Author: kendra

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New Movie Reviews

I’ve finally gotten organized enough to write some long overdue movie reviews (and had some time to actually watch movies, too!). Reviews are up for Moliere; Cranford and The Shadow in the North; A Room With a View (2007 miniseries version); Ballet Shoes and Lilies. In other movie news… last weekend we recorded a new Frock Flicks podcast for the Mira Nair Vanity Fair — I’ll link to it when Trystan posts it. And I am watching Lost in Austen (currently being broadcast in the UK), about a modern day woman who ends up in Pride & Prejudice, and altho the costumes are semi-bad and the lead’s refusal to wear her hair in a period style is DRIVING ME CRAZY – I am totally loving it!

I think it’s because I expected it to tell the P&P story with interjections of, “oooo modern girl being ‘modern’ and shocking!” — and while it’s doing this, she is also having an unexpected effect on the story (screwing things up, really, but I’m interested to see what else she’ll screw up and how it’ll get resolved). Also, I’m liking how they are focusing on showing bits that AREN’T told in the novel (and how characters are different when seen “for real” rather than as written, rather than simply reenacting the novel’s scenes).

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Lumieres Autumn Supper

Lumieres held a supper last night at Cynthia’s house, and it was one of the more magical events I’ve attended. The group was smallish but wonderful company. We held it in Cynthia’s backyard, which she decorated to the nines with a chandelier, lanterns in the trees, hanging glinty bits — but best of all was she has amazing glassware, dishes, candles, etc. etc. etc. It was just warm enough to eat outside, and sitting in the dark with all of these beautiful people in gorgeous costumes, surrounded by candles and shiny dishes and glasses and everything (with period music in the background) was just FABULOUS.

For the second time we ordered food from Gregoire’s, a French restaurant in Piedmont. Their food is spectacular and we’ve found that we can easily share entrees, so we each choose two and get to have multiple courses. I had sesame cod with ginger sauce, and Cornish game hen with some kind of something – don’t remember! Plus lots of champagne.

We played the game from Marie Antoinette, where you stick a piece of paper to your forehead and then guess who you are based on yes/no questions of those around you. It was very funny, especially watching Trystan try to figure out that she was Jesus, and then in a funny irony, I was Nell Gwynn.

I wore my black francaise and my 1770s pouf wig, which I decided to finally dress (most of the big wigs being dressed in some kind of theme or style — the obvious one is the ship in the hair, but they would do “a la zodiac” or “a l’inoculation” etc.). I was stuck with what I could find at my local craft store, so I ended up doing a “night” theme, with a peacock in front, silver moon in back, and silver stars throughout. Of course, it’s important to note that when wearing a HA-UGE wig with a big bird on top, one has a slightly higher clearance level than usual – so I kept getting stuck in the tree/hanging. You can see my original wig design in the first few photos – later on, after tree wrangling, my peacock was sticking out at a weird angle (which of course I didn’t know, as I couldn’t see) – sigh!

I’ve posted my photographs, which are mostly atmospheric. Now I want to do it again!

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The Duchess Movie

If you are, like me, an avid reader of the Costumers Guide to Movie Costumes, you have no doubt already seen this, but in case you haven’t: The Duchess movie website has added tons of detail about the costumes in the movie, including the ability to zoom and rotate high res images! Yay! Maggie at Costumers Guide has been collecting tons of images from the film, and her website a great place to keep current. I am SO dying for this movie!