Friday, April 17, 2015
The Screening Room….Grand Hotel
If you were a fan of Wes Anderson’s recent Grand Budapest Hotel, then I think you might enjoy 1932′s Grand Hotel.
“Grand Hotel” is that quintessential old Hollywood glamour film that’s just as easy to watch today, as I assume it was in 1932 (the film recieved the Academy Award for Best Picture that year).
The plot is fantastic. It revolves around several guests of Berlins finest hotel, “The Grand Hotel” as they come, go, and intersect with each other. Â It’s like all your favorite stars playing house together!
And by all your favorite stars, I’m talking John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Joan Crawford, and The Greta Garbo.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
The Reading List….Palaces Of Venice
By Peter Lauritzen and Alexander Zielcke.
First Published in 1978 by John Calmann and King Ltd
(Photos above are from the 1985 edition).
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Go See This Movie!!!
 Spring is here and it’s the perfect time to take a stroll and end up at your favorite movie theater, watch an afternoon film and let your imagination carry you away for the rest of the day.
Dior and I is a very charming and realistic look inside the realities of running a legendary house such as Christian Dior.
The star of this documentary is Raf Simons who has recently taken on the role as creative director of the house.
To see a designer so vulnerable and to follow him in this extremely daunting role feels like a rare glimpse into a level of fashion and design, often not seen. His candidness is refreshing. In a car ride Simons relays, is he a minimalist? No. Did he work for a minimalist brand? Yes. It’s the hurtle he feels he’s up against being defined by one thing (referring to his past role as creative director of Jil Sander), when he is of course capable of much more than what has defined him thus far. By being so straight forward, Simons instantly becomes relatable.
The film reminds you how human these great designers are by relaying Simons daily activities, thoughts and insecurities against those of the houses founder Christian Dior. Excerpts from Dior’s personal journals are narrated throughout the film while Simons wanders through the same emotional triumphs and turmoils Dior himself had to face.
It’s a wonderful film that serves to give a personalization, names and faces, to a house that is so legendary in its own right.
