Film Festival: Fashion in Film.
“If Looks Could Kill: Cinema’s Images of Fashion, Crime and Violence”
Full Programme.
Calendar of Events.
"Founded in 2005 by curators Marketa Uhlirova and Christel Tsilibaris and costume designer and stylist Roger K. Burton, it quickly established itself as a leading forum for research and the retrospective exhibition of international film in which fashion and clothes play a significant part."
BFI Southbank, Ciné lumière , Tate Modern, Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Horse Hospital.
10 – 31 May 2008

Highlights (for me) include showings of three seminal Italian thrillers; Mario Bava's 'Blood & Black Lace' (Sei Donne Per L'Assassino) (1964), Elio Petri's 'The 10th Victim' (La Decima Vittima) (1965) and Dario Argento's directorial debut 'The Bird with Crystal Plumage' (L'Uccello Dalle Piume di Cristallo) (1969).



Above: Scenes from 'Blood & Black Lace'.




Above: Scenes from 'The 10th Victim'.
Other highlights include French thriller Purple Noon (Plein Soleil) (1960), Mike Hodges' British gangster drama 'Get Carter' (1971), and the bizarre film noirs 'Leave Her to Heaven' (1945) and 'Follow Me Quietly' (1949).


Above: Scenes from 'Follow Me Quietly' (1949).

French Pop: Claude François (1939-1978).
Bio.

A hugely successful singer of the 60s and 70s, known as 'CloClo' to his many fans.
Born in Egypt of a French father and Italian mother, François' father was a senior manager for the Suez canal company. When President Nasser nationalised the canal in 1956, the family were forced to move back to France. With François' father now seriously ill, they struggled to make ends meet.

Moving to Paris, François began a career based on covering anglophone hits translated into French. His live dates were sell-outs, notable for lively stage-shows backed by a eight-piece band, full orchestra and his backing dancers, dubbed 'Les Clodettes'.

The rubber-limbed François performs 'Petite mèche de cheveux'.
This rather unflattering article paints a picture of a very driven, bad tempered and controlling figure with a heartless attitude to his family if they stood in the way of his career or desires.
Quite in contrast to the sunny, animal-loving, boy-next-door, family man image he projected.

In the English-speaking world he is most famous for his involvement in the creation of the song 'Comme D'Habitude' ("As Usual"), re-written by Paul Anka into the Frank Sinatra hit 'My Way'.
Songwriter Jacques Revaux could find no home for his original English language track 'For Me', but with the lyrics re-written by Claude François and Gilles Thibaut, 'Comme D'Habitude' was released in 1968.
In contrast to the triumphalist cant of 'My Way', 'Comme D'Habitude's' lyrics are full of sorrow, hurt and loneliness; reflecting François' self-pity resulting from the conclusion of his brief affair with super-lovely pop starlet France Gall (although if France Gall had just dumped me, I'd be pretty cut-up about it too).

François performs 'Comme D'Habitude'.
On March 10th 1978, returning from a trip to Switzerland, standing in his filled bathtub, François noticed a broken light bulb overhead. Overcome by his obsession nature, he attempted to fix it... you can guess the rest.

Comme D'Habitude MP3.

Ce Soir Je Vais Boire MP3.

Eloise MP3.

Exhibition: The Story of the Supremes from the Mary Wilson Collection.

From The Victoria & Albert Museum.
"A display of performance costumes worn by The Supremes, one of the most successful groups of the sixties - only the Beatles had more number one hits.

The display will show the changing image of The Supremes from the early days when they were known as The Primettes to the glamorous Hollywood designs they wore at the height of their fame, and look at their continuing stylistic influence on performers such as Beyoncé.

The display will include dresses worn by Mary Wilson, Diana Ross and Florence Ballard for live performances, television appearances and on album covers. Original television footage, photographs and magazine spreads will examine The Supremes as the stars of Motown Records whose highly visible success story helped change racial perceptions during the time of the American Civil Rights movement."

From 13 May - 19 October 2008.

Exhibition: For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond.

From The Imperial War Museum Website:
"To celebrate the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth, Imperial War Museum London will launch the first major exhibition devoted to the life and work of the man who created the world’s most famous secret agent, James Bond. The exhibition will examine the extent to which the books and films reflect the reality of the Cold War and how far they were a product of Fleming’s prodigious imagination.

The exhibition features fascinating material, much on display for the first time, including a selection of annotated Bond manuscripts and Fleming’s Colt Python .357 Magnum revolver. Material from the films will include the ‘blood-splattered’ shirt worn by Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, along with prototypes of Rosa Klebb’s flick knife shoes in From Russia with Love and Halle Berry’s bikini from Die Another Day"

From 17 April 2008 to 1 March 2009.

'Goldfinger' Film Titles (1964).
Sequence designed by Robert Brownjohn (1925-1970).

Trained at Chicago's Institute of Design under architect Serge Chermayeff and Bauhaus legend László Moholy-Nagy, Robert Brownjohn moved to New York and in 1957 formed the graphic design firm 'Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar' with Ivan (son of Serge) Chermayeff and Tom Geismar.
A jazz enthusiast, Brownjohn formed friendships with Miles Davis and Charlie Parker, but also became a heroin addict during this period.

Brownjohn's girlfriend and fashion designer Kiki Milne dressing 'Goldfinger' model Margaret Nolan.
In 1959, his heroin addiction threatening to overwhelm him, Brownjohn and his family moved to London to take advantage of the more liberal narcotics laws and access to treatment in the U.K.

Brownjohn soon became hot property in London and replaced 'Dr No' titles designer Maurice Binder on the following two Bond films; 'From Russia with Love' and 'Goldfinger'.
According to Brownjohn, his pitch for 'From Russia...' consisted of gyrating his bare mid-rift in front of a slide projector and exclaiming "It'll be just like this, except we'll use a pretty girl!"

Brownjohn had never worked with live action before, nor had his animation assistant Trevor Bond. Using techniques taught by László Moholy-Nagy, Brownjohn's team beamed light over three separate models; a belly dancer, a snake dancer and a model for close-ups.

'From Russia...' was a huge success and as the budget for each Bond film increased, so did Brownjohn's budget; from £850 for 'From Russia...' to £5,000 for 'Goldfinger'.
Brownjohn employed starlet Margaret Nolan as his canvas this time (Nolan has a small role as 'Dink', Bond's masseuse in 'Goldfinger').

Like Shirley Eaton's character in the film, Nolan was painted head-to-foot in gold and dressed in a gold leather bikini, while footage from the film was projected over her curvaceous torso.

Due to some unknown dispute, the Bond producers returned to Maurice Binder for the next Bond feature 'Thunderball' and all their subsequent Bond films until 1989.
Brownjohn continued to be one of Britain's most highly regarded graphic designers, most notably for the 'wedding cake' cover of the Rolling Stone's 'Let it Bleed' LP (cake famously baked by Delia Smith).

Brownjohn and Margaret Nolan.

Test projections for 'Goldfinger'.




Film Poster, 1964, Eon Productions, Robert Brownjohn.

Alternative design displayed in London, 1964.

Photographs by Herbert Spencer.
From "Robert Brownjohn: Sex & Typography".
ISBN:1-85669-464-X

Sam Peffer (b. 1921).
Interview.
Article.
Website.
Original cover artist on the UK edition James Bond paperbacks.

Mai '68: "La Marianne de Mai '68".
Link.
Link 2 (en français).

One of the most famous and iconic images of the Paris uprisings of May 1968 is 'La Marianne de Mai 68' (in reference to 'La Liberté guidant le peuple' by Eugène Delacroix) photographed by photo journalist Jean-Pierre Rey.
The 'Marianne' in question was one Caroline de Bendern, English aristocrat and model whose rebellious nature; expelled from numerous English boarding schools, consorting with artists and musicians; resulted in her grandfather, the Earl of Bendern, cutting off her allowance.
Caroline headed to Paris and New York, modeling there, mixing with the likes of Andy Warhol and Lou Reed and making experimental films with the Zanzibar group.

On May 13th 1968 Caroline joined a group of friends at Place Edmond Rostand, near the Jardin de Luxembourg, on one of the many marches and protests taking place throughout Paris that month.
Footsore, she agreed to ride upon the shoulders of Jean-Jacques Lebel, instigator of the occupation of the theatre de l'Odéon. Offered a choice of the flags Lebel had been brandishing, she settled on the emblem of FNL Vietnamese.
Aware of the many press photographers milling throughout the throng, Caroline's modeling instincts took over, her body and facial expression transforming into the now famous dramatic pose.

Published in Life Magazine on May 24th, her grandfather saw the photograph and, scandalised, disinherited her.

Mai '68: Atelier Populaire.
Gallery 1.
Gallery 2.
Link 1.
Link 2 (en français).
On May 16th protesting students occupied Paris' most distinguished and conservative art school, L'École des Beaux-Arts.
Under the group name 'Atelier Populaire' (Popular Workshop) they created the posters that came to symbolise the events of May 1968.


Each day suggested graphics and slogans were discussed and voted on, new posters were produced every day for almost a month and a half.
Printed throughout the day, each evening the Left Bank would be covered in these new sets of designs.

In order for the posters to be produced in the required volume and quickly enough to be dry for that evening, the students used many different techniques of manufacture; Linoleum, primitive Lithograph and Silkscreen prints were all employed.

The Beaux Arts students were heavily influenced by the Situationists, a group of philosophers who believed art and culture were central to any radical societal change and that all art should be produced anonymously and never collected.







An exhibition of Atelier Populaire will run at London's Hayward Gallery from Thursday 1 May 2008 until Sunday 1 June 2008.

Film: The Small World of Sammy Lee (1962).

From BFI website:
"Strip club compere and small-time wideboy Sammy (superbly played by cockney crooner Anthony Newley) loses his shirt at an all-night card game, and the heavies are looking to collect. Cue a gripping race against the clock around the streets of Soho as Sammy tries to raise the readies, and escape with the girl who loves him, before his luck runs out. Snappy, jazzy, cynical, this is a film long overdue for reappraisal."

Showing at London's BFI; Thursday 24th April 2008, 8pm.

DVD: The Delirious Fictions Of William Klein .

From the Criterion website:
"William Klein's explosive, challenging New York street photography made him one of the most heralded artists of the fifties.

Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? (Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?) (1966).
An American expatriate in Paris, Klein has also been making challenging cinema for over forty years, yet, with the exception of his acclaimed 1969 documentary Muhammed Ali, The Greatest, his film work is barely known in the United States.

The Model Couple (Le Couple Témoin) (1977).
In his three fiction features - Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?, Mr. Freedom, and The Model Couple (Le Couple Témoin) - he skewers the fashion industry, American imperialism, and middle-class complacency with hilarious, cutting aplomb.

Mister Freedom (1968).
Today, Klein's politically galvanizing and insanely entertaining social critiques seem even more ahead of their time than works of the more famous New Wavers that overshadowed them: colorful, surreal antidotes to all."

Due for release April 8th 2008.

Pop Goes the Revolution: French Cinema and May '68.
Showing at London's BFI in April & May 2008 as part of the '1968 and Its Legacies' festivities.
Click on the movie title for more details.

Alphaville (1965).
"Jean-Luc Godard’s homage to pop art and pulp fiction."
Hard boiled detective Lemmy Caution is sent to spy on Alpha 60, the giant computer complex which governs a monstrous city called Alphaville in Jean-Luc Godard’s surrealist urban nightmare.

Masculin Féminin (1966).
"Meet “The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola”…"
A young leftie idealist dates an aspiring yé-yé singer who symbolises empty-headed, pop-obsessed youth in a film that epitomises go-go Paris ’66.

Weekend (1967).
"Jean-Luc Godard’s farewell to commercial cinema."
Roland and Corinne set out on a road trip toward Oinville that is lined with violence; Godard’s subtext that car culture will lead capitalism to self-destruct is no less relevant today.

The Bride Wore Black (1967).
"Jeanne Moreau stars in Francois Truffaut’s homage to Hitchcock."
Jeanne Moreau stars as a young bride out for revenge after five men make her a widow on her wedding day.

La Collectionneuse (1966).
"The most erotically charged of Eric Rohmer’s ‘moral tales’."
Patrick Bauchau is the solemn intellectual, Haydée Politoff the boy collector in the most erotically charged of Rohmer’s 'moral tales'.

Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo? (1966).
"William Klein’s op-art masterpiece."
An op-art satire of the fashion industry, based around the sleek bobs and Pierre Cardin fineries of chic 60s France.

Mr Freedom (1968).
"A political farce, banned by the De Gaulle government."
An American superhero makes catastrophic attempts to stop France from falling to communism. Released in the wake of the Paris riots, Serge Gainsbourg provided the score.
(n.b. the music on this clip is actually a remix of Gainsbourg's 1970 title theme for 'La Horse').

Trans-Europ Express (1968).
"Illusion and reality get mixed up on the Paris-Antwerp train."
The ambiguity of Alain Robbe-Grillet’s surreal but playful film, about a team of film-makers discussing a thriller they want to make, anticipates the ever-shifting grey areas of ’68.

Un Homme et une Femme (1966).
"The Oscar-winning French equivalent of Brief Encounter."
Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant embark on an affair in Claude Lelouch’s film, dominated by Michel Legrand's breathily beautiful score.

Les Idoles (1968).
"Stylish satire of the yé-yé scene."
Pop satire in which the society of the spectacle is deconstructed with mod style and plenty of flash.

La Piscine (1968).
"A love triangle leads to disaster on the Riviera."
Alain Delon and Romy Schneider's Riviera holiday is disrupted by the arrival of the provocative young Jane Birkin.

Slogan (1969) (plus La Revolution n'est pas qu'un debut).
"Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, together here for the first time."
Advertising exec Serge Gainsbourg rents mistress Jane Birkin an apartment and leaves his pregnant wife. Plus Clementi's silent, psychedelic manifesto for "permanent revolution".

Jim Steranko (b. 1938).
Wiki.
Art of Jim Steranko.
Cover gallery.

If you live to be a million years old, you'll never be as cool as this guy.
One of North America's greatest and most influential comic book artists; Jim Steranko's talents as visual innovator are matched only by his gift for self-mythologising.

After an early life spent as petty thief, carny worker, magician, escape artist (Inspiring both Jack Kirby's 'Fourth World' character, super-escape artist, Mister Miracle; plus comic book artist Josef Kavalier in Michael Chabon's 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay') and rock 'n' roll guitarist; Steranko entered the world of comics in 1966, working for Joe Simon's Harvey Thriller titles before succeeding Jack Kirby as Nick Fury artist on Marvel Comic's Strange Tales #151 (Dec. 1966).

Initially inking over Kirby's pencil layouts; Steranko was soon providing full artwork and with #155 became the series' scripter and uncredited colourist.

From Nick Fury, Agent of S.HI.E.L.D. # 1 (July 1968).
Combining Kirby's granite-fisted dynamism with Will Eisner's panel-shattering page layouts; Steranko's work exhibited a fluid kineticism; mixing Dali-like surrealism, op and pop art references with dynamic horizontal and vertical compositions.

From Captain America #111 (March 1969).


from Nick Fury, Agent of S.HI.E.L.D. # 2 (July 1968).
The barely restrained sensuality in Steranko's work was on occasion too much for the Comics Code Authority, leading to his work being hastily doctored; often achieving the opposite effect to that intended.


Published pages followed by their undoctored original version.
Strange Tales #168 (May 1968)


A double page spread from 'Outland' (1981).
Steranko's time at Marvel was brief, his final interior artwork came in the 1970 romance tale 'My Heart Broke in Hollywood', choosing to pursue a career in self-publishing and success as an illustrator of paperback covers.
He continued to work in comics throughout the 70s and 80s including the hard boiled 'Chandler: Red Tide', one of the first graphic novels, and an adaption of Peter Hyam's sci-fi movie 'Outland'.

One of Steranko's concept paintings from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.
Steranko's work has also found favour in Hollywood, providing conceptual artwork for movies such as 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' (helping to create the look of Indiana Jones) and Francis Ford Coppola's 'Bram Stoker's Dracula'.

Captain America villain(ess) Madame HYDRA.

Barbra Steele in Mario Caiano's 'Nightmare Castle' (1965).
One of the factors that distinguishes Steranko from his contemporaries is the acknowledged influence of cinema in his work. Although I've yet to read any reference to specific directors or cinematographers, it would seem from even a cursory glance at Steranko's work that it owes a deal to the 'Filone' (genre cinema) coming out of Italy in the 1960s, most especially the tilted camera angles, deep focus photography, multi-planed compositions and lurid colour combinations of Mario Bava.


Pages from 'Nick Fury, Agent of S.HI.E.L.D. # 1'.

A scene from Mario Bava's 'Danger: Diabolik' (Released January 1968).

Thanks be to Matt B, for all scanable materials.
More Steranko artwork can be viewed on my flickr.

Nicolas Schöffer (1912-1992).
Website.
Virtual Exhibit.
Hungarian-born French artist, architect, sculptor, composer and pioneer of 'Cybernetic Art'. Schöffer's sculptures and light shows moved and pulsed, guided by an electronic 'brain', mimicking the thought processes of a living organism.








Le VOOM-VOOM à Saint Tropez, the first 'lumino-dynamique' nightclub.




Brigitte Bardot performing 'Contact'. Schöffer supplied the sculptures, Gainsbourg & Colombier the song, Rabanne the dress.

Victor Vasarely (1908-1997).
Wiki.
Gallery.
Hungarian-born French painter, considered to be the father of Op Art.


Red Hexagon, circa 1970.

Axo-3, 1968.

Globe, circa 1970.

Hommage a L'Hexagone V, 1970.

Untitled 16, circa 1970.

Samoca, 1973.

CTA-104, 1965.

Koska Kar, 1971-1972.

CTA – Blue (15), circa 1970.

Vega - Haromszor, 1971.