Fish Supper Barbados

Don't worry you've never seen the film! It is a small story board that unfolded before my eyes in Barbados. The trip was inspirational for reading (lots of film and fashion stuff), for developing this poor neglected blog and a growing film script in my head and in part on paper!

This short story is of a local fisherman who is bringing in his catch to the rum shop by the sea! Already gutted before being brought in, the fish is weighed, admired and then left to be cut up, whilst the fisherman gets back on the boat and away as the sun is setting.

To Catch a Thief

Set on the French Riviera To Catch a Thief(1955) is the most lightweight of Hitchcock's films. It stars Cary Grant and Grace Kelly and is a sheer delight to watch. Based on the same name novel by David Dodge, Hitchcock directs Grant as a notorious reformed jewel thief and Kelly as the rich heiress.

The setting and the costumes are wonderful. Grant is prelude to Connery's Bond with his debonair dress and self deprecation. Edith Head created pure class for Kelly with an array of costumes that say holidaying on the Riviera culminating in a spectacular gold evening gown for a masked ball.

If your fresh out of ideas for a vintage summer look then To Catch a Thief is the perfect viewing.

A Place in the Sun

A Place in the Sun is a film reflecting changing times in the 1950s. Starring two great screen beauties, Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in essence is struggle of money and class portraying Clift as someone on the up and torn between his place and that of debutante Angela (played by Taylor). It is quite a gruesome story in terms of Clift's character and actions.

The real significance in terms of costume is the dress Taylor wore in the pool room scene - a strapless boned bodice top with an enormous white tulle skirt over a pale green satin and white violets covering the bust. Edith Head won the Oscar for best costume in the black and white film category and the dress captured the public imagination so much so that every prom had many an Elizabeth Taylor. In fact one could argue that this dress defined a look for proms and brides ever since 1951.

Publicity shot for A Place in the Sun - here Taylor is wearing the other dress designed by Edith Head.

To see the dress view the YouTube video.

Plein Soleil

Now it used to be that on a Saturday if I wasn't working I'd have a leisurely brunch with The Guardian and in the afternoon pop to the shops for a browse and purchase an item or two. A most satisfactory pursuit which would involve a cappuccino along the way. If I'd been styling all week It would be the book shops that got my full attention. Since the start of my MA in Fashion and Film, I've either been working on a Saturday or studying hard.

But yesterday I drove over a 100 miles to Warwick Arts Centre to attend a screening of Plein Soleil (1960)a French film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley. Highsmith commented that Plein Soleil was "very beautiful to the eye and interesting for the intellect", although she took issue with the ending.

Adapted and directed by René Clément, Tom Ripley is played by Alain Delon. The screening of this film was in the context of a talk by Stella Bruzzi and Pamela Church Gibson on fashion and film criminals entitled 'If Looks could Kill'.

Alain Delon is pure evil in the film but equally he is pure male beauty. It is a stark contrast to Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr Ripley (1999) as Tom Ripley is extremely cold and also the most beautiful person on screen, compared to Minghella's where Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Dickie (Jude Law) are the eye candy.

The talk focused on the typical cinema criminal most notably the gangster and their appropriation of the suit, how a gangster is obvious with their flamboyant use of dress and the vanity associated with dress. The gangster always admires himself in the mirror and will always see his tailor upon release from jail before his 'gal'. The narcissistic quality of dress is integral to Plein Soleil and Alain Delon's portrayal of Tom Ripley, being a French film you can imaging the quality of the style right down to the very Italian Riviera white leather Gucci loafers which are so soft and delectable you can almost feel their quality from the screen. The cinematography and colour is outstanding in this film

Highsmith was disappointed with the film's ending, calling it "a terrible concession to so-called public morality." However Clement had constructed such a cold, evil, narcissistic and beautiful Ripley in Plein Soleil it seemed the creator needed to reign him in.

All hail Paul Newman

Nothing I write can do this screen god real justice. Paul Newman was a Hollywood great and produced an array of diverse and entertaining films. Everyone will have their favourite and for their own reasons. I loved these:
Cool Hand Luke
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Long Hot Summer
Absence of Malice
The Hustler
Winning - in fact I loved car racing due to this film and Steve McQueen's Le Mans, Newman and McQueen both kings of cool as an aside they are two of the finest American actors of all-time, Steve McQueen and Paul Newman dominated the often underrated classic films of the 1960’s and eventually starred together in the 1974 disaster picture The Tower Inferno. After the Inferno, McQueen who battled cancer, only made a few more films, with Tom Horn his final role before his 1980 death.

I enjoyed:
The Sting and Butch Cassiday and the Sunshine Kid for his unadulterated charm.
The Colour of Money
Road to Perdition - how fine did he look

and who can forget his brilliant voice over as Doc Hudson in Cars.

Paul Newman 1925 - 2008

The movie legend passed away yesterday it was announced to the world today. Paul Newman was 83 and had a long and illustrious career. I will post a few pieces about him over the next few days as he was my favourite actor.

Here is a link to his obituary

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

After my Mrs Ritchie post, and with the release of RockNRolla this Friday I felt it was time to give the lads a viewing on fashion and film.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) is of a genre that fitted with a certain London look and it has a certain nostalgic feel aka the Krays. Essentially four London working class stiffs pool their money to put one in a high stakes card game, but things go wrong and they end up owing half a million pounds and having one week to come up with the cash. The essence of the film with its twists and turns and a sort of sting/heist which preceded the glam Hollywood version of Oceans Eleven.


What you get with Lock Stock is a lads film during a time in the UK where lads and ladettes ruled. The sharp suits and coats, the location setting including Borough market, with some classic cars thrown in and the movie sold style and chance to a nation.