SWINGIN' SPY PAD FROM "MODESTY BLAISE" (1966)

 
 
 

#15: PLEASE DON'T DECORATE WITH DOLLS.

This isn't a party scene but of course the scene of many parties.  Another interesting clip from 1966's spy flick Modesty Blaise, though not nearly as whole-heartedly endorsed as the last. I won't lie, I have a love/hate relationship with this interior. Some of it is so great, and some of it is so rotten. So which to consider first?

OK, let's start with rotten since we all know there's energy in the rotten. Here goes then: What is with those goddamned dolls?  Yes, they're kind of interesting in and of themselves, with their attenuated posture, their dressy clothes and sexy hair.  But as part of an interior scheme? Ick! Gag! Puke! Decorative accents they do not make. It's best to avoid toys in general, unless it's a nursery of course, but dolls are the worst. At the very best you'll achieve "mildly creepy", and at worst: tacky, cutesy, or very creepy. Dolls are a lot like drug paraphernalia, they should be kept in a box and pulled out only as needed.

And now something great: how about a modular sunken conversation pit ... wrapped around an open fireplace ... and adjacent to an enormous and very well-stocked bar? How about it! One has to love the spatial planning here. What a play pen. I'm also very keen on the practicality of the enveloping, pull-around draperies - since a pad like this might easily swing past the break of dawn and then it's always better to pretend otherwise. But I can take or leave the textile choice.

Shagadelic white flokati rugs and a sea of throw pillows seem almost de rigueur, but again the textile choices for the pillows are questionable. Maybe it's the unimaginative, matchy-matchy-with-the-draperies thing, maybe it's the use of dull, blunt solids, which seems by today's eyes a bit of a cop out, but this textile story is definitely lending an airport hotel vibe. 

All of that said, though, of course what this interior really needs the most are some happening, turned-on people really making this spy pad swing, baby!

OP ART VILLA FROM "MODESTY BLAISE" (1966)

    

#14: SOMETIMES FRANKLY MORE IS MORE.

Those of you who have followed from the start might recall the post from January 11, 2011 - and the very first of the design principles thus far posted - #1:  USE GRAPHIC OP-ART PRINTS TO ENLIVEN AND CONTEMPORIZE AN INTERIOR, EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO WEAR THEM YOURSELF. It's no secret I think Op Art accents are the deal, really my kind of chic. 

So the other night I'm sitting around watching films with Babydoll and Mr. Arge, as often we do, and at some point into 1966's Modesty Blaise we come across this scene: a peek inside the villa of the criminal mastermind Gabriel (played by the silver-wigged Dirk Bogarde). I almost passed out, these wall treatments are so hot! 

I mean, really, why just accent with Op Art when you can full-tilt marinate in it? 

I'll also applaud the designer's use of color, which keeps it very seaside fresh and I suspect also softens down the optical effect to something easier to live with, otherwise very intense in high-contrast black and white...

Movement in Squares by Bridget Riley, 1961

 

Do check out this excellent Brittish website (http://www.op-art.co.uk/) for more information on Op Art and the artists instrumental in its development, like Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely, as well as contemporaries.  Plus the Sound Matrix under the "Music" section is worth tripping out on for at least twenty minutes.

BODYPAINTING SCENE FROM "BLACK EMANUELLE 2" (1976)

(WARNING: FABULOUS NUDITY!)

     

#13: BODYPAINTS - A YES!

From the 1976 film "Black Emanuelle 2" (Emanuelle nera No. 2), directed by Bitto Albertini.

OK, so maybe the date is a little late. And two nympho patients in a sanitorium hardly a discotheque make. But the groovy soundtrack and the unbridled freedom of nude bodypainting say just one thing to me: another deliriously delicious case of Disco Hippie-ism! In this scene Shulamith Lasri (acting under the name Sharon Lesley) plays Black Emanuelle. She and fellow clinic patient Danielle Ellison get baked and then freaky with the art therapy. It's awesome to let go of your hang-ups! It's awesome to be saying something one minute and then taking your top off the next! I can't say that bodypaints are chic per se, only that their application stinks of joie de vivre, and that is always in style. Now go paint your tits!

    

COCKTAIL PARTY SCENE FROM "BLACK EMANUELLE 2" (1976)

    

#12: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE RED ACCENT PIECE.

From the 1976 film "Black Emanuelle 2" (Emanuelle nera No. 2), directed by Bitto Albertini.

So the first time I saw this scene I thought Dagmar Lassander was the star. She looks fabulous, one has to admit, presiding over cocktails as her psychiatrist husband comes home from a long day of treating Black Emanuelle's apparent mental disorder. What could it be, a case of Acute Nymphomania perhaps? Yeah, whatever the case, I guess I'd have problems too if everyone always prefaced my name with a racial modifier.

But then of course later I realized the real star wasn't actually big, German, Euro-Scream-Queen Dagmar but rather those silver platform shoes on the lady in blue on the sofa. Those sure pair well with booze and cigarettes.  But you know, while they are without question the best fashion accessory in the whole scene, I am finally able to say with certainty that the real star of this scene is...

That red secretary in the background. Eighteenth century-styled, likely English, with lacquered chinoiserie finishing. Red accent pieces to interiors can be like salt to food: when used sparingly they finish off rooms and give interest. This applies with casegoods like the secretary and also chairs, as well. And especially in this film scene, to an otherwise totalizing neutrality I can only describe as "monolithic mushroom".

And yes, to review from previous posts, uniformed domestics are still an attractive (and very functional!) accent. And you'll notice he's wearing red, too.

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

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.



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.