There once was a time I had the hugest crush on JOHN TRAVOLTA – but then again, who didn’t? Certainly before Look Who’s Talking Too and the Scientology thing…. but nothing sums up TRAVOLTA like these two ROLLiNG STONE MAGAZiNE covers, from 1978 and 1983 respectively. DYNOMITE!
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I remember catching this flick on late LATE night television years ago – and what captured me about THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAiRO is how WOODY ALLEN literally turns the camera on itself to investigate the complicated and sometimes magical relationship between characters on the screen and characters watching the screen. A romantic hero from the film-within-the-film (JEFF DANiELS) steps down into the life of a devoted motion-picture fan (MiA FARROW) in the theater, and this sets the scene for Allen’s humorous but also deeply thoughtful study of how films can betray as well as serve the human need for fantasy.
MiA FARROW is Cecelia, a fragile but hopeless romantic in 1930′s Depression America. To escape the menial job she as as a waitress and the loveless marriage she has with her unfaithful brute of a husband (DANNY AiELLO) she spends all her time staring in rapture at the films playing at the local theater the Jewel.
Cecilia is particularly enchanted by the latest attraction, titled THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAiRO, a delightfully implausible blend of exotic romanticism set in Egypt–where a pharaoh had a rose painted purple for his queen and now purple roses mysteriously grow at her tomb–and sophisticated nightlife set in New York City. Although the film-within-the-film is obviously presented as a parody of a run-of-the-mill adventure-melodrama of the 1930′s, it is easy to see why Cecilia returns to it again and again: Even a black-and-white version of characters embarking on a “madcap adventure” is preferable to her own drab life, ironically in living color, where her only alternatives are marriage with a man who beats her, prostitution, or an affair with an exterminator specializing in mice and silverfish.
Cecilia’s dreamy involvement with THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAiRO leads to a magical and completely surprising moment when one of the characters of this film, the ingenuous archaeologist Tom Baxter (DANiELS), suddenly looks down from the screen, breaks from the plot, and steps through to the real world to join her and confess his love for such a devoted fan. It is not the least of the many ironies in the film that the fictional characters long for the real world and the real characters want to live in a realm of fantasy and illusion.
And it is in this whole idea of LONGiNG and iLLUSiON that makes THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAiRO a bittersweet movie well worth the watch. Thank you WOODY ALLEN!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj8qnzwHUwo&feature=related
For more on GRAM PARSONS check out this link:
http://www.emmylou.net/gram.html
That mouth.
Those EYES.
That STYLE.
NASHViLLE – Directed by ROBERT ALTMAN, 1975.
3 WOMEN – Directed by ROBERT ALTMAN, 1977.
ANNiE HALL – Directed by WOODY ALLEN, 1977.
BERNiCE BOBS HER HAiR – Television film, 1976.
THE SHiNiNG - Directed by STANLEY KUBRiCK, 1980.
MCCABE & MRS. MiLLER – Directed by ROBERT ALTMAN, 1971.
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Tunes by Big Mac Daddy
Proudly sponsored by CKCU 93.1 FM
NO MAN’S LAND
A male nude exhibition that everyone’s grandmother will enjoy. Eight photo session, ten models and zero penises!
This project is a collection of landscapes of the male form it aspires to showcase the beauty and tenderness that is seldom the focus of male erotic photography. NO MAN’S LAND although sexual and erotic in nature lacks the overtness typically associated with male nudes, it find the softness and the femininity in the most masculine of bodies.
Bring a sketch pad and let’s make more art … during the exhibition there will be nude male modeling.
(absolutely no cameras)
Christina Anastassopoulos
Art Consiglieri
La Petite Mort Gallery
306 Cumberland St.
Ottawa, ON K1N 7H9
www.lapetitemortgallery.com
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My beautiful & amazing friend Margwa & I have a lot of things in common; one of them being a strong affection for hair. Tee hee! Who knew? More so, who doesn’t?
At a community garage sale, years ago, I discovered this fantastic, almost life-size Barbie head with a head full of hair to boot. All it took was a little encouragement, a burst of inspiration & a smidgen of time – & voila! My imagination took off full speed.
In a nutshell – as I came up with these ‘characters’; slowly developing this notion they were all united in being fierce forces to be reckoned with; Private Detectives who work for none other than ‘MARGUERiTE’. They are a band of crime fighting sisters stationed all across the world, unafraid to work under cover or use their feminine wiles. I imagined they all employed various crime-fighting skills, techniques & specialites that help them stop the world’s most notorious criminals.
Without further adieu allow me introduce you to some of MARGUERiTE’S ANGELS…
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All photographs styled and taken by CC TRUBiAK, 2009-2010.
-Bob Dylan
The album marked a departure for Dylan, who had previously been known for his poetic folk music and rock n’ roll. NASHViLLE SKYLiNE, displayed his complete immersion into COUNTRY MUSiC – and out of it came a brilliant album. Along with the more basic themes, simple songwriting structures, and domestic feel, it introduced audiences to a softer and more affected country crooner in Dylan.
NASHViLLE SKYLiNE was definitely a departure for the folk and rock music Bob Dylan became famous for in the early 1960’s. When I discovered this 1969 album it quickly became one that I had playing for months. Every song was a favourite. Dylan was and remains a poetical genius, yes, but so many incredible songs of his earlier career get overshadowed in the face of his monster hits. I Threw It All Away is not a political anthem. It doesn’t provide any kind of social commentary. It is however, a song that I wish I could have written. Rather, I should say it feels like a song that could have been written for me. Yet don’t we all feel that way about certain songs? That’s the joy of music, after all. Ultimately, Dylan is being confessional when he croons “Once I had mountains in the palm of my hand, And rivers that ran through ev’ry day, I must have been mad, I never knew what I had, until I threw it all away”. A critic who once put it extremely well offers that that he gives “a glimmer of honesty from a person who has taken love for granted, squandered its rewards, and lived to sing about it.” And this is what most appeals to me; the universality that we have all experienced at one time or another. Or not, if we have been so fortunate. I have been in those shoes. I have made that human error of taking something or someone for granted. And I have lived to sing about it. And it is because of this I connected to it in a way that solidifies it as a standout. Period. To be sure, as difficult as it can be to look back on something and realize that you ‘threw it all away’, the song is not all gloom and doom. There is an implication that a lesson was learned and that there is hope. That hope can be all we need to get by sometimes.
