My Week in Pictures.

I’ve spent the last week in Bendigo, staying with my mum, and it’s been such a lovely, quiet break. I went to the Grace Kelly exhibition and to see The Hunger Games with a friend (review pending, just got to finish the book first!), got my hair did, and tried to get in as much downtime as possible. I feel very refreshed and ready to head back to work for the Easter period, followed by another week of holidays!

The stack.

As I mentioned above, I’ve got about 150 pages left of The Hunger Games, and as a large print, young adult novel, I should breeze through it on the train ride back to Melbourne this afternoon. And I’ve still got to get around to reading the somewhat anti-feminist Sunday Life profile on Madonna.

Grace Kelly: Style Icon Exhibition.

Please see my review for my full thoughts on the exhibition.

The Hunger Games.

Secondhand book haul.

So Remarkable Creatures was actually leant to me by a friend (hi, Hannah!) in exchange for My Sister, My Love, which I picked up secondhand when I was in Bendigo last Easter, while 11.22.63 by Stephen King and Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen were purchased from the Bendigo Book Mark, my favourite secondhand bookstore I’ve come across. My mum and I had watched the film version of Water for Elephants the night before, so I thought it was uncanny I should find the book and snapped it up. And I was surprised Book Mark even had 11.22.63, as it’s King’s latest and with a premise of “what would the world look like if JFK wasn’t assassinated”, it’s a must-read! Score!

Related: Grace Kelly: Style Icon Exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery.

My Sister, My Love: The Intimate Story of Skyler Rampike by Joyce Carol Oates Review.

Book Shop: Book Now, Bendigo.

Elsewhere: [News with Nipples] Madonna, Never Put it Away—Unless You Want To.

Event: Grace Kelly—Style Icon Exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery.

Yesterday I attending the much-hyped (both in the media and in my mind) Grace Kelly: Style Icon exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery.

I’ve been a fan of Kelly since I first saw her in Rear Window three Christmas’ ago, and when my mum showed me the gallery’s brochure on upcoming events this time last year, I was wetting my pants with excitement to see an exhibition based around one of the most beautiful and talented actresses of the golden age of Hollywood.

In preparation, I watched High Society and To Catch a Thief (still have to check off Dial M for Murder on my list of Grace must-sees), but Rear Window will forever remain in my heart as my favourite Kelly film (and one of my favourite films, period).

While the exhibition disappointingly didn’t feature Kelly’s signature Rear Window dress, the black and white cocktail length ballgown from her opening scene in the movie, it did have on display the black mid-length dress from the film, which is so classic and timeless it could be seen on the street today.

The dearth of clothes from her first ten films were made up for in the several pieces from High Society, her last film and one from which she was allowed to keep her wardrobe. These were followed up with the dress she met Prince Rainier in, the famous Hermès Kelly bag, her bridal trousseau and, of course, a replica of her wedding gown (the original’s fabric is too delicate to travel).

The rest of the exhibition consisted of a myriad of Grace’s own clothes after she became a princess: a powder blue gown to conceal her baby bump and some elegantly embellished suits were my favourites. Despite references to the Princess’ reluctance to embrace the sky high hemlines of the sixties, there was an Yves Saint Laurent Mondrian dress, a staple of the times, and some flowing seventies-style gowns.

From the fairytale exhibition I had dreamed up in my head, I had much higher expectations than what was presented at the gallery. This is not to say that Grace Kelly: Style Icon isn’t an exhibition worth seeing, if fashion and movies and Kelly are your thing. But, compared with some of the other exhibitions Bendigo Art Gallery has hosted, it might be their most hyped one but certainly not their best.

 

 

 

Related: Bendigo Art Gallery: Giving the Metro Museums a Run for Their Money.

Loving… Grace Kelly as Lisa Fremont in Rear Window.

Images via Grace Kelly Bendigo, Clothes on Film, Costumerism, YouTube.

TV: Gossip Girl Takes Inspiration from Yet More Royals. This Time It’s the Grimaldis.

The 100^th episode of Gossip Girl brought the much anticipated wedding of Blair Waldorf and Prince Louis Grimaldi, with interference by Chuck, Dan and Georgina thrown in there for good measure.

I didn’t think Blair would actually go ahead with the wedding, but she did, and it provided a chance for the show to channel yet more royals after Blair lost her baby in a car accident à la Princess Diana a few weeks ago and now, taking inspiration from Princess Grace Kelly’s progeny Prince Albert and Princess Charlene’s tear-soaked wedding last year.

The (fictional) fact that Louis is a Grimaldi is not lost on Gossip Girl, who sees Blair as somewhat of a modern day Grace Kelly. Louis tricked her into marrying him after she clearly expressed love for Chuck (Blair is not completely blameless; she “did the right thing” in marrying someone she thought she could “grow into” loving) and will force her to uphold her end of the bargain or risk her family’s bankruptcy in paying her dowry (what century is this again?) if she reneges on the marriage. Could a similar storyline be at play in Prince Albert and Princess Charlene’s real-life marriage?*

*Pure speculation.

Related: Gossip Girl: Blare Channels the Tragic Life of Princess Di & Gossip Culture is to Blame.

Images via International Business Times, Putlocker.

My Week in Pictures.

The vintage loot.

I blogged earlier in the week about The Way We Wear, and here are some photos from the Online Antiques store, which always has swoon-worthy items for sale, as well as the two bangles and scarf I picked up. If I had a spare $500, though, I’d be all over that black, white and red number! Very Grace Kelly in Rear Window, wouldn’t you say?

The dreary Monday morning.

Now, I normally love my Monday mornings (new magazines, new blogs, new week!), but this week it was nothing but a manic one. All I wanted to go was sit in front of the heater and watch movies all day. Alas, this is the view from a window at work.

The flowers.

To brighten up the house, I bought some orchids from the Vic Market on Saturday. It’s been a looong time since I bought myself flowers. And no one else is going to, so…

The stack.

Next week I’m going to be blogging about my real stack (ie. the pile of books, magazines and articles I’ve had on the backburner for most of this year) but, until then, here is this weeks reading material.

Lara Bingle’s “exclusive” is laughable (I couldn’t imagine anything worse than going on holidays with your beau and having a Who camera crew follow your every move in a bid to announce a new relationship to the world), and the mag is still perturbed by Katie Holmes’s body. Sure, she looks pretty gaunt, but is pointing it out on tabloid covers the world over really beneficial to her?

The show.

I’ve really been getting into the latest season of Law & Order: SVU and, as it is apparently Christopher Meloni’s last, and Mariska Hargitay’s role will be severely diminished next season, I’m savouring it. If the two main detectives aren’t in it, I don’t think I’ll be returning.

The organic blueberry pancakes.

After the vintage market on Saturday, my friend Linzie and I stopped in at Novel Kitchen in Williamstown, a cute little organic café with mismatched tables and chairs and a very unpretentious vibe about it.

Related: [The Early Bird Catches the Worm] My Week in Pictures 21^st July 2011.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] My Week in Pictures 14th July 2011.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] My Week in Pictures 7th July 2011.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] My Week in Pictures 1st July 2011.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] The Way We Wear Weekend.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Loving… Grace Kelly as Lisa Fremont in Rear Window.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Katie Holmes in Who: Do Celeb Bodies Make Us Feel Better About Our Own?

Elsewhere: [Online Antiques] Homepage.

Bendigo Art Gallery: Giving the Metro Museums a Run for Their Money.

As past posts this week would indicate, I spent the weekend in Bendigo, in country Victoria. I visited some old friends, went secondhand book shopping, got my hair did, and attended the opening of the Bendigo Art Gallery’s American Dreams exhibition.

There were some stunning portraits by some of America’s most gifted and famous photographers, like Walker Evans, Cindy Sherman and Richard Avedon.

While this exhibition isn’t the greatest I’ve seen (FYI, that was The Golden Age of Couture, also hosted by the Bendigo Art Gallery, which displayed gorgeous garments from the likes of Christian Dior and his 1940s “New Look”, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy and Pierre Balmain), it is one in a long line of coups for the country gallery.

Last year I saw Frederick McCubbin’s Last Impressions and Looking for Faeries, in addition to 2009’s Golden Age of Couture, and this year the gallery has The White Wedding Dress display in store for us. But the exhibition I’m most looking forward to won’t be opening until 2012, but it’s well worth the wait: Grace Kelly—Style Icon, featuring costumes from her most famous films (Rear Window, I’m looking at you) and couture gowns from her reign as Her Serene Highness, Princess Grace of Monaco.

With stellar exhibitions like these, Melbourne’s galleries and museums had better watch out!

[Bendigo Art Gallery] Homepage.

[Bendigo Art Gallery] American Dreams: 20^th Century Photography from George Eastman House.

[Bendigo Art Gallery] The Golden Age of Couture: Paris & London, 1947–1957.

[Bendigo Art Gallery] McCubbin Last Impressions: 1907–1917.

[Bendigo Art Gallery] Looking for Faeries: The Victorian Tradition.

[Bendigo Art Gallery] The White Wedding Dress: 200 Years of Wedding Fashions.

[Bendigo Art Gallery] Grace Kelly: Style Icon.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Book Shop: Book Now, Bendigo.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Loving… Grace Kelly as Lisa Fremont in Rear Window.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Tutankhamun & the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at Melbourne Museum.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Gustave Moreau’s The Eternal Feminine Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Images via Bendigo Art Gallery, Ethical Style.

Loving… Grace Kelly as Lisa Fremont in Rear Window.

Can’t say I’ve really gotten into much Hitchcock in my lifetime (that’s more my mum’s forte), however I loved Rear Window from the moment I inserted into the DVD player.

However, after a second watching this Christmas, I realised the power of Grace Kelly’s character, Lisa Fremont, as the girlfriend of central protagonist L.B. Jeffries (played by James Stewart).

Sure, she comes across as a vapid socialite on first glance, but when she opens her mouth, it is revealed that she has a job (astonishing for that period in time!), albeit as a gossip columnist, and is very self-sufficient.

Jeffries goes on about how she is somewhat pampered (being a socialite) and could never hack it on one of his photography missions.( Evidently it is he who could not hack it on his own photography assignment, managing to get his leg broken whilst documenting a car race.)

When Lisa volunteers to snoop in Jeffries’ neighbours’ apartment whilst he is out, on one hand she is proving herself to him; proving that she can get her hands dirty and is up for some adventure. But, as Lizz Yeh points out in her comment in response to Gender Goggles’ “Hitchcock & Feminist Theory in Suspicion & Rear Window”, “we have to remember that a lot of the plot is driven by Lisa and L.B. It is only after Lisa concurs with L.B. that L.B. decides to take any sort of action.” In addition, she’s the one who points out that a woman doesn’t leave her favourite handbag and wedding ring when she goes on a trip, and doesn’t leave her jewellery jumbled up in a bag. On Yeh’s comments, it does seem that Jeffries often strives for Lisa’s approval. Whilst I wouldn’t say he’s a “weak” male character by any means, Lisa is certainly his “better half”.

On that, Lisa proves that women can be multifaceted. She can read fashion magazines and attend balls in gorgeous couture gowns, but she can also investigate a murder and accompany her man on adventurous trips. Her attitude also flies in the face of feminism’s detractors: she can please her man by reading the kinds of books he thinks she should (but swapping back to her glossy du jour when he falls asleep!) and helping him in his time of need, but she also does what she thinks and feels is right. Ultimately, Jeffries and Lisa are equals in a Hitchcockian world.

 [Gender Goggles] Hitchcock & Feminist Theory in Suspicion & Rear Window.

[Overthinking It] Why Weak Male Characters Are Bad for Women.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Women in Fiction: Are Our Favourite Female Characters Actually “Strong”, Or Stereotypes?

 [The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Women in Fiction: My Favourite Fictional Females.

Movies: The Best Movies I’ve Seen This Year.

Tomorrow, When the War Began. Check out my review to see how strongly I feel about it.

Desk Set. This 1957 romantic comedy starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy takes place in a reference library, and deals with the incorporation of computers to help the ladies in their cataloguing. With a healthy dose of the trademark ’50s slapstick rom-com dynamic and TDF fashion, I loved this one.

Easy A. Again, another I’ve done a review on. While I had high hopes for this one, it didn’t live up to them fully, but it is one of the smarter teen movies in recent memory. On par with Mean Girls, perhaps?

Rear Window. What took me so long, right? I watched this one for the first time last Christmas, and continued the tradition again this holiday season. Grace Kelly is luminous as “his girl Friday” to James Stewart’s L.B. Jeffries, who is the ultimate leading man. Hitchcock at his best.

Toy Story 3. It is unanimous that Toy Story 3 is one of the best movies released in 2010. Perhaps the best of the Toy Story franchise? Nah, my money’s on the first instalment.

Desperately Seeking Susan. So bad it’s good. The fashion is fabulous (on Madonna’s part, anyway) and Her Madgesty is surprisingly likable in it.

Sorry about the dismal effort in this post, but seriously; there were no good movies this year! You only have to look at Sex & the City 2 (which I quite liked, but will admit was baaad), The Expendables and Killers for proof of that.

That’s why I spent a lot of my cinema-going money on the classics, such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Beauty & the Beast in 3D. That counts as a movie I haven’t seen before this year, right? Right…?

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Movies/Book Review: Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Movie Review: Easy A.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Movie Review: Sex & the City 2.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Movie Review: The Expendables.

[Jezebel] Is Easy A The Next Mean Girls?

[Jezebel] I Went to See Killers & It’s All Your Fault.