A seemingly random list of movies, and a space:

Some Came Running, Minnelli, 1958.
This Property is Condemned, Pollack, 1966.
The Fugitive Kind, Lumet, 1959.

Splendor in the Grass, Kazan, 1961.

You win if you can write the essay before I get around to it.

Damn! Look what I found...

on some French guy's blog!

Jane Birken and Brigitte Bardot in bed in what appears to be some kind of soft-core vampire porn movie. I have no idea at all what movie this is. Will have to consult imdb immediately.

http://bonjourplanetearth.blogspot.com/2009/06/il-etait-une-fois-brigitte-bardot-et.html

Can't figure out how to embed from the site he nabbed the clip from.

****

Wait! It's (English title) If Don Juan Were a Woman. I've seen it, but forgot this segment of this epistolary movie. And it was Brigitte Bardot's FINAL movie.

I can rock that.

I figured out a way to tie a silk bow tie from Italy so that it makes a rather charming choker with a bow. And there's a pocket square to coordinate with each of the two bow ties. When I want to wear Dietrich drag to work in the future, I can rock those ties as chokers under an open necked shirt, rolled up at the sleeves, which I'll wear with a vest. And argyle socks. And spectator shoes. And with that cologne, Heritage, he selected at Guerlain on the Champs Elysées.

Because he sent that back to me, too.

Part of me really wants to know why the ending of the romance couldn't have been like Intermezzo (1939). Or Brief Encounter (1946). "How apt that this beautiful film is named Intermezzo, a term that connotes a short musical piece played between two longer movements. --Netflix"

Belle de Jour shoes!

Don't these want to be Roger Vivier Belle de Jour shoes? But they are just cheap (but very cute) Etienne Aigner instead? My sister and I went to DSW (she had coupons! Thank you, sweetie!) this weekend and I scored these. Plus some other really outrageous ones I'll show you eventually to go along with that Missionary/modern African Queen look I'm planning to rock this summer. I am wearing the faux BdJ shoes today with my wants-to-be Hérmès sweater that's really Ralph Lauren, bought on ebay.

Coraline: highly recommended for some

I took the entire Jimmie/Cindy clan on Friday. Dark. Frightening. Autumn nearly climbed up Jimmie as the movie got darker and darker and sadder and sadder. Maya had read the book and so was prepared. I hadn't read it, and so was a blank slate -- but the book's on its way to me now, courtesy Amazon.

I really loved it. Don't know that it's appropriate for "normal" children under about the age of ten, though. Could inspire nightmares. Could inspire nightmares in unsuspecting adults, too. There was something heavy in there about mothering and mother/daughter relationships that was more than just a little upsetting. Not exactly a sick puppy, but not joyful in its darkness like Nightmare Before Christmas, for instance.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona: I'm warning you, don't say it!

Yes, Scarlett Johansson's character Cristina, in Woody Allen's film Vicky Cristina Barcelona, behaves eerily as I have done sometimes. Even though Scarlett is worlds more beautiful than I ever was and nearly thirty years younger than I am, yes, I will admit it. And the movie is good, I think. I enjoyed it and recommend it to you. Just don't say Cristina reminds you of me to my face. Just think it silently, okay? You don't have to tell me.

Revolutionary Road

Kate Winslet has been robbed of a completely deserved Academy Award nomination for best actress for this motion picture.

Very, very tough emotionally. Maybe too close to home for me right now. A couple get sucked into suburbia, child-bearing and rearing and a mindless corporate career, when what they had promised one another was that they would feel life deeply -- and move to Paris. Kate Winslet's character scarily reminded me of myself in some ways. Haunting score by Thomas Newman. Subtle, understated palette.

Very, very sad. Highly recommended, if you can go there.

I took the little girls

... my "instant" granddaughters, to see Hotel for Dogs this afternoon. A Boston Terrier who reminded me a great deal of my beloved Frida was featured. Cute picture for kids, and the girls enjoyed it.

Maybe I'll go see Revolutionary Road this weekend. I have tried to avoid reading reviews or hearing any spoilers, but just the sketchy plot outline I know about seems intriguing. But maybe it will hit a little too close to home right now?