matouenpeluche

The Total Look

Peggy Moffitt (model and muse) + William Claxton (husband and photographer) + Rudi Gernreich (designer) = The Total Look exhibition at MOCA in LA. How beautiful are these photos?

All images from here.

Love part 4 - Most Romantic Artwork

So, today is Valentine's Day and the last instalment of my love posts (read post 1, post 2, post 3). Apparently, this painting of Romeo and Juliet on their wedding night has been voted the most romantic artwork in Britain. It was painted by Frank Bernard Dicksee in 1884. I couldn't categorically agree that it is the most romantic artwork in Britain as I haven't done any thorough research into the matter myself, but I would say yes, it's on the romantic side. What are your thoughts? Second runner up in the romantic artwork stakes was Rodin's The kiss.

Image from here.

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day!

Goodbye Ken Russell

I was saddened to hear that the grand old man of British cinema, Ken Russell, had passed away this week. I have seen most of his films and enjoyed them immensely. My favourites are the great composers series he did for the BBC such as Elgar, Strauss and Delius, "Lair of the White Worm" (absolutely hilarious!) and the documentary he made about his own life which stared his little son (so sweet!). Bits of The Who's "Tommy" were also pretty terrific but my all time, hands down favourite Ken Russell film is the musical "The Boy Friend". Have you seen it? It's set in the 1920s and tells the story of the stage production of a musical by an English theatre troupe. It is very, very funny, beautifully acted and exquisite to look at. Think Georges Barbier meets Busby Berkeley via swinging sixties London! Twiggy, its star, is ravishing as are the costumes and sets. There is a a very good review of it here.

I was lucky enough to actually see Ken Russell being interviewed on the stage at the State Theatre many moons ago as part of the Sydney Film Festival. It was an absolute honour to hear him speak and answer questions. He was totally naughty, disobedient and hilarious!

Goodbye to a great British artist.

Top image from here and the others from Le Cinema Dreams.

3 Athol Shmith photographs

Helmut Newton

I have been looking at a book I have called Athol Shmith Photographer recently. Athol who?  Well, Athol Shmith was a Melbournian photographer who is best known for his work during the 40s, 50s and 60s. It is a good book full of interesting photographs of theatre actors and actresses and commercial advertising work he did over this period.

This photo of Helmut Newton that Shmith took in 1957 is easily my favourite. Did you know, incidentally, that Berlin born Helmut Newton was an Australian citizen due to the fact that he came here to live after World War Two and began his photographic career at Australian Vogue?

Athol Shmith also photographed lots of other well known actors etc when they came to Australia on tour. These are two of my favoruites:

Gregory Peck and Stanley Kramer filming On the Beach in Melbourne.

A portrait of Vivien Leigh who toured Australia with her husband Sir Laurence Olivier in 1948.

Hope everyone is having an OK week!

A day to remember.

I saw these very pretty lantern window displays in Paddington.  They are a combination of three of my favourite things : lanterns, blue/ green and lights.

I went and saw the epic nine hour Robert Lepage play yesterday called "Lipsync". Phew! It was phenomenal and I think I'll be processing it for weeks to come. It followed the intertwined story of nine different people and their connection to the central character who was an orphaned boy. But that doesn't really do the story justice because it's infinitely more than that of course. It was like a finely woven basket which tied up very nicely - or tragically should I say - in the end. It was a mystery play where Lepage gave you small clues and hints as to what the final truth was. But it was done so well! What an enormous brain Lepage must have to conceive  of such a microscopically detailed and entertaining nine hour story. I was not bored for a nano second and I know the audience was fully engaged 110% for the entire duration too.

The stage sets and lighting were a wondrous thing unto themselves! The acting was very solid and everyone interacted with each other's characters seamlessly.  What more can I say but that we, the entire audience lept to it's feet when it was over and gave the cast and crew a full fifteen minute cheering, whistling, hooting, clapping standing ovation. What an incredible experience it was!