Jacques Tati

 

 Cannes Film Festival 1958, Jacques Tati and Alain Bercourt walk towards the Carlton Hotel, Henri Cartier-Bresson

I have a crush on the late Jacques Tati, MG first told me about him years ago but I had never seen one of his films.  Fast forward to today and a chat to the Post Master at my local village post office, the conversation was sparked off by all the gorgeous retro film posters advertising Jacques Tati films, which decorate the walls of the tiny post office, the Post Master is a fan.

 "Oh Madame, but you must see his films, I know you are a lady of taste, you will love them". With that kind of flattery from the handsome Post Master, who could resist? Once home I googled him straight away and now I am hooked. I see inspiration from Charlie Chaplin and I see where Peter Sellers got his inspiration from. Below is a clip, but you can see the whole of part one of Mon Oncle here and that will bounce you onto the whole film, if you feel so inclined and get hooked as I did, in fact I whiled away an hour or so watching the entire film on u tube when I was supposed to be working! It's a great comedic insight into post war France. 

Isabella Rossellini

I watched a program today that featured Isabella Rossellini, wow... there she was as she is, with no artifice. Intelligent, elegant, gracious, warm and beautiful, no plastic surgery, every line on her face clear to see.  I decided she is someone who comes across as a beautiful person on the inside as well as the outside, this is a woman of substance and style.  I feel like I grew up with her, I suspect many people feel the same way.  In the eighties it was hard to open a magazine without seeing her image, there were her edgy film choices, she was unforgettable in Blue Velvet and then there was the Lancôme campaign which she fronted for so many years before being dropped by Lancôme in her forties for being deemed too old.

Here in France, we hardly see or hear of her any more, she has never gone out of her way to court the limelight, one gets the impression she makes her choices on her own terms, things she really believes in.  As a woman wearing casual clothes and no make up she is a natural beauty, when she turns up the volume with make up, signature dark red lipstick and jewellery (this is a lady who knows how to wear jewellery).  She blows others out of the water.  Isabella is a lady growing older gracefully, she is a true icon and she was there all along.

With her Mother, screen legend Ingrid Bergman (Isabella's resemblance to her Mother is uncanny)

Even at a young age her signature style is evident, simple lines and great jewellery

With David Lynch, Helmut Newton

Stills from Death Becomes Her

As Marella Agnelli in Infamous

As well as her acting and modelling career Isabella is also a writer, film-maker, Mother and Philanthropist, she is on the board of Wildlife Conservation Network, she is also involved with training guide dogs for the blind and president and director of the Howard Gilman Foundation, a leading institution focused on the preservation of wildlife, arts, photography and dance.

Her latest acting roll is playing Gabriella Guglielmi-Valentino in 'Silent Life' a silent film based on the life of Rudolph Valentino which will be released later this year, below is the trailer.

More Pictures and quotes from Isabella here:

 

Bailey, Jean and Kate

Something phenomenal happened last Thursday, a previous post of mine generated over 3000 hits in one day, the said post is here. The preferred search word  was 'Jean Shrimpton now'. The reason for this sudden flurry of interest was the airing of John McKays film, 'We'll Take Manhattan' on Britains BBC 4. The story centres around Bailey and Shrimpton's ground breaking 1962 photo shoot in New York, their love affair and the struggle to persuade stuffy old British Vogue to try something fresh, young and different.

  I watched and it was a highly enjoyable frothy drama, which perfectly fits in with the trend for recent history period dramas and the vintage clothing revolution. I especially enjoyed Helen McCrorys characterisation of the slightly neurotic  British Vogue fashion editor Lady Clare Rendlesham and the small appearance of Diana Vreeland, I would have liked to have seen more of her!  For those of you reading overseas, here is the trailer, I am sure it has already been sold abroad and if it does not appear on your screens soon, no doubt it will be on DVD.

Another post that received a flurry of hits is here, a post about Jean and her modelling contemporaries and what happened to them after the sixties.

In pre 1960's Britain most models were patrician beauties, plucked from the families of the landed gentry, it seems even a well brought up, middle class young lady from the home counties didn't quite cut the mustard.  And if that was not enough, a cheeky, working class, young photographer wanted to photograph her amidst a raw, gritty environment and pose her naturally. Below are Baileys photographs of seventeen year old Jean Shrimpton which caused such a fuss but contributed to the sixties youth quake liberation and the blurring of the social classes in sixties Britain.

And later... a polished Jean Shrimpton and one of the greatest models of all time.

Following the film was an excellent documentary on David Bailey 'Six Bars to the Beat' (how I love BBC 4, so glad this channel was saved from being axed as part of the BBC cuts).  Crusty, weasy, sniggery old Bailey, he is now 73. At times he can be toe curlingly crude but I couldn't help but like him, refreshingly non politically correct and he does talk a lot of sense. Talking heads included, Jerry Hall, Catherine Deneuve, Mary Quant and Catherine Bailey.

In the documentary Bailey declared that the only model that has the same qualities that Shrimpton had is Kate Moss, Bailey went onto to discuss how their brand of beauty is universally appealing, I can't remember his exact words but I think he mentioned how they could be the girl next door and how they are not classical beauties but beautiful.  I thought I would explore this...

Just like Jean Shrimpton but for very different reasons Kate Moss did break the mould when she bounced onto the scene in 1989, her story is well known and has become fashion legend, when she was 14 years old she was spotted at JFK airport by Storm model agency founder and owner Sarah Dukas, controversy followed, too young, too thin etc. Controversy has been following Kate ever since but she was completely different to the intimidatingly beautiful, curvaceous, Amazonian supermodels who were dominating the catwalks, glossies and pop videos of the late eighties and early nineties.

Peter Lindeberghs photograph of the supermodels, British Vogue cover January 1990

Corinne Days photoshoot of fifteen year old Kate Moss for The Face magazine

 

Polished Kate, heading towards 40, enduringly photogenic, Mario Testino for Vogue August 2011

To further investigate Baileys claims of the similar appeal of Kate and Jean I thought it may help to see them both on film...

Young Kate auditioning for a L'Oreal commercial

 

Jean Shrimpton in the 1967 film privilege

There is no doubt that both women are beautiful, with incredible bone structure and both ridiculously photogenic.  I wonder, will they be making a film about Kate Moss in fifty years time?  As there is a sculpture in her image cast in gold and Lucien Freuds painting of her sold for 3.93million pounds, not to mention her well documented rock and roll lifestyle...I think it's a certainty.

If your still hanging in there you can see and hear more of Baileys thoughts here...