FNB is crazy for Noir City 9

January 22, 2011 by

Monroe and Widmark in "Don't Bother to Knock."

Happy Saturday and hello from San Francisco! It’s beautiful weather here and there’s much to see at Noir City 9, the terrific film festival put on by the Film Noir Foundation.

This year’s theme is “Who’s Crazy Now?” described by festival organizers as a lineup of 24 tales of madness, ranging from Oscar-winning performances by Ingrid Bergman (“Gaslight”) and Ronald Colman (“A Double Life”) to obscure rarities, all presented as originally intended, in glorious 35mm. The fest runs through Jan. 30.

Just returned from “Strangers in the Night” by Anthony Mann at the Castro Theatre and will be returning for tonight’s double feature, the little-known “They Won’t Believe Me” and “Don’t Bother to Knock,” the sexy thriller starring Marilyn Monroe.
Between movies, there are so many divine restaurants, I’m afraid I might lose my mind. 😉
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Christian Bale dazzles in the mesmerizing, surreal world of ‘The Machinist’

January 19, 2011 by

The Machinist/ 2004/ Paramount Classics, Filmax Entertainment/102 min.

Bale dropped 60 pounds for this part.

In honor of Christian Bale’s Golden Globe award for best supporting actor in “The Fighter” I thought it would be fun to run a review of a neo noir he starred in several years ago: Brad Anderson’s “The Machinist” (“El Maquinista”) from 2004.

I first saw this film at the Chicago Film Festival. When my date left to grab some popcorn, an earnest, chatty guy sat on the empty chair on my left, and cheerfully announced: “I was just in the lobby and it was hotter than Hades in there.”

Hades? Really? Before I had a chance to answer he continued, “Would you like anything from the concession stand?” So basically he was asking me if I wanted anything from hell. Hmmm, very tempting. There were bound to be people I’d want him to say hello to. I thanked him but declined. Just then my date returned, the lights went dim and, as the chatty guy craned forward, his popcorn flew to the floor. “I’ll be right back,” he mumbled, the cheer drained from his voice. Guess he was destined to make that second trip to Hades.

The exchange was an apt intro to “The Machinist,” which is essentially a waking dream set in hell. As the movie’s tagline asks: “How do you wake up from a nightmare if you’re not asleep?”

Bale gives an amazing performance as machinist Trevor Reznik whose life is mysteriously falling apart. He lives in a spare, gloomy apartment, he hasn’t slept in a year, he rarely eats and, distracted and disoriented, can barely stumble through his daily routine.

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Trevor alienates his co-workers and has few friends, other than Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), an earthy, matter-of fact prostitute. Stevie would like to toss her other clients and have a real relationship with Trevor but it’s easier said than done, given his delicate mental state.

Not sleeping means he has plenty of time on his hands and, to pass the nighttime hours, he often hangs out at an airport diner. When strange and skeletal Trevor breaks down and eats a slice of pie, it’s served to him by Maria (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), a pretty waitress with a warm laugh who seems to enjoy chatting with him as he noshes. “If you were any thinner, you wouldn’t exist,” says Maria. Stevie told him the exact same thing.

Then there’s an accident at the plant. A co-worker named Miller (Michael Ironside) loses his arm in a machine and the rest of the guys rightly blame Trevor for the mishap — he failed to keep his eyes on the machine’s controls. Trevor claims his attention was diverted by a stranger at the factory, a malevolently jolly giant named Ivan (John Sharian). Trevor assumes Ivan is a new worker; no one else saw him or knows anything about him.

But Ivan likes Trevor and continues to make special appearances just for him. As memories of his former normal life mingle with twisted visions of reality, other things in Trevor’s life also go awry. He finds a photo that proves one of his co-workers knew Ivan. Sticky notes with partially completed games of Hangman appear on Trevor’s refrigerator. On a date with Maria and her son Nicholas, the boy suffers from a seizure after Trevor takes him on a funhouse ride.

Trevor eventually loses his job, which leaves him even more time to figure out what started his spiral into confusion and fear, perhaps madness. He’s sure someone, ie Ivan, has hatched an evil plot to drive him over the edge. Desperately trying to catch Ivan and get to the bottom of the weirdness, Trevor jumps in front of a car; when he later finds out that the car is actually his own, it pushes him into a full-on state of paranoia, which leads him to turn on Stevie.

It is Ivan whom Trevor must confront, however, and his relentless pursuit ultimately leads him to a dark chapter of his own past that he has unsuccessfully tried to banish. By confronting Ivan, he is in fact confronting himself. Turns out, Trevor did something very bad that got the ball rolling. [Read more…]

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‘The Machinist’ quick hit

January 19, 2011 by

The Machinist/ 2004/ Paramount Classics, Filmax Entertainment/102 min.

The first thing you might notice about Christian Bale in this movie is that he’s a tad skinny. Well, more than a tad. That’s just the beginning of the weirdness by director Brad Anderson, but it’s brilliant weirdness in a story of a factory worker who seems to be terrorized by hellish nightmares, except that he’s an insomniac. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón and John Sharian keep him company through the long, creepy nights.

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Almost time to tweet about the Golden Globes

January 16, 2011 by

Setting up for the Golden Globes ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hilton on Wilshire Boulevard.

It’s a gorgeous day in LA, but for me a cozy spot on the sofa is the best vantage point for taking in the Golden Globes. Join me on Twitter as I scour the red carpet for nods to noir and retro charm. I think “Social Network” is a shoo-in for best pic, but I’m not so sure about other categories.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association presents the awards; the first ceremony was held in January 1944 at Twentieth Century Fox in LA.

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Murder and martinis with a twist: ‘Laura’ brings us butlers, bodies and banter

January 15, 2011 by

Laura/ 1944/ Twentieth Century Fox/88 min.

“Laura” makes me nostalgic for a life I never led — the adventures of a 1940s career girl living in Manhattan: landing a job on Madison Avenue, buying suits and silk stockings for work, renting a place for $40/month, meeting handsome men, dinner and drinks at the Stork Club, weekend trips to the country.

Of course, “Laura” does have a few downsides — murder and mistaken identity, for starters. Seems that turning every head and being the toast of the town, as is the case with the charming and lovely Laura (Gene Tierney), may prove very dangerous. In a series of flashbacks, we learn the details of Laura’s life and it appears that in addition to having many admirers, she attracted an enemy or two as well.

The movie starts with Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) setting the scene. Lydecker, a campy, sybaritic writer, played mentor to Laura as she made a name for herself in advertising and he’s extremely proud of his protegee’s success, especially her popularity with men.

Lydecker is also, quite rightly, very proud of his apartment, with its animal-print chairs and a chunky bathtub equipped with a swiveled tray for his Smith Corona typewriter. I love this Lydecker line: “In my case, self-absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention.”

Later, he tells Laura, “For you, a lean, strong body is the measure of a man.” I knew I liked Laura. That doesn’t mean she’s picked the right man, however. She’s engaged to smarmy, sleazy Shelby (Vincent Price) and he clearly doesn’t deserve her.

Once the murder (I’ll keep this a bit vague so I don’t spoil it) is committed, we meet the anti-society, take-no-guff Det. Lt. Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews), who questions the upper-crust types that populate Laura’s world. Mark may lack social graces but he’s definitely a lean, strong body worth rooting for. And Mark definitely falls for Laura.

Amid his investigation, there’s plenty of cocktail conversation, pretentious accents, gorgeous gowns and quirky personalities. And after realizing Murder No. 1 was a bit careless, the killer strikes again.

Beautifully put together and immensely entertaining, “Laura” was nominated for five Academy Awards – art direction, screenplay, director, supporting actor (Webb) and b&w cinematography. Joseph LaShelle won for cinematography.

Based on a popular novel by Vera Caspary, the screenplay by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein and Betty Reinhardt, with uncredited help from Ring Lardner Jr., is full of wit and Algonquin-caliber one liners. The wonderfully lush music came from David Raksin.

Otto Preminger served as producer and took over as director after Fox chief Darryl Zanuck pulled Rouben Mamoulian off the job. Preminger replaced the original cinematographer Lucien Ballard with LaShelle.

In 1977, the New Yorker called the movie: “Everybody’s favorite chic murder mystery.” This is no B picture. But that’s not to say it doesn’t have a dark side. With its treatment of sexual obsession, casual betrayal and class structure, “Laura” explores raw themes in a refined setting.

One of noir’s great strengths is that as a genre it very frankly challenged the myth that America was a classless society and pointed out that patrician elegance bred corruption just as much as, if not more than, the streetwise desperation of common criminals. [Read more…]

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‘Laura’ quick hit

January 15, 2011 by

Laura/ 1944/ Twentieth Century Fox/88 min.

Part polished whodunit, part classic noir, this elegant, urbane thriller stars Gene Tierney in one of her most famous roles. Suspects and surprises abound as do witty one-liners and ’40s high style. Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb and Vincent Price are the men in Laura’s life. Otto Preminger directs.

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Rouge tins and compacts and powder, oh my!

January 12, 2011 by
Tonight is part two of my Q&A with writer, social historian and author of the Vintage Powder Room, Joan Renner.

Writer Joan Renner

FNB: Where do you find your pieces?
JR: When I first began to collect I could find face powder boxes at flea markets and estate sales, but the Internet has changed that considerably.  I still find items in those places occasionally, but mostly I rely on Internet sites such as eBay and Etsy (and the generosity of friends).
FNB: How were you able to research the original prices and how/where was the makeup typically sold, upon its release?
JR: I’ve used multiple sources to research pieces in my collection.  My favorites are vintage magazines and newspapers.  Via the Los Angeles Public Library I access the Proquest database to view early issues (1880-1980) of the Los Angeles Times online.  Ancestory.com also makes it possible to search vintage newspapers from around the country.
For a peek into the early days of the cosmetics/perfume industry I think that the publication AMERICAN PERFUMER AND ESSENTIAL OIL REVIEW can’t be beat.  I’m fortunate because the Central Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library has a good collection of them.
Then, as now, the pricier brands of makeup would be found at the cosmetics counter of the finer department stores.  Women on a tighter budget could find a wide array of makeup choices at their local drugstore or five and dime.
Many of the early cosmetics companies were regional and either went out of business years ago or they were absorbed by bigger companies.  A few of the largest brands are still in business; for example Coty is over 100 years old and continues to manufacture Airspun face powder in a box designed by Rene Lalique!  The box is festooned with little powder puffs and it is simply gorgeous.  You can purchase it at a drugstore or online for just a few dollars. Amazingly inexpensive for a piece of cosmetics and design history!

Coty Airspun face powder (hard to date this box because the design is virtually unchanged from original)

FNB: Are any still made today/ have you ever worn or used any of your collection?
JR: I’ve used some of the compacts that I’ve collected, but never any of the cosmetics – that would be way too risky.  Over the years cosmetics have contained some toxic, potentially lethal, ingredients.  Early cosmetics contained a wide variety of nasty ingredients such as lead or arsenic.
FNB: How has the merchandising and marketing of makeup and beauty products changed over the last 60 or so years?
JR: Cosmetics companies still advertise in fashion magazines and other magazines geared toward women, but now you have TV and radio advertising, both mediums were in their infancy 60 years ago.  Surprisingly, even in the early days of makeup, there were celebrity endorsements and the celebrity branding of cosmetics.
During the 1910s and 1920s Mary Garden, a Scottish born opera singer, partnered with Rigaud to offer a line of cosmetics and perfumes using her name and image.  Another woman who would leverage her fame into a line of cosmetics was Edna Wallace Hopper.  Hopper was an actress/singer who would never reveal her age.  She said that her birth records had been destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake!  She was always described as eternally youthful looking, so that was the hook for her brand of cosmetics and skin care.

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Vintage cosmetics collector shares a few of her 500 finds

January 11, 2011 by

Velvetina face powder box c. 1910

FNB readers are in for a wonderful treat this week. Writer and vintage cosmetics collector Joan Renner has graciously agreed to share highlights from her collection of more than 500 items.
I’ll start today with Joan’s impressive bio and part one of our Q&A, conducted via email. Part two will post tomorrow. Joan has also provided images of some of her favorite pieces.

Writer Joan Renner

Joan Renner is a writer and a social historian. She has a passion for vintage cosmetics ephemera, and crime. Her blog, vintagepowderroom.com, explores history, women, art, and provides her with a transparent excuse to add to her collection of over 500 items.  Vintage Powder Room also has a Facebook page. As a tour guide for Esotouric she has developed a personality profile of Elizabeth Short (aka The Black Dahlia) based upon her choice of makeup.
She is a board member for the non-profit Photo Friends (affiliated with the Los Angeles Public Library), and is on the board of the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles.  Additionally, she volunteers for the Los Angeles Police Historical Society, and the Los Angeles Conservancy.  She has been an invited lecturer at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and has lectured at the Queen Mary Art Deco Festival.  She is currently appearing in a segment on film noir for the Turner Classic Movies series Film Fanatics; as well as appearing in an episode of the ID Discovery Channel’s series Deadly Women (the episode is entitled “Outlaws”).
FNB: How long have you been collecting and how/why did you get started?
JR: I’ve always had an affinity for the past.  As a teenager, well before I had a notion of collecting anything specific, I would bring home bits and pieces like vintage clothing, photographs, books, even furniture.  My early collecting efforts mimicked a crow picking up shiny objects and taking them back to the nest.  I believe I began to collect because everything that I brought home made me feel comfortable – like being in the company of dear friends.
FNB: What’s the oldest piece and what dates does the entire collection span? Is it mostly made up of 1940s pieces or does it span several decades?
JR: The oldest pieces in my collection are face powder boxes which date from the late 1800s, and I don’t collect anything much later than 1955.  The face powder boxes produced during the “Golden Age of Commercial Art” (which was from the 1880s through the 1920s) are among my favorites.  Many of the designs are exquisite.
The boxes from 1880 to 1900 are particularly lovely because they are subtle in design and muted in color, very different from the boxes that would appear during the 1920s through the 1950s. The cosmetics ephemera created after 1920 frequently featured bolder designs in a riot of colors.
FNB: Do you have a favorite category, say lipsticks or compacts, or favorite piece?
JR: If I had to pick a favorite category it would be face powder boxes.  There’s something magical to me about them.  They represent more than just a cosmetics container; the boxes held the hopes and dreams of generations of women who endeavored to put their best face forward.

Marinello face powder ad c. 1910s

FNB: Do any of your pieces have a personal history or story attached?
JR: Much to my surprise, no, the boxes and other ephemera come to me so far removed from their original owners that the sellers don’t seem to know much about them.  That’s okay with me; I have an active imagination and invent my own stories for them.
The rest of our Q&A and more pictures will run tomorrow.

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Bésame 1930s mascara offers pretty little portal to the past

January 9, 2011 by

I ask you: Who among us doesn’t need a great mascara? My current wand of choice is Bésame 1930s mascara. It’s easy to imagine this slender gold tube popping up in a glam powder room or rolling out in the library of a drafty country home. 

The conditioning formula gives your lashes a silky coat of rich color and does a fine job resisting flakes. It comes off quickly with a gentle cleanser or eye-makeup remover.

Besame 1930s mascara updates a classic.

Says Bésame’s website: “This special combination dates back to the 1930’s and has been re-introduced by Bésame. And being a classic, it contains only natural ingredients, has been allergy tested, is paraben-free and is safe for the most sensitive eyes. Bésame 1930s Mascara is one of the most natural mascaras on the market today, containing only seven ingredients.”

Those seven are: cera alba, aqua, hydrocarbons, oleum lini, oleum ricini, sicovit (pigment) and fragrance. The scent comes from natural antibacterial conditioning oils.

Bésame’s 1930s mascara, $18 at beauty-supply stores and online, is just one of many elegant products from this company, which launched in 2004. Founder Gabriela Hernandez immigrated to the United States from Buenos Aires at the age of 12. According to Bésame’s website, her motivation for creating the cosmetics was “her background in art and design, a love for feminine detail, and fond memories of her glamorous grandmother.”

More importantly perhaps, Hernandez  says she wants to reach young women and inspire them to follow their dreams.

My dream tonight is back to the library and leather chairs. It’s a perfect night for a fire and a friend. Mmmm.

Product Source: From my own collection; I did not receive products or compensation from Bésame.

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Robert Mitchum is just one of many terrific performers in ‘Farewell, My Lovely’ from 1975

January 6, 2011 by

Farewell, My Lovely/1975/Embassy Pictures/97 min.

If you get a chuckle out of Patty and Selma Bouvier of “The Simpsons,” the Laramie-puffing, big-haired sisters with terrible taste in men, you’ll enjoy the raspy-voiced alcoholic widow Jessie Florian of 1975’s “Farewell, My Lovely.” Actress Sylvia Miles earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of this sad and seedy lady.

Charlotte Rampling

Miles is just one of many superb performers in this movie, notably Robert Mitchum as private investigator Philip Marlowe and Charlotte Rampling, a judge’s wife, bored to tears in their May/December relationship.

Having starred in many stand-out noirs as a younger actor (“Out of the Past,” “Angel Face” are two of the finest noirs ever made), Mitchum once again lends his sexy, sleepy indolence to the part of a burned-out and baleful detective at the end of his career.

Directed by Dick Richards and written by David Zelag Goodman, “Farewell” is based on Raymond Chandler’s novel of the same name, published in 1940. Director Edward Dmytryk brought the book to the screen in 1944 as “Murder, My Sweet,” a seminal noir starring Dick Powell and Claire Trevor. (The title was changed because Powell, a song and dance man, was playing off-type and studio execs didn’t want audiences to think it was a musical.  It was also filmed in 1942 as “The Falcon Takes Over.”)

“Murder My Sweet,” with its sordid criminals and Expressionist sensibility, was a triumph for Dmytryk and his team. Even so, the film only skimmed the surface of Chandler’s darkness; by 1975, topics like prostitution and racism, in addition to garden-variety crime, could be addressed on the big screen.

The movie opens with David Shire’s luscious score and shots of 1940s Los Angeles at night, bathed in neon light. There we see Mitchum in a dumpy hotel room (you were expecting the Four Seasons?) reflecting over the past few months — rotten weather and rubbing elbows with lowlifes and deadbeats.  Weary of “ducking police” and apparently needing to confess, he calls Det. Lt. Nulty (John Ireland), who agrees to come to the hotel. While waiting for Nulty to arrive, Marlowe begins a second flashback, in which Nulty is a participant, and we get to the meat of the story.

On a boring bread-and-butter case, Marlowe bumps into Moose Malloy (Jack O’Halloran), long on brawn, short on brains and just out of jail.  Moose wants Marlowe to find his girlfriend, a one-time showgirl named Velma, whom he describes as “cute as lace pants.”

The pair head to Florian’s nightclub in search of clues. Nothing turns up, though, and the frustrated Malloy kills a guy with his bare hands. Back to the slammer for the ungentle giant? Well, since the victim is black, the cops aren’t going to do much about it. Next stop for Marlowe: A visit to Jessie Florian’s, with a big bottle of cheap booze in hand. Upon seeing Marlowe, Jessie dons her best bathrobe and turns on the charm.

Meanwhile, a very different client, the posh and effeminate Lindsay Marriott (John O’Leary) hires Marlowe to be a bodyguard during an attempt to retrieve a stolen jade necklace. You’d think the fact that Marriott shows up in a disco suit much like John Travolta’s in “Saturday Night Fever” might put Marlowe off.  Instead, the job opens the door to a circle of unsavory mover/shaker types.

There’s elderly and insipid Judge Baxter Wilson Grayle (a cameo role for Jim Thompson, a famed noir writer of the ’50s); his much younger wife Helen (Charlotte Rampling), ravishing, shrewd, brash and, like Jesse Florian, very fond of strong cocktails; the mannish madame of a high-class whorehouse Frances Amthor (Kate Murtagh); and the suave but slippery Laird Brunette (Anthony Zerbe). As Brunette puts it: “All I do is run towns, elect judges and mayors, corrupt police, peddle dope, ice old ladies with pearls.” [Read more…]

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