Carmen fantasy redux #MusicMonday

For this week's #MusicMonday, I present this scene Tabacalera from Carlos Saura's film adaptation of the Carmen story, recast in a flamenco dance studio:





This scene is set in the tobacco factory where Carmen works (and gets into a tussle with another factory worker).

I love the ballet tops and whoosh of the skirts.

Carlos Saura's film was released in 1983, and complements Francesco Rosi's adaptation of Bizet's Carmen, which released in 1984.  In addition to featuring Georges Bizet's music, Carlos Saura's film also features flamenco music performed by renown flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia.

Natasha Richardson

The news that actress Natasha Richardson died, after sustaining head injuries in a skiing accident, was devastating.

Natasha Richardson is survived by her husband, actor Liam Neeson. She is also Vanessa Redgrave's daughter, but unlike her mother, she remained apolitical.

I know Natasha Richardson's work in her roles in the 1993 TV adaptation of Tennessee Williams's drama Suddenly, Last Summer and the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap.


L to R: Natasha Richardson, Dame Maggie Smith, and Rob Lowe in Suddenly, Last Summer

In Suddenly, Last Summer, she played Catherine Holly, who is administered truth serum (sodium pentathlate) to uncover the lurid nature of her cousin's death. Rob Lowe played the doctor: this was part of his "rehabilitation" as an actor, after the sex video scandal. The great Dame Maggie Smith, as she's now known, played Catherine's aunt, who is crippled after a stroke. This TV adaptation is superior to the 1959 film starring Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, and Katharine Hepburn.


Top: Lindsay Lohan as twins Hallie and Annie;
Bottom: Natasha Richardson and Dennis Quaid in The Parent Trap (1998)

I like the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap better than the 1961 version, and Natasha Richardson is a major reason why I like the remake. She plays the mother of twins Hallie and Annie, who were separated after their parents' divorce. In this role, she sparkled and demonstrated a light comedic touch.

That Natasha Richardson was brilliant as two very different characters in two different genres is testimony to her gifts as an actress.

May Liam Neeson, their two sons, and extended family have forbearance to get through during this painful time. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

Friday roundup - March 7, 2008

It's Friday, and time for the Friday roundup, for the fourth week running! The Friday roundup highlights blog articles written by Friends of The Style Page in the past week.

SugarShock loves the Pop Beauty Eye Class in Brown Eyes. She writes, "While the shadows looked kind of sparkly in the kit, when you apply them they actually have a nice iridescence that's not too glimmery, but just right."

Pop Beauty Eye Class in Brown Eyes

Mischo Beauty announces the debut of her Facebook page.

Scandalous Beauty features Whitney and Bobbi!! No, not Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston's ex-husband. Rather, Bobbi Brown. Scandalous Beauty recommends the new Bobbi Brown Nudes Collection to recreate Whitney's makeup (but not that Carol Brady hairstyle):


Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston had been on a downhill slide since she married Bobby Brown in 1992. I was routing for her comeback when she filed for divorce in 2006.

It should be evident to regular readers of this blog that I share i♥make-up's love of Indian beauty. I'm not Indian, but my husband is. In Recreating the Sixties' Look, i♥make-up discusses how to recreate the dramatic winged eyeliner look popularized by Indian actress Sharmila Tagore:

Sharmila Tagore

TV presenter (and ex-wife of Salman Rushdie) Padma Lakshmi recalled that she spent hours trying to recreate Sharmila Tagore's look.

The late Bengali film director Satyajit Ray discovered Sharmila Tagore when she was just a teenager. He cast her as Apu's bride in the third and last film of his Apu trilogy that won international acclaim and brought attention to Indian cinema. Ray must have been prescient about his actresses: similarly, he discovered Aparna Sen and Jaya Bachchan nee Bhaduri, both of whom had gone onto major careers in Indian cinema, when they were mere teenagers. Non-Indians might remember Sharmila Tagore as Meena's mother in Mississipi Masala, about the unlikely romance between Meena, a young Indian woman (played by Sarita Choudhury) and an African-American man (played by Denzel Washington).

Drew Barrymore en Vogue

Drew Barrymore on the March 2008 cover of Vogue

Both Beauty Addict and Christopher Drummond are aghast about this horrid Photoshopped picture of Drew Barrymore on the cover of the March 2008 issue Vogue. Beauty Addict notes the changes to Drew's facial contours, while Christopher notes how thin her arm looks.

I'm aghast, too, as it looks nothing like Drew, and I don't like the overly arched eyebrow.

Drew has brought new glamour to Cover Girl as that brand's latest face. It's easy to forget that she first made a name for herself playing Gertie, the little girl in E.T. When I last watched E.T., I was blown away by how this five- or six-year-old girl (which is how old she was then) took direction.


Gertie encounters E.T. for the first time

French lover

No, I didn't watch the Oscars ceremony last weekend. Receiving up-to-the-moment results by refreshing the Yahoo! home page or by waking up to the news the following morning was sufficient for me.

Still, I was struck that French actress Marion Cotillard won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. The last time a French actress won the Best Actress Oscar was in 1959, when Simone Signoret won the award.


Marion Cotillard

BTW Cotillard is also a "troofer."

What else links Simone Signoret and Piaf, the singer portrayed by Cotillard? It is the late singer/actor/lover Yves Montand, who was Signoret's husband and Piaf's lover. In addition, Yves Montand had an affair with this unidentified actress:


Yves Montand and unnamed actress

Beyonce and the "Roboho" costume

I stayed up past midnight last night listening to the shout-out between the Rev. Al Sharpton and Harvey Levin of the TMZ.com celebrity gossip site on Fox News concerning TMZ's describing the costume that Beyonce wore at the BET 2007 Fashion Awards show last month as "Roboho." The Rev. Al thought that the term was demeaning and racist; Harvey Levin said it was all in good fun.

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What was missed in this whole shout-out was the similarity of Beyonce's costume to that of the female robot in the 1927 film classic Metropolis.

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Madonna riffed on Metropolis for her video Respect Yourself.