Va Va Voom!

Bombshells don’t usually have the greatest acting qualities, but they seem to be sort of addictive, women you simply can’t help but look at, and also like  due to their beauty. I’d say my favourite one is Marilyn, which is not surprising, it’s the most obvious choice. Earlier today, I was searching for pictures through the internet, as I often do, and I found a photo of Jayne Mansfield, which inspired me to search for more. Anyhow, that’s how I got the idea of making a post about Jayne and Anita Ekberg. I used to strongly dislike Jayne Mansfield, but she grew on me and now I think she was lovely and rather sweet. The same thing happened to me with Anita, although I’ve always thought she’s stunning.

ANITA EKBERG

 Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg was born in Sweden on 29 September, 1931. She began her career working as a model, eventually winning the title of Miss Sweden in 1950, to later become a cult sex symbol and a part of pop culture, mostly due to her role in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960).  She was once named the most beautiful woman in the world and the woman with the perfect measurements. Her unusual face, foreign name and curvy body have been featured in various songs (such as Bob Dylan’s I Shall Be Free) and films (From Russia With Love). Rumor has it she’s been involved with debonair actors like Tyrone Power, Marcello Mastroianni, Errol Flynn and Gary Cooper. She’s worked with famous comedy teams such as Martin & Lewis and Abbott & Costello, but also with the great genius of Federico Fellini. I suppose you could say Anita Ekberg’s beauty has vanished quite a bit nowdays, as the actress approaches 81, but we’ll always remind her as the exotic sex icon we all have seen, loved and envied.

JAYNE MANSFIELD

 Vera Jayne Palmer was born on April 19, 1933, in  Pennsylvania, United States. Throughout her short life, she managed to become an icon of American culture, with films such as  The Girl Can’t Help It (1956) and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). Although she was the first Hollywood mainstream star to appear completely nude, she still had a sweet and wholesome quality that gained the public’s sympathy. She only made her name bigger when she married Mickey Hargitay, Mr. Universe of 1955 and bought a huge mansion in Beverly Hills, nicknamed The Pink Palace.  She appeared doing comedy on Broadway and was named Playboy Playmate Of The Month. During the last years of her career, she had success in nightclub tours and did a couple of low budget melodramas and comedies in the United Kingdom. Sadly, she died on June 29, 1967 in an automobile accident at age 34.

 

How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?

It’s been a while since I do a post with something more than pictures! Personally, I prefer to write in my posts, but I haven’t felt inspired lately. This is another one with random pictures, but soon -later today- I’ll do a post about Jack Lemmon. Anyhow, I love photographs, they can be of such help when you need inspiration, they can bring a smile to your face, as well as tears to your eyes. Most of these photos are from the late 1960′s and 1970′s.

Diana Rigg

Sophia Loren

Paul Newman and Robert Redford

Cybill Shepherd

Marisa Berenson

Roger Moore

Audrey Hepburn

Geraldine Chaplin

Michelle Phillips

Michael Caine

Liza Minnelli

Jacqueline Bisset and Francois Truffaut

Diana Rigg

Gia Carangi

Goldie Hawn

Edie Sedgwick

Salvador Dalí and Raquel Welch

Julie Christie

Johnny Carson

Laurence Olivier

Steve McQueen

Meryl Streep

Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood

my favourite paintings.

W.T. Benda

W.T. Benda

Starry Night Over the Rhone by Vincent Van Gogh.

Cafe Terrace at Night by Vincent Van Gogh.

Vincent Van Gogh

Claude Monet

The Window by Henri Matisse.

The Kiss by Gustav Klimt.

La Ghirlandata by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.

New York Movie by Edward Hopper.

Paranoia (Surrealist Figures) by Salvador Dalí.

Samquintin by Pablo Picasso.

Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh.

Bordighera by Claude Monet.

Antibes Seen From The Salis Gardens by Claude Monet.

Vase Of Dahlias by Claude Monet.

Garden At Argenteuil Dahlias by Claude Monet.

Cabaret Scene by Salvador Dalí.

The Three Dancerss by Pablo Picasso.

Green Dress by Lempicka.

a little midnight trip through the sixties.

 

Vous avez lu l’histoire de Jessie James.

Bonnie And Clyde (1967)
Directed by: Arthur Penn
Starring: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway and Gene Hackman 

 

 

Everybody’s talking at me, I don’t hear a word they’re saying.

Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Directed by: John Schlesinger
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight and Sylvia Miles

 

Jeepers, creepers, where’d ya get them peepers.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched The Day Of The Locust (1975) for the first time. I didn’t expect too much of it, simply a decent film, although I knew it couldn’t be bad, since it was directed by John Schlesinger. I was wrong, it isn’t merely a nice film, it’s a masterpiece. Few movies have left me in such state, the ending is one of the most shocking things I’ve ever seen in my life, and I do mean it in a good way. All the performances are incredible, Karen Black may not be the most beautiful woman nor the greatest actress, but she’s absolutely captivating as Faye, Donald Sutherland is wonderful as always, William Atherton surprised me quite a lot in what I consider his best role and Burgess Meredith, well… he is Burgess Meredith, he never delivered a bad performance in his entire career. John Barry gives us a terrific soundtrack to accompany the motion picture. I’d love to write a full review of the film, but I’m not very good at it, although I will try it with another movie soon. Anyhow, the main reason of this post is to share a bunch of beautiful captures from The Day Of The Locust. I warn you, the pictures might spoil the end if you haven’t seen it. Click to enlarge.

Nancy

I was checking my favourites in YouTube, and I found these two videos of Nancy Sinatra. The first is a lovely live version of her hit “Bang Bang”, and the second is a medley of “Downtown” and “These Boots Are Made For Walking” with her father, the great Frank Sinatra, both videos are from 1966. I’m not such a big fan of Nancy, but I think she’s decent and quite okay. I don’t like doing short posts, but I felt it would be nice to share this. Enjoy!

Sparkling blue eyes and gravelly voice.

You know those childhood heroes who always remain the same to you as you grow old? Those people you admire for being themselves, people you’ve often wanted to be like, people who nevertheless the situation seem to have a solution for everything? People who always  -and I mean always-  look devastatingly cool doing whatever they please? Paul Newman is certainly one of those seemingly “larger than life” figures.
I still haven’t met anyone who claims to dislike Newman, women love him, guys love him, even children love him. His fifty year marriage to the lovely Joanne Woodward is one of the reasons we  -the woman, the girls-  adore him. To me, the romantic and dreamy quality in Paul and Joanne’s love story is not the fidelity, but the lasting marriage, the way they overcame their problems due to the love they felt for each other

Roles such as Luke (Cool Hand Luke) or Butch Cassidy, among many many others, helped to gain the audience’s respect throughout his career. His sparkling blue eyes and gravelly voice only made things better. His various personal projects, like car racing, directing and his work as a philanthropist  made us wonder if he was, in fact, real.
My favourite characters played by Paul Newman are Henry Gondorff in The Sting (1973), Brick Pollitt in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958), Frank Galvin in The Veredict (1982) and Butch Cassidy in Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969). Actually, the entire bicycle scene with Katharine Ross in Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid is one of my all time favourite scenes in cinema, simply because it makes me smile to no end, and long for a Paul Newman double to come knocking at my door.

He’s one of the artists I’d like to remember and keep admiring when I’m an old lady with cats and grandchildren all around, since I know I will eventually leave a lot of them behind. To many, he was the epitome of the perfect man, to others the perfect actor. In his own words, “I’d like to be remembered as a guy who tried to be a part of his times, tried to help people to communicate with one another, tried to find some decency in his own life, tried to extend himself as a human being. Someone who isn’t complacent, who doesn’t cop out.”

Kissing Joanne Woodward.

Next to Jack Lemmon.

Fooling around with Jean Simmons.

With Sophia Loren.

With co-star Elizabeth Taylor.

With friend and co-star Robert Redford.

Constant forge

I’ve heard of John Cassavetes for quite a while, and also of his wife, the lovely actress Gena Rowlands, but I had never seen one of his films until a couple of days ago, when I saw Faces (1968), A Woman Under The Influence (1974) and Husbands (1970). Now, I can truly say I’m a fan of this man and his work, both as a director and as an actor. Oh, and as a screenwriter, of course. I -like many other people- live for the movies of the Golden Age of Hollywood, the old-fashioned glamour and the lovely musicals or over-the-top melodramas, but at the same time, I adore the revolutionary so called “New Hollywood” of the 1970′s. You see, John Cassavetes is one of the hundreds of reasons I love the 70′s cinema.
Since I am merely a teenager, I can’t really see Cassavetes work from the point of view a mature person does, I haven’t experienced most of the things his characters go through, but I’m still able to enjoy his movies, mostly due to the fact that I do sense and understand the reality and pain he depicts in these stories, and the feeling he and the wonderful actors put into their projects. I can also manage to find beauty in these movies, whether it is a close-up of Gena Rowlands’ beautiful face, or a heartbreaking and truthful scene.

I could write the reviews for Faces or A Woman Under The Influence right now, but I won’t, not yet. In this post I’ll simply share some nice looking photos of John Cassavetes himself, Gena, his films, Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara, Seymour Cassel and a three-part interview of the three starring actors in Husbands (Cassavetes, Falk and Gazzara), delivered by the great Dick Cavett.  As Martin Scorsese said in a fantastic documentary, we all love the Golden Age of Hollywood, it’s terrific to see Ingrid Bergman coming out of the fog and saying goodbye to Humphrey Bogart so tenderly, but that’s never going to happen to us, it’s like something almost untouchable, unreal. Cassavetes sure as hell isn’t.

Gena Rowlands in "A Woman Under The Influence" (1974).

Rowlands in "Faces" (1968).

Actress Lelia Carruthers in "Shadows" (1959).

Rowlands & Cassavetes.

Cassavetes with co-star Mia Farrow in "Rosemary's Baby" (1968), directed by Roman Polanski.

Cassavetes and Peter Falk at Ben Gazzara's wedding, 1982.

John & Gena.

Opening Night (1977)

Faces (1968)

With John Marley in Faces (1968).

Beautiful Lynn Carlin in Faces (1968).

Seymour Cassel as Chet in Faces (1968).

Lynn Carlin

John Marley

Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara and John Cassavetes in Husbands (1970).

Cassavetes holding Ben Gazzara in Husbands (1970).

Next to Peter Falk in Husbands (1970).

Ben Gazzara in Opening Night (1977).

Husbands (1970)

Now, the interview! Dick Cavett is one of my favourite talk-show hosts, probably my favourite (I will do a post about him soon). Anyhow, I don’t know what you might expect from this interview, but it’s truly the craziest one I’ve ever seen, quite funny -at least to me- and very serious, at times. If you like Cassavetes, you’ll enjoy this treat, delivered by three mad men.