Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - An Appreciation

[Editor's Note: Last winter when Michelle Williams was in theaters cooing as "Marilyn", I had planned on a Marilyn week. It didn't happen but I wanted to share this piece by our once in a blue moon contributor Ester Bloom because I, too, adore this movie. - Nathaniel]

'Say, they told me you were stupid!'

'I can be smart when it’s important, but most men don’t like it.' "

Marilyn Monroe is not so different from Lorelei Lee, the part she plays in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Both are entertainers from small towns who started out poor but are determined to transcend their origins; both turn themselves into sexy cartoons; both play dumb when necessary; and both perform under alliterative pseudonyms that are as girly as all get out. (Compare the name “Lorelei Lee” with that of her friend “Dorothy Shaw.” The difference tells you almost everything you need to know about their characters.)

Maybe Monroe recognized a kindred spirit in Lorelei Lee...

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Curio: Glinda the Good Witch

Alexa here.  Today is Billie Burke's birthday.  Billie was a Broadway star, a Ziegfeld girl (literally: she was married to Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. until his death), and a silent movie actress who made a successful move to the talkies.  But she is most remembered for her embodiment of Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz. I was thrilled at the casting of Michelle Williams as the prequel version of the sorceress; of anyone out there I think she would project the same angelic charm Billie did. (That trailer was great, but where was Glinda's bubble? She'd better have a bubble.)

Here are some artsy creations to celebrate Billie's canonic version of Glinda.

Diorama of Dorothy and Glinda in Munchkinland, by Natasha Burns.

Typographical illustration of Glinda's words by ChattyNora.

cookies & dolls & artwork oh my... after the jump

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Burning Questions: Who Is Your Cinematic Avatar?

Hey everybody. Michael C. here. Recently I told my girlfriend she reminds me of Holly Hunter's character in Broadcast News. The comparison was meant as a compliment. To my mind Jane Craig embodies the same qualities of intelligence and moxie that I admire in her. Hopefully, when we she finally watches the movie she will keep that in my mind during the scenes where Hunter's self-described "basket case" is sobbing for no reason and generally making a shambles of her personal life.

In any case it got me to thinking. It doesn't happen often, but every once in a while you meet a film character that makes you think, my God, the filmmakers must have had me in mind when they made this movie. Now in any quality film we can relate to characters with which we have nothing in common, at least on the surface. I couldn't be further away from the charcter of Clarice Starling, for example, but I relate to her every step of the way. But beyond that level, sometimes we meet fictional creations that reflect ourselves back at us in ways that reverberate and linger.

Characters like this could remind us of ourselves physically or in their jobs or in personality tics we frequently find ourselves guilty of. These may even be characters we catch ourselves consciously – or unconsciously – trying to emulate. Like the way a generation of young romantics set out to mimic the laid back, jaded cool of Marcello Mastroianni in La Dolce Vita, or how many young women in the late 70’s attempted to reproduce Annie Hall’s devastating mix of flighty neurosis and sexiness.

So I guess what I’m asking this week is...

Who is that character for you? Who is your big screen avatar? I can answer for myself easily...

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Actress a Day: Jayne Mansfield

For the month of August I'm drawing an Actress a Day to finally get over my fear of drawing on the computer -- That's what's holding up "Actressland", a webcomic series that's been evolving in my head for ages. Today inspired by Illustration Friday's word of the week "bounce" I went with Jayne Mansfield on a whim ...and with a jiggle

Confession: I've never seen a Jayne Mansfield movie. Have you? "The Working Man's Marilyn Monroe*" made a lot of them but she remained more famous for her breasts than her acting. (Like Shelby, Pink was her signature color.)

*This designation kind of stuck to her 50s pinup legacy but how was Marilyn Monroe not the working man's Marilyn Monroe herself? She belonged to everyone.

Review: "Total Recall"

This review originally appeared in my column at Towleroad

It's hard not to feel sympathy for Colin Farrell. His secret movie star weapon is those long, thick unmistakable eyebrows. When he's in distress his brow lifts and pulls them up into a converging point, creating a perfect triangular frame for big brown orbs of boyish angst. "Help me!" is written all over his eyes. That same furrowed brow expression with just minor flickering shifts can also say "Please love me!" and "Aren't I funny?" and "..." His capacity for impish excitement and moral confusion were a perfect match for his best star turn to date in the hitman seriocomedy In Bruges (2008) and it helps the TOTAL RECALL do-over more than it should.

Farrell plays everyman Doug Quaid who doesn't realize he's actually someone else because his memory has been erased. A trip to the fantasy memory banks of "Total Rekall" (a reversal of Eternal Sunshine's "Lacuna Inc" since the company aims to give you false memories rather than take real ones away) upsets his reprogramming and suddenly he's killing soldiers with the trained might of a futuristic Jason Bourne. Returning home his formerly loving wife (Kate Beckinsale) tries to kill him.

Quaid realizes he's completely lost in a false life with no memory of the real one. Cut to: plentiful moments of Farrell Furrowing!

But you shouldn't have time to think about the magic and mystery of physiognomy while you're watching an action movie. If you do your mind wanders and questions come cascading in like...

"When did Kate Beckinsale's Hair becomes self-aware like SkyNet?" When?!?

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