The movie “Priceless” deals with the two favorite things of the French people: sex and fashion. The other two favorite French things, cheese and berets are better saved for a review of “Frommage: Le Film.”

The star, Audrey Tautou is known to audiences west of the Atlantic for her roles in Amalie and the Da Vinci Code and plays not the descendent of Christ, but a cocktail waitress who attaches herself to wealthy men like a Brietling watch attaches itself to, well, wealthy men.

What we call a gold digger, Tautou’s character is the more sophisticate-sounding bon vivant pour le hommes.

The beginning of “Priceless” seems to draw a page from the “Pink Panther” movies: animated opening titles, 60s-style jazz, and a bumbling male lead.

The lead in question is Gad Elmaleh, here playing the same role as he did in “The Valet” as a hotel worker who pretends he’s more well-off than he really is.

When Elmaleh falls asleep on the job, Tautou mistakes him for a high roller and her next provider of Chanel dresses and Riviera hotel suites.

When her previous vieux protecteur (sugar daddy in Low English) leaves her. Tautou sees Elmaleh less as a star-crossed lover and more as an annoyance, as she bankrupts him at a high-class restaurant.

Despite her character’s shortcomings, it’s easy to see Tautou in this Holly Golightly-type roll, which has more to do with Breakfast at Tiffany’s than just the portrayal of those who will do anything to be among the ridiculously rich. As Elmaleh struggles with the bill, he inadvertently becomes the object of affection for an older widow, who soon foots the bill for a fancy hotel room and a new wardrobe, assuming the George Peppard role of “Priceless.”

Once Tatau realizes Elmaleh isn’t following her, she begins instructing him in the ways of her world, teaching him how to finagle things like $30,000 watches and Vespa scooters.

Movies like this fall into one of two categories: guy-gets-girl and girl-gets-guy. While the latter is more common, the former never sat well with me. Usually the guy tries to convince the girl that he’s worth going out with, usually that girl turns out of a type that rhymes with the thing you scratch. In movies like this, the guy goes through an hour and a half of rejection before the girl realizes she had been mistaken by treating him like dirt for the previous running time of the movie. Somehow I find this a little more implausible than the other variation.

In “Priceless” Tautou is far from a sympathetic character, especially as she milks everything Elmaleh has while remarking that she doesn’t really enjoy the caviar she eats all the time. After a while, you wonder why the hapless bartender even bothers.

Since we tend to get our game shows and not our comedies from oversees, it’s easy to see how “Priceless” could exist only in its Gallic form. Movies like this one are not unlike the fluffly pastries eaten in the film: filling for the moment, but ultimately empty and full of air.

Remaking this movie for American audiences makes about as much sense as remaking it’s spiritual predecessor “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Imagine Matthew McConehy and Rene Zellweger in the roles and it’s easy to spot a dud of “Gigli” proportions.

But therein lies the difference. Audiences seeing American actors doing the same things as their French counterparts may see the result as being reprehensible, but there is something that can be said for how much “the other” can get away with. American action movies are big hits oversees, but replace the leads with local stars and you get something that just doesn’t fit.

Kind of like an Hermes scarf on the neck of a Wal-Mart greeter.

Style icon Audrey Hepburn

Dresses, accessoires and personal letters from Audrey Hepburn dating from the early Fifties to the late Sixties are soon for sale. Some of the Hepburns most famous and beautiful dresses will be auctioned next week in London with 50 per cent of the proceeds going to The Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund and Unicef. Well ladies, go ahead!

The auction includes a wedding dress Audrey never wore (she called her marriage to James Hanson off, weeks before the planned weddingdate, poor man…). The lucky lady who will have this piece must be  ’the most beautiful, poor Italian girl you can find – someone who couldn’t ever afford a dress like mine‘, said Audrey in her early days.

Well, who will pop the question to one of us?!? We’ll say ‘yes, I do’. Honestly!

Our picks of Hepburns collections:

Givency ball gown £2000-3000

Mark Cross knitted cotton top: £800-1200

Givenchy turquoise cloqué silk cocktail gown: £8000-12,000

Elizabeth Arden black cocktail dress: £3000-5000

More about Audrey Hepburn, check her website.

Sometimes, in this weird world just filled with people looking to ‘take down your personal brand’ a little light shines in the darkness (via an email Subject: Delivery at Reception. ta). And the delivery turns out to be a box of DVDs, some of which were designed specifically for OCD home-consumption (for eg. Flashdance starring Jennifer Beale as “Alex Owens” in the 1983 hit). Did y’als know I was born in 1983? I haven’t even watched Flashdance. I have a feeling (What a feeling!) it’s gonna change my (branded) life 4 eva y’als.

What. A. Feeling. Y. 'ulz.

But that’s  not all. Cleverly, there were a selection of movies, each ’strategically chosen to represent the core values that represent the Women’s Health brand and how it relates 2 its consumers via demonstrating its relevance via each movie strategically chosen to represent the core values that represent the Women’s Health brand and how it relates 2 its consumers via demonstrating its relevance via each movie strategically chosen to represent the core values that represent the Women’s Health brand and how it relates 2 its consumers via

Whoa

Did you see wha just happened there?

UR brand 4 eva

I just made an infinity loop with a positioning statement leading into a USP. I am basically an “Ad Escher bro” “trapped in a never-ending world of targeted touchpoints”. Jees Y’als. Thought this post was gonna be about something simple, like MOVIES. Welcome 2 da night train bros.

Can almost smell this y'ulz

Back to the point: yesterday the heavens opened and the skies rained down

Movies y'als!

Super amped about all this. Not kidding when I say the only one of these I’ve actually seen is The Notebook & Something About Mary (1983 remember…) basically had a life-changing experience last night when I watched Breakfast At Tiffany’s and I found out the lead character is a ‘lady of the night’ - did y’als know that? Thought it ironic that an image of a woman who has ‘become synonymous with class’ is actually a ‘portrait of a prozzie bro’. Love the world y’ulz, always filled with surprisies!

Anyways just wanted 2 say thanks to Woman’s Health for the gift. Getting a box of movies was enough to make me ’seriously consider reading your mag’ (via reading it). Actually read the whole thing and have also changed my leg routine to Backwards Thigh Extensions over Lunges & Squats which is what I have been doing to keep my thighs in Beyonce, all based on the nifty tear-outs. Thanks y’als. Thanks thanks.

Thanks

Thanks

Thanks thanks thanks (via tangling my hand up in my shirt while blogging this)

The Godfather (15) (Digitally remastered)

Fri  – Sun: 7.15pm

Thirst (18)

Breakfast at Tffany’s (PG)

In 1960’s New York, Holly (Audrey Hepburn) is a charming socialite who lives alone in her apartment. Maintaining a childlike innocence yet wearing the most perfect of designer clothes, she spends her time on expensive dates and at high-class parties. She escorts various wealthy men, yet fails to return their affections. Holly’s carefree independence is changed when she meets her neighbour, writer Paul (George Peppard). Just when Holly and Paul are developing a romance, Doc (Buddy Ebsen) appears on the scene, revealing the truth about Holly’s past.

Scarface (18) (Digitally remastered)

Scarface follows gangster Tony Montana (Al Pacino) who arrives in Miami as a refugee from Cuba. After killing a powerful Cuban figure, Montana and company gain the ability to leave their refugee camps and roam around the U.S. After unsuccessfully trying to make it legitimately in the country, Montana resorts to selling cocaine to dealers around the world. Tony’s rise is quick, but as he becomes more powerful, his enemies and his own paranoia begin to plague his empire.

Another afternoon to fill…

I decided on treating myself to the Beatles to Bowie exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery.  I again traveled via bus and stumbled upon a Ghost Forest in Trafalger Square!  The exhibit was one I was looking forward to for quite a while, despite the £9 entry fee…with a student concession, and it definitely lived up to my expectations.  The best part had to be reading all of the curator cards and recognizing not only the faces and song titles, but also the London locations where the photos were taken.  It was a great reminder that I am currently living in the city where so many of the musicians and pop icons I idolize got their inspiration, their start, and their iconic image.

After making a quick pit/tea stop at home, I enlisted Mike into heading to the Bond Noel Christmas celebration….and good thing we actually mobilized, since it ended up being one of the most surprisingly ‘worth it’ trips in London yet.  The star of the West End’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Anna Friel, was this year’s “Bond Girl” (so clever), and we inadvertently snagged a spot near the Tiffany & Co. store where she made her entrance.  The street was transformed to a winter wonderland thanks to fake snow, fir trees, and reindeer!  Besides the ridiculously aesthetically appealing high-end retail we strolled through after the switch-on, almost every store was giving away free booze and treats.  Now that’s the festive frugalista spirit!

Fresh from the pages of Playboy, the lovely and talented Joan Staley is your Miss November, 1958.

Photographed by Ron Vogel and Lawrence Schiller

A model, actress, and all-around good-time gal, Ms. Staley is the Playmate to whom I referred earlier this month when covering Donna Perry (Miss November 1994; if you have been following along, you may remember her as the naked preppie). Joan Staley is Donna Perry’s grandmother-in-law.

So I’m putting this post together, and I keep thinking, “This chick looks really familiar,” and finally, when cruising the imdb, I realized why. She had much darker hair, but she was totally in the classically rad Don Knotts movie The Ghost and Mister Chicken.

Like that alone would not be awesome enough, she had an uncredited walk-on in the unescapable, ubiquitous, widely-known film version of B’fast @ T’s featuring one Audrey Hepburn.

AND, last but never, ever least, Joan starred as Okie Annie (get it?) in two episodes of Batman in 1966: “Come Back, Shame,” and “It’s How You Play the Game” (Season 2, Episodes 26 and 27; original air dates November 30, 1966 and December 1, 1966, respectively).

As Okie Annie, Joan Staley portrayed the hayseed moll for Shame, a cowboy-redneck type villain hellbent on creating a truck so fast that it can outrun the Batmobile. Shame was played by Cliff Robertson, most recently seen as Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben in the new Spider-Man franchise films. Wow! Holy wonderful career in my book!

According to her Playboy blurb, she was born in an airplane between France and Germany. That sounds okay until you consider it was 1940 and she was the daughter of a Navy chaplain, so it was probably not exactly a commercial flight. Crazy.

These days, Joan is a counselor who specializes in outreach programs for troubled teen boys with a group called Chaplain’s Eagles, and she is also very active in consumer affairs. The imdb says that she served 2 years as national director of Fight Inflation Together, which, according to a random book on Google books about Gerald Ford, is a “women’s consumer group.” The book refers to the group in the context of a successful meat boycott mounted by Fight Inflation Together in 1973. No word on if they are still together and fighting inflation today.

Haven’t posted something like that in a while. Seriously spent the last couple hours lurking the internet (mostly tumblr, tbh) for shit I liked to steal for this post haha. Sad mc sad, I have no life

XOXOXOX

This week’s song list are all tunes that remind me of my mom.  The only problem is that I’m trying to stick to five.  Oh, well.  I can always do another list some other time and I’m pretty sure the sky won’t fall!

1. “Walk the Line” – Johnny Cash -  My mom likes to sing the lyrics on this one as “I keep my pants up with a piece of twine… Because your mine, I pull the twine!”
2. “Lorelei” – The Pogues - My mom and I drove my sister to Grand Forks for college.  On the way back there was a lot of rain and only one cassette in the car.  This tape was The Pogues’ Essential.  My mom heard it so much that she could sing along to this song by the trip’s end.
3. “Take Five” – Dave Brubeck -  My dad owns a bunch of records but this was one that my mom brought into the marriage.  This song is my favorite on the album.  A friend commented on how good it was and when I told him that my mom introduced me to it he was flabbergasted.  Mom’s aren’t supposed to like music that is this cool, I guess.
4. “Moon River” – Henry Mancini -  I have a copy of the Breakfast at Tiffany’s record.  I’m surprised I don’t have more.  My dad knew that this was one of my mom’s favorites and I remember talking him out of buying several copies.  His argument was always “this one is in better condition!”  I remember my mom singing along to this one, too.
5. “Cotton Jenny” – Gordon Lightfoot -  I could have picked any Gordon song because my mom knows all the words.  My mom and sister broke out in song after the Lightfoot concert and this is the song they sang.

Both looks by Pauline Trigere, top image from fall 2009, bottom spring 1950

She (un)famously dressed Holly Golightly’s cougar nemesis in the film adaptation of Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and despite being overshadowed by Parisian hype, Pauline Trigere remains to be one of the most ingenious and dramatic of all American designers. Truly American in her cut, she understood like no other what a simple graphic contrast and sublime expanse of fabric could do for a  garment — appeasing both the wearer and viewer’s interest.

You can view some fine examples of her work at the current FIT exhibit American Beauty.

I’ll admit it – I’m not really a fan of foreign films. There are a few exceptions to the rule, but I usually find them a little pretentious and too arty for my more mainstream tastes.

Having said that, I won’t turn down a film that looks good just because it has subtitles, which is how I found myself watching the French film Priceless. It is essentially a “rom-com”, although that label itself annoys me, as it’s not your typical Hollywood rubbish that is usually neither romantic or funny. Instead, Priceless is a charming, understated movie with some laugh out loud scenes and a heart-warming plotline.

Irene (Audrey Tautou) is a professional gold-digger, who pulls rich old men at parties and uses them for their money. However, at a luxury hotel she sleeps with Jean (Gad Elmaleh), a waiter who she believes is loaded, and is later dumped by her partner. Upon discovering that Jean isn’t as wealthy as she first thought she escapes to the Cote d’Azur, but Jean pursues her, spending all the money he has on trying to win her affections.

The film isn’t the most original story on the planet, being based on the Truman Capote novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but definitely keeps your attention throughout. It is set in the glamorous location of the south of France, and is filled with scenes of the impossibly gorgeous Audrey Tautou attending parties and going shopping wearing equally gorgeous outfits. It is true escapism for those who daydream of luxury lifestyles.

The film has a number of laugh out loud moments. The character of Jean has a kind of bumbling charm, as he pretends to be a rich guest of the hotel where he works. It could have easily turned into some sort of farce as Jean relentlessly prusues Irene, but manages to reign itself in. As the film neared it’s end I was on the edge of my seat, wondering if Jean and Irene would get together. It’s certainly not a foregone conclusion and there are plenty of moments where I wondered how they story would end.

I’m sure a number of people will be put off by the fact that the film is in another language with subtitles – I certainly was – but I would definitely recommend it. It’s one of those rare things, a romantic comedy that is romantic, funny and charming. If you like girly films, especially those set in luxurious surroundings, you will definitely like Priceless.

click the image for the original size picture

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So I had been planning to do an Audrey tribute. Never realised it’d end up like this. The trigger for such a piece was my friend Débora from Rio de Janeiro, who had a request. Feel like taking a wild guess? That’s right – if I could to do an Audrey tribute the next time around.

Typewriter font are the lyrics to Tom Waits‘ “I’m Still Here” tune
All the other words are from some of Audrey Hepburn’s quotes
I got all images of Audrie through Google Image search

The main “game” is to start observing the picture while listening to the tune. At least that was my point, using the lyrics as a way of expressing admiration for one of the greatest stars ever. I kept listening to the tune (which is not boring thanks to Waits’ genious)  to get the right feel in the process. The whole set up was made listening to it.

Nevertheless, I hope you can discover some other quite insignificant “games” within the construction (with words, pictures, both). Several things there have not been put up in a random way.
Enjoy.

Acum ceva vreme, l-a troznit pe colegu’ o idee, şi a postat un playlist de 10 piese calmante. Am zis că de ce să nu vă incânt şi eu cu 10 piese din lista mea de preferinţe, şi astfel să continui tradiţia “Chillout Sessions”.

Sper să vă placă piesele alese, majoritatea sunt piese pe care le-am mai ascultat în ultimele zile, destul de stresante, aş putea zice. Audiţie plăcută!

1. Jason Mraz – You and I Both

2. Goo Goo Dolls – Iris

3. Bob Marley – Top Rankin’ (da… ascult Bob Marley)

4. Coldplay – Yellow

5. Billy Talent – Surrender

6. Deep Blue Something – Breakfast at Tiffany’s

7. Eric Clapton – Layla (unplugged)

8. Reamonn – Supergirl

9. Incubus – Love Hurts

10. Jonathan Rhys Meyers – This Time (August Rush)

Hopefully I’ll have better pictures soon, but just thought I’d put a quick post up on how our costumes turned out! I went as Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Ryker went as Fletch (amazing Chevy Chase flick – a classic). Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

I, like many fashionistas, draw inspiration from the iconic Audrey Hepburn and her slew of glamorously dressed characters. My favorite, of course, being Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The infamous black dress she wore while eating breakfast in front of Tiffany’s has forever stuck in my head as one of my all time favorite dresses.

You can imagine my delight when Milly used that same inspiration to design their Peau De Soie Tiffany dress. This elegant silk satin dress has a bejeweled pearl and rhinestone collar that mimics the exact lines of the dress in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It is very elegant and chic and fits beautifully and I can happily say is now hanging in my closet waiting for a night out! Available online at www.neimanmarcus.com. I could only post a picture of the front of the dress click on the Neiman Marcus link to see the back it looks exactly like the original.

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