Farewell, My Queen (Les adieux a la reine) directed by Benoît Jacquot; provides a uniquely intimate portrait regarding the ending climax of King Louis XVI's reign. The intimacy is due to the perceptions of the story being told from the perspective, not of the reigning nobility, but from that of a top end servant girl, who works and lives among the most powerful members of court-life at Versailles Palace (about 14 miles from Paris). The film begins with a very realistic opening scene of Sidonie Laborde, on July 14th 1789. Sidonie, is the servant who drowsily and slowly wakes within a sun filled simple room, wearing loose fitted white night clothes and scratching mosquito bites as flies buzz around her. It is easy to feel the heat of the day in the room and one wonders how the nobility manage wearing so many layers of clothes during the summer. I find Sidonie's daytime work outfit to be beautiful and intricate. Her hair is simply placed on top of her head uncovered and she wears no makeup. Despite Sidonie's natural beauty, I realize what she wears is nothing compared to the detail and marked sophistication of Queen Marie Antoinette's unusually stunning garb. The Queen's eyebrows are light and when at court she wears full make-up. Within her private chambers, she does not. There are details within the film, that reveal the lack of hygiene behind the daily lives of those in court, despite all the finery. For instance; Sidonie's arms are covered in welts from bites and she wears the same dress everyday, except for one. How much the smell could have matched with the look is of question.It appears Sidonie only has three outfits. One, her nightdress which might be the same as what she wears under her day dress. Then there is a formal dress of her own she wears toward the end of the film. Though, the hygiene efforts do speak of the general standards throughout Europe at the time, it still causes one to wonder: if this is the standard for the fairly well off Sidonie, how much are the multitude of persons within France suffering on a daily basis? The servants seem to have enough to eat but no table manners. Sidonie, despite her well read proficiency toward life, has no idea how to eat from a fork, nor what to do with her elbows. It is a reminder of how, despite her education and natural intelligence, she is a servant. Kept to a certain place. Sidonie is awoken by a chiming clock, a rare treat for a servant girl to have in her possession. Sidonie is given the task of reading to the Queen. The Queen's attentions flit from one task to another. From plays to fashion designs, to rosewater ointment for Sidonie's welts. The Queen is married to the King, but they are never seen directly together until the King leaves Versailles. Why he is separated from his wife and children during such dangerous times for the family is not explained. It is not made known the Queen has children until toward the end of the film. It is a film very much about adult needs, desires, and games. The Queen makes her appetites readily known and she is familiar with both genders on the subject. Her true love appears to be for a high ranking noble woman and this love is known both to the King and the whole court. Marie Antoinette and the King see each other for one very dry, awkward parting farewell kiss with the children present. Sidonie holds true love for the Queen in her heart, until she realizes, she is just a pawn, in a brutal game of survival among falling powers. The Queen gets what she wants for the most part, and she plays very aptly with Sidonie's lonely emotions, in order to cull her into submission. Sidonie is also outnumbered both by individual powers and circumstance. There is really no outlet for an independent voice of her own within the confines of court life on the eve of the French Revolution. The most human factor in the film, is another one of the Queen's personal attendants, who implores Sidonie not to do what the Queen is about to ask her. By Sarah Bahl
To escape to the Kennedy Center in morbidly hot weather is a gift of itself. The plush red carpet is comforting and the hum of persons being shuttled in an orderly fashion to their seats is part of the veneer. Giselle being performed by the Paris Opera Ballet at the Kennedy Center is a gem to see. According to, La Maison Française’s information letter, the Paris Opera Ballet has not been to the Nation’s Capitol in 19 years. The ballet runs through the 8th. The First Act of the story begins with bright and natural woodland scenery. The floor is kept a simple wood and the costumes are elegant and rustic to reveal the simple peasant Giselle (danced by Isabelle Ciaravola). Her dress adds to the quaint rhythms of the peasants' motions as they celebrate the harvest. There are two men in Giselle’s life. One who she accepts and the other, she keeps at a distance. Her preferred man is Prince Albrecht of Silesia, who, tired of court life decides to dress as a peasant and woo the lovely and innocent Giselle. Her jealous suitor, the Gamekeeper Hilarion, unmasks Prince Albrecht, and in doing so reveals Albrecht to be already engaged to the noblewoman Bathilde, (dressed in highly refined and lushly embroidered costume to starkly contrast with Giselle being herself.) The sensitive Giselle dances to reveal her confusion and pain. She dies from the pain of her lost love and the competing men nearly duel over her. The Second Act, is absolutely beautiful in an otherworldly manner, with a darkened woodland scene, as Giselle, now deceased has joined The Wilis, the spirits of young women, with the misfortune of death brought upon them before being wed. The dancers, in white spirit garb, are all the same height, and dance in unison to celebrate their current fate within the black woodland night. The Wilis enact revenge for their broken hearts by wooing young men into their world, never to return. Their first victim is Hilarion. Then, it would be Albrecht, as well, except Giselle convinces the other spirits to let him go, because she still likes him so much. And so the story ends. Giselle returns to her world and Albrecht remains within his own, much as it all began. The original costumes represented are by Paul Lormier, for the ballet’s initial 1841 production. At the time, Romanticism was in high fashion among the general populace in France and the costumes and ideals behind the ballet marketed to this particular niche. Lormier did much historical study to create as realistic a garb as possible. The current costumes represent the spirit of his work. By Sarah C. Bahl By Xin Wen In the Mood for Love is a film made by a Hong Kong director Kar Wai Wong. This director was famous for not having a script. When shooting In the Mood for Love it is said that the crew moved from Beijing to Macau because the authorities asked Kar Wai Wong to show them the full script, but he did not have one. Though the shooting did not follow an actual script, the atmosphere in the film was beyond compare: romantic, elegant, oppressive, and passionate. People who were familiar with Kar Wai Wong knew that the storyline was never his focus—in this case, it was pretty simple too: a man (Tony Leung) and a woman (Maggie Cheung) were neighbors, and they both discovered that their spouses were having affairs. They were friends at first, but as time went by they became close and did not know exactly what their relationship was… The dresses by William Chang Apart from the original sound track of this film, which by the way is fantastic, the Chinese dresses wore by Maggie Cheung were the most eye-catching scenery. To reconstruct the exact kind of Cheongsam from 1950s, the art director William Chang and the director Kar Wai Wong extracted over 300 old film clips within which the actresses were wearing Cheongsam. William Chang even took some premium cloths out of his personal collection and contributed them to the costumes of the film. Together with a few experienced retired tailors from Shanghai, William Chang made 46 pieces of fine Cheongsams for Maggie Cheung. Though some of them did not survive to the final cut, we can see the beauty of them from a few snapshots here. The history of Cheongsam You must have noticed that the Cheongsams Maggie Cheung wore were extremely tight, but actually Cheongsam as a general kind of clothing worn by the noble class of Qing Dynasty, was baggy and loose. The reason led to this is that Qing Dynasty was built by a minority group; Qi people—whom used to live in the north-east part of China and usually rode horses to fight or to travel. For the convenience of riding horses gradually their clothes adopted a loose-fitting one-piece dress style. After Qi people dominated the country, they popularized their Cheongsam to ordinary Chinese people in other regions of the country. The appearances of Cheongsam for women did not change much during nearly 300 years of Qing Dynasty. It was until Xinhai Revolution that it changed its style—the sleeves were shortened and the overall piece was fitting. In Shanghai, during the 1920s, the modern style of Cheongsam emerged and became the favorite of upper-class Chinese women. As the rise of womens’ position in the society increased, women were allowed to wear clothes that revealed their body curves. Of course today Chinese women can wear whatever they want, but the freedom to choose was not always there. References: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0151858/bio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheongsam http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118694/ Pictures came from www.douban.com by XIN WEN Have you started wondering what to wear this Halloween? For me last Halloween is still vivid--I saw several guys dressed like ‘The Joker’ from Batman: the Dark Knight. Surely movies are always our resources of inspiration; we are more heavily influenced by movies than we thought perhaps. Christopher Breward in Fashion said: “As many commentators have noted, cinema, especially the Hollywood version of the idiom, has featured as an important adjunct to advertising in promoting a simple and reassuring consumerist version of life.” For this Halloween I recommend 90s style from Quentin Tarantino’s movies. For girls, I think Uma Thurman’s outfit in Pulp Fiction, 1994 is a simple, but wonderful choice. All you need is a crisp white shirt, a pair of black pants, rouge noir nail polish, and a black wig. In the film, Uma played an unsuccessful actress who did a pilot show and ended as a wife of a gang leader. The character made her debut with her extremely sexy red lips and her cool voice. She ordered a five-dollar milk shake and danced shimmy with her husband’s minion Vincent (John Travolta). Just when the audiences presaged and actually expected that she and Vincent would have a romantic night, she overdosed. Her white shirt was stained with her own slobber, and the simple, sexy style went to neverland. For guys I highly recommend the classical appearance of Mr. Colors from Reservoir Dogs, 1992. Again, it is super simple: all you need is a black suit, a white shirt, a skinny black tie, and a pair of ray ban sun glasses. Sure you’ll be in need of more guys to help you achieve the stylish spectacle, since in Reservoir Dogs there are six of them. Quentin himself admitted that he borrowed this gangster style from a look created by French director Jean Pierre Melville. This director inspired a few New Wave directors and was famous for his minimalist film noir crime dramas. However, the “borrowing” nature did not harm the charm of Mr. Colors. Quentin is a remix genius. (here is a video about his remix ability, <start from 7:20>) He combined songs, looks, styles, shots from so many movies and created his own legend. For example: though all the people recognize Bruce Lee from his yellow tight gym suit, if a woman wears it with a long knife in her hand, people would say that’s Uma Thurman from Kill Bill. This remix gift gave popular culture vitality; this remix gift made him a director who will never be neglected.
References: http://entertainment.msn.com/beacon/editorial1.aspx?ptid=2038c9a7-3e3d-49fd-a6f4-78cfc10eeeb4 http://i-am-db-cooper.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-dress-like-the-guys-in-Reservoir-Dogs pictures come from www.douban.com Synopsis Rear Window is a 1954 Hitchcock movie—one of his suspense classics. The storyline goes like this: Jeff (James Stewart) is a photographer who loves to take risks, but one of his legs was injured during work. As a result he had to sit in a wheelchair for a couple of months. However, his eager desire to know never ends: he started to observe his neighbors with his binoculars. Gradually a case of murder surfaced from the trivia details of everyday life viewed through the rear window—Jeff thought Mr. Thorwald across the yard killed his sick wife. Lisa (Grace Kelly) is Jeff’s girlfriend, who was into fashion and came to visit Jeff regularly. At first she didn’t believe Jeff’s suspicion but little by little she became increasingly involved: she even sneaked into Mr. Thorwald’s apartment to look for evidence… Lisa’s outfits and the costume designer Edith Head In the movie Rear Window Lisa wears six different outfits. For me the black top and white dress outfit was most unforgettable. In Sarah Street’s words: ‘Her outfit is a black, tight-fitting top with a full, white layered net skirt, and a white chiffon shawl worn with a pearl choker.’ Clearly the idea behind this outfit came from the famous ‘New Look’. (for New Look you can check out this post) Apart from this outfit, the green suit and the white day dress with yellow flowers also fascinate many women. If you think Grace Kelly was behind all these beautiful costumes, you are definitely wrong: Edith Head—Hollywood’s most celebrated costume designer was the hero behind the breathtaking beauty of Lisa. In 1925, Edith Head became Paramount’s costume designer and in less than thirty years she won 8 academy awards for best costume design. If you have seen The Incredibles, you will be familiar with the appearance of Edith Head. Rumors said that the costume designer (Edna Mode) for the superman family in the cartoon was based on Edith Head. From a feminism point of view Although Lisa’s outfits were feminine, her image was very active and strong. She first provided the critical statement for the cracking of the murder case that ‘No woman would go on a trip and leave behind her purse and her wedding ring,’ and then she sneaked into Mr. Thorwald’s apartment to find further evidence. Originally Jeff was not satisfied with Lisa’s obsession over fashion and her reluctance to take risks. However, Lisa was the one who acts. On the other hand, Jeff ‘looks but does not act, failing to take even one photograph that would surely help to corroborate his story. The plaster cast on his leg symbolizes Jeff’s crisis of masculinity and also conveys his weakness in identity.’ (<Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window>, Edited by John Belton-- ‘The Dresses Had Told Me’, <Fashion and Femininity in Rear Window> by Sarah Street, page 94) In the end, Lisa wears a pink shirt and a pair of jeans with a very serious magazine in her hands. Many people stated that since this outfit was relatively masculine, Lisa finally became the kind of woman Jeff wanted her to be. However, my point is Lisa was more independent than Jeff assumed. In order to capture Jeff’s heart, or to entertain him, Lisa can be adventurous. However as soon as Jeff fell asleep, she picked up her Harper's Bazaar: perhaps it is always hard to change a real woman-- her true color insisted. Photos come from www.douban.com References: <Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window>, Edited by John Belton-- ‘The Dresses Had Told Me’, <Fashion and Femininity in Rear Window> by Sarah Street http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Head |
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