Toute le Monde est une cinephile, sans doute. With watery eyes and a stuffy nose I lie in bed, watching every french script I can find, feverishly rediscovering my love for the films.
All of them have a common factor: the leading ladies like Clemence Poesy, Marion Cotillard and Audrey Tautou are portraying very iconic women. Consequently, they themselves are becoming icons.
So...What better for a female french icon than to be the face of a perfume campaign? They bring an undeniable allure.
A thought which I decided to catapult into the abyss of the internet.
--- so this started me thinking about how situations can be exaggerated and fabricated in our own minds to create something far more dramatic than life has actually given us. Zelda Fitzgerald explains this pretty much perfectly for me: "We are very happy but we don't seem to care whether we are or not, I suppose we expect something more dramatic." Is happiness really interesting? There is nothing extraordinary about it, nothing inspirational. It is comfort, and comfort encourages immobility. We get bored.
"But her longing for a change possibly, too, the unrest caused by masculine presence, had sufficed to make her believe that she was at last possessed of that wonderful passion which, till then, had hovered like a great bird with roseate wings floating in the splendour of poetic skies; and now she could not believe her present unemotional state was the bliss whereof she had dreamed." Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
In order to be touched by creativity, must there be a touch of delusion? Evidence as strong as figures like Lord Byron and Dylan Thomas could suggest this. Creative types like writers and artists often deliberately induce themselves into a state of delusion; opium smokers like Wilkie Collins and Coleridge, and late-night-cheese-eaters like Salvador Dali used their methods of hallucination in order to inspire creative greatness.
But how far can this delusion go before it is illness?
When you are insane, you are busy being insane - all the time... When I was crazy, that's all I was. - Sylvia Plath
Or, in order to be human, must we dream?
T.S. Eliot observed that "human kind cannot bear much reality"
I like Autumn/Winter campaigns better than Spring/Summer ones because I think they tend to be more creative. In the summer everyone just wants to see a floaty temptress in a field. Which is easy.
Saying that, simple is the better option alot of the time. I find the Mulberry campaign at the moment uncomfortable. You know, the one with the eccentric setting of birds and clutter, and you're hoping for something really exciting and different from the models. And they're just standing there.
Dead. Behind. The. Eyes.
Clutching some beautiful cow, which is why it's in there. But otherwise, the photo clashes, and not in a kooky way.
Here are some of the A/W campaigns I'm loving....
Marion Cotillard is pretty sublime. So, anything featuring her, for me, is a win.
Bottega Veneta because I WANT THAT SOFA
Natalia Vodianova is one of my favorite models, and Stella McCartney is one of my favorite designers.
What's not to completelyadore?
I quite like what's gwanin with topshop at the moment, but all the models look like versions of supermodels (Naomi Campbell and Jerry Hall?)
---Long live Viv---
Erin Wasson is another of my favorite supermodels. I've never not loved a shot of her.
And she was in that film 'My Name is William Rast', with JT so, bonus cool points.
Let there be you, Let there be me. Let there be oysters Under the sea. Let there be wind, An occassional rain. Chili con carne, Sparkling champagne -- Let there be birds To sing in the trees, Someone to bless me Whenever I sneeze. Let there be cuckoos, A lark and a dove, But first of all, please -- Let there be love.
I JUST LOVE THIS SONG
It's simple but WONDERFUL.
Probably hence why I've found these lyrics to be trapped in my head over the last few days. As a kind of remedy I thought I would completely indulge in some JAZZY, BIG BAND, SWINGING sounds. But it's kind of kick-started a whole new sack of potatoes for me, because I've become even more entranced by the entire Jazz scene; particularly the photographs taken by Herman Leonard capturing the smoky era of way back when, in his backlighted, black-and-white, iconic style.
There seems to be something about wearing a hat, having a smoke and JAZZING OUT that someone told Nat, Frank and Dexter. Maybe that's the recipe for smooth, jazzy success.
(Herman Leonard's shot of Dexter Gordon at the Royal Roost in New York, 1948)
I still can't wholly figure out why I find these kind of lyrics so enchanting. The sheer simplicity of them completely oozes charm and promise. Coupled with the grandeur of a big band finish, I guess it starts to feel a bit more real and exciting. I'm entirely taken in anyhoo.
My story is much too sad to be told,
But practically everything
Leaves me totally cold.
The only exception I know is the case,
When I'm out on a quiet spree,
Fighting vainly the old ennui
And I suddenly turn and see,
Your fabulous face.
I get no kick from Champagne
Mere alchohol doesn't thrill me at all
So tell me why should it be true
That I get a kick out of you
Some get a kick from cocaine
I'm sure that if I took even one sniff
That would bore me terrificly too
Yet I get a kick out of you
I get a kick every time I see you standing there before me
I get a kick though it's clear to me you obviously don't adore me
I get no kick in a plane
Flying too high
With some guy in the sky is my idea of nothing to do
Whilst there's no beating the Godfather of Soul...
... his grandbabies aren't bad.
Recently I fell in love with a couple of tracks by a band called Cookin' on 3 Burners. They feature an Australian singer called Kylie Aldist, who sings better than most of us talk.
She also features in tracks by The Bamboos, who (if you don't already know them) you really have to check out.
Artists like D'Angelo and Raphael Saadiq epitomise new age soul with a vintage feel. When I first hear D'Angelo, I was surprised by how he just works. He does a bit of soul singing, bit of R&B and a bit of rap.
"Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all." James Brown
Janelle Monae is known for her androgynous style and incredible, eccentric perfomances.
Joss Stone still holds a place in my heart (check out the duet she did with Raphael Saadiq called 'Just One Kiss'). She gets to do the most incredible duets with the most incredible artists.
Shingai Shoniwa (of the Noisettes) is so elegant and iconic, whilst delivering flawless performances. Complete girl crush.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm a preacher as well, 'cause I can really get into an audience."
"You're so brutal to those who love you, Scarlett. You take their love and hold it over their heads like a whip"
Scarlett O'Hara uses her charm shamelessly to get what she want; beauty is no match for charm. But Rhett's love for her wears out when she realises she loves him, and as we all learn: a love that is lost can never be found.
20 years later, Swedish actress Britt Ekland made use of her feminine charms to get anything she desired in the Peter Sellers' film 'The Bobo'. I adore her bombshell image, and the movie shows Britt at her most beautiful.
Peter Sellers proposed to her over the phone in 1964 after a whirlwind romance. He'd seen her photo in a newspaper.
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The Queen of feminine charm will always be Marilyn Monroe. An eternal title because she was not charming simply for materialistic gain; her charm seemed to be ingrained.
