Italian Vanity Fair celebrates Monica Vitti's 80th birthday

Belated birthday wishes to Monica Vitti - 80 years old on November 3 ! Nice to see that Italian "Vanity Fair" is celebrating her with a cover and feature, mentioning "the silence of a long illness" (which may be Alzheimers, which would explain why she has not been seen in public for some years, not even at Antonioni's funeral in 2007).

http://amagazine10.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-356.html

Click images to enlarge, no English translation though ! and thanks to Kraechnor II for link to this terrific YouTube montage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6uR6eELMLA

Good to see renewed interest in one of the '60s great stars, as per all my posts on her here, the art-house goddess of the Antonioni films with the mesmerising face and voice, and all those delicious comedies she did later ..... others may hate it but I simply love MODESTY BLAISE. I wouldn't say she is one of the "largest" Italian stars though, as the blurb at the link puts it! One of Italy's biggest stars certainly, but not largest !

The Italian "Vanity Fair" may not be available here in the UK (unless in specialist shops in Soho) but I can at least print out and translate the relevant pages. Its a nice spread of 7 pages with lots of pictures - Monica always looks stunning, particularly in those '60s creations...

A gentleman of course does not dwell on a lady's age, but I see a lot of Italian films so all these Italian ladies seem ageless to me; hard to believe that Gina in her 80s, Monica now 80, Sophia 77 and Claudia a mere 73 ! Next Antonioni review: THE OBERWALD MYSTERY.

6 very good-looking films

Six of the best colour films ever? certainly 6 of my favourites ...





I have written plenty on here on the above favourites of mine, as per labels, but here is a toast to some great photography: BLACK NARCISSUS and PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN by Jack Cardiff, PLEIN SOLEIL by Henri Decae, THE LEOPARD by Guiseppe Rotunno, MODESTY BLAISE by Jack Hildyard, BLOW-UP by Carlo Di Palma - all 40 or 50 years ago!

Movies I Love: Modesty Blaise [again]

Starting a week of 'Movies I Love' with that all-time favourite of mine, once again it's MODESTY BLAISE! - (Modesty Blaise, Vitti, Bogarde, Losey labels for more!). After previous posts on Dirk at war and Vitti in LA NOTTE, here they are together in 1966 [they didn't get on very well though....]
Just a selection of stills then - so many of my favourite people in one movie [Michael Craig and Harry Andrews are in there too], even Eurobabe Scilla Gabel - I must get around to writing about her soon too! I was 20 when it came out and went to the premiere hoping to see Monica Vitti, but she was not there - but I saw Dirk with Rosella Falk (Mrs Fothergill) on his arm! [I got to meet him a few years later in 1970]. Vitti and Antonioni took over London in the mid-60s what with this and BLOW-UP... even now that Op Art Mediterranean island is still a delight, and Dirk as Gabriel agonising over lobsters and blowing up that plane as he listens to the pilots' inane chat and of course crying out for "champagne champagne" as he is staked out in the desert .... but some people just didn't get Losey's spoof of the Bonds and spies of the time, this though was the glamour movie of 1966 for 20 year old me!



So, this week then: MODESTY BLAISE, NORTH TO ALASKA (yes, really), JOHNNY GUITAR, A STAR IS BORN and OBSESSION and I WAS HAPPY HERE again too!

Vitti Vitti Vitti ...

I cannot go too long without spending some time watching Monica Vitti or listening to that husky voice of hers, so here's an enjoyable double bill of Monica in 1969 and 1979 when she was certainly at her zenith.

THE SCARLET LADY is an interesting comedy drama from '69 set in Paris and is a veritable feast of Vitti as it is all about her: wearing fabulous clothes (Christian Dior and Marc Bohan) and living it up in fancy hotels, lunching at the Eiffel Tower etc. When she finds out that she has been swindled out of her perfume empire by her lover Robert Hossein she decided to kill him and then herself. But not before she heads off to Paris, sells her jewels, checks into a hotel and decides to splash out on champagne and caviar, but she has a week to kill before Hossein travels to Paris every Friday. Feeling alone she invites a stranger to lunch with her, he is Maurice Ronet who becomes fascinated as he realises her plans and how desperate she is behind that bright facade. So far so good - then she is buying a fancy car, lots of clothes, moves to the Hilton, gets involved with a pop group and is generally having a great time. She saves a man from suicide who curses her for not leaving him alone and when another guy thinks she is a prostitute she goes along with it, giving the fee to a real working girl, so there are lots of crazy situations. Instead of a revenge thriller a comedy of sorts ensues, particuarly with Ronet trying to track her down before Friday, while she disovers the pleasures of simply being alive. This is Monica in throwaway comedy style as in my perennial favourite MODESTY BLAISE or THE BLONDE IN BLACK LEATHER.

The primary joy of this quirky unsettling journey into the unexpected is Vitti herself - Monica has a lot of fun, looks terrific, wears some fabulous clothes, it is Paris and 1969 (she tries to smoke pot with one of the hippie musicians while sitars drone in the background) and then Friday arrives and she goes to meet the plane from Nice where the ex-lover arrives .... those who only know Vitti from those Antonioni films will be surprised at her here, but then she always wanted to be a comedienne and at least got to star in lots of movies like this in the 60s and 70s - as per my other posts on her here, (see Vitti label). Ronet is also a nice presence here and the lift attendant at the Eiffel Tower is none other than Claude Chabrol! Directed by Jean Valere with lots of nice Paris locations.

Michael Ritchie's 1979 romantic comedy drama AN ALMOST PERFECT AFFAIR was unseen for far too long, but nice to see it again now on dvd. This is another quirky Ritchie film (like his SMILE) set againsgt the background of the Cannes Film Festival and those who come there to show their wares. Vitti and Keith Carradine (from from NASHVILLE, GREETINGS FROM L A etc) are the unlikely couple to come together. He is the idealistic first time director who lives for his art, and Monica is the wife of a bigshot Italian producer, played by Raf Vallone (terrific as ever). Their bittersweet romance is played out against the backdrop of the glitz, glamour and frenzy of the film festival, as Vitti's neglected wife - out walking her dog - collides with the impoverished young director. With terrific scenery and a nicely comic insider's view of the movie world, AN ALMOST PEFECT AFFAIR is a real treat, particularly with the combination the hip modern world of Carradine and the classic European film milieu represented by Vitti and Vallone. Unmissable!

Modesty - she's back again

A Dirk Bogarde double bill...

A movie I have loved for 44 years - and one I saw yesterday ...

Losey's MODESTY BLAISE is one of my key movies of 1966 and remains a very misunderstood movie. It has a cult following and passionate devotees - others cannot stand it or think it is rubbish! That's how cult movies get made folks! Back in 1966 Losey and Bogarde were the new flavour of the month after their critical (if not commercial at the time) successes with THE SERVANT and then KING AND COUNTRY, and the Bond movies were big box office and ripe for spoofing - hence the film of Peter O'Donnell's cult comic strip: the adventures of secret agent Modesty Blaise and her sidekick Willie Garvin as they try to outwit master criminal Gabriel. The movie as designed by Richard McDonald is an op art delight with that mediterranian hideway and Gabriel as super-camp silver-wigged mother-fixated arch-criminal with his dour Scottish accountant (Clive Revill) constantly poring over his ledgers and Mrs Fothergill (Rosella Falk) his sadistic assassin who we see dispatching those who have offended Gabriel.



There are so many choice moments in this riot of mid-'60s glamour and mod fashions: Gabriel unable to decide which lobster for dinner: "decisions, decisions" or enjoying agonising over listening to the conversation of the two pilots whose plane is he about to explode ... The plot is a farrago about a cargo of diamonds Gabriel is going to steal from a ship for which he needs the talents of Willie (Terence Stamp) and the trap they set for him - assisted by dependable regulars Harry Andrews and Michael Craig. After some detours via Amsterdam and some stylish violence the real fun begins as Gabriel traps Modesty in his op art cell and her multi-coloured changes of costume. [Vitti and Stamp are as iconically 60s here as Stamp and Julie Christie the following year in FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD].

The casting of Monica Vitti as Modesty is a masterstroke - the art house goddess of the Antonioni films was an unknown quantity to the mass audience and she had that aura about her. Her comedy skills find a lot of humour in the role though her English sounds as if she learnt it phonetically! Its still a cult favourite after all these years. John Dankworth's score is also spot on and a terrific '60s thriller pastiche. Dirk has great fun as Garbriel - even staked out in the desert at the end crying for "champagne, champagne"! It fits nicely into the Losey canon, as he and Bogarde went on to Pinter's script for ACCIDENT next.

It was made in 1965 for early 1966 release; 20 year old me was among the crowd watching the stars arriving at the premiere in '66 - Vitti didn't show, but Dirk was there with Mrs Fothergill (Rosella Falk) in his arm!.

Rosella Falk and Scilla Gabel with Stamp, Vitti and Bogarde.
Terry and Monica in the recording studio [Photo: Eve Arnold].


THE HIGH BRIGHT SUN

Apart from the 'important' movies he was making throughout the '60s Bogarde still turned out routine programmers for the Rank Organisation - we didn't bother much with them at the time (THE PASSWORD IS COURAGE, HOT ENOUGH FOR JUNE, another Doctor film) but its fun catching up with them now, so it was interesting to finally see the 1964 adventure set in '50s war-torn Cyprus THE HIGH BRIGHT SUN yesteday - another of those Ralph Thomas-Betty Box productions that kept Dirk busy during the '50s. This is a routine efficient thriller with Bogarde as the military commander (a part he could play on autopilot but he brings some nice nuances to it) and Susan Strasberg is the American-Cypriot girl who gets into danger by seeing who the guest is of the family friends she is staying with. George Chakiris is the local rebel leader who decides she has to be silenced so she goes on the run and finally she and Bogarde are holed up in an apartment in town as the rebels attack. It plays out nicely with good roles for Denholm Elliott and the likes of Gregoire Aslan. Colin Campbell from THE LEATHER BOYS has a supporting role which you just know won't make it to the final reel ... its the sort of well-made entertainment people went to see at their local cinema on a weekly basis back then. Dirk went on to DARLING next.

Bogarde with Vitti (they must have been shooting MODESTY at the time) and Julie Christie at the DARLING premiere, Sept. 1965