The Birdy's about to get a little wordy, but it's probably a thought that's crossed your mind as you're watching the incoming tide of summer movies rolling into theatres. You're asking yourself: Where the heck did all the fun summer movies go? And when did we all get SO obsessed with doom and gloom?  I could barely remember the last movie I'd seen in a theater -- I think it was Les Miserables, yet another cheery, chippy movie, eh? I had the opportunity to see Star Trek: Into Darkness on opening night with my cousin, during a recent family visit. Big summer blockbuster time! Super sequels! Dazzling effects and even more dazzling production budgets! Lens flare! Get me that bucket of popcorn with fake butter, let's get the summer started! The movie -- which was pretty grim, hence the 'Into Darkness' bit -- hadn't even started yet, and from the previews alone, I wanted to skip the frozen Junior Mints and take a handful of Xanax. 
 

Whenever I need a bit of inspiration, for both style, mood and determination, I look to the Almighty Babs. More specifically, the musical comedy from 1968, Funny Girl. I'm not a devoted Barbara Streisand fan, but I did grow up listening to her music -- my mother loves her music -- and as a kid, I remember paging through the original program for the movie (yes, they actually did that back in the day), when it premiered in Los Angeles and my mother dragged my father to see it on a date night. Despite the movie's 1930s-era story, it's 1960's luxe, all the way, from the sky-high hairdos, to the gorgeously wing-tipped eyeliner. Some of the numbers are positively Barbarella, but who cares -- watching it now, it's like a postmodern mashup of all the best parts of the 1930s and 1960s, combined, with the incredible voice and humor of its star. 

Film festival season in full swing, Oscars, Golden Globes, award shows I've never even heard of and even less likely to know who's voting -- tis the season for "real" movies, the serious message-laden ones that make us stop, think, and consider joining the Peace Corps or holing-up in an ashram somewhere to contemplate.  And what, pray tell, is this Birdy looking forward to? Girly/funny/silly popcorn movies and generally the stuff Mr. Magpie is conspicuously absent at, instead replaced by gal pals and a big ol' bucket of pocorn. No butter for me, thanks, just pour the weird greasy fake butter all over those popped kernels. No need to treat me special! It's cold outside, the weather is frightful, and I'm craving fun movies to just let me shut my brain off and turn the Happy on for a few hours. Come on, girls, I can't be the only one wanting to see these movies, right??  

It's the seasonal slow period, no blockbusters, just smaller movies are coming out, and usually perfect timing for chick-flickery movies. As much as I hate the hashed-out formula for romance, there were a couple of movies in particular that made my brain cells jump for joy -- my chick flick homegirl, Katherine Heigl is currently in a big screen remake of the Janet Evanovich book series about a down-on-her-luck gal becoming a bail bonds-person, in One for the Money, and I loved the Mr. and Mrs. Smith/Mystery Date vibe from This Means War, about dueling spies vying for the same girl. Rewatching Sweet Home Alabama for like, the millionth time, I am reminded again how incredibly charming Reese Witherspoon is. She could make a murderous crack-mom loveable, and she seems to have a knack for being in romantic comedies where she has to choose between two men. Chris Pine versus Tom Hardy? I admit, that's a hard choice. Captain Kirk vs Bane? Maybe that's too nerdy a reference. Either way, it sounds like a Manwich of good fun, the action is just enough to where maybe a few boyfriends/misters might get roped into seeing this with their girl, but the Birdy's Chick Flick Sense says, Total Girlie Movie. And that's fine, just give me a box of frozen Junior Mints to go with that popcorn, and I'm all good. 

My other movie craving is for W.E., chronicling the love affair between King Edward VIII and American (gasp!) divorcee (double-gasp!!), Wallis Simpson. I'm a Tootsie Pop sucker for period pieces, and this one looks stunning. There's actually two stories going on, the affair in the past is mirrored by a contemporary affair with modern, fictional characters, but I'm all about the Wallis/Edward story, as it really is something interesting with a wee bit of historic merit. This is also the Directed By Madonna movie, which is hard to ignore, since on the posters, the credit's font is quadruple-super-sized, but whatever, I'm all for Blond Ambition sitting in the director's chair. I'm more for seeing James D'arcy get all romantic-like, as he's another fellow who's easy on the eyes, and with blond hair, strikingly Ralph Fiennes-like. Not as Voldemort, mind you.

See you at the movies, kids!  

Jaunty Fine Print:  images IMDB.com

I'm an avid movie-watcher and an even more avid about watching movies over and over again, ad nauseum, like some annoying toddler with the latest Disney movie. Sometimes you catch things you missed, even in the simplest of popcorn movies where the preview alone could tell you the whole story in less than thirty seconds. I was rewatching an old favorite, Confessions of a Shopaholic. When I say "old favorite," that means it's something I'll keep on while I'm puttering around the house, missing whole segments of the movie, because you can pretty much jump in at any part and not feel like you've missed much, as it's a pleasantly fun, nonthreatening but transparent flick. Oddly enough, its fluffy exterior enclosed a lesson I still carry around to this day, almost two years later.

I never read Sophie Kinsella's book, so I can't say whether or not the adaptation was particularly true. I know the location changed from London to New York, Isla Fisher is a whiz at faking a ditzy American accent, but the message remained the same -- why are we so retail-obsessed? I felt conflicted and somewhat heebie-jeebied-out by the spooky mannequins who egg the main character on to buy stuff to boost her self-esteem. Conflicted, as I do have a blog that encourages the adoration of material things, and even a bit guilty, as I've had those moments in a dressing room where even in the unflattering flicker of department store lighting, that smart new frock really does give a little emotional boost. That boost inevitably translates to some fuzzy math reduction that makes the numbers on the pricetag slightly less daunting and then you wonder what momentary insanity took over when the credit card bill shows up a few weeks later. But after seeing the movie and having those harrowing faceless-yet-fashionable ghouls taunt one into buying stuff to drum up the happy feelings, I still get that creepy image reappearing in my brain, and more often than not, I put down the as-yet unpurchased item and rationalize that this junkie doesn't need the fix after all. Enter the mantra of: "You're good enough, smart enough, and gosh darnit... you didn't need to blow that $100 that should really go to pay the electric bill."

It makes me wonder how many people picked up on the very real message of recognizing addiction in this movie, and maybe the crazy Pat Field outfits were intentionally over the top to parody label obsession. It's unfortunate the real value of the story had to be swaddled in such a fluffy romance movie; the biggest conflict you feel while watching it is wondering if they couldn't decide if they wanted it to be feel-good or with a message. I think test audiences went with the easy answer of, "I don't want to think, give me a pat happy ending so I don't feel bad about hitting the latest sale." I wished it spent more time focused on the main character's familiar yet dysfunctional relationship with money, objects and her parents. Or just show more of those spooky mannequins to provide more adequate shock therapy to the viewers. It sure as hell worked for me.


Jaunty Fine Print:  images from IMDB.com

This Bird would be the first to say she's a skeptic over the fad of 3D making a comeback in theaters (Jaws III, anyone?), but in the case of Werner Herzog's documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, I'm happy to be wrong and thrilled to absorb every dimension of this amazing film. It's currently being shown in limited release, but only in 3D, so yes, you have to pay a few extra bucks and wear the Ray Ban-looking glasses, but don't worry, everyone else has to wear 'em too, and it literally brings the exploration of the Chauvet cave drawings to life.

The discovery of the Chauvet Pont-d'-Arc Cave happened several years ago in 1994, by rock climbers exploring the limestone walls along the Ardeche River in southern France. The cave had collapsed many ages ago, but the explorers were able to crawl through the tunnels of calcified rubble and discover some of the oldest cave drawings ever found. It was a significant piece of human history made even more priceless by the fact that the cave's collapse helped preserve the drawings perfectly. Like opening a time capsule over tens of thousands of years old, the scratchings and scrapings of soot across the rock walls are eerily undisturbed. An ice age come and gone, civilizations built and destroyed, world wars spreading across the continent, and yet the drawings look freshly-made. The documentary directed and narrated by the avant-garde director Werner Herzog is a rare glimpse of the Chauvet cave's interior. To preserve the integrity of the drawings and the cave itself, access is extremely limited, so this film is significant for anthropological purposes as it is a soulful journey looking into the early developments of humanity.

The long, slow paning of the camera thoughtfully captures the drawings of horses, lions and rhinos, concentrated in scenes that suggest hunting or perhaps symbolic offerings to early shamanistic beliefs. The drawings are layered in fluid, elegant strokes and shaded-in with charcoal while following the natural contours of the rock, made that much more visceral as you view it through the 3D glasses. Every curve of rock, married with the artful and voluminous shading suggests a level of sophisticated technique unexpected of prehistoric humans. While carbon dating confirm these drawings were done eons ago, it takes the soul of an artist like Herzog to explore the significance of these drawings and translate their beauty into the query of who we are today as a civilization.

His narration is slowly-paced, whimsical at times and then deliberately silent, to allow a moment of self-discovery to take place when viewing this message from the past. Herzog uses interviews from scientists and anthropologists to frame the biggest question, which is more rhetorical than anything else: is this where the human soul was born? Through art and culture, did early humans start to think more abstract, outside of the world they could see, and start to look inward, seeking a sense of meaning beyond basic nourishment and shelter. It's difficult to not be haunted by the beauty of the cave art, the delicate line quality and the symbolic nature of some of the drawings. It suggests an understanding of greater forces at work, even at those developmental stages of the species. It suggests that humans were perhaps always hardwired for faith and the need to seek out the divine. 

While the film may seem slow in parts, or too deliberate in its need to absorb every drop of the cave's mystery, it echoes that scientific need to cover every milimeter of space and map out its potential for understanding. The Chauvet Cave's story is told in an almost mythic fashion, pieced together from different narrative sources, but not trying to produce a clear-cut answer. There simply isn't one, and there is no way to truly understand the mind of the artists behind these drawings. But the familiarity with the forms, the universal appreciation of its aesthetic qualities suggest a language that surpasses the barrier of time, that to marvel at its beauty is to tap into a deeply-ingrained language from within one's soul. To quietly ponder prehistoric drawings, even through the futuristic lens of 3D glasses in a theater, it evokes a spiritual dialogue that has no words, only the steady rhythm of a synchronous heartbeat in the darkness of a cave.


Jaunty Fine Print:  photo from Wikipedia

 

So, the Birdy totally made fun of the Royal Wedding hysteria with a funny post, but it did put me in a bit of a Jaunty matrimonial Mood. No, no -- not keeping any big secrets, as there's likely no church wedding bells ringing for me anytime soon, but after seeing Kate's great gown, it made me think of one thing: Grace Kelly would approve.  

It got me thinking about my top favorite brides and their dresses, both real and fictional. It's funny that they're all in that similar classic era of full-length gowns, lacy veils and oh yes... modesty. Not to say that I've seen a lot of brides walk down the aisle in something inappropriate, but there's nothing wrong with covered shoulders and ladylike gloves. In the current times of too-much skin and too-little fabric, it makes these brides look positively cutting-edge.

Of course, my favorite bride is Grace Kelly {1}, truly the girl who would become a princess, just like in the fairy tales. Honestly, with her perfect proportions and swan-like features, you could have thrown a burlap sack on her and marched her down the aisle and she'd look like a queen. My next favorite real-life bride is of course Jacqueline Bouvier {2}, moments before she became Mrs. Kennedy. The photos of her wedding to "Jack," in the days before the presidency, before the tragedies, definitely before Marilyn, you can't help but look at those wedding photos and see all the girlish hopes and dreams lighting up her smile. It's the kind of optimism we should all be hopeful for. I'm sure there's no irony lost in the fact that these two classic brides had a life marred with sadness, but they remain evergreen in photos and memory, forever held up as shining examples of stylish ladylike grace. And who could forget the mother of all brides -- Elizabeth Taylor {3}, in the original 1950 movie, Father of the Bride. Forget that Steve Martin version, which yes, is charming enough. The original, with the stunning Elizabeth Taylor in a beautiful wedding gown, will take your breath away. Again, it's hard not to crown her as one of the most famous brides, given her many trips down the aisle, but it must be grand to go through it so many times, right?


Jaunty Fine Print:  photos from MiamiWeddingPlannerBlog, IMDB.com, and Fashion Bride Files

 

This Bird caught one of her favorite movies on television recently, the 1994 film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel, Little Women. Neither the movie nor the book are by any means new, but seeing it again reminded me how much I loved them both. It was one of my favorite books growing up, perfectly capturing an era with the delicacy and precious care of a fine needlepoint. I remember reading it and being totally drawn into the small daily details and activities of the March family as they lived through the tumultuous era of the Civil War. The short interludes of the March sisters -- Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy -- and their wise mother, dear Marmee, take the reader through much of author Alcott's own experiences during that time of North versus South. Resources were short, given the wartime efforts, and it was a time where women had not the voice or authority they have now, so women were limited in where their ambitions could take them. Despite the different eras, it's still a story that has renewed significance for these modern times, as we are in our own state of economic downturn and many families are left without a key figure, as loved ones are gone, sent off to war.

The simple wisdom of true family values resonates with every chapter of the book. Where else do you get such wonderful motherly advice like this, as told by Marmee to her daughters on the subject of money and marriage: "Money is a needful and precious thing -- and, when well used, a noble thing --but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for. I'd rather see you poor men's wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self-respect and peace."

The film adaptation is so lovingly crafted, it's one of my favorites that I could watch over and over. Normally I tend to watch this around the holidays. Not that it's really a yuletide movie; while the story spans many years and there are several Christmases featured, I think it's the feeling of family and togetherness that inspires seasonal viewing. It's truly a perennial movie. The scenes showing the changing of seasons, the falling leaves of autumn, the verdant greens of summer and the picture-perfect snows of winter makes you wish you could live at the March's Orchard House forever. The celebration of fresh fruit or a rare sugary treat truly illustrate the joys of simple pleasures, and being thankful for the little things. The dreamy-eyed hopes of the March sisters when they're young, thinking ahead to what the future will bring is like living in the sweetly-spun gossamer of a pristine wish. Even when the girls choose their paths in life, you take the journey with them. The film has one of my favorite tear-jerker scenes with an ailing Beth March played by Claire Danes, bravely facing the unknown with her headstrong sister Jo, played by Winona Ryder. That's one of the best, most heartbreaking things you'll ever see, and it leaves me in tearful shambles every time, and I love it even more, every time I see it.

But Little Women isn't just about sadness, the movie and book are very much about happiness and the pursuit of dreams, without sacrificing one's moral courage and intelligence. Before the inane Girl Power marketing of the Spice Girls, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women was the true anthem for the youth, especially girls, to face the future with bravery and tenacity in their hearts. And, just for the record, to this day I'm still upset that Jo never accepted Laurie's proposal. So there.


Jaunty Fine Print:  photos from IMDB.com

 

This Birdie recently rewatched that 1980s classic, Pretty in Pink. Don't pretend like you don't love this movie to death. And why wouldn't you?? Stylish and booksmart Andi Walsh, having to make that totally OMG teen angst-riddled decision over who to romantically choose between -- her childhood BFF, Dale, aka Ducky, who has always loved her from afar, or the sensitive, handsome richie-rich kid, Blaine, who totally sweeps her off her feet.  I remember seeing this as a little teen chickie and feeling the pressure, wondering who she'd choose. My heart was sort of stuck on Ducky, who I felt knew her heart and soul best, but Andrew McCarthy as Blaine is pretty dreamy. In the end, I think Andie let her heart decide and the only thing I really felt disappointed over was her prom gown, which had the good intention of being made from two, like, totally rad dresses, but totally came out a boxy-looking hot mess. Girlfriend definitely stood out at the senior prom, but for all the wrong reasons, I don't care if it was the 80s.

But letting fashion bygones be bygones, the Bird got to thinking if Andi Walsh was rockin' the pretty in pink-ness today, what would she go for? She was never bubblegum sweet, nor coyly coquettish. She did a lot of unique layering of patterns, textures and styles, yet never revealing or mod. She had a granny-chic vintage style, and it put this Bird in the Mood for all things pretty and pink: {1} P.S. I Love You postcard necklace from Grigio Atelier, {2} Aphrodite's Pink Nightie shade from OPI, {3} jeweled Jardin jacket from J. Crew, {4} Laura handbag by Melie Bianco, {5} Lola solid perfume bracelet by Marc Jacobs, {6} Doyle's Desk tunic from Anthropologie, {7} feather tippet in heirloom pink from J. Crew, {8} open sweater vest from Twelve by Twelve, {9} Barbara dress and lace biker jacket by Christopher Kane, {10} Natalia paisley scarf from Banana Republic, {11}BDG corduroy ankle cigarette pant in pink from Urban Outfitters, {12} pink suede and gold leather slingback sandals by Moschino Cheap and Chic, {13} chocolate kimono pencil case from Paper Source, {14} leatherette lace-up ballet flats in butterscotch from J. Crew


Jaunty Fine Print:  images from shops and designers listed above

 

Bright light city, gonna set my soul, gonna set my soul on fire -- most likely due to the fact that it's hotter than the surface of the sun in the state of Nevada, which is where this Bird is headed to in a few days! This Magpie is flying the coop to spend the very last of her frequent flyer miles on a trip to Las Vegas to meet up with her Jaunty parents who will be there for a college reunion. Seems like a strange reason to fly to Vegas, especially considering I don't gamble and the years in Washington have left my pasty skin sorely unprepared for the 100-degree heat, but it just came down to saving some Jaunty dollars by trading miles to travel a shorter distance to get in a family visit. Just call it "fuzzy math" in the new economy-class economy. Also, one of my very best friends lives in Las Vegas, so it will be a chance to visit her -- honestly, I could be visiting the middle of the South Pole for all I care, but it will most assuredly be a Jaunty visit, being able to see a good friend and my parents for a few days.

But to get into the travel mood, I thought of some Vegas-themed movies that I thought were particularly Jaunty and didn't include obvious choices like The Hangover -- which is totally hilarious, but I wanted to list some other favorites: {1} Oceans Eleven for hipster coolness (both the original as well as the remake, which was quite good as far as remakes go), {2} Honeymoon in Vegas for the best wedding scene, like, ever, {2} Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas because it's Bat Country and Johnny Depp as the mighty Hunter S. Thompson, {4} Casino for its mobster love letter to the 1970s Vegas of polyester yore. Watching any combination of these movies will most likely feel like a weekend in Vegas. With any luck, my actual visit to Sin City will not result in any quickie marriages or tigers trapped in my hotel bathroom.


Jaunty Fine Print: images from IMDB.com