‘70s Style Icons in Film
The Criterion Channel curated a fantastic collection of 13 films that exemplify great '70s style.
A Trailer for Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! (2017)
A twisted-looking psychological thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer. I'm in.
Shampoo, Carrie Fisher’s Brilliant Film Debut
When fans and writers discuss Carrie Fisher‘s film career, Princess Leia gets all of the attention – and for good reason. Leia was a damsel in distress who held her own and kicked considerable ass in the company of men. Fisher herself said, “I like Princess Leia… I like how she handles things; I like how she treats people.” I grew up with Star Wars. It’s an undeniable cultural phenomenon, and Leia is major for me, too.
But people either forget or are unaware that Fisher made her film debut two years before Star Wars in a little movie with Warren Beatty called Shampoo (1975). Directed by Hal Ashby, Shampoo revolves around a promiscuous Beverly Hills hairdresser (Beatty) who sleeps with virtually every woman who sits in his salon chair. It also stars Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn and Lee Grant, who play women he’s sleeping with who all think they’re the only women he’s sleeping with.
In a small but unforgettable role, a then 17 year old Carrie Fisher displayed a precocious razor-sharp wit that was beyond her years at the time – a foreshadow of the disarming and inimitable sass that would become her trademark, a savvy that saw so clearly and hilariously through the hoax of show business and of life itself. In her brief performance as Lee Grant’s daughter and another one of Beatty’s conquests (or was he her conquest?), she beautifully outmaneuvered two of the most lecherous, manipulative and selfish grown-ups (one being her mother) that any adolescent in safe, rich, white suburbia might ever encounter.
“Jackie”
The idea of “Camelot” during the Kennedy years captivated the country. During and after the Kennedy presidency, then Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (later Onassis) continued to capture the attention and admiration of not just Americans but people over the globe. Her strength, her story, and her iconic glamour continue to fascinate us.
The forthcoming film “Jackie” offers an intimate portrait of Mrs. Kennedy in the days immediately following the assassination of J.F.K. as a wife, a mother, and an American icon. A trailer for the film, directed by Pablo Larraín and starring Oscar winner Natalie Portman in the title role, was just released today.
Making the American Man
As described by the filmmakers, Making the American Man is “a documentary film about modern American masculinity through the eyes of makers of U.S. based goods for men.”
On the surface, the new documentary Making the American Man almost plays like an 70-minute promotion of niche, made-in-America bro brands – a virtual who’s-who of companies you’ll find at Pop-Up Flea. That’s a superficial assessment that would be grossly unfair. The truth is that we are bludgeoned by advertising and promotion from the huge mega-brands with mega-budgets, and it’s nice to see some of these smaller outfits get some long overdue time in the sun.
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
It's got a thin plot with more than a few holes in it, but The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), directed by Norman Jewison, is an unmitigated treat for the eyes. The film stars icon Steve McQueen as Thomas Crown, a…
Best Dressed at Festival de Cannes 2015: Jake Gyllenhaal
Few things make me cringe more than a man who gets “experimental” with black tie. It’s doubly disappointing when it’s a movie star, who has unfettered access to more resources than we average mortals could touch in four lifetimes. But when a man – movie star or mortal – gets it right, it’s thrilling.
Three Days of the Condor
Three Days of the Condor (1975) is a stand-out thriller among the great crop of movies made in the “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” era of filmmaking in the late 1960s and the 1970s. It stars Robert Redford as a CIA operative (codename “Condor”) working in a branch of the agency that researches foreign books that might contain hidden codes and messages.
After Redford steps out to get lunch, he returns to the office to find all of his coworkers murdered. The movie unfolds over three days as Redford tries to find safety and to get the truth about why his department was wiped out. He can trust no one, especially his bosses at the CIA.
Handsome Photos from Cannes by The Hollywood Reporter
At the annual glam-a-palooza that is the Cannes Film Festival, The Hollywood Reporter was expectedly on hand to photograph some film industry notables posing on the Croisette. In the original gallery published on THR, a handful of really handsome images of some of the guys caught my eye. I’m sharing them here. The photos were shot by Fabrizio Maltese.