‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’
09 Saturday Feb 2019
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Albert Finney, Anouk Aimee, Audrey Hepburn, Billie Whitelaw, British Cinema, Charlie Bubbles, Erin Brockovich, Gabriel Hershman, Gumshoe, John Osborne, Karel Reisz, Kitchen Sink Drama, Liza Minnelli, Miller's Crossing, New Wave, Orphans, Salford, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Scrooge, Shelagh Delaney, Sir Laurence Olivier, Stephen Frears, The Dresser, The Gathering Storm, Tom Jones, Tony Richardson, Two For The Road, Winston Churchill, Woodfall Films
Albert Finney was born in Salford in 1936. His father, Albert Sr., was a bookmaker. He attended Salford Grammar School and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). After graduating in 1956, he worked in the theatre, and was an understudy to Sir Laurence Olivier. Continue reading
Artists in Love: Marilyn and Arthur Miller
04 Monday Feb 2019
Posted in Marilyn Monroe, Television
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Arthur Miller, Artists in Love, Documentaries, Documentary, Marilyn Monroe, Samantha Morton, Sky Arts
This article was first published at Immortal Marilyn in October 2017
Artists in Love is a ten-part documentary series, produced in Italy for the satellite channel Sky Arts, and first broadcast in 2016. Among the famous couples profiled are the Mexican artists, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera; opera singer Maria Callas’s tortured relationship with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis; plus singers Johnny Cash and June Carter, and filmmaker Federico Fellini and his actress wife, Giulietta Masina. Continue reading
The Ladies of Rockhaven
20 Sunday Jan 2019
Posted in Books, History, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction
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Agnes Richards, California, Crescenta Valley, Elisa Jordan, Feminism, Gladys Monroe, Glendale, Marilyn Monroe, Rockhaven Sanitarium
Nestled among the hills and mountain ranges just beyond Los Angeles, Crescenta Valley was home to the indigenous Tongva people for thousands of years. During the Spanish colonial period it became part of the San Gabriel Mission. By the late 1800s, its warm, dry climate was attracting both tourists and health seekers, and after his wife’s death from tuberculosis, Dr. Benjamin Briggs moved there to build a sanitarium for those suffering from lung ailments. His success encouraged others to follow suit, including Merritt Kimball who founded a sanitarium for psychiatric patients. Perhaps the most unique of these pioneering establishments was Rockhaven, a sanctuary for vulnerable women opened by Agnes Richards in the 1920s. Continue reading
‘Peak Strange’: The Jeanne Eagels Biopic
18 Friday Jan 2019
Posted in Film, Jeanne Eagels
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Biopic, Farran Smith Nehme, Helen Morgan, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels (1957), Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, Kim Novak, Sam H. Harris, Virginia Grey
Whenever I mention Jeanne Eagels, movie fans invariably ask if I’ve seen Kim Novak playing her onscreen. And my answer is usually this: “love Kim, hate the film.” Over at her Self-Styled Siren blog today, Farran Smith Nehme takes a closer look at the ‘Highly Fictionalised Biopics’ that were all the rage in 1957. (Jeanne’s friend, singer Helen Morgan, was another victim that year.) Continue reading
From ‘Soledad’ to Hope, With Lynch and Lana
13 Sunday Jan 2019
Posted in Film, Lana Del Rey, Magazines, Television, Updates, Writing
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Aaron Darc, David Lynch, Hope Is A Dangerous Thing For A Woman Like Me To Have - But I Have It, Jeremy Richey, Lana Del Rey, Marilyn Monroe, Remix, Soledad, Twin Peaks
SOLEDAD is a new journal from my good friend Jeremy Richey, the maestro behind ART DECADES. Soledad is (of course) the Spanish word for solitude, which is one of my favourite things. It can be sad, but also beautiful – a state of mind reflected in the magazine’s black and white imagery. I’m proud to have contributed a sixteen-page article about David Lynch’s return to Twin Peaks for the first volume. It’s the opening instalment in a two-part series, and while I can’t promise to unlock all of its mysteries, I hope fans of the show will enjoy my personal impressions. Continue reading
Penny Marshall 1943-2018
24 Monday Dec 2018
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A League Of Their Own, Baseball, Madonna, Penny Marshall, Rosie O'Donnell, This Used To Be My Playground
Carole Penny Marshall was born in the Bronx in 1943. Her mother Marjorie ran a dance school, and her father directed industrial films. Of Italian descent, he had changed his name from Masciarelli to Marshall. Their youngest daughter was named after Carole Lombard, the much-loved comedic actress and wife of Clark Gable, who had died in a plane crash the year before. Young Carole’s middle name was inspired by her sister Ronny, who was ‘saving her pennies’ to buy a horse: and it was that name, ‘Penny’, which finally stuck. The family lived in a building which also housed the young Neil Simon, Paddy Chayevsky, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. Continue reading
2018: A Year In Books
18 Tuesday Dec 2018
Posted in Art and Photography, Books, Fiction, Film, Music, Non-Fiction
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#Bronte200, A View of the Empire at Sunset, Anna Maria Ortese, Aunt Branwell and the Bronte Legacy, Bettie Page, Bettie Page: The Lost Years, Billie Holiday, Black Dahlia, Black Dahlia Red Rose, Brandon Hobson, Brass, Brontё, Camille Laurens, Caryl Phillips, Cesare Pavese, David Lynch, Devil's Advocates, Don't Skip Out On Me, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Edgar Degas, Evening Descends Upon the Hills, Evening in Paradise, Freak Kingdom, Frida Kahlo, Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, Hunter S. Thompson, Jean Rhys, Lindsay Hallam, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, Lucia Berlin, Maura McHugh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Native American Literature, Nick Holland, Olga Tokarcsuk, Ottessa Moshfegh, Piu Eatwell, Rachel Kushner, Religion Around Billie Holiday, Sarah Weinman, Taylor Brown, The Beautiful Summer, The Blacker the Berry..., The Gods of Howl Mountain, The Mars Room, The Real Lolita, Timothy Denevi, Tori Rodriguez, Tracey Fessenden, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Vladimir Nabokov, Wallace Thurman, Welcome Home, Where the Dead Sit Talking, Willy Vlautin, Xhenet Aliu, You Are Always With Me: Letters to Mama
With her third novel, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh confirms herself as a major writer of our time. This darkly comic tale follows the sleepy adventures of a young, beautiful and rich but miserable New Yorker who embarks on a drug-fuelled sabbatical at the dawn of the 21st century. Moshfegh’s mischievous delight in the squalid details of everyday life powers her absurd yet visionary narrative. Continue reading
2018: A Year in Film and TV
18 Tuesday Dec 2018
Posted in Books, Film, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction, Television
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Amanda Seyfried, Amy Adams, Andrew Norman, BlackKKlansman, Carnival of Souls, Carnivale, Charles Casillo, Charlize Theron, Claire Trevor, Diana Dors, Elisa Jordan, Elizabeth Debicki, First Reformed, Frances McDormand, Greta Gerwig, Harry Dean Stanton, Howard Hughes, I Am Not A Witch, Joaquin Phoenix, Julia Garner, Karina Longworth, Lady Bird, Lean On Pete, Leave No Trace, Louise Brooks, Lucky, Marilyn Monroe, Michelle Morgan, Netflix, Ozark, Peterloo, Private Life, River's Edge, Saoirse Ronan, Sharp Objects, Shoplifters, Spike Lee, Sweet Country, Tamara Jenkins, The Florida Project, The Rape of Recy Taylor, The Rider, The Ruth Ellis Files, Thomas Gladysz, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Tommy Redolfi, Tully, Widows, You Were Never Really Here
I’m lucky enough to live just around the corner from the Duke of York’s, England’s oldest independent cinema; and so this year I made the most of my Picturehouse membership. I like movies that blend a touch of realism with a sense of style: Sean Baker’s The Florida Project, Mike Leigh’s Peterloo and Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s Shoplifters satisfied those needs. Continue reading
2018: A Year in Music
17 Monday Dec 2018
Posted in Amy Winehouse, Books, Film, Lana Del Rey, Madonna, Music, Non-Fiction
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All Nerve, Amy Winehouse, Back to Amy, Back to Black, Beautiful Game, Blake Wood, Bobbie Gentry, Cat Power, Charles Moriarty, Chris Wade, Comeback Kid, David Bowie, Fado, Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Rey, Lissie, Madonna, Madonna in the Eighties, Mariners Apartment Complex, Matthew Rettenmund, Mazzy Star, Mercury Rev, MLVC60, My Wild West, Nico, Nico 1988, Norman Fucking Rockwell, Piano & A Microphone 1983, Portugal, Prince, Quentin Harrison, Record Redux: Madonna, Record Store Day, Sharon Van Etten, The Breeders, The Girl From Chickasaw County, Wanderer, Woman
She may have left the stage decades ago, but 2018 was a vintage year for die-hard fans of the mysterious Bobbie Gentry, with a rare vinyl release on Record Store Day followed in September by a career-spanning CD box-set, The Girl From Chickasaw County. Continue reading
Marilyn: A Public Icon, in Private
05 Wednesday Dec 2018
Posted in Books, Film, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction
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Charles Casillo, J. Randy Taraborrelli, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon
Charles Casillo is a multi-talented author, actor and screenwriter. His books include the novel, The Marilyn Diaries – a reimagining of Monroe’s final years – and a biography of the novelist and gay icon, John Rechy. Casillo was also a consultant and researcher for J. Randy Taraborrelli’s The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe. In an appendix, Taraborrelli acknowledged Casillo as one of the “true experts” on Marilyn’s life, an “’ultimate’ Marilyn Monroe fan who understands her character and personality so well.” Now almost a decade later, with Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon finally published, Taraborrelli hails it as “the book he was always meant to write.” Continue reading
