillard photographed by Matt Jones for Elle France, August 2011

by way of illustration

righteous rea

107 screen credits and no signs of stopping. stephen rea came to everyone's attention when he starred in his friend neil jordan's knockout film, 'the crying game.' rea came from the theatre world and has made some great movies. stephen is belfast born and has a beautiful accent. as fergus/jimmy in 'the crying game' he gets to deliver terrific dialogue. his characters relationship with 'dil' is chock full of tenderness no matter how disgusted his initial reaction to her sexuality.

about a boy named jaye

jaye davidson had a short but incredible heyday in the world of film. as 'dil' in 'the crying game' he truly shone.

time to put away childish things

important film, great cast, stunning writing. all for the price of less than one thin dime. 'the crying game' is now up on hulu.com

find out why director/screenwriter neil jordan won the oscar for screenplay with this one. find out why women round the world fell for the foppy 'fergus' played by stephen rea.

i went to see this film based on my appreciation of miranda richardson. i walked out adoring jaye davidson and head over heels for rea.

here you go: http://www.hulu.com/watch/245880/the-crying-game

body heat

what a cool film that was. mickey rourke was too much. both mickey and kathleen turner have the best speaking voices.

by way of illustration

the rewards of age

when i was a kid i liked robert wagner. i loved that he was married to natalie wood. i could not understand how my mom could prefer the actor robert walker. in time i totally got it.

dick powell is someone who would never even register with my younger self. now i adore him and wish he made more noirish films, however 'b movie' they are. even if 'pitfall' seems like it was made on a smaller budget than any madonna video, it is super. lizbeth scott may not really be what they promoted her as ('the poor man's lauren bacall') but she is interesting. if you want to see a cool guy (he used to tap dance and sing his way through tons of films before they allowed him to stretch out) you can start with 'murder my sweet' and then watch this one. the man is absolutely REAL.

he got that right

"The only reason they come to see me is that I know that life is great, and they know I know it."-Clark Gable

photo: gable, cary grant, bob hope, and david niven

the shadow knows

eat his peach

"He'd pitch a project, hook you and then when you were hooked, he'd back off and you'd have to sell it to him and beg him to do it, even when in fact he was the one who initiated it."-from biskind's bio on beatty

passive aggressive, right?

"i want tommy"

it is so sad when candy clark's character in 'the man who fell to earth' says those words. as patti smith might say, "tommy's gone gone."

meet tom hardy, the new kid on the block.

gena under the influence

'I can't just go out and make what I want. I have to go through a whole big process of crap, talking to people, proving to them that whatever we are going to do is going to make money. If I can prove to them that my intentions are to make money, then they will let me make any film I want. But it becomes increasingly more difficult to tell them that since I'm not concerned with making money.'-john cassavetes

click here for the terrifically inspiring interview: http://thisrecording.com/today/category/film

we're both right

I did things like Shampoo and Heaven Can Wait. I don't know what those films were about. The women I played in them were not very empowered. -Julie Christie

i seriously adore julie christie and respect her. however, 'shampoo' is ridiculously fun and 'heaven can wait' is fantastic. how many films deal with reincarnation?? when julie tells the football player that he seems 'familiar' i get chills. and the way she says the word 'familiar'.....

cinema is life!

the spirit of the french new wave created unforgettable films. the brilliant young men of movies: Truffaut and Godard.

what goes around

Edith Head, the American costume designer who won eight Academy Awards looks like gaga! with her is glorious gloria swanson.

t.w.

I don't care if Monday's blue
Tuesday's gray and Wednesday too
Thursday I don't care about you
It's Friday, I'm in love-the cure

come together

wow. anybody remember 'berlin alexanderplatz'? it was epic and i loved it. fassbinder made beautiful films. lou reed has also created some beauty. my all time favorite lou song is 'candy says' which was in fassbinder's 14 part television mini-series that aired in 1980.

cagney

bushed not beaten. what a trooper.

who knew?

i remember the gorgeous ornella muti from 'swann in love' back when i was crazy for all things jeremy irons. i see she is one of many cool people to be making the new woody allen film. go muti!

this image is from decades ago so surely she will not look like this in the terribly titled allen film, 'the bop decameron.'

power outage

on the tail end of our week long lack of electricity i chose to watch 'little dorrit', not even associating the fact of no electricity in the days of dickens. i simply wanted to re-watch a terrific drama.

matthew macfadyen leads the brilliant cast through one of the best dickens dramatizations ever. not only does the writer stand the test of time but it is a thoroughly enjoyable experience to dive into the world of dickens over and again thanks to the colorful characters. how the brits must love bringing his work to the screen.

sylvie testud

this astonishing actress is best known for playing the sister of piaf in 'la vie en rose.' quel visage!