good selection of NZ labels.

Dé Lovely offers a relaxed shopping experience for browsing and selecting garments and accessories personally sculptured by friendly, helpful and knowledgeable staff members who avoid clothing cloning and conformity.

Marie Jones, the owner operator has selected a range of clothing, accessories and jewellery from local designers that possess a day/ night cross functionality and inter-generational appeal and distinction. The range is offered with Marie’s empathetic touch resulting in a balance of creative expression and practical comfort.

De Lovely Matakana Village

lien dans les commentaires…

“Birds do it.  Bees do it….Probably we’ll live to see machines do it.”  Cole Porter wrote his classic toe-tapper “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love)” in 1928, decades before the first computer and the birth of what we now call AI (Artificial Intelligence, not the basketball star Allen Iverson).  Yet he somehow foresaw a time when machines would not only think like human beings; they would also fall in love and—presumably—have sex like humans as well.  That makes me wonder if Porter, another proud Yale Man like yours truly, was a visionary like the British mathematician and computer science founder Alan Turing—or just a pervert ahead of his time.  Or maybe he was just after a clever song lyric—of which he was an absolute master.

Anyway, suppose that we do someday create machines that can fall in love with each other and quite “naturally” desire some type of “physical intimacy.”  What would that look like?  Would computers overload their servers with streams of erotic (to them, at least) code?  Would there be such a thing as computer porn?  Would humans pay to see it?  (Of course we would.)  Would global networks crash as the supercomputers that control every aspect of our modern, continually-connected lives spend all of their time generating real cyber-porn instead of working?  Would computers want to marry and reproduce?  Would computers be a single gender or some new binary conception of heterosexuality?  Or would they cast off the concept of gender entirely?  Would some computers be homosexual?  Would same-sex relationships between computers be allowed?

Cole Porter and his wonderful little tune really open up a can of worms for us.  How are we going to deal with the coming onslaught of super-intelligent, love-struck, and horny machines who want equal rights—and can freeze our bank accounts and shut down the Internet?

Literature and popular culture are awash with works that examine the uneasy relationship between people and machines that see themselves as something more than their human creators had intended.  Two favorite examples come immediately to mind.  In his classic 1968 novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick explores the meaning of humanity and the moral consequences of ridding society of synthetic beings (androids) who appear human in every meaningful respect.  At the other extreme, The Terminator franchise imagines a world in which sentient machines decide to exterminate humanity.  Between these two poles of annihilation fraught with moral ambiguity, Cole Porter’s quaint notion of machines falling in love sounds, well, de-lovely.

Eu geralmente odeio versões. Odeio déjà vu, apesar do filme ser ótimo.

Normalmente, ao tentar revisitar uma obra, acabamos por torná-la algo diferente, e muito, daquilo a que ela se propunha no contexto original.

Graças a Deus essa regra tem inúmeras excessões que fazem com que olhemos para este tipo de releitura com menos apego ao inédito.

A Música e o Cinema estão aí prá provar o que eu digo.

Semanas atrás, ouvindo o Reserva Especial da Rádio Lumen (e essa rádio merece um post só prá ela), me surpreendi com uma versão de “Let´s fall in love” cantada por Alanis Morisette.

Assistam o vídeo e vejam que obra-prima:

Link do You tube

Pesquisando depois, descobri que a versão é parte da trilha sonora do filme De-Lovely, que retrata a vida de Cole Porter. Um soundtrack especial para um filme especial.

Fica aqui o meu convite: assistam o filme, busquem a trilha sonora, vale a pena!!!

“Have you ever seen a musical without a happy ending?” ~De-Lovely

Last Friday, Erica posted her top five musicals. My comment there was a bit convoluted, so I’ll try to clear that up today. So far, I’ve posted about my top three favorite musicals—just not necessarily in order. So here they are in order:

1. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
2. State Fair
3. The Music Man

Today, I’m adding #4 to that list. But be warned: this is not a musical that will suit everyone’s tastes, and is definitely a film for adults.

De-Lovely is the (slightly fictionalized) account of the unconventional but beautiful love story of Cole and Linda Porter, starring Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd. You might not recognize Cole Porter’s name, but you might recognize some of the songs that he wrote over his career, some of the most famous of which are featured in this film. He was a highly successful Broadway musical writer, and he had some success with his musicals being adapted for film, including Panama Hattie, Kiss Me Kate, and High Society.

In 1946, a very highly fictionalized (and sanitized) version of the Cole-and-Linda story was released, starring Cary Grant as Cole Porter (Night and Day). I finally got around to seeing this older version after having fallen in love with De-Lovely and reading a brief biography . . . and the Cary Grant version bears little resemblance to the real Cole Porter’s life.

What I adore about De-Lovely is that though Cole and Linda’s marriage is shown as “unconventional” (at best), they make it work; and toward the end of the film, after an estrangement, it’s apparent how deeply these two characters love each other. (Yes, even though they’re based on real people, let’s be honest—these are characters.) This is my go-to film when I need a good cry, because there’s just something about the love story told in this film that touches me in a very deep place—influenced by the fabulous music.

The story is told using the framework of Cole at the end of his life being guided back through the story by “Gabe” (Jonathan Pryce, on the left) as if they’re watching it all take place on a stage with Cole and Gabe as the only audience. Along the way, Gabe questions Cole about things that have happened, giving the older Cole a chance to reflect on his thoughts and feelings (and yes, that is Kevin Kline under all that makeup—which, I’ve read, took 5 hours to apply). This “framework” technique took a bit of getting used to the first time I watched it, but once I saw it all the way through, not only did it make sense, but it added an entirely new dimension to the story (and to Gabe’s quote at the top of this post).

Another method used in this film is intercutting between scenes of Cole working on the music and the music being performed on stage. In this clip, he’s playing the centerpiece song of his new musical, Kiss Me Kate, because Linda is too sick to go to the opening with him. (Ruth: Keith Allen is sitting behind Kevin Kline in the theater in this clip–though you only see him briefly. He’s the one with glasses.)

Kevin Kline not only did his own singing (which was mostly recorded on set as they were filming instead of in a studio), any time he’s sitting at the piano, he’s actually the one playing. Ashley Judd, the so-called “non-singing Judd,” does her own singing in this as well.

As I mentioned, some of Cole Porter’s most beloved music is incorporated in this film:

• “Anything Goes” (Chorus)
• “Well, Did You Evah?” (Kevin Kline & Kevin McNally)
• “You’d Be So Easy to Love” (Kevin Kline)
• “It’s De-Lovely” (Robbie Williams)
• “What Is This Thing Called Love?” (Kevin Kline & Lemar)
• “Let’s Misbehave” (Elvis Costello)
• “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love)” (Alanis Morissette)
• “True Love” (Ashley Judd & Tayler Hamilton)
• “Night & Day” (John Barrowman)
• “Anything Goes” (Caroline O’Connor & Chorus)
• “Begin the Beguine” (Sheryl Crow)
• “Be a Clown” (Kevin Kline, Peter Polycarpou & Chorus)
• “I Love You” (Mick Hucknall)
• “Just One of Those Things” (Diana Krall)
• “Experiment” (Kevin Kline)
• “Love for Sale” (Vivian Green)
• “So in Love” (Kevin Kline/Lara Fabian & Mario Frangoulis)
• “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” (Natalie Cole)
• “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” (Jonathan Pryce, Kevin Kline, Cast & Chorus)
• “In the Still of the Night” (Kevin Kline & Ashley Judd)
• “You’re the Top” (Cole Porter)

Now, before you go rent this and then come back here and rant and rave about how much you hated this movie, let me remind you that you’ve been warned: this story is not going to be to everyone’s taste. But it is one of my favorites, so that’s why I’ve blogged about it. That said, here’s my absolute favorite scene from the film:

I’ve got three more flicks under my belt.

Cloverfield
8/10

I cruised by the local multiplex this afternoon for some good old-fashion Monster Smackdown, and I think I need to change my underwear.

In a word: Stunning.

In two words: Adrenalin City.

In three words: Really f**king amazing.

I’m knocked out by this film’s execution of concept. The budget on this thing must have been astounding, yet the decidedly lo-fi look makes it seem far more real than any other special effects extravaganza in recent years. The characters were far better developed than I expected, while the action set pieces were exhilarating without being intrusive. The 9/11 metaphor is driven home perhaps a bit too forcefully, and the prologue is a hair too long, but neither flaw is substantial.

It’s a shame Toho Studios never thought to make a Godzilla movie this way.

De-Lovely
5/10

This stylish, avant-garde bio-pic about bisexual composer Cole Porter is slow to start and at least half an hour too long, but contains strong acting and some spirited performances of many beloved tunes, with cameo appearances by Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, and more. The frame story involves an eldery Porter watching the dress rehearsal of a stageshow based on his life, and one of the better gags involves the commentary from the old Cole, continuously criticizing the actions of his younger self. Kevin Kline plays both roles.

There’s so much style on display here (the final shot in particular is haunting, if vaguely reminiscent of Titanic), and yet the film never quite gels. De-Lovely is an ambitious failure, but it gets points for trying something different with one of the most tired of cinematic sub-genres.

(Doctor Who fans, look for John “Captain Jack” Barrowman in a small role.)

Girl 27
8/10

An absolutely chilling documentary about the rape of an aspiring actress named Patricia Douglas by an MGM studio executive in the 1930s, and the skillful way in which the studio and its lawyers destroyed her when she reported the incident. The filmmakers have ample evidence to support their claims, and Ms. Douglas herself grants her first interview on the subject in over fifty years to discuss the case and the effect it had on her life. Revolting yet fascinating viewing.

-CSJ