Lacroix's Sleeping Beauty

I just saw the trailer for the new French version of Sleeping Beauty.   The main character falls asleep at 6 and goes into a series of adventures in her dreams for the next 10 years. French director, Catherine Breillart, who did a very strange retelling of the already morbid tale, Bluebeard, is back revamping and eroticizing another familiar fairytale.   I don't think I'll be able to take kids to see it.  


What would make for a very interesting animated version would be the great French fashion designer Lacroix's Sleeping Beauty.  Here are some images from the illustrated book.   A must-have!  I heard John Galliano's version of another tale is in the works.  Keep all these beautiful collectibles coming.

Amélie is 10.

10 years ago this year, the most charming movie ever played to audiences worldwide.  I have yet to meet someone who loathe Amélie.  It should be one of the few movies that was universally loved.  It remains as the highest-grossing French film in the U.S. and in other countries.

Everything about it makes me smile.  Audrey Tatou and her glowing wide eyes.  Paris at its greenest.  The accordion music.  Crème brulee.  Amélie’s comfortable loneliness.  Her neurotic and dysfunctional childhood.  Her pranks.  The unrequited love.  Her desire to be loved.  Clutter in every frame.  The breakneck pace that leaves me full, happy; wish it’d never end.

It’s been 10 years and I have yet to see a movie that conveys the feeling of falling in love as beautifully as Amélie.

R.E.M.

I'm a big fan of R.E.M. but news of the band's break-up didn't really affect me.  The band's demise happened after the follow-up to their 1992 album, "Automatic for the People".  In my book, that's the greatest album of all time (or maybe as great as Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours", Prince's "Purple Rain, and The Beatles' "Rubber Soul").  I would rush to the record store every time an R.E.M. follow-up album is freshly released, and would get disappointed each time.  "Automatic" was enough to seal their place in music history.

Lead singer Michael Stipe is a known lover of film.  He even dabbled in movie-producing.  That's obvious in Stipe's music videos and compositions.  Movie references abound.  The video below is inspired by the dramatic and surreal opening of Fellini's "8 1/2".  "Departure" was written for River Phoenix after he o.d.'d.  "Monty Got A Raw Deal" was about the handsomest Hollywood actor ever, Montgomery Clift. "Man On The Moon was an homage to comedian Andy Kaufman, and inspired the movie of the same name.  Ang dami!  That's why I like love listening to their songs from the 80s and "Automatic".  They're cryptic, rich in subtext, and make for perfect soundtracks to movies -- including "ang soundtrack ng buhay mo".  You celebrate, but mostly, wail, hurt along with Michael.

Anderson and Gloria

CNN reporter Anderson Cooper has a new talk show -- Anderson. From the clip below, it seems like intelligent talk TV, none of Tyra's phoniness. I hope we'll see it on local cable soon.

In this interview with mom Gloria Vanderbilt, one of the most famous rich women from the last century, he asked her to recount the last moments before his brother's suicide. She was right there before he jumped off the balcony. "I think about it all the time...you never get over it", said Gloria.

I was also the last one to see my 5-year-old brother before he accidentally drowned in the deep end of an un-chlorinated pool without anyone seeing. The memory remains fresh 36 years after. It's not an internal rumour, like how one writer describes memory. I always dream about it, and frame-by-frame it's how it similarly plays in my head during my waking hours.

After seeing how boldly Anderson confronted his mom about Carter's death and how he fought back his tears, I've been thinking of asking my mom how she survived my kid brother's death. It appeared to me then that her healing process was quick. But I was young, impressionable enough to think that her grief ended when she tucked away my brother's clothes and toys. I am so curious but not as brave as Anderson.

Hail to the Imp!

The year’s breakout role for both film and TV must belong to Peter Dinklage, the diminutive actor who plays Tyrion Lannister, or the Imp, in HBO’s Game of Thrones.  He's just won an Emmy  and his fans are rejoicing.

He must have the biggest fan base amongst GOT lovers.  If you haven’t seen the series, you must. Importante sa buhay si Peter Dinklage.  If you’re too lazy to follow the complicated plot, just pay attention when the Imp is on.

It must also be the biggest breakout role in many, many years.  Here is a actor who dwarfs (sorry, can’t help it) other actors for his amazing take on the role of a dwarf, who has to survive in a world dominated by brute strength, through his intellect, wit, wealth and acid tongue.  And he always gets by.

Short people have come a long way.  Now there are roles for them that are not one-dimensional and created just for laughs.  Weng Weng should have been around to witness this.

The Chucky Effect

It just never ends – the fascination for beautiful things to adorn my flat. Yesterday was spent in one of my little Disneylands, the home furnishings haven LRI Plaza in Reposo.  I bought this quirky lamp at PNKY. The most congenial shopowner Miss Pinky made it herself, reinventing our grandmother’s charcoal-powered flat iron into a lamp, and shaping the shade like the iron itself. 

The flat iron, which must be at least 40 years old, weighs more than 5 pounds.  Pity our lolas and yayas of old.

I’ve been wanting to collect old little things for my place.  They’d be the perfect counterpoint to its modern look. I saw this old santo in an LRI curio shop that looked like a harlequin but was actually the Virgin Mary.  Also old mirrors, cupboards, side tables that were made in the 30s through the 50s, now sold in Evangelista Street, Makati.  But friends have told me not to. Ricky D. has a mirror consigned to him several years ago.  It’s tucked away in his garage after several people witnessed an old lady jumping out of the mirror.  Another friend bought an old rocking chair, and then experienced spooky things in his sala.

Can inanimate objects retain people’s feelings, thoughts, and energy long after they’re gone?  An object that had been strongly attached to the living, or had been a key prop in his death, could become haunted, paranormal believers say.  The movies have weighed in on this theory with Chucky the doll from hell and Charito Solis’ refrigerator in the first Shake, Rattle and Roll.

I just pray that the yaya who once used my flat iron happily ironed the linens away despite its heavy weight.

Stylist: A Misnomer

It’s easy enough to echo what a national artist for literature recently said about contemporary Pinoy culture – that it’s shallow.  But I won’t go there.  Suffice it to say, the perception is all generational and anecdotal; shallowness, not a national malady.  Though I’ve just witnessed mediocrity in a production meeting back in my agency.  I hope there’s nothing more to the person’s laziness.  A sociological dissertation should not be necessary.

This woman calls herself a wardrobe stylist.  She presents pegs cut out from U.S. fashion magazines.  She uses all the clichés I’ve been hearing since I was an advertising trainee:  hip, young, aspirational, cool, a representation of the brand’s colors.  She stops there.  I could’ve done that myself and gotten the hefty fee she’s charging us.  There’s no attempt to put the costume design in proper perspective.

Anyone who dares to call himself a stylist must understand the essence of styling, and that’s in the storytelling part.   He must flesh out the characters in the film, and give the film a visual life through costumes.  It’s not just about what’s in vogue, what he himself would like to wear, or what’s easily available in Landmark.  It’s not stereotyping – a call center dude would wear this, a class AB working professional would that.  Dude or Inday, define the character with his wardrobe!

Sometimes I think some stylists are not as motivated to do research for contemporary characters.  They’re more attracted to the creation of elaborate costumes from decades past.   But creating modern wear for film is much more challenging.  They need intelligence, restraint and subtlety in sourcing costumes for contemporary clothes that support character development.

In his eulogy to Don Escudero, one of the greatest art directors in Pinoy cinema (Oro, Plata, Mata his best work), director Peque Gallaga recounted, When we sat down on the thorny problem of what Daniel Fernando was going to wear in Scorpio Nights, and we were fully aware that he was going to spend an irritating amount of movie time in his underwear, I opted to go sociological and historical: this was the time of bikini briefs in zebra stripes and leopard spots.  Don again said no. “He is going to wear classic white Jockey briefs.” And those white Jockey briefs ended up defining Daniel’s character totally and completely.
   Yeah, it wouldn’t make sense to garb him in super sexy briefs.  He was a voyeur, hidden, not as yet sexually adventurous, not comfortable about showing off his body in zebra to the woman he covets.

That’s a smart answer to a seemingly simple wardrobe issue.  I wish I’d hear something as informed next time from someone who dares call himself a wardrobe stylist.