Monday, September 24, 2007

1967 Envy



Watched Belle de Jour today with the incomparable Catherine Deneuve. A very noir film - a twist of sophisticate in a sexually bizarre cocktail of fantasy and bedroom eyes a la 1967.

God do I want her hair.

Had just watched the Colts game by myself (and ironed, incidentally) and was feeling a bit too Midwestern for my own good. Solution? Vintage French cinema.

Was admittedly shaken by the fantasy rape sequences - the film introduces Catherine's character in a scene where she is (turns out) imagining her own humiliation and gang rape in the Parisian woods. Small wonder the film was seen as 'controversial' and shelved for 35 years.

Fascinating, though, isn't it? 40 years later and the piece still holds power, even for someone like me who spent her entire childhood dismissing shock from her emotional arsenal of reactions... Oooohhh and she looks so ravishingly stunning in every scene, even when she has sunk into her most desperate moments and her hair is bed-russled and heaped atop her miserable head. She wins my Style Icon of the Month and henceforth I shall attempt some semblance of her poise and elegance.

If only someone would send me the Yves Saint-Laurent wardrobe she wore.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

No doubt the most beautiful woman ever lived...