Green Renaissance is a film production company based in Cape Town that specialises in green content creation – helping environmentally conscious organisations to develop creative content that promotes green and conservation initiatives. they have released some really sweet little films that encourage people to be green at home.
i especially loved the story about Gary ‘The Mushroom Guy‘ who started picking & eating wild mushrooms on his walks in the forest after suffering a heart attack. eventually he started growing his own shiitake mushrooms at home – and he shows you how you can also do it using a log and some mushroom spores. they also collaborated with Marisa from Opus, who all Capetonians will know for her gorgeous plant creations – she shows you how you can make your own hanging plant at home.
here’s a treat for all The Royal Tenenbaums fans out there – Criterion has shared the book and magazine covers that appeared in the film, including my favourites Dudley’s World and Henry Sherman’s adorable Accounting For Everything. oh man, how do you pick a favourite, even?
so, did you watch it? did you? i don’t normally host reviews / discussions on here, but i am DYING to talk about Mad Men! spoilers within, you can access the full post after this rare image of don smiling (it’s like looking into the sun)
edit: to all the French readers, i know that it’s actually zou bisous bisous – the title is just a bit of fun…
as i mentioned in my post a week ago Mariah blogs over at Quite Continental, and i was thrilled when she sent me this post because one of my favourite things to delve into at her blog are stories of great loves – you also need to read her post about Winston Churchill & Clementine Hozier.
In February, my mind frequently turns to great love stories: stories of grand gestures, of passions that burned brightly and then out, of couples that stayed together for years, of couples that could not live without each other. Coincidentally, I finally saw L’amour Fou this month, a documentary detailing the 50 year relationship of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, and the record-breaking auction of their massive collection of art and objet d’art that ultimately totaled €342m in sales.
A heart-breaking, quietly mournful story, you easily glean a sense of how hard a man Saint Laurent was to love and the fact that Bergé never stopped loving him. At the time of Saint Laurent’s death, the two had actually been separated for some years, but married a few days prior to Saint Laurent’s passing, in a final symbolic gesture of their relationship: Bergé would be left to handle the tidying up the details of their long partnership and life together.
“I remember your first collection under your name and the tears at the end. Then the years passed. Oh, how they passed quickly. The divorce was inevitable but the love never stopped.
I don’t know how to say good-bye because I can never leave you. We will never watch a sunset together again. We will never share the emotions together before a painting again. Someday I will join you under the palm trees of Morocco.
I want to tell you my admiration, my profound respect and my love.”
- Bergé at the funeral of Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent became an apprentice to Christian Dior at the age of 18, and became the head of the fashion house at the age of 21 when Dior suddenly died in 1958. In 1960, Saint Laurent and Bergé founded the fashion house that bears the Saint Laurent’s name, which is where he would design his tuxedo or “Le Smoking” for women and many memorable collections. But by 1976, Saint Laurent and Bergé had ended their romantic relationship. Remarkably, they remained business partners and close friends.
One of their most special places can be found in Marrakesh, Morocco: the Jardin Majorelle. A botanical garden that dates back to the colonial period when Morocco was a protectorate of France in the 1920s, it was designed by French expat Jacques Majorelle and was a favorite place of Bergé and Saint Laurent. Open to the public since 1947, when the garden was in danger of being purchased and converted into a hotel in 1980, Bergé and Saint Laurent simply purchased it so that it could remain a public place. Their foundation maintains it to this day. After his death, Saint Laurent’s ashes were scattered in their beloved garden. Bergé will one day join him.
L’amour Fou is an exceptionally well-done documentary that examines one of the greatest names in modern fashion through the eyes of the man who loved him fiercely in life and now mourns him quietly in death. It traces their relationship from the first painting they bought together to their first trip to Morocco to the last fall of the auctioneer’s gavel. I cannot recommend it enough and I hope one day soon I will walk through their bright blue garden in Morocco.
man oh man, when Hila sent me this guest post i actually squealed like a little girl. one of my favourite things about her blog is when she talks about films, and quite a few of those are period dramas. we have actually done a couple of comparisons projects that fall into this category, so we are kindred spirits when it comes to our love for a good costume drama. plus who wouldn’t enjoy getting another look at colin firth as darcy?
Hello, I’m Hila from the blog, le projet d’amour. When Diana asked me to contribute a guest post, I wanted to compile a special one to thank her for her own fabulous guest posts on my blog last year. When I asked her to do these posts, I was in the middle of writing my book (and very, very stressed). I recently finished this book and sent it off to my publisher. A few days later, I started getting all sentimental about the process of researching and writing the book. So I thought it would be nice to share one of the loveliest aspects of my research here.
My book is on film and television adaptations of famous literature. Along the way, I’ve delved into the various locations where these period and costume dramas were shot. Here are a few of my favourite locations …
In Joe Wright’s 2005 version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Darcy dramatically proposes to Lizzie in the grand Temple of Apollo in Stourhead Garden. This shooting location seems like a good nod to the Regency period in which Austen’s novels were originally set, because neo-classical buildings such as this one were quite popular during this time. Austen’s society had a bit of a craze for the style, architecture and fashion of ancient Greece and Rome, and many Regency buildings imitated ancient classical temples.
The latest 2011 film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre directed by Cary Fukunaga was partly filmed at Haddon Hall, which served as the setting for Rochester’s family home in the book, Thornfield Hall. There were many, many other period dramas filmed in Haddon Hall, including Elizabeth (1999), Franco Zeffirelli’s Jane Eyre (1996) and the BBC’s 2006 production of Jane Eyre with Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens. I personally think though that Fukunaga made the best use of the impressive space of Haddon Hall to highlight the original Gothic undertones of Brontë’s novel.
Lyme Park is the famous location for Darcy’s heart-stopping lake swim in the BBC’s 1995 television serial of Pride and Prejudice. I think we can all agree that this lake scene with Colin Firth will go down in history as one of the best moments in period drama. They just don’t make sexy British repression like they used to.
Saltram House is the shooting location for Norland Park in Ang Lee’s version of Sense and Sensibility (1995). This is my favourite adaptation of the novel, and Saltram House seems to encapsulate the Regency’s ‘Era of Elegance’ with its cool white exterior, harmonious architecture and perfectly manicured grounds. And while we’re speaking of Lee’s Sense and Sensibility, you really have to go read these hilarious extracts from Emma Thompson’s personal diaries while shooting the film. You can thank me later.
Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle was one of my favourite novels when I was growing up. When it was turned into a film in 2001 by Tim Fywell, I was instantly smitten yet again. The eccentric Mortmain family’s castle home is set in Manorbier Castle in Wales, although many of the interior scenes were shot elsewhere. But there is a unique romance to the rugged exterior scenes and crumbling castle.
Nearly every single film and television version of Emily Brontë’s classic novel, Wuthering Heights, features sweeping shots of the Yorkshire moors. Although the moors cover vast areas of England, when most people refer to ‘the moors’ they’re usually speaking about the landscape known as ‘Brontë country’ in West Yorkshire, England. I was lucky enough to visit the village where the Brontës lived and wrote for my research, staying in a house that was the former residence of their doctor. It was just lovely (but cold!).
Agnieszka Holland’s beautiful adaptation of The Secret Garden (1993) was filmed on location at Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire. I remember reading The Secret Garden when I was younger, loving all the small details about plant life and the natural environment. I think Holland’s film homage to the novel is a loving and sumptuous visual interpretation of such passages in the book.
I hope you enjoyed my mini period and costume dramas tour!
Casa Malaparte is a house on the Isle of Capri which sits on a cliff 32 metres above the sea overlooking the Gulf of Salerno. it was designed in 1937 by Adalberto Libera for the italian writer & journalist Curzio Malaparte. in 1963 the house was used in Le Mépris, a film by Jean-Luc Godard starring Brigitte Bardot.
Hila picked Cracks for our next comparisons project - a film I have been meaning to watch for ages but just never got round to. i actually find myself watching less and less films these days, as any available tv time is dedicated to my series addiction (cough game of thrones cough). so this was a great “excuse” to indulge in some eva green action – one of my favourite actresses who has a knack for playing seriously unhinged characters.
i’ve been seeing screenshots of Cracks floating around on various blogs and other places on the web since it was released, which painted the film as being quite dreamy and beautiful. i felt the complete opposite while watching it, however, something you will probably understand if you have seen the film yourself. i can’t say i enjoyed it. not that it matters – that’s not the point of this exercise.
i paired scenes from the film with paintings by post-impressionist Moise Kisling - there’s an underlying sense of unease in his work, especially his portraits… something that i felt throughout the film. Hila’s poem follows.
edit: felt i needed to add a post-script after Kate’s comment below, i only found out that the film was based on a book after i had watched it. not only that, but it is written by south african born author sheila kohler and set in a south african boarding school (nogal)
