Categories
Fashion & Film Feature

Deadly Kitty Collins – Ava Gardner in The Killers

An adaptation of a short story by Ernest Hemingway, Robert Siodmak’s The Killers (1946), is a tour de force of the noir genre, one that covers a wide range of noir themes and noir locations, a story with a cruel and twisted plot, in which a young but broken-down prize-fighter takes a perilous path to […]

Categories
Fashion & Film Feature

Breaking the Rules of a Leading Lady – Bette Davis in The Letter

I recently re-watched The Letter (1940) on what was one of the summer’s first hot nights. Actually I may make it a summer tradition, to watch on an unbearably warm night. Because noir is the genre that offers the perfect contrast to my favourite season, to the bright and euphoric summer days. Watching noir films during […]

Categories
Fashion & Film Feature

Bonnie Lee and the Leather Jacket Flying Men in Only Angels Have Wings

They are men who are staring down death as they are flying dangerous missions over treacherous mountain terrain, come rain, shine or fog. The short landing strips are no less hazardous. They have poor navigational equipment and makeshift planes, but they are hard-shelled and have an unconquerable spirit. It’s an electrifying, fast-paced, past-the-edge-of-yourself world, one […]

Categories
Fashion & Film Feature

Fashion & Film: The Femme Fatale is Wearing White

Summer is optimistic by nature. So am I. Maybe that’s why noir is my favourite film genre. Harking back to the past. The sensual, fatalistic bleakness. The subtle tone and mood. The quotable lines that float up into your consciousness and stick. The morally ambiguous hero, alienated from society, charismatic yet flawed, charting a course […]