Cinematic Fashion (Episode 3)

Hello everyone !

Halloween just  passed, hope you enjoyed every moment of it! Before moving on, I wanted to include a horror movie in this series. I chose a movie from Roman Polanski’s Apartment Trilogy, Rosemary’s Baby. It is one of the very few horror movies that I have ever seen, because I am really terrified of horror movies and can’t get rid of the images out of my mind for the following days. The closest genre that I can support is suspense. However, I am a big fan of the Apartment Trilogy of Polanski. What about you? Do you like horror movies?

3) Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
  

Rosemary’s Baby is probably one of the scariest movies that has ever been made. In 1967, the writer Ira Levin found the inspiration from his wife’s pregnancy and wrote Rosemary’s Baby. The movie's plot is written and directed by Roman Polanski based on this novel. Three of Polanski's movies which are about the horrors dwelling in an apartment, are known as the Apartment Triology; and Rosemary's Baby is the second of them (the other two are Repulsion (1965) and The Tenant (1976)).

Rosemary’s Baby starts with a couple, Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy (John Cassavetes), looking for an apartment to rent.  When the couple finds the right apartment, we understand that there is something wrong about there. The couple meets with their eccentric elderly couple neighbors and paranoia leads the movie.

The young couple expects a baby, but with the pregnancy, the reality mixes with fantasies, everything gets cloudy and ambiguous for Rosemary. She experiences strange dreams and suspects that something weird is happening around her.

Dark colors and shadows, mysterious objects become the leading actors of the movie. Rosemary’s world fall apart, when she learns the reality...

Rosemary’s overall look is like a 60s fashion show: dresses with peter pan collars, floral prints, puffed sleeves, silky evening dresses, wide leg trousers, chiffon suits, furry slippers, square heeled shoes… All of them, being the landmarks of 60s wardrobes, were enough to make Rosemary seem pure. The young costume designer Anthea Sylbert gives successfully the appropriate athmospheric feeling to the film.

Did you know that? During the casting period, Polanski proposed his wife, Sharon Tate, to play the role Rosemary. However, production was considering other names for the role. During the filming, Sharon Tate visited Polanski in the set, in London. She even appeared uncredited as a guest in a party scene. She was pregnant to Polanski's child. Then, she got back to Los Angeles, where the couple resides at that time. However, unfortunately, Tate and her unborned child of eight and a half months were brutally killed by serial killers in her house.

Cinematic Fashion (Episode 2)

Hello all !

Are you ready for the second episode of our series about inspirational movie closets? This episode’s movie is Gone with the Wind (1939). If you’re ready, roll down slowly and don’t beware your comments please (your thoughts make our day!).

2) Gone with the Wind (1939)

No need to say anything about the fame of the glorious movie: Gone with the Wind, and how it made the year 1939 a banner year in the history of cinema. With its 4 hours running time, the tragedy of Scarlett O’Hara, performed by Vivien Leigh, locks us up to the screen. The story passes during the period of Civil War in America. Scarlett is a free-spirited, charming lady that men around her can’t help falling for her. She has a socialite lifestyle and she gets whatever she wants, but the tragedy is waiting her ahead.
  

The story gets tragic with the Civil War, but the romance overrides the movie when Scarlett falls in love with the discountenancing married man, Ashley (Leslie Howard). Scarlett turns into a helpless, simpering and greedy lady who is running into the arms of a few husbands. Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), however, loves Scarlett and desires a family with her – kindda soap opera, right?
 

The most memorable moment of the movie is probably when Clark replies Scarlett’s question: “Where shall I go? What shall I do”, as “Franckly my dear, I don’t give a damn”. Probably most of you have already heard (or been using) this phrase.

There are many things in Gone with the Wind that makes it a masterpiece, and one of them is definitely its captivating storytelling through the eyes of a manipulative lady who delivers every emotion through the movie. No wonder why the movie swept the 1940 Oscars: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Screenplay…
 

The characters are brilliantly portrayed. Dialogues are well-thought. Cinematography is amazing. Casting is brilliant…and the costumes are unforgettable. The corsets, petticoats, velvet dresses, belts and shoes, hair bows, white lace collars and draping back skirts of the Civil War era, as well as the sharped dressed men in dashing suits or uniforms.

"Here in this pretty world Gallantry took its last bow…Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered...A Civilization gone with the wind."

Did you know that? : On the opening date of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta on December 15, 1939, the governor declared a state holiday and ticket prices increased 40 times that day. lol

Cinematic Fashion (Episode 1)

Hello dears,

I've been thinking to make a series of short writings under specific subjects. As long as I'm free, I'll be publishing one post each week. (I want to talk about different aspects of movies with you, but I’m experiencing lack of time nowadays.)

So. Do you want to take the ride with me?

This episode's subject is: the inspirational closets that inspired us (and still inspiring). Have you seen a movie and been dazzled by the costumes more than the movie itself? I'd love to hear your ideas. Please share your comments with us.

There are some movies that became known for their admirable closets. They brought us ideas beyond our time, gave us courage to be inspired by their characters. It was a flattering invitation for women or men to revise their outfits. Here is one of them:

1 ) Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
 

A bank robber couple: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, were the guests of our cinema salons at the end of 60s and it was not so after that they became the legends of many ordinary lives. They were both looking for adventure. But what did people, knowing that the movie is adapted from a thief and murderer duo that darkened many lives in 30s with brutality, like in these two brutal characters. However, with this movie, the director Arthur Penn broke many taboos of its time: sex and violence; and moderated the movie with the moments of comedy and intimacy.

Even though François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard rejected beforehand to direct the movie, Arthur Penn, the director, was heavily inspired by French New Wave film techniques. Without even mentioning the visual beauty and successful storytelling of the film, putting the fiction aside, the movie itself greatly influenced the fashion industry.

Maybe Faye Dunaway was not aware of this during its production, but she, for sure, became a major screen actress thanks to her role as Bonnie. As well as her role, the costumes of Bonnie were very inspirational too. Bonnie was modernizing her look by mixing styles: berets and tweed jackets, skinny jeans and flats, high-waisted skirts and knit cardigans; but especially the tilted berets and patterned scarfs became the milestone of her style.

Did you know that? : Warren Beatty, who played Clyde, wanted the movie to be in black&white, but Warner Bros rejected the idea. Good decision. Don't you think ?