Claire Atkinson

I am trying to follow up on a contact I have now who knew the model Claire Atkinson in high school in California. I wonder if a sojourn in California might explain why an English girl ended up in a famous music video set in California.

The music video (“The Boys of Summer”) keeps coming and going off the Internet. This copy is the crispest version that is – currently – available:

http://videos.sapo.pt/675lhRdajpbH07Ebg7PC

Claire is the brunette running on the beach: a delicious example of “running like a girl”.

Same song with a video I haven’t seen before:

http://videos.sapo.pt/Sb8f5GZkZLEW0TcFUZzD?ap=from_auto

Robot flirting

Notice how she gets down on her knees:

She does it here too:

Wonder Woman will always be a fantasy

An actor, apparently promoting the new Wonder Woman movie, recently said that we need Wonder Woman because men aren’t that smart.

Another celebrity, a woman in this case, has claimed that men need to be given opportunities to be emotional. As somebody I know pointed out, men have been turning emotions into great art for thousands of years.

Let’s be honest. The great unspoken reality behind all these foolish public statements is that men are far more gifted and talented than women in nearly every area. There are rare sports that women excel at (ultra-long distance swimming); the occasional game (bridge, I understand); the occasional art or science (needlework, botanical illustration, confessional poetry.) But, by and large, men are overwhelmingly superior to women.

That’s fact. Modern people turn themselves into pretzels trying to deny it, but it’s true.

Simply put, women only excel at the things that only women can do. They don’t need enumerating. Sometimes it has been claimed rhetorically that women are generalists and men are specialists. Chesterton said something like that. But, in reality, men are the generalists. Women are specialists. They specialise in reproduction, and the arts that go with it: making themselves attractive; making a home attractive and pleasant.

Wonder Woman is fantasy.

Does Deckard rape Rachael?

Here is an argument that he does, and some other criticisms of Deckard’s character:

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT “BLADE RUNNER”

 

I have written about this question previously: The Sexual Politics of Blade Runner.

I have also had my concerns about this controversial sex/rape scene. I notice two things on reviewing it. One is that in the theatrical version Rachael does say “put your hands on me”, unprompted, which tends to suggest she is open to having sex. On the other hand, he really does throw her hard against the wall beforehand. Of course, a display of masculine strength can be part of a normal sex act.

There is a boisterous discussion in the comments at ” There’s Something About ‘Blade Runner’ “. “Mike Freed” writes this:

“Second, I think it’s a real stretch to call the encounter between Deckard and Rachel a rape. Cinematically speaking, I think it falls under the category of category of “man talks woman into sex by overpowering her,” and that was fairly common at one point (James Bond’s rough seduction of Pussy Galore in “Goldfinger” comes to mind). It’s also not unheard of for women to be turned on by rough sexuality – Rachel clearly is. Not exactly a “girl power” moment…but not a rape, either.”

Also, there is no suggestion that Rachael resents Deckard afterwards. Rather, to the extent that a replicant can, she seems to have fallen in love with him.

In conclusion, I don’t know. I would welcome comment.

Thermal lance from the movie “Thief”

 

(If the video won’t play, just click through to YouTube as suggested.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_lance

This scene in the movie appears not to be the scene where James Caan’s character uses the thermal lance to open a safe, but rather when he acquires one made for him by a friend. This is from one of the films discussed here:

Five more movies for men

Five more movies for men

A while back I wrote a post listing five movies for men. This new list focuses more on topics of interest to men because of their technical content; not so much on movies focussing on relationships.

1. Thief (1981) with James Caan and directed by Michael Mann. (Fascinating sequences showing the technical side of safecracking. A man under pressure.)

2. Miami Vice (2006) also directed by Michael Mann. (Beautiful sequences. Exciting score. However the love interest is Chinese actress Gong Li who just seems icy.)

3. The Dogs of War (1981) with Christopher Walken. (Lots of technical detail. Walken is good in the role of a mercenary.)

4. Miami Blues (1990). (Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh are two lowlife lovers.  Surprisingly powerful romantic moments in a police procedural of sorts.)

5. Smart Money (1986). (A British film which is probably not well-known but held my attention. Actress Alexandra Pigg [really] is fascinating to watch as she glams up during the movie. The computer hacking sequences are more accurately portrayed than usual.)

These films mostly date from when I watched a lot of movies during the “VCR revolution”.

Incidentally, men’s movies have a distinct feel to them. One thing that marks them out is that although they may include women, the women are not the focus of the film. In my experience, you can tell pretty quickly what kind of film you are watching,

Three new photos of Carolyn Farina

I haven’t seen these photographs before. I have written about Carolyn Farina a few times on this blog (I admit to having a “screen crush” on her). These pictures were presumably taken when Metropolitan (1990) was being released. Miss Farina (the short-haired brunette) was about 26 years old.

This remains my favourite shot of her, from about the same time.

 

 

Cute

 

Apparently this scene is from a film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, Ivan’s Childhood.

“No, that’s not a Sargent painting — it’s Carolyn Farina in Metropolitan.”

In all my obsessive interest in the film “Metropolitan” and its leading lady (I even wrote a “book” on her career) I somehow missed this review:

Whit Stillman’s ‘Metropolitan’ Enjoys Its Second Coming-Out Gala

 

As with many reviews of this film, the reviewer had trouble getting his mind around the movie. For example, I cannot see much resemblance between the character of Charlie Black and the kind of character associated with Woody Allen. Apart from anything else, Charlie is not trying to be funny or even wry.

I give the review in The Village Voice credit however for including this shot of Carolyn Farina playing pretty ingenue Audrey Rouget sulking in her boudoir. The scene appears in the movie, but this particular still appears to be a “production shot.”

The caption reads: “No, that’s not a Sargent painting — it’s Carolyn Farina in Metropolitan.”

This is an actual painting by Sargent, of Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler:

That image appears on the cover of my copy of “East Side Story” by Louis Auchincloss. Which is appropriate because “Audrey Rouget” in the film “Metropolitan” is seen reading another of his books at one point in the movie, namely “The Rector of Justin”:

Audrey clasping the book to her bosom on the right:

Golshifteh Farahani

This is coming to a local cinema. It looks good, and Jim Jarmusch is a well-respected director.

I don’t know anything about the actress, Golshifteh Farahani. But she is an interesting looking girl. Apparently she is Iranian, or as we used to say, Persian.