#rip dorothy dandridge

[blackalisondilaurentis1996]

Today marks 58 years since we lost Dorothy Dandridge.

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Dudley Dickerson

Dudley Henry Dickerson Jr. (November 27, 1906 – September 23, 1968) was an American film actor. Born in Chickasha, Oklahoma, he appeared in nearly 160 films between 1932 and 1952, and is best remembered for his roles in several Three Stooges films.

Given the era in which Dickerson performed, he was usually cast in stereotypical roles that were common in films of the time. His boundless energy can be seen in what are rather restrictive roles, and was a master at what has become known as "scared reaction" comedy. One of his early screen credits was the Our Gang comedy Spooky Hooky (1936), as a bemused caretaker. Dickerson also appeared in Soundies musical films with Dorothy Dandridge and Meade Lux Lewis; Big Joe Turner had recorded three numbers for Soundies but was not present for the filming, so Dickerson stood in for him and lip-synced his vocals.

Modern viewers will remember Dudley Dickerson for his portrayals of startled cooks, quizzical orderlies, frightened porters, and apprehensive watchmen in such Three Stooges films as They Stooge to Conga, A Gem of a Jam, and Hold That Lion! In Hold that Lion, he played a lovable train conductor who memorably bugged out his eyes and shrieked, "He'p, he'p, ah'm losin' mah mahnd!" when a lion attacked him and ripped the seat of his pants while he was shining a pair of shoes. This gag had been used by Moe in a previous short, but Dickerson's portrayal of the scene was so funny that the crew (and Dickerson himself) could hardly contain their laughter, as one can hear in the final release.

Probably Dickerson's most memorable role was that of the hapless chef in the Stooges' A Plumbing We Will Go, in which he uttered in bewilderment, "This house has sho' gone crazy!" He was also able to show the range of his acting talent in this role, able to raise a laugh from the audience by just giving a suspicious, sideways look to a kitchen appliance that had previously acted up. The footage would be recycled twice more in future Stooge comedies: 1949's Vagabond Loafers and 1956's Scheming Schemers. Both films included a newly filmed scene of a raincoat-clad Dickerson informing guests that "dinner's postponed on account of rain" (a turn of phrase usually used to describe the cancellation of a baseball game due to inclement weather).

Dickerson received featured billing in several Hugh Herbert comedies produced by Columbia Pictures, in which, as Herbert's valet, he is always in scary situations and reacts with comic terror.

In the early 1950s, Dickerson appeared in several episodes of TV's The Amos 'n' Andy Show, usually as a lodge member or Joe the Barber.

Dickerson had also appeared opposite Columbia comic Andy Clyde. When Columbia concluded its long-running Clyde series, producer Jules White called Dickerson back to appear opposite Clyde in a remake of the 1948 short Go Chase Yourself. To White's surprise, Dickerson had lost considerable weight and would no longer match the scenes filmed in 1948. White regarded Dickerson so highly that he filmed the new scenes anyway. Columbia released the film in 1956 as Pardon My Nightshirt.

Dickerson retired from acting in 1959. He died of a brain tumor in 1968 at age 61, and is buried at Lincoln Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week #121 (Year 3/Week 17):

This week I watched more “Foreign” films (19) and more films by female directors (15) than usual. The best ones were: Lynne Ramsay's 'Gasman' and 'Ratcatcher', 'All night long', and 'Summer 1993'.

🍿  

Carmen Jones squarely belongs to the beautiful Dorothy Dandridge, for which she was nominated for Best Actress Oscar, first for an African-American. Harry Belafonte played the sap who falls for her, is betrayed by her and who finally kills her in a jealous rage. The song numbers were all done in single shots, and the opening title sequence was the first one created by Saul Bass.

RIP, Harry Belafonte.

“About my own life, I have no complaints. Yet the problems faced by most Americans of color seem as dire and entrenched as they were half a century ago.”

🍿  

Scottish Auteur Lynne Ramsay X 7:

She only made 4 feature films and before this week I’ve only seen her most recent one, the dark and ‘Taxi Driver’-violent ‘You were never really there’, which did not speak to me. But because I keep reading that she’s one of the most important female directors of our time, I wanted to check out the rest of her work.

🍿 Morvern Callar, her second feature, took a while to get me. Driftless, precarious supermarket worker Samantha Morton seemed to have no center. One Christmas morning she finds that her boyfriend had killed himself on their kitchen floor, and like Meursault in ‘The Stranger’ by Camus, she’s overwhelmed by her inability to process her emotions. But he left her a manuscript of a novel, and she replaces his name with hers and sends it to a publisher mentioned in his suicide note. Another modern classic it resembles is Antonioni’s ‘The Passenger': As she reinvents herself with his persona, she travels from her small Scottish town south to Andalusia, and eventually finds herself in the middle of nowhere, on a dusty mountain road without any plans, or idea what to do. By the ‘Dedicated to the One I Love’ ending, it all falls into place.

🍿 Her early, 15-minute masterpiece Gasman became an immediate favorite. A poetic gem without a single unnecessary frame or word. An 8-year-old goes to a Christmas party at the local inn with her dad and brother, and on the way they meet a woman who leaves 2 other children with the dad. The way the story discloses that the girls are half-sisters is silently and unbearably heartbreaking - 10/10!

🍿 “The very thought of you”...

Things left untold in the haunting short Swimmer, pure cinematic poetry in motion, all exquisite allusions without any explanations. 8/10

🍿 All her early shorts won prestigious awards and established her as a superb visual filmmaker. Small deaths was her film school graduation short. It captures a young girl’s pain. 

🍿 But only when watching her poetic debut feature Ratcatcher, that I understood why Lynne Ramsay is considered to be one of world cinema’s best visionaries. Not knowing anything in advance about it, I was not prepared for its visual gut punch. Beauty and misery among “the garbage and the flowers”. The non-redeemable, poor children of the working class neighborhood in 1973 Glasgow. Mesmerizing pain, transformative guilt, transcendental grace - one of the best well-made movies I ‘ever’ saw!

🍿 I was reluctant to finish with the depressing We Need to Talk About Kevin, since I’m not big on dramas with Omen-like psychopath children, school shooting tragedies and damaged, long-suffering mothers. Throughout the movie, mom Tilda Swinton is washing blood out, trying to atone. Disturbing and not a pleasure trip for sure.

🍿 All her films are about parental abandonment and existential sadness. Now that I’ve seen them all, I can understand her appeal. So meanwhile, here���s Tony Zhou, of ‘Every Frame a Picture’, talking about The Poetry of Details of Lynne Ramsay (From 2015).

And I can’t wait for her next feature “I feel fine”.

🍿

Ang Lee’s 2nd feature, The Wedding Banquet, part of his early “Father Knows Best” trilogy. Surprisingly, it’s another unapologetic mainstream story about a gay couple, done more than a decade before his ‘Brokeback Mountain’. It tells of a young Taiwanese immigrant in Manhattan, whose parents want him to marry a nice Chinese woman, not knowing that he's been living with his boyfriend [Roy Lichtenstein’s real son] for the last 5 years. Like Peter Weir’s Green Card, he agrees to fake-marry a nice woman who needs a green card, but his parents come and throw him a huge party. It gets a bit implausible.

🍿

2 surprising Othello adaptations:

🍿 My second intelligent enigma by forgotten British director Basil Dearden! A week ago I discovered his seminal gay blackmail Noir ‘Victim’ about closeted barrister Dirk Bogards, and I promised myself to look for other works by him. His very next All Night Long did not disappoint.

It re-creates Shakespeare's ‘Othello’ in a 1962 Swinging London jazz jam. Patrick McGoohan is drummer Johnny, a scheming, pot-smoking Iago who prowls the party stirring up jealousy and fear to tear the interracial couple of regal bandleader Aurelius Rex and his wife Delia apart, so that Delia will sing with Johnny when he leaves Othello's band.

It’s a superbly tense tragedy that takes place in one location and in the course of one evening, It mixes a thriller with authentic jazz performances and score, and it casually presents Race (2 mixed race couples are treated in matter-of-fact way) as well as marijuana usage which is part of the plot, but used without any comment.

With young Richard Attenborough and several prominent Jazz musicians including Dave Brubeck and Charles Mingus. There’s also the majestic performance of black lead actor Paul Harris as ‘The Moor”: Magnetic and unforgettable!

The trailer. 9/10!

🍿 Desdemona, one of the earliest screen adaptations of Othello, a silent film from 1911. It was directed by August Blom, a pioneer of Danish ‘golden age’ of erotic melodramas. Hard to figure out what’s happening, but what great hats the dames wore.

🍿  

My first by Danish director Martin Zandvliet, A funny man (”Dirch”). It’s a traditional bio-pic about legendary local comedian and actor Dirch Passer. I loved the way it depicted theatrical life in Copenhagen of the 50′s and 60′s. With good performances by current stars of the Danish screen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Lars Ranthe and Lars Brygmann. A solid, personal 8/10.

🍿  

The 2 award-winning Catalan dramas made by Carla Simón:

🍿 Alcarràs, a Spanish drama about a family of Catalan farmers, whose peach orchard which they had tended for 2 generations is sold from under them to be uprooted and used as a solar farm. Played convincingly by non-actors, especially the little girl Iris was pitch-perfect. Some scenes (like the family singing) were superb. 7/10. (Photo Above)

🍿 Her debut feature Summer 1993, was a heartbreaking story about a 6-year-old orphan who has to live with her uncle’s family in the country, after both her parents had died of AIDS. It’s a tender and intimate description of small gestures and inner turmoil. Tremendous “acting” by two little girls, the main subject, as well as her new 3-year-old step-sister.

100% ‘Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes from 97 reviews. This film is also auto-biographical, as Simón’s real parents also died from AIDS when she was 6, and she had to live with her uncle's family in Catalonia. 9/10.

🍿 

Fat, Bald, Short Man, my second Colombian film (after the masterful ‘Embrace of the serpent’). A singular animation feature, using minimalist, nearly abstract, rotoscoping. A story of an invisible middle-age salaryman, Antonio Farfán, who is hampered by his ordinary looks and low self-esteem. 5/10.

🍿  

2 more by Sarah Polley:

🍿 Her debut feature, Away from her. Adapted from the Alice Munro short story, another difficult topic: Julie Christie suffers from Alzheimer's and must be put away in a home. There’s no surprise here, and it goes only in one direction.  

🍿 Take this Waltz, a standard Ménage à trois romantic comedy whereby Michelle Williams is happily married to chicken cookbook author Seth Rogen, but falls in love with the rickshaw driver / hipster-artist across the street. It’s hard to take husband Seth Rogen seriously, and even the Leonard Cohen montage doesn’t elevate the story to more than what it is.

Now that I’ve seen all four of Sarah Polley films, her documentary ‘Stories we tell” is the only memorable one, in my eyes.

🍿  

“The gorillas beat him to death before the zookeepers could gas them all...”

“Frag Waving” Team America: World Police, one of the few action movies I can stand, a vulgar satire of Bush’s militaristic war on the “Terrorists”, and a parody of cliches for everything from Hollywood to politics to American values. The version I saw did not have the complete X-rated puppet sex scene I remember from before, but oh well. Still 7/10.

Also: “You are worthress, Arec Barrwin!”

🍿

2 by french director Rebecca Zlotowski:

🍿 Grand Central, my 14th infatuated film with Léa Seydoux (who seems to have a permanent clause in all her contracts that she must have at least 2 crying scenes in each - not that I mind). She starts a lukewarm romance with some block, an unskilled laborer with no personality, while living with the guy’s supervisor in a trailer next door. At the same time, they all work at a French nuclear plant, as manual sub-contractors, without having any qualifications, and get exposed to dangerous radiations all the time. Two arbitrary and unconvincing plots that fell flat. 3/10.

🍿 Zlotowski’s latest drama Other People's Children was better, because it had a more ‘normal’, adult story. A childless 40-year-old woman falls in love with a divorced man who has a four-year-old-daughter, and tries, unsuccessfully to fit in their lives. 5/10.

🍿 

I was the biggest Beatles fan there was in the 60′s, but I never saw the reconstructed, cheesy Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with Peter Frampston (?) and the Bee-gees before. Embarrassing and Disneyland-style kitschy, it made me ashamed to be alive during the excessive 70′s. Many atrocities involved (George Burns ‘Fixin’ a hole’, Donald Pleasence as a pimp, Steve Martin in Maxwell Silver Hammer, Aerosmith ‘Come Together’, nearly every other “parody” song), with zero redeeming qualities. 1/10.

🍿  

Cracks, the only film directed by Jordan Scott, Ridley Scott's daughter. The genre of British period films about Boarding School for Girls is not my strong cup of tea, and neither is this one. A lesbian love triangle and sexual jealousy between a teacher and her two students on the diving team ended up clichéd. With young Juno Temple and neurotic Eva Green. 2/10.

🍿  

Re-watch: Play it again, Sam, an early and typical Woody Allen comedy, written by him, starred by him (together with past and future girlfriends), but directed by Herbert Ross. 50 years later, it’s dated and unfunny. 2/10.

Should I now re-watch ‘True Romance’, my favorite Tarantino film, in which he based Val Kilmer’s Elvis on the Bogard character from here?

🍿   

There were already 70 Covid-19 films, according to Wikipedia. Of the ones I saw, ‘Bo Burnham: Inside’ and ‘Locked Down' were my favorites.

But the new Life upside down is not. I only watched it because it was directed by a woman, and starred Bob Odenkirk. But these 5-6 shallow LA-characters were tiring and uninteresting. The only innovating aspect of this boring film was disclosed during the end credits: The fact that it was shot remotely over Zoom. 2/10.

🍿  

(My complete movie list is here)

[mixdgrlproblems]

RIP to this Queen 👑 We also lost the infamous and glamorous, Dorothy Dandridge on this day in 1965. She may have passed more than 50 years ago but she broke glass ceilings for women such as Halle Berry, Angela Bassett, Nia Long and even Diahann Carrol, who in turn have helped create even more Black actresses with more opportunities today. One of the Grandmothers of Black Actresses. #DorothyDandridge, also referred to as the "Black Marilyn Monroe" was the most popular actress of color in Hollywood in the 1950's. She's the first #Black woman to ever be nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards (Oscars). That infamous lead role in the film "Carmen Jones" made her a legend. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was #European #British & #AfricanAmerican. Her mother was African American, her family being from #Jamaica. Family rumors claimed she had #Spanish #Mexican & #NativeAmerican ancestry too. True or not, Dorothy acknowledged her heritage by saying “If I am in any way a symbol, it stems from my being a #mixed American. The melting pot characteristics are written into my features.” She states this in her autobiography called Everything and Nothing. To me, the title has more than one meaning. She was more than one thing to many people all at the same time. 🖤🎬🏴🏳️ #rip #ripdorothydandridge #actress #dorothyjeandandridge #marilynmonroe #carmenjones #halleberry #introducingdorothydandridge (at 1950s Glam) https://www.instagram.com/p/CiRQESVutE5/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[dandridgelove]

Incredibly saddened to hear of the passing of the legendary trailblazer, the incomparable Ms. Diahann Carroll. May she rest in beautiful peace.

[twixnmix]

Dorothy Dandridge during an interview in London on April 25, 1956

[nanmernoe]

It’s too late, you’re hypnotized. She’s got Dorothy Dandridge eyes, and you love her, you love her, you love her, you love that girl.

[caption plain text: It's too late, you're hypnotized. She's got Dorothy Dandridge eyes, and you love her, you love her, you love her, you love that girl. end caption.]

[image descriptions: In the first image, Enid and Red Action embrace each other in the center of a solid pale peach color background. Enid has dark brown skin and magenta locs tied in one big ponytail; one loc is shown loose from the ponytail and hangs over her ear, and her forehead edges are laid. She has a maroon crop top, lavender jeans that are ripped at her knees, and dark brown boots. Red Action has light brown skin and her hair is styled like a long red mullet; a patch of her hair on her left, a patch of her left eyebrow, and patch of her left eye's lashes are a lighter shade as a result of the vitiligo/absence of pigment that spreads on her left temple. She has a black crop top, a dark purple knee-length skirt, and red heels. The two of them are smiling at each other (Enid's smiling with her teeth showing), and they're looking into each other's eyes. The second image is a close up of the first image, showing their faces better. end image descriptions.]

[luxurybrownbarbie]

RIP or whatever Sidney Poitier. Forever thinking about how you and your pals disrespected and mistreated Eartha Kitt and Diahann Carroll and Dorothy Dandridge and Lena Horne and

[blackpinups]

Rest in peace to pioneering TV actress, Diahann Carrol who is best known for her roles in Julia and Dynasty. She was the first black actress to have her own TV series that played a non-stereotypucal role as a nurse in her own primetime network series in 1968. She received an Emmy nomination and Golden Globe for her work. She also was a Broadway star starring in Agnes of God. She rose to even higher stardom as Dominique Deveraux in Dynasty where she said, "I want to be wealthy and ruthless...I want to be the first black bitch on television." She also starred in Claudine in 1974 with James Earl Jones. Where she was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actress in a Leading role. This is also significant because she had a small part in Carmen Jones in. 1954 where Dorothy Dandridge was nominated for the same award. She was a fashion model, actress, author, and at one time Mrs. Vic Damone. She will be missee and is survived by her daughter and grandchildren. You can read more about her online. #diahanncarroll #rip #restinpeace #actress model #fashionmodel https://www.instagram.com/p/B3NJj43ltJL/?igshid=1096qj74ulniu

[absolute-most]

RIP Dorothy Dandridge (November 9, 1922 - September 8, 1965)

[mrmichaelchadler]

RIP Cinema: On James Dean's Disappearance and French New Wave Legacy

This creative essay was inspired by a real philosophy podcast and an illogical dream. What if James Dean lived into the ‘60s and worked primarily with French New Wave directors?

Decades from now, international film critics will philosophize about James Dean’s “First Four.”  And why not, given the directorial and cultural prestige of films like “East of Eden” (1955), “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955), “Giant” (1956) and certainly Dean’s influential portrayal of boxer Rocky Graziano in Robert Wise’s Oscar-winning black and white picture “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (1956), co-starring Dean’s Italian wife, Pier Angeli. Few other male actors have affected American movie culture during like Dean, but he’ll always be remembered not as an American Rebel, but as the unlikely French New Wave icon who bridged the gap between European cinephiles and American movie buffs; the architect of the international societal movement known as RIP Culture.

Inspired by Louis Malle’s 1957 New Wave classic “Let It Rip (Déchirure),” written by French film critic and noted script doctor Jean-Luc Godard, RIP Culture promotes professional proactivity, cultural diversity and personal creativity through casual meditation. Nowadays, even the most ignorant moviegoers understand the cultural connotations of “Let It Rip,” an improvised line, courtesy of Dean, that sparked genuine conversations about race, gender and art amongst moviegoers and powerful global influencers. Portraying Roger Seitz—an American in Paris—Dean’s now-famous speech to his jazz-happy pub crawl partners precedes one of cinema’s most revelatory and moving discussions about cultural divides.

And, of course, “Let It Rip” introduced the world to Dean’s inimitable co-stars—Miles Davis, Dorothy Dandridge, Jeanne Moreau and Claudia Cardinale—all of whom used their national prestige to further advance international RIP Culture, or “Strappa La Cultura” as Cardinale famously evoked at the 1958 Oscars. Once a promising Method actor from New York City via the American midwest, Dean evolved into a cinematic prophet who trumped the Aww-Shucks mentality that made U.S. teenagers so temperamental and unpredictable during the late ‘50s. “Let It Rip” offered come clarity and balance, thanks to Dean’s mainstream appeal and the New Wave’s rising European influence. From that point forward, Dean’s collaborations with French New Wave directors became known as FRIP productions.

While “Let It Rip” inspired a global movement, Claude Chabrol’s 1958 film "Handsome Serge” represents the connecting tissue for international audiences. Already a noted film critic and Alfred Hitchcock devotee, Chabrol brilliantly utilized his relationship with Dean, via Godard, to secure FRIP Culture funding for his debut feature, based on a self-funded short film produced on location in Sardent, France. Opposite French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, Dean further establishes himself as a New Wave hero, thus “paying it back,” as the Cahiers du Cinéma FRIP directors unquestionably appreciated American auteurs. With Dean portraying the savvy American cousin Eugene Tallerico, “Handsome Serge” paved the way for François Truffaut’s 1959 FRIP film “Breathless,” in which Dean’s “Rebel Without a Cause” co-star Natalie Wood stars opposite the “French James Dean,” Gerard Blain; a fusion of cultural philosophies that further strengthened international RIP Culture. While Dean only makes a cameo in “Breathless,” as his “Rebel Without a Cause” character Jim Stark, his mere presence strengthens the cultural connection, with Truffaut’s affinity for a-day-in-the-life conflict inspiring the American to fully maximize his screen time with careful improvisation. As for “Handsome Serge,” Chabrol managed to minimize Dean’s Method-inspired maniacal movements, resulting in a more natural and relatable character portrayal.

After Elvis Presley's tragic street mob death in 1960, Dean not only grabbed the torch as America’s leading pop culture voice, but also spread a universal message of creative camaraderie via Jacques Demy’s "The Soldiers of Cerbere” (1960)—a FRIP musical about love and war in the southwest corner of France. By this time, rumors had surfaced about Dean after a split from Angeli, and certainly after his reported romance with Cardinale during “Let It Rip”’s production. Given Godard’s reported admiration for the latter Italian actress, the media reports essentially killed a proposed FRIP trilogy, and the unspoken tension fully negated RIP Culture ideals. 

Visually, “The Soldiers of Cerbere" highlights Dean’s chemistry with Danish actress Anna Karina (in her first feature role), but the film is anything but subtle with the character subtext between Dean and co-star Jean-Claude Brialy, both of whom portray masculine men in search of a familial bliss, but clearly interested in personal freedom. As Francis Franco, an opinionated wine connoisseur, Dean occasionally stumbles while attempting to sell “Pinot drunk,” but he does, in fact, appear charming and verbally succinct during the film’s street scenes, many of which were improvised by the male leads. While most European audiences were skeptical of Dean’s “too-giddy” song-and-dance numbers, Americans clamored at the box office and fully recovered from Elvis Fatigue.

While Dean’s FRIP productions weren’t a point of contention with La Nouvelle Vague as a whole, the growing professional bonds undoubtedly stung on a personal level for some. But then Dean return to America, and didn’t make another Parisian-set film for another six years.

That’s not to say that Dean entirely stopped working with New Wave directors. In 1962, Stanley Kubrick enlisted America’s artistic rebel for “The Idiot,” an existentialist adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic novel, written by FRIP director Jacques Rivette. As Pyotr Myshkin, a skeptical outcast living in New York City, Dean represents a sympathetic and cinematic version of The Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield, with the performance guiding American audiences into a more self-aware era. Less than seven years after starring in “Rebel Without a Cause,” Dean essentially landed a haymaker on the American psyche once again, this time punctuating the movement’s core aesthetic concepts with his staccato manner of speech and harrowing train monologues. To this day, the “It’s me, Pyotr, and I’m crying” scene is the go-to for many aspiring performers in American casting rooms. Back then, Dean’s RIP interpretation of The Idiot appealed to quasi-conservatives with its surface level religious concepts, all the while providing RIP intellectuals with a healthy dose of philosophical material to break down at dinner parties.

During the mid-‘60s, Dean’s “RIP for America” campaign with President John F. Kennedy had a polarizing effect on RIP loyalists. On one level, Agnès Varda’s complementary documentary showcases the ins and outs of Dean’s quest for artistic education and enlightenment, but it’s the rumored “lost footage” that partially damaged the RIPPER’s reputation at the time. While many RIP loyalists blamed the Hollywood elite, it’s been reported that the so-called “Savage Detectives” Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima—the leaders of the Visceral Realism movement—were the instigators via a word-of-mouth smear campaign. Some have even argued that Mexican-American icon Ritchie Valens and tour-mate Buddy Holly were corrupted during the southwest leg of the tour, shortly before recording the movement’s chart-topping theme song. And when Dean returned to Manhattan to teach RIP Culture Performance at the Actor’s Studio, rumors spread that Brando himself had played a role in the fiasco. Unsurprisingly, those on the fringe of RIP Culture questioned the core ideals and distanced themselves from Dean—“rebels with a cause,” as the Visceral Realists would later call them.

In 1964, Dean reunited with FRIP filmmakers Chabrol and Truffaut to write “Theory of Forms,” directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The RIPPERS’ fresh narrative take on the master’s suspense formula allowed the director himself to “break on through,” as poet Jim Morrison famously wrote in American RIPPER, but it also afforded Dean some extra comfort during the most challenging and intimate scenes with co-star Sophia Loren. Mainstream American audiences weren’t used to such blatant sensuality, and the characters’ borderline mean-spirited dialogue challenged the very essence of RIP Culture by almost going “too far,” as American film critic Peter Bogdanovich wrote in RIP Cinema upon the film’s release.

When Dean returned to Europe for Alain Resnais’ "The Bullfighter” (1965), he organically transformed into a self-assured artist. In the Madrid-based FRIP film, loosely inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Dean begins strong—like a Raging Bull—by communicating intensity, passion and ultimately heartbreak, as “El Destripador” recounts the life and death of his bride-to-be. By immediately shredding the character of all masculinity, Resnais allows Dean to channel the vulnerability of his early characters. Many critics perceived "The Bullfighter” to be some type of creative response to the Visceral Realists, when it actually seems to be a nostalgic reflection on Dean’s mid-‘50s naïveté.

Before production commenced for “The Bullfighter,” Dean invited filmmaker and FRIP comrade Varda to document the experience, resulting in one of cinema’s most poignant behind-the-scenes portraits of an icon coming into his own, “Spanish Caravan” (1966). By now, Dean had fully dismissed the Method technique—“egotistical and stiff,” as he called it—and embraced outline scripts that allowed him to, well, “RIP.” Once upon a time, Godard and Malle helped Dean innovate while connecting with various demographics. Then, in the early ‘60s, Demy and Dean expanded the international RIP Culture family. Finally, Chabrol inspired Dean to pay special attention to American affairs, thus “bringing it all back home,” as midwest folk singer Robert Zimmerman exclaimed. “The Bullfighter” features Dean at top form.

For “Let It Rip”’s unofficial 10-year anniversary, Dean teamed up with Jean-Pierre Melville for "Culture Vulture,” resulting in Dean’s most shocking performance of the decade. Set in Paris, and written by FRIP outlier Alain Robbe-Grillet, the subversive heist thriller shows Dean satirizing a new school of radical performers; an unapologetic culture attack on the Mexico-based Visceral Realists. As thief Johnny Golightly, Dean literally and figuratively rips off French culture, aided by Brando’s Ace McCracken. The unlikely pairing itself guaranteed box office success, and with the deliberately non-sexualized appearances of Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot, “Culture Vulture” wildly succeeded by systemically picking apart the Savage Detectives’ questionable methods.

In a way, "Culture Vulture” established a sub-genre of film, along with hybrid approach for second wave of FRIP performers. Filled with fourth wall commentaries via reflected mirrors—later seen in Éric Rohmer’s instant RIP classic “The Prince” (1969) and especially in Jean-Luc Godard’s “American Ripper” (1969), Melville’s societal commentary bluntly addresses the rift between FRIP filmmakers and Visceral Realists. 

Rohmer’s “The Prince” represents a “Culture Vulture” companion piece; a fitting conclusion to the FRIP director’s exploration of morals. The Florence-set Machiavellian tale of breakfast and ethics reunited Dean with “Let It Rip” co-star Cardinale and further cemented each as powerful multi-lingual orators in their native countries. Most importantly, "The Prince” clarified vague concepts from “Culture Vulture,” such as the melding of Method and Rip acting approaches.

If the Visceral Realists had gained momentum by late 1969, Dean and Godard calmed the storm by releasing the FRIP documentary “American RIPPER,” an insightful look at JFK’s final months in office, Martin Luther King’s European tour and the systematic deconstruction of the Che Guevara myth, after the Argentine-Cuban rebel was captured in Bolivia and questioned stateside about about the rising tensions between RIP radicals and rogue Visceral Realists.

With the impending release of Dean’s directorial debut “East of Fairmount,” along with Louis Malle’s road trip FRIP film “Easy Rebel,” one could argue that RIP Culture won’t soon fade away. But given Dean’s disappearance from the public eye, immediately after brashly criticizing the Visceral Realists’ political beliefs, one must wonder if the King of RIP is finally ready for a creative break. Or maybe, he’s simply preparing for Martin Scorsese’s loose interpretation of the mid-‘60s Kennedy-Guevara summit, in which he’s reportedly set to portray Chicago mobster Sam Giancana opposite Brando as President Robert F. Kennedy.

In RIP Cinema Vol. 1, Dean said “To RIP is to capitalize on the moment, and to RISE is to learn something valuable from the experience.” To paraphrase his famous call to action: RIP & RISE, James Dean. We’re waiting.

Vincent Quinn RIP Cinema Vol. 161, May 1971

from All Content https://ift.tt/2ScxlrG

[perspectivesandpearls-blog]

There’s so much going on in the world. The ideology and the physical actions of how men treat women haven’t progressed much in the last 100 years. It’s even worse if you’re a Black woman, Latina, Asian or Queer.

Bill Cosby goes to jail for rape and most of y’all are sad for the rapist. Think about how many people you know personally that have been raped and molested. Both women and men. Personally I know about 10. Our favorite celebrities like Gabrielle Union, Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Melissa Harris Perry and women like Dorothy Dandridge were survivors of sexual assault. Nobody asks for rape. Not a child. Not a woman or a man. But imagine going through that experience and keeping it a secret and getting on Facebook to see your love ones support an abuser. It’s severely disgusting.

It’s hard to believe in love when women are treated as property. Men still brag about how many women they’ve had like we’re cars. There’s so much content for women to learn how to get a man, but grown men don’t even know how to approach a woman let alone start a decent conversation without talking about anything sexually related. In addition to that women are always being accused of being gold diggers; but men are always looking for a woman to “hold” him down until he gets on his feet. The daily harassment, the guilt of tolerating assault and abusive behavior so you won’t end up dead has given many of us ptsd.

Think about all the women you know who were killed by their husbands and boyfriends. I personally know 3. Men don’t have to worry about what they wear or who’s house they go over; they have the liberty to do as they please. Someone who use to be my friend would always crack jokes about how I always think someone is out to kill me, because I didn’t trust men enough to transport me on dates. It was funny and lighthearted to him but it made me realize how fearful I was.

Some of us have fathers who were physical abusers and not protectors. Imagine trying to trust a stranger? Imagine being followed. Imagine someone touching your child or ripping through your vagina or your butthole and not being able to tell anyone. Because of fear. Rape isn’t about sex. It’s about power. I think about The Color Purple probably every day.

Celie was raped by her stepfather and birthed children she had in result of her rape; only to have them ripped out of her hands after giving birth. Her mom hated her afterwards. She was constantly made to feel worthless, ugly and undesirable. Even Suge made Celie feel the same way until Suge took time to get to know her. Having her innocence taken, men taking her right to choose as a woman away and making her birth children to only steal them away too is definitely a reflection of the misogynist climate we’re in today.

I have to believe that when this old life has gone the reaction you had to this Bill Cosby case reflects your legacy as an individual and as a culture. You can’t love women if you do not have the means to be her support and listening ear. To the fellow women who are in support of a rapist may you never have to experience it yourself. In the words of Celie, we may be Black, we may even be ugly but we’re still here. We’re still here. ❤️

[theempressofstyle]

The Smoking Jacket Not many people knew this but I guess since the internet info is more accessible; Hugh supported black artists especially during the civil rights movement. Playboy was heavily shaped by the sophistication of the jazz artform and showcased musicians such as Louis Armstrong to comedian Dick Gregory. Thank you for supporting black designers. The iconic Playboy bunny attire was designed by Zelda Wynn Valdes, a highly reknown Hollywood fashion & costume designer. She designed for such artists as Dorothy Dandridge to Billie Holiday. I think life is all about being unapologetically yourself & using your platform to empower others along the way. He pretty much did so in a nutshell no matter how controversial his publication might have been to some. He definitely did it his way. R.I.P. #TheEmpressofstyle #WearFashionandconsciousnessunite #HughHefner #RIP #StyleIcon #SmokingJacket #BlackDesigners #ZeldaWynnValdes #DickGregory #Jazz #Music #BlackArtists #civilrightsmovement #Empowerment #Unapologetic #Authentic #BillieHoliday #DorothyDandridge #BlackHollywood

[twixnmix]

Dorothy Dandridge photographed by Philippe Halsman, 1954.  

[blackpinups]

The last two photos of Dorothy Dandridge alive, September 7, 1965, in Oaxaca, Mexico, she died the next day in her apartment in Los Angeles. Late night viewing of Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. First two photos shared from Dandridge Love @dandridgelove #dorothydandridge #halleberry @halleberry #actress #pioneer #singer #rip #restinpeace https://www.instagram.com/p/BnfcMmyFz0Y/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1107bb8ndxo8

[absolute-most]

RIP Dorothy Dandridge (November 9, 1922, September 8, 1965)