Once a year la Serenissima reverts to its true and elemental nature, as the ghosts come out and history can be felt on every narrow bridge and alleyway. Of course, I am talking about Carnivale, where the imagination soars, as masques and costumes, capes and mystery sweep by you at every corner. The city turns into a fantasy of colour and celebration, flavoured with the scent of decadence and opulence. It is an experience you must have at least once in your life.
Our friends at the remarkable Luna Baglioni (just off San Marco, with its own arrival dock where your launch can drop you directly) offer a group of incredible ball deals, starting at a not-so-staggering supplement of €290 per person. Room nights additional. You can avail yourself of any of the following:
Saturday, February 11, 2012: Moon Masquerade at the Luna Hotel Baglioni
Friday, February 17, 2012: the Great Baglioni Party
Saturday, February 18, 2012: Grand Carnival Gala at the Luna Hotel Baglioni (€320 per person)
These offers exclude the room rate, but can include champagne, fancy dress parties, some held in the Marco Polo room dominated by huge School of Tiepolo frescoes, dinner—depending on the date—entertainment, and DJs until the wee hours of the morning. Period costumes can be purchased or rented. Be sure to avail yourself of the insider knowledge possessed by Antonio Massari, the Luna’s amazing concierge, perhaps the best in the world. Then, imagine yourself hidden behind mask and cloak, stealing down a romantic passagio, off for an intimate midnight rendezvous.
For details, see www.baglionihotels.com/en/destinations/venice/luna-hotel-baglioni/packages/Special%20Venice%20Carnival.—Stanley Moss, Travel Editor
The première of Madonna’s new single ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’’ in Piccadilly Circus did not go particularly well: not only was the video late, but it ran without sound.
The music video, which features Nicki Minaj and MIA in cheerleaders’ outfits, was directed by Megaforce. It makes references to a lot of Madonna’s past work and is meant to be tongue in cheek.
Despite the malfunction in London, fans were generally very positive toward the new video when it hit the internet.
Less contentious is the news that Back to the Future might head to Broadway. Broadway has, in recent years, been very kind to film-to-stage adaptations, including The Producers and Xanadu, which arguably did better there than in the cinemas in 1980.
Writer–director Robert Zemeckis is in negotiations to pen a new script for the stage, according to ITN.
Keira Knightley’s question: do the British like spanking?
We already mentioned the sado-masochistic scenes in her new movie, A Dangerous Method, back in October. According to the actress, spanking was never mentioned after the original première, and only slightly at the Toronto Film Festival. But, now with A Dangerous Method having a gala première in London at the Mayfair Hotel yesterday, it’s being brought up regularly.
‘In England it’s got mentioned all the time. I don’t know what that says about us! We obviously like spanking, I don’t know!’ she said.
The period drama, directed by David Cronenberg and based on the book A Most Dangerous Method by John Kerr and a stage adaptation by Christopher Hampton (who also penned the script), deals with the birth of psychoanalysis and stars Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud, with Vincent Cassel as Otto Gross.
Knightley wore Burberry to the première, accessorized by jewellery from Chanel, and Christian Louboutin heels.
Top Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis—Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Best Actress in a Leading Role—at the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. Above Mary Tyler Moore receives a lifetime achievement award from former co-star Dick van Dyke.
The Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG) Awards are often looked to, in order to figure out which film and which actors take out the top awards at the Oscars.
If this year’s ceremony in Los Angeles is any indication, it will be civil rights’ drama The Help, which has won best cast, best actress for Viola Davis, and best supporting actress for Octavia Spencer.
In accepting the ensemble award (above), Davis inspired the audience with her speech. ‘I just have to say that the stain of racism and sexism is not just for people of colour or women. It’s all of our burden, all of us … I don’t care how ordinary you feel, all of us can inspire change, every single one of us,’ she said. The Artist did not do as well, though star Jean Dujardin picked up the best actor prize.
Christopher Plummer won best supporting actor for Beginners.
Among the TV prizes, Paul Giamatti won best actor in a TV film or miniseries for Too Big to Fail, which covered the 2008 financial crisis. As at the Golden Globes, Kate Winslet won best actress for Mildred Pierce. Boardwalk Empire won the TV drama ensemble award, and its star Steve Buscemi won best actor in this category. Jessica Lange won the best actress in a drama series award for American Horror Story.
Modern Family won best ensemble for a comedy series, while Alec Baldwin won best actor in a comedy series for 30 Rock. Betty White, 90, won best actress for Hot in Cleveland.
Dick van Dyke presented a lifetime achievement award to Mary Tyler Moore—an actress his self-titled show in the 1960s brought to prominence—who wound up producing and starring in her own show in the 1970s. Her MTM Enterprises brought numerous series and dramas to the screen, including Lou Grant, Hill Street Blues and Remington Steele.
Dimitrios Kambouris, Kevin Mazur, Lester Cohen, John Shearer, Michael Buckner, Christopher Polk/WireImage
Compare the pair. Top Jean Shrimpton, as she appeared in Vogue shot by Bailey in 1965. Above Karen Gillan and Aneurin Barnard as Jean Shrimpton and David Bailey in a publicity shot for We’ll Take Manhattan, which aired last week on BBC4.
The visitor stats have been very clear: one of the most searched-terms at Lucire has been David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton over the last few days.
Presumably, it’s due to BBC4’s We’ll Take Manhattan, a TV film about a ground-breaking New York shoot by David Bailey and his model and lover, Jean Shrimpton. The shoot defined, according to the programme, the 1960s. As previewed in Lucire, the BBC4 film starred Karen Gillan (Doctor Who) and Aneurin Barnard as the couple. While it took a little while to get going—it begins with the pair boarding a jet to head to New York, then goes into flashback—with the charged arguments between Bailey and Vogue fashion editor Lady Clare Rendlesham occupying a great deal of the action once the story gets back on track. The centre of the argument: that it’s the 1960s, that Bailey wants to catch more liveliness, and that the stuffy portraits shown in British Vogue—which had, of course, covered the Coronation the decade before with HM the Queen and aristocratic ladies-in-waiting—were a thing of the past.
Of course it’s idealized, but it’s not too far from the truth when the film claims that Bailey and the Shrimp defined the decade.
The forces had been coming in for a while, but perhaps not with the youthquake that the Bailey represented after national service was abolished in 1962 and there was plenty of youthful energy around Britain. Technological changes in the 1950s and the telephoto lens already meant fashion photographers were experimenting with more lively shots, and Vogue photographers such as Irving Penn, Norman Parkinson and Antony Armstrong-Jones (later Lord Snowdon) were capturing moments that the magazine’s readers would not have seen the decade before. While staged, they appeared to be casual moments, with the model seemingly living her life in the editorials.
What Bailey did was take this into raw sexiness, tapping correctly into the Zeitgeist. Starting at British Vogue in July 1960, Bailey had in fact met Shrimpton while she was being shot for a cornflakes advertisement by Brian Duffy. And unlike the film, Bailey was actually very grateful for the gig and knew what British Vogue was: ‘When Vogue offered to pay me to photograph beautiful women all day I thought I was on a dream-boat.’
Gillan captures the innocent country girl that Shrimpton was at that point, which makes the transformation into ’60s sex icon all the more poignant. Never mind posh locations with Bailey: the Shrimp was on the floor, legs akimbo, complete with teddy bear or another prop. Skirts got shorter, progressively so till 1966, and Jean Shrimpton and her long legs modelled plenty in the decade. It might not be inaccurate to say that Shrimpton was the 1960s supermodel, along with Twiggy—certainly they were two of the most recognized women in Britain. Vogue had gone from being a magazine read by the well-to-do lady to one that reached the masses—and for the first time, its pages even became pin-ups.
Bailey has remained in the public eye with his ongoing work, though Shrimpton has opted for a quieter life, running a country hotel. Both had reportedly approved of the script, which showed them in a positive light—though given Shrimpton’s silence over the years, we’re guessing it must have had some verisimilitude for her to give it the nod.
There were some glaring mistakes—a 2005 Chevrolet taxi zooms by in a 1962 scene in New York—and Mad Men it was not, neither in feel nor in execution. Where Kudos was once known for lavish productions—Life on Mars springs to mind—some corners felt cut, probably thanks to the recession and the difficulty of securing locations that still looked “’sixties enough” in New York. It lacked the pace of another winter BBC film around this time last year: Eric and Ernie, covering the pre-fame period of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise.
But, on the other hand, period Vogue covers were faithfully re-created, the wardrobe department did extremely well securing period costumes, and Frances Barber stole the show with her portrayal of Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland in the New York scenes. And it summed up the period well: while a telemovie will take liberties with history, there was no denying that Bailey and Shrimpton were influential and very deserving subjects.—Jack Yan, Publisher
Launched late last year, Montblanc’s Collection Princesse Grace de Monaco celebrates one of the great 20th century icons. On January 18, at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Genève, Montblanc has shown the new timepieces from the collection, along with fine jewellery for women.
The timepieces include unique designs, through to diamond-dusted limited editions and standard models in stainless steel and diamonds, says Montblanc.
The Montblanc limited Edition Princesse Grace de Monaco watch features petal-shaped pink sapphires enhanced with pink gold, and a dial framed in fine baguette-cut diamonds. The case is engraved with Princess Grace’s monogram.
The new collections have been presented by Eva Herzigova at SIHH.
TopThank You for the Music (2011), oil on canvas, 40 by 50 cm. Above leftHasta La Vista (2011), oil on canvas, 40 by 50 cm. Above rightAndy from Ipswich (2011), oil on canvas, plus hand-carved frame, 40 by 50 cm. Below leftDicky (2011), oil on canvas, plus hand-carved frame, 40 by 50 cm.
Who says portraiture is dead? If you’ve had enough of the yearly competition at the National Portrait Gallery, maybe it’s time to take a chance on Stuart Pearson Wright’s unforgiving eye, showing at London’s Riflemaker Gallery through February 15. This heritage space with leaning walls, rickety staircase and lived-in feel could be the perfect venue for edgy artists like Wright to show off their idea of beauty to a technologically-obsessed culture. The paintings, while firmly grounded in 2012 and a world of instant stardom, always hark back to dark classical canvases, and they certainly provoke the continuation of myth.—Stanley Moss, Travel Editor
Riflemaker
79 Beak Street, Regent Street
London W1F 9SU www.riflemaker.org
Possibly New Zealand’s only restaurant and dance studio opened in Kaikoura today.
Passione, an Italian pizza restaurant, and Soul Studio had their gala opening in the centre of the seaside town at 5 p.m. today (January 4). Full trading hours begin January 5.
The restaurant–studio is the brainchild of a young couple and owners Piera Fromm and Sebastian Burgin.
Burgin will run the restaurant and Fromm will manage the upstairs studio for dance lessons including hip-hop, modern, stretching, zumba, kids’ dancing and capoeira, a Brazilian martial art dance.
The couple are from Switzerland but have been living in Kaikoura for a number of years.
Artworks by Fromm’s mother, internationally acclaimed artist Ruth Stirnimann, will cover the walls of the restaurant.
‘We both love movement and we completed our dance studies together in Switzerland. Sebastian also has a real taste and knowledge for food,’ says Fromm.
‘So we decided to follow our dreams and turn them into reality. I will help out in the restaurant and at times Sebastian will also be helping with dance lessons upstairs.
‘We feel the dance studio offers Kaikoura a place of movement where people can let out there creative energy and stay fit and healthy. Passione and the Soul Studio will work towards a vibrant lifestyle with fresh yummy food downstairs.’
The Passione restaurant chef is Englishman Dave Burt who trained in French food and is experienced in Italian kitchens.
Fromm’s brother Livio will teach capoeira in the studio is also the master Italian pizza maker. Their mother Ruth Stirnimann will provide holistic healing lessons to make it a family affair.—Kip Brook, Word of Mouth Media NZ
Kip Brook is an occasional contributor to Lucire, and a London bureau chief correspondent.
The première of Madonna’s new single ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’’ in Piccadilly Circus did not go particularly well: not only was the video late, but it ran without sound.
Who says portraiture is dead? If you’ve had enough of the yearly competition at the National Portrait Gallery, maybe it’s time to take a chance on Stuart Pearson Wright’s unforgiving eye, showing at London’s Riflemaker Gallery through February 15. This heritage space with leaning walls, rickety staircase and lived-in feel could be the perfect venue for edgy artists like Wright to show off their idea of beauty to a technologically-obsessed culture. The paintings, while firmly grounded in 2012 and a world of instant stardom, always hark back to dark classical canvases, and they certainly provoke the continuation of myth.—Stanley Moss, Travel Editor
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