Fashion Inspiration for the Woman of a Certain Age (and Size)!

If you have read my blog over the years, you know that I love fashion, and despite being a woman of a certain age (and size), I still like to dress up.  I have also always enjoyed fashion magazines, ever since I found my older sister's stash of "Seventeen," way back when I was about eight. Since I love clothes and like to make a fashion statement, I always found fashion magazines inspirational. 

However, now that I am a woman of a certain age, I still enjoy them, but find that more and more, they relate less and less to women like me. It seems as we age, we become invisible, not just to the opposite sex and in fashion magazines, but to the world in general. 

So now, I still like to read fashion magazines and books not so much for the fashion inspiration I once sought but so that I can become outraged at the expectations laid out for us older women ("What Rosy Loves and a Rant About Fashion Magazines.")  Not only are we faced with 18-year-old size zero women, we are told what we should and shouldn't wear, what's out and what's in.  Because of that, it's easy to just say, "Screw it!" and give up on ourselves.  If the expectations are so great and yet nobody sees us and nobody else cares what we look like, why should we?

But we should.  We need to fight invisibility and make strong statements about the fact that we may be old but we are still alive and kicking, we still care about how we look and we look GREAT!

I recently posted "Make-Up 101 for the Woman of a Certain Age," in hopes that I could inspire the more mature woman not to give up on herself just because she is, uh, mature and a bit wrinkly.  I also wrote that post because I think we women should fight invisibility by slapping on a little color and not giving in to the ravages of old age.

So I am going to continue that theme, but this time, regarding fashion, in hopes that, despite a little extra poundage and a bit of thickness around the middle, we women of a certain age and size can still look good.  Especially if you are retired, I know it's tempting to just let it all hang out, wear sweatpants and old lady shoes because they are comfortable.  When you have put on weight, one of the first things to go is a waistband, but in the immortal words of Billy Crystal as actor Fernando Lamas on SNL  "It's better to look good than to feel good."

Actually, I am just kidding, well, sort of kidding.

I don't want you to be uncomfortable, but I also don't want you to give in to comfort to the point of not giving a damn what you look like or to think that because you weigh 20 pounds more than you should why bother to dress up?

I had fun awhile back writing a blog post called "Parisian Chic (it's one of my most popular posts, too!) where I reviewed all of those books that came out a few years ago extolling the virtues of being French.  You know the ones I mean, "French Women Don't Get Fat," etc., books meant to make us American women feel shlumpy and lazy.  We may not be French and we many not know 20 different ways to tie a scarf, but we are not shlumpy and we are not lazy.

As I said, though I am a mature woman, I still enjoy dressing up and reading about fashion, so if you, too, are interested in this kind of thing and feel like we women of a certain age and size are left out of the fashion party, I thought I would check out a few recent books on fashion to see if there are any tips that would not only make us less invisible but help us feel really good about ourselves, despite our age and size.  I am also going to see if these are inspirational, and if so, glean the best, share what I have learned and save you the trouble of having to wade through all of them yourselves.

And you are very welcome!

Oh, and I will throw in a few pictures of outfits I have thrown together too.




How To Get Dressed: A Costume Designer's Secrets For Making Your Clothes Look, Fit and Feel Amazing by Alison Freer (2015)

The title of this book is a bit misleading. It's not actually how to put on your clothes but rather how to take care of your clothes so that when you put them on you look amazing.

According to Freer, fit is the true enemy of great style and we need to get a tailor! 

"For example, for us curvy girls...

"Buying bigger and then taking in only where needed is the costume designer's ultimate secret weapon for dressing curves..."

You see, basically this whole book is about either tailoring your clothes yourself or getting it done.  I see lots and lots of dollars flying out of my bank account.

But she also talks about figuring out your own signature style, which I think is good.  Well, I thought it was good until she interviewed women in various professions and, wouldn't you know, one of them was a librarian...I had to say, "Oh no she didn't...

As you know, I am a retired librarian and have been fighting the librarian stereotype and the "you don't look like a librarian" comments all of my life.  Not sure what a librarian is supposed to look like, but I know what the stereotype is.  It's either an old fussy lady with a bun, glasses and double-tread floor gripper shoes or a buttoned up younger woman (yes, she still has glasses and a bun), who hides the dirty books under her desk and is just waiting for a man to come along so she can shake out her hair, take off her glasses, reveal how hot she is so that said man can ravage her on her desk.

So you can image what I thought of THIS then when a young librarian was interviewed about her personal style!

She was a twenty-five-year-old librarian and she had come up with "Librarian Noir" as her personal style.  Now I know she is making a statement about books with the noir part but when I read the blurb I had to cringe. 

Anyway, here is what our little librarian said:

"I run the library at my local university, so proper bookish styles have always been the cornerstone of my personal style.  But the older I get, the more I find myself wanting to break out of the classic 'librarian' mold.  I still need to look professional -- I'm just looking to add a bit of zip to my existing work clothes.  After writing down all the books and films I love, I realized that what I really wanted was to add a little classic Hollywood sex appeal to my wardrobe.  That's how I ended up with 'Librarian Noir.' I've plugged a few fluffy angora sweaters and seamed stockings into my existing closet of pencil skirts and ballet flats.  The result is a look that signals to the world that I'm a very proper lady--with a few secrets hidden just beneath the surface, should one want to scratch."

If ever there was a librarian stereotype, this is it. 

Librarian plus angora sweater and seamed stockings?  "A few secrets hidden beneath the surface?"  And scratch what?  Every man's fantasy, giving her a scratch and waking up that poor sex-starved librarian and finding out she's a sexual hellcat?

I also take issue with her talking about "bookish styles" - not sure what those are.  Likewise, don't know what the "classic librarian mold" is other than more stereotypes (reading glasses on a chain, pencil in bun, matching sweater set?)

(**As you can see, I feel strongly about the "librarian stereotype."  I actually wrote a whole blog post about it a couple of years ago called "Librarian Fashion."  Others must care about it too, because that blog post has turned out to be one of my most popular ones. If you are interested, take a look).

After Freers finished discussing the importance of our finding our signature style, and I got over all of that librarian noir nonsense, she went on to list:

"Dumb Fashion Rules That Were Made for Breaking" which I mostly agreed with:

• Be afraid of stripes
• Don't wear white after Labor Day
• Don't mix your metals
• Don't wear leggings as pants
• Don't wear boots in the summer
• Don't mix patterns
• Don't double up on denim

I agree that all of those are dumb rules except I think NOT doubling up on denim is a GOOD rule unless you want to look like you are just off the farm, and if leggings should be worn as pants, somebody should tell United Airlines.

Freers also offers some fun and strange tips that supposedly come from Hollywood actresses she has worked with: spraying your feet with cooking spray makes it easy to fit into stilettos - ladies, are we still wearing stilettos? - and "irons in a can (also known as wrinkle releasing sprays)" can work in a pinch.  Likewise, when it comes to our intimate wear, she says don't waste your money on expensive shape wear when granny panties and cotton bike shorts work just as well.  Good to know.  I've been wearing granny panties for years.

There is a chapter on shopping vintage and thrift and even one for the guys, but mostly this book is about clothes maintenance - stain removal, storage, shoe care and how to wash fabric the right way.  Yawn.

Rosy the Reviewer says...Inspiring for us women of a certain age and size?  Not really.  Some handy tips if you want to get into tailoring your clothes and need some advice on stain removal and greasing your stilettos, but this all sounds like too much work for me.  But at least all age groups and sizes can relate, though I'm still reeling from that 25-year-old librarian and her "Librarian noir."

This is what a librarian looks like!

How To Look Expensive: A Beauty Editor's Secrets to Getting Gorgeous Without Breaking the Bank by Andrea Pomerantz Lustig (2012)

No this book is not about how to look like a high priced hooker.

The title seems like it should be the title of a movie about high class call girls, but it's not.  In fact, Lustig takes issue with looking loud or tarty.

"Looking expensive is about looking chic and understated, polished and professional...It's about not being flashy or a show-off or a showgirl...It's luxe, not loud.  More Paris France than Paris Hilton."  Ouch.

This is yet another book revealing fashion secrets.  Who knew there were so many secrets about fashion out there and why are they secrets?  But in fact, rather than revealing secrets, this is more like a pep talk to not let yourself go.

"When you upgrade your look you are setting yourself up to upgrade your life."

"Improving your looks is a way to improve your life."

"Feeling like a million bucks makes you look like a million bucks."

You get the idea.

Lustig comes up with four styles to emulate to look expensive:

• Park Avenue Pretty
• Think Kate Middleton or Gwyneth Paltrow

• Hollywood Boho
• Think Taylor Swift or Chloe Sevigny

• Glam Globe Trotter
• Angelina Jolie or Sienna Miller

• Modern Movie Star
• Sandra Bullock or Jennifer Lopez

She also goes into make-up essentials, the top eyebrow mistakes. wardrobe rules and more pronouncements:

• Less is always more
• Build an edited beauty collection (check out my Make-up 101 blog mentioned above)
• Knowledge is priceless - DIY or know how to not get overcharged
• You can't put a price on good taste
• Maintenance is everything
• Buying new beauty products is a lot cheaper than buying new clothes
• The key to a look that reads high worth is to enhance what you've got without trying to be someone else (then why did she list those stars)?

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you feel like a pep talk will get your butt off the couch and motivate you to put on some make-up and try to look like Jennifer Lopez, then this book might be for you but I found it a bit smug.

I am channeling my inner Jennifer Lopez!

 

 

Parisian Chic Look Book: What Should I Wear Today? by Ines de la Fressange and Sophie Gachet (2017)

You cannot escape the French and their superior attitude about fashion and not getting fat.

According to them, you should wear a lot of denim and a lot of black.

Through a series of pictures, the authors show you how you should dress for various events from going to work,

going out to dinner

and what to wear to visit the Eiffel Tower.

Huh?  There's a particular way we are supposed to dress to see the Eiffel Tower?

There is also a list of fashion faux pas, because, well, like I said these authors are French.

Not sure why Bermuda shorts with pockets are bad.  I am thinking Bermuda shorts in general are bad.  The authors also don't like leggings, knockoff bags, platform sneakers, culottes, long down jackets, head-to-toe fur, crepe-soled shoes, Crocs, bras with clear straps, piling on jewelry, cat T-shirts, Mom jeans, and more.  I mostly agree though I have to say the last time I was in Paris everyone looked like the Michelin Man in their long down jackets and I have to admit I am prone to piling on a bit of jewelry.

They end the book with what you SHOULD do - "Fashionable Style Tricks" such as pairing a straw bag with an evening dress, cinching your blazer with two belts, turning your V-neck backwards and using a pearl necklace as a belt.

Two belts? And they think culottes are a fashion faux pas?

The book is nicely illustrated with full outfits for many occasions but the models are all young, skinny bitches wearing nothing but black and denim.

Rosy the Reviewer says... If you can get past the skinny bitches and you like black and denim, you might find some inspiration here but once again, it's those damn French women trying to make us Americans feel fat and frumpy!

Gee, I wonder what they would say about an old lady in bell bottoms! 

 

At least I am wearing black!

 

 

The Power of Style: Everything You Need to Know Before You Get Dressed Tomorrow by Bobbie Thomas (2013)

Another fashion pep talk.

What's with these pep talks?  Are all women giving up on themselves that they need pep talks to get dressed?  I'd better read this book fast since tomorrow will be here before I know it!

Before you can even get dressed you have to go through these steps!

• Step 1 - See yourself and ask Who Are You?

• Step 2 - Act the part - body language and first impressions

• Step 3 - Brand yourself

• Step 4 - Know your worth

• Step 5 - Put a plan in practice

OK, Rosy who are you?  I am an old gal packing a few extra pounds who just wants to be able to get dressed tomorrow and look presentable without having to ask myself "Who Am I?"  All of that just to get dressed each day?

She then goes into colors (do we still do that? - I'm summer, by the way) and finding out the best styles for your body type but for one thing - who does colors anymore and the whole body type thing has been debunked.  We curvy girls CAN wear skinny jeans.

This book is less about fashion and more of a pep talk but reading 111 pages of pep talk would keep me from getting dressed by tomorrow.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if I have to do all of that before I get dressed tomorrow, I would never get dressed!

I just threw this together!

The Capsule Wardrobe: 1,000 Outfits from 30 Pieces by Wendy Mak (2017)

Here is the formula: 80/20.  80% basics and 20% stuff you actually like. 

Literally 109 pages putting those 30 pieces together into outfits. Mak shows you how to take 30 pieces and turn them into 1000 outfits but I have to ask, Why?Yawn.  What fun is it to wear the same 30 pieces all of the time even if they are in all different combinations?

Rosy the Reviewer says... I don't think I am a good candidate for the capsule wardrobe.  In jackets alone, I have more than 30 pieces and I like the idea of being able to shop my wardrobe.  I don't think I'm a capsule wardrobe person.

After all is said and done, here is what I have to say about fashion for the woman of a certain age and size:

DO WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT!!!

Read fashion magazines if you want.  Read books about fashion if you want.  Both will give you some ideas but don't let those skinny bitches tell you what you can and cannot wear because the bottom line is - WEAR WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT!

It's your life.  Enjoy it!

EXPRESS YOURSELF!

 

Thanks for reading!

See you Friday 

for my review of  

"It"  

and

 

The Week in Reviews

(What to See or Read and What to Avoid)

 and the latest on

"My 1001 Movies I Must See Before 

 I Die Project."

  

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"Tulip Fever" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the new movie "Tulip Fever" as well as DVDs "The Disenchanted" and "Regression."  The Book of the Week is "Jimmy Stewart: The Truth Behind the Legend."  I also bring you-up-to-date with "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die" with "Ordet]



Tulip Fever

A good old-fashioned costume drama complete with illicit love, bodice-ripping, blackmail and mistaken identity, all set against Holland's Tulip Wars.

Who knew that tulips were once a hot commodity?

Tulip mania swept Holland for a short period in the 17th century.  Everyone was taken with the flower.  It was a status symbok and speculation on the value of its bulbs created an economic boom.  The more unusual the coloring, the higher the price.  Buyers met in back rooms of bars and bid with a frenzy, much like Wall Street trading today. A sort of informal futures market was formed and some bulbs changed hands several times a day and prices skyrocketed. However, just as our real estate bubble burst several years ago, so did the tulip trade leaving many participants penniless.

The drama centers around Sophia (Alicia Vikander), a young woman, orphaned at an early age, who is basically sold off to a local spice merchant, Cornelis Sandvoort (Christoph Waltz), by the abbess of the convent (Judi Dench) where Sophia had grown up.  He is a much older widower looking for a wife to produce a son.  The abbess tells Sophia that "marriage is a safe harbor" and off Sophia goes to marry a much older but wealthy man.  Unfortunately, three years later there is no son and Cornelis talks of getting rid of Sophia to find another wife. However, there is a sort of mutual affection between the two.  Cornelis is old and needs a bit of help in the sex department but he avidly tries every night to produce an heir and Sophia does her duty.

Cornelis decides he wants a portrait painted of the two of them, a common practice among the upper classes in Amsterdam, so he hires a young, handsome painter, Jan Van Loos (Dane DeHaan), and you can probably figure out what happens next. Old husband who needs help getting his "little soldier" and who is short on the foreplay; young, handsome guy who is ready to rumble.  You do the math.

Yes, Jan and Sophia have an instant attraction and embark upon an affair.

There is also another love story running parallel to Sophia's and this one is actually a real hot and heavy love story, and that is the story of Sophia's maid, Maria (Holliday Grainger), who narrates the story and who is in love with the local fishmonger, Willem (Jack O'Connell).  When Cornelis grouses about having fish so many nights for dinner, he grumpily proclaims that Maria must be in love with the fishmonger.  Well, yes, Cornelis, she is.

Meanwhile, both Jan and Willem are caught up in the tulip frenzy.  Willem invests in a particular popular bulb and makes some money which he plans to use to marry Maria. However, before he can ask Maria to marry him, both women's love affairs collide when Sophia takes Maria's cloak to meet with Jan and Willem mistakenly believes it is Maria meeting Jan.  Upset, he gets drunk in a brothel, loses his money, gets beaten up and finds himself on a ship sailing to Africa.  Maria, thinking that Willem has left her willingly, discovers that she is pregnant and knowing that is a sure way to get booted out of Cornelis' household blackmails Sophia, telling her that she will tell Cornelis of her affair with Jan if she doesn't help her.  The two concoct an elaborate  plan to pass the baby off as Sophia's - and believe me, it's elaborate.

Meanwhile, penniless painter Jan has also gotten himself immersed in speculating heavily on that same rare bulb in the tulip market and sends his friend, Gerritt (an almost unrecognizable Zach Galifianakis), to secure the bulb so he can pay off his creditors. Unfortunately, Gerritt has a bit of a drinking problem and you can guess how that worked out.

Well, it all kind of goes to hell from there - the baby, the tulip money, the love affair. 

Despite the unfortunate title that makes this film seem like a horror film about a tulip allergy pandemic, this film is actually a lovely-looking, historically- based melodrama that looks like it was painted by the Dutch Masters.  It has an interesting, though sometimes far-fetched plot, good looking actors, romance, sex, heaving bosoms, all with a little history thrown in.  What more could you want?

Alicia Vikander is a gorgeous actress whose luminosity just oozes off the screen.  When Jan was painting her standing in a window, she looked like a Vermeer painting.  As for Waltz, I am usually not a fan because it seems like he always plays the same character.  He fell into the Paul Giamatti category for me - too many mannerisms and too many characters played the same - but here he is toned down and quite poignant. I believed him.

Jack O'Connell, who burst on the scene in "Unbroken," and who I liked much better in this, is a handsome guy who I am going to keep my eyes on.  Likewise, Holliday Granger is another lovely actress who I believe has a bright future ahead.  The rest of the cast includes Tom Hollander, who I do really like, as the rather sketchy doctor with Douglas Hodge (been a fan of his ever since the British TV series "Capital City"), Matthew Morrison (remember "Glee?"), David Harewood and Cara Delevingne all in small roles.  Delevingne's was especially small.  Not sure what she was doing there considering the big roles she has had lately, but the fact that release of this film had a long delay could explain that. 

I enjoyed this film but I am a sucker for costume films with soap opera plots, romance and good-looking actors.  However, I had one complaint which would be DeHaan, not because he is not a good actor.  He is.  But because he just seemed too young and callow for the role.  He looks very much like a young Leonardo Di Caprio, which is not a bad thing, but for this role, it just didn't work.  He looked like a teenager here, not a savvy guy in 17th century Amsterdam trying to make his way as a painter and tulip trader.

Adapted from her own novel by Deborah Moggach and the venerable playwright Tom Stoppard and directed by Justin Chadwick, this is a satisfying costume drama with an interesting plot and gorgeous cinematography and a welcome relief from some of the summer crap we have been enduring.

If this film interests you, get thee to the theatre now because I don't think it will be around long.  At a 12:10 matinee this week, I was literally the only person in the theatre and that's too bad because this was one of the better films this summer. People must have stayed away because of the title. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...a fun 17th century soap opera with an unfortunate title.

***Some Movies You Might Have Missed***

(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)!

On DVD

La Desenchantee (1990)
(The Disenchanted)

 

The disenchantment of finding out what the world is really like.

Seventeen year old Beth (Judith Godreche) is just about to graduate from high school. She is bored. She lives in Paris with her invalid mother (Therese Liotard) and brother, Remi (Thomas Salsmann).  Her mother has been a kept woman (that's a polite term for what she really was) by a man the kids call Uncle (Ivan Desny), but it seems "Uncle" now wants to turn his attentions to Beth.  When Beth's boyfriend (Malcoln Conrath), whose character is merely called "the other (probably because he is just an unfortunate blip in Beth's young life)" tells her she needs to have sex with an ugly guy to prove her love for him, this film kind of lost me. Not sure how those two things correlate. 

Anyway, she finds him, the so-called "ugly guy" - Edouard (Francis Mage) - a ginger-haired nerd who could be a younger version of the comedian Carrot Top.  We know he's a nerd because he has a bad haircut, wears khakis with a tucked-in polo shirt and has a computer in his room which would have been actually very cool for 1990.  He takes her to his room and awkwardly attacks her.  She disentangles herself from Edward only to find herself abused by her boyfriend and rescued by a knife-wielding older man, Alphonse (Marcel Bozonnet), who eventually gets Beth to think about the purpose of existence, especially in the face of death.  It's all very existential.

It's also all very French so it's all about sex, 1990 Parisian teen style, and it harks back to the films of the French New Wave.  But it's also about being poor in Paris which must be the pits.  Paris, The City of Light, the City of Love. As tourists in Paris we don't think of the locals scrounging for a living. but as we dine at The Ritz or walk along the Champs Elysee those less fortunate are all around.  If it's expensive to visit Paris, just imagine what it must cost to actually live there!

The title comes from Beth's obsession with the poet Rimbaud, but it also embodies the disenchantment one feels as one goes from the carefree joys of youth to the realities of adulthood and what some have to do to survive, especially as a young person surrounded by tortured and haunted adults. 

Written and directed by Benoit Jacquot, I couldn't figure out how I ended up watching this movie.  I think this is one of those movies I ordered from Netflix because I liked the trailer.  Probably not a good idea to order films based on the trailers. The trailers often show all of the best parts of the film and the film itself never gets any better than the trailer.  So remember, I warned you!  

This is not an easy film to get into as it follows a bored teen around Paris.  She's bored, we're bored.  However, Goodreche is certainly a lovely teen to look at, the film is beautifully shot and it's short (only 78 minutes), but in the end, the film doesn't really have much new to say about coming of age.

Rosy the Reviewer says...Godreche, who was nominated for a Cesar Award for this film and who went on to have a successful acting career, is an appealing screen presence and the best thing about this film.





Regression (2015)

While investigating a molestation, a detective gets caught up in possible satanic cult activities.

Supposedly inspired by real events in Minnesota in 1990 (but really just a conglomeration of the satanic cult hysteria that gripped the nation in the 1990's), a girl, Angela Gray (Emma Watson) accuses her father, John (Bruce Dencik), of molesting her.  Bruce Kenner (Ethan Hawke) is the detective called in to investigate.  John confesses but says he doesn't remember doing it. It is decided that some regression therapy is needed to get the father to remember that he has molested his daughter.  Enter Professor Raines (David Thewlis).

Meanwhile, radio shock jocks have been working the locals up about satanic worship sweeping the country, and it isn't long before the therapist blatantly plants this suggestion to John and suddenly John remembers.  The devil made him do it!  Likewise, as Kenner investigates, more and more people undergo the regression therapy and conjure up visions of satanic rituals and people in masks. Remember those child care scandals several years ago that all turned out to be false accusations? Or the whole "Paradise Lost" mess where three young men were falsely accused of killing some little boys in a satanic ritual just because they were potheads and goth?  The 1990's was the age of devil worship hysteria, and this film capitalizes on that.

As the story unfolds, Kenner is caught up in claims of satanic worship throughout the small town and begins to experience visions and nightmares himself.  Was Angela really molested by her father?  Is the town rife with satanic cults?

Though the film is supposed to be taking place in Minnesota, I was distracted by the fact that this is obviously not filmed in the U.S.   How do I know this?

• The cops are all wearing sweaters with epaulets.  No American cops wear attire like that.  I have only ever seen it on cops in the U.K.
• David Thewlis and Emma Watson are in it. David Thewlis is in practically every British film ever made when they need an odd, smarmy character, and, well, Emma Watson is British too.
• People watching TV in a bar are obviously in a pub, not an American bar. Two totally different animals because I have frequented many an American bar and English pub (ahem) in my time. I know these things!

OK, upon looking into the filming locations, it's Canada, but I was close because Canada definitely has English influences, and it certainly wasn't Minnesota, so yay me!

Written and directed by Alejandro Amenabar, the film has film noir qualities, a stylish atmosphere, lots of star power (the actors did the best with what they had to work with) and an interesting premise, but the film got so convoluted with side plots that it never went anywhere and the very over the top conclusion defies believability.  What was the point?  Were we just remembering that time when everyone was accusing everyone else of being a devil worshiper?

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you are into devil worshipping, you might enjoy this, but the film doesn't really add anything new to that discussion and if you can keep track of all of the twists and turns, I tip my devil mask to you.

***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***

187 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?




Ordet (1955)

Winner of the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film in 1955, this Danish film is the story of the Borgen family and their struggles with their religious beliefs.

Morten Borgen (Henrik Malberg) raises hackles in his religious town in Denmark because he is a quiet believer, not a fundamentalist.  He has three sons: Mikkel (Emil Hass), the eldest who has no faith but is married to the pious, Inger, who is pregnant; Anders (Cay Kristiansen), a romantic who wants to marry Anne (Gerda Nielsen) despite his father's disapproval; and Johannes (Preben Lerdorff Rye), a religious fanatic who wanders around the house like the second coming of Christ, because, well actually he believes he is the second coming of Christ. 

Johannes is prone to wandering in a daze out to the nearby cliff and preaching to the town.  Everyone is very worried about him and they should be.  He is loony and really kind of a pain.  Imagine living with someone who looks like a zombie and wanders into the room without warning, makes a religious pronouncement and then retreats to his room.  I would call him the family nutter, the nutty brother everyone wants to keep hidden.

Mikkel wants to marry Anne but her father, the local tailor, won't let her marry Mikkel unless Morten and Anders convert to his fundamentalist religious sect. Morten is not thrilled either because he is not a fundamentalist.  But when a tragedy strikes, a miracle occurs and the two families are reconciled.

Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, this film is all about faith and asks whether it's possible to be a good person without faith or faithful but not a good person. Think of the Ku Klux Klan.  Many of them consider themselves Christians but how can they justify hating people of other colors and beliefs? But despite this film's serious subject matter - religion and the power of faith - I found this film rather boring at times.  

The cinematography is what is called "gorgeous black and white."  We modern folks can't seem to handle black and white anymore, but back then, that was the standard, and the cinematography was just as colorful as color with all the various gradations of black and gray.

And don't be fooled by the movie poster (see above).  The poster is a catfish!  It makes the film look like there is a sex scene in it WHICH THERE IS NOT!

Why it's a Must See: "An extraordinary work, and arguably the finest achievement of this great filmmaker...it manages to persuade the viewer that a miracle can happen...[and]even if [this film] fails to convert us to religious belief, we have, at least, witnessed cinematic art of the highest order."
---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

Rosy the Reviewer says...despite my appreciation of the cinematic techniques, this is an earnest film that doesn't really hold up today and reminded me of why I no longer go to church.
(In Danish with English subtitles)

***The Book of the Week***

Jimmy Stewart: The Truth Behind the Legend by Michael Munn (2016)

A biography of a film star from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Ah, the Golden Age of Hollywood.  I'm talking the 30's and 40's when the film studios ruled Hollywood as well as their actors and actresses.  There was no Internet, no Twitter, not even the National Inquirer to spread gossip about the private lives of these golden gods of the movies, and if anything bad did get out about them, the studios made sure whatever it was was quickly squelched.

Though it was an unrealistic time and many of the movies from that era painted too rosy a picture of life, I miss those movies, and I miss those actors and feel sad that young people today don't know or appreciate who Clark Gable was or Vivien Leigh or even Elizabeth Taylor.  In recent years, Carrie Fisher was more famous than her mother Debbie Reynolds, who was a superstar of her day, far more famous than Carrie ever was.  So I was thrilled to watch the TV mini-series "Feud," not just because it was a wonderful series and will no doubt win many Emmy's next week, but because it was about Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, two superstars of that era who have mostly been forgotten today.

I wasn't born until the late 1940's, so I missed those times too, but I was able to see all of those movies as I stayed up and watched the late late show with my Dad.  Back in the 50's when there were only a couple of TV channels and no first-run movies, every afternoon and every night the stations would show the old movies and my Dad and I wallowed in them.  He had actually seen most of them in the theaters and loved to regale me with tidbits about the actors. From him, I learned to read the credits and look for names of actors in small roles who later became famous or to look for their real names - Tony Curtis was billed as Bernard Schwartz until the studio made him change his name and Joan Crawford's real name was Lucille Le Seur (I actually think her real name was much more a movie star name than Joan Crawford, don't you)?  I miss those days with my Dad, I miss those old movies and I am sad all of those once famous glittering personalities have mostly been totally forgotten.

Author Michael Munn also laments the fact that young people today are not familiar with the "great movie stars" of the past, and he hopes to correct that with this biography of Jimmy Stewart, one of those legends of Hollywood I was talking about.  With his laconic delivery and natural acting style, Stewart achieved stardom (after 19 earlier films) in 1939 with "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and then went on to star in such classics as "It's a Wonderful Life," "Philadelphia Story," and "Vertigo." 

Born into a conservative family in Indiana in 1908, Stewart attended Princeton, where his accordion playing led to spots in plays, which in turn led him to summer stock and then Broadway where Hollywood came calling. The "truth" referred to in the title is about Stewart's extracurricular activities: undercover work for the FBI, his heroism in WW II and possible racism. Though many other biographies have been written about Stewart, Munn's friendship with Stewart and his wife, Gloria, gave him rare access and this biography sheds new light on the actor.

Rosy the Reviewer says...treat yourself to a well-written biography that is a foray back in time when actors were golden.

Thanks for reading!

See you TUESDAY 

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"Fashion Inspiration for a Woman of a Certain Age (and Size)"  

 

  

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