DISCOTHEQUE SCENE FROM "DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT" (1972)

#11: THERE IS SELDOM ANYTHING GREAT ABOUT YOUR NATURAL HAIR COLOR.

From Luciano Ercoli's 1972 giallo thriller "Death Walks at Midnight" ( La morte accarezza a mezzanotte). Actress Nieves Navarro (then working under the name Susan Scott) plays beautiful model Valentina, who takes some experimental psychedelics and psychically witnesses a brutal murder. In this scene she's laying low from the killer in a swingin' discotheque. And really, I ask you, what better way is there than in a highly, highly conspicuous silver wig?  Well, Valentina is smart, 'cause with all these disco hippies and the groovy organ music, the only thing gettin' killed in here is conventionality.


  

PARTY SCENE FROM "DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT" (1972)

#10: UPHOLSTER YOUR PAD WITH LOUNGING, SMOKING DISCO HIPPIES.

OK, so we're going to see a lot of disco hippies on this blog. A lot of them. Hash-smoking, face-painting, fabulous disco hippies. The kind of disco hippies that come with only two functions: discotheque dancing and languid lounging. The latter is well featured in this scene from Luciano Ercoli's giallo thriller "Death Walks at Midnight" ( La morte accarezza a mezzanotte) of 1972. Here, actress Susan Scott (nee Nieves Navarro) comes back to her queeny friend's pad for a chic lounging party after the discotheque.  You can't even see the furniture for all the lounging hippies and night people. Special details: daisy-age face paint, great use of grouped candles, a quick hint of the giallo-ubiquitous J&B bottle.

  

STRIPTEASE SCENE FROM "DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS" (1971)

#9: BLACKFACE IS A RISKY PROPOSITION AT BEST.

From Luciano Ercoli's 1971 giallo thriller "Death Walks on High Heels" (or, La morte cammina con i tacchi alti). In this mostly hilarious scene, actress Nieves Navarro, then working under the name Susan Scott, either tantalizes - or possibly offends - her audience with a glamorous striptease. The tools of her trade: feathers, diamonds, tits, skin bronzer, and an afro wig. Yeah, this lady ain't black. But she is living in 1971. And clearly making the most of what she's got to work with. And then some...

The sexy-breezy song is "Night Club Girl" by Italian cinematic composer Stelvio Cipriani, from the La morte cammina con i tacchi alti soundtrack, available on iTunes and the much cheaper eMusic.com.

SNOW DANCE FROM "MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA" (2005)

#8: TEMPER AUSTERITY WITH THE TEMPESTUOUS FOR A CAPTIVATING EFFECT. FAILING THAT, GO WITH A GREAT SHOE.

Well, no one is going to say this isn't the best scene in the entire film. Ziyi Zhang takes the stage as the geisha Nitta Sayuri in 2005's "Memoirs of a Geisha"  - and takes all the attention, as well. This wild, unbridled, sort of physio-poetic conveyance of a sudden storm makes for a highly compelling contrast to the otherwise very controlled ethos of the geisha. And of course those giant platform shoes are fabulous otherwise. Why are these not on the American market?

OPENING CREDITS TO "MANON 70" (1968)

#7: MAKE DRESSING AND UNDRESSING A CROSS BETWEEN ART AND SPORT - YOU NEVER KNOW WHO'S WATCHING.

Since I'm doing multiples from "Manon 70" I thought I would also include the opening credits, as directed by Jean Aurel. I love this one. All that dressing and undressing. There's a voyeuristic pleasure to this sequence, as well as the compelling bustle of being backstage at a fashion show, of course. And then there's a lot of great Sixties fashion to grab your attention, too - with all those (now very obsolete) stockings. Emmanuel Ungaro is credited with doing Catherine Deneuve's clothes for the film, I suspect he did these as well (pretty sure one of the outfits on another model ends up on Deneuve in a later discotheque scene). And the classical guitar is a charming contrast as well. A great sequence to transition the audience out of reality and into the film, imho.



FASHION SHOW FROM "MANON 70" (1968)

#6: CHIRPING BIRDS, LIKE MONEY AND THE COLOR WHITE, MAKE A GREAT NEUTRAL.

From the 1968 film "Manon 70".  Catherine Deneuve's character is taken shopping at a fashion show by one of her rich lovers. Fresh and cerebral. Plus one really has to admire the irony of the late Sixties modeling pose: caught in action yet oddly frozen solid. Emmanuel Ungaro is credited with doing Deneuve's clothes for this film, I suspect he did these for the show as well.

DISCOTHEQUE SCENE FROM "MANON 70" (1968)

# 5:  THE GROOVY SCENE IS ACTUALLY QUITE MATHEMATICAL .



In film as in reality, a good disco scene brings together different atmospheric components to create a whole far more happening than the sum of its parts. Let's do the math for 1968's "Manon 70" :


      trippy, psychedelic dance track

 +   Asian woman in risqué see-through top

 +   woman with a Poodle

 +   jaded French smokers

 +   Catherine Deneuve in Emmanuel Ungaro couture

 +   a Nehru jacket

 +   the intrigued millionaire

 +   whirling, swirling ambiguously same-sexed dance couples
                                                                                        

 =  the happening whole



The song featured in this scene is "New Délire" by Serge Gainsbourg & Michel Colombier, available on the soundtrack album to the film "Manon 70".

TOM FORD'S RETURN TO WOMENSWEAR (SPRING 2011)

 

#4: CELEBRITIES ALWAYS MAKE A PERSUASIVE LEGION TO DO ONE'S BIDDING.

Everything Tom Ford touches pretty much turns to sexual gold. And though this is neither cinema nor print, technically Ford is both a designer and a film director now. This montage, pieced together from his very hush-hush and apparently very triumphant return-to-womenswear showing in New York, defintely captivates.  What a collection of components: The opulently appointed, intimate space. The spectacularly chic, Seventies-inspired clothes. The secretive private invitations. And of course all the swell pals of varying degrees of legendary-ness doing the modeling. (Surely though there is always room for a couple more legends hobbling down the catwalk - Liz and Liza, no?)  All put together for a happening one part commerce, one part theater and one part party.

COCKTAIL PARTY FROM "AMUCK" (1972)

#3:  WHEN ENTERTAINING, SPIKE YOUR GUESTS' DRINKS WITH PILLS AND PLAY WHIMSICAL PORNOGRAPHIC FILMS.

From the 1972 Italian Giallo thriller "Amuck", Rosalba Neri makes the scene again in her chic Op-Art separates. Yes, it's another decadent night in crumbling old Venice - in case you weren't sure, hubby spells it out clearly and overdramatically to the attendant Barbara Bouchet: "I'm just a composite of what they are... decadent, corrupt, lost in the myriad facades of a doomed city..." Good thing she's his secretary. You really do have to pay people to listen when you talk like that. Rosalba mixes up one of her signature cocktails: one part scotch, one part pill. Then it's on to a little dancing and a film.

THE OP-ART CHIC OF "AMUCK" (1972)

#1:  USE GRAPHIC OP-ART PRINTS TO ENLIVEN AND CONTEMPORIZE AN INTERIOR, EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO WEAR THEM YOURSELF...

From the 1972 Italian giallo film "Amuck", Rosalba Neri looks very chic for dinner in her eye-popping black and white.  It's a great contrast to her traditional Venetian background setting, and the effect says uniquivocally, "Hey there. Look at me."  Uniformed domestic staff always heighten the chic, so apply to taste...

#2:  ACCESSORIZE WITH A WHITE-GLOVED MANSERVANT WHENEVER POSSIBLE.