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A great 50’s Romantic family classic with a happy ending. The story is about how a handsome widower, a diplomat from Washington D.C, Tom Winston (Cary Grant卡里格兰特) fell in love with Cinzia Zaccardi (Sophia Loren索非亚罗兰), daughter of a prominent classical conductor and a beautiful Italian woman. I find a lot of similarities between this movie and "The Sound of Music"《音乐之声》, in that a woman comes into a dysfunctional family and not only reunites its members but marries the head of the house, who always happens to be handsome and charming. Also the three mischievous, premature kids were adorable and gave the movie a very vivid family touch.
I especially enjoyed the scene of CG brought three formal dressed kids to the live concert on Lincoln Memorial Circle. It was lovely! If you pay attention, all the audiences were dressed formally and nicely. It was a great night out with good taste. I once read about that fashion and lifestyle in Washington D.C has been highly connected to politics, society and the people who reside in White House. The Democrats are more hip, more liberal, with the more conservative Republican Party. President Clinton often had free concerts on the Mall where he brought in bands from all over the world. The movie was taken in 1958 during which was Republican Eisenhower in charge. This might not be a reflection of the reality of the time.
The wardrobe is impeccable and stunning as always in those days. Sophia Loren’s beauty is exotic, wild and European. She was very much tanned, same was CG. It is interesting to see how my view of beautiful things evolves as I grow up and exploit the world. I still remember when I was a kid, I saw some pictures of her from movie magazines and I thought that was one ugly face!Veteran clothes designer Edith Head, long a Paramount legend with her incredible clothes designs over 40 years for all of the Paramount stars is the leading designer for the wardrobe. Sophia Loren shines from the head to toe in these glamorous, lavish and highly flattering clothes with matching hats, gloves and scarves.A great movie aside, I was definitely dazzled by these beautiful dresses:
A Simple army green dress clung to SL's curvaceous figure:
The stunning Little Black Dress (LBD). They first met.
The breath-taking gold party dress(This was actually fun. Carolyn, Tom’s deceased wife’s little sister, who has been in love with Tom, bought a very tacky golden dress decorated with pink roses for Cinzia to a party. There was obvious competition between the two women. SL changed it to a stunning, sexy one which wowed Carolyn when they met that night. Talk about creativity!)
The grand wedding dress:
Other LBDs and outfits spotted on SL:
No.2 character Carolyn was also gorgeous in this film:
And finally, let's take a look at the lovely kids and the houseboat, in case that you like me had no idea about what a houseboat looks like before I watch the film.
I read a news today about Ziyi Zhang (章子怡) and Wendi Deng（邓文迪） are teaming up to start a film company and the ladies are ready to add another title to themselves. This is without any doubt a very powerful combination. With Wendi Deng's powerful network a.k.a media mogul husband and Ziyi Zhang's celebrity coverage overseas, it is going to be a promised business if executed well. Actually, it is quite common in Hollywood for movie stars/starlets to morph into producers. Drew Barrymore is one of the successful examples with her Flower Films and Charlie's Angels Trilogy
Rumor has it that their first film would bring Wu Ze Tian(武则天), the only Chinese empress in history, to big screen. This actually sounds a great idea especially if Hilary Clinton won the U.S. presidential election later this year. If however the film wants to win overseas, they need to find a special angle to depict this powerful woman in China history in a way western audiences can understand and relate to. They might need to pick up brains from The Last Emperor.
Speaking of powerful Chinese women that have more or less impacts in presenting and influencing Chinese culture overseas, Joan Chen (陈冲） is one of my favorites and has a lot of my respect. There is so much to say about her and it is going to be another blog later.
Wendi Deng makes me think of a very popular class named Path to Power offered by Stanford GSB. Unfortunately, I didn't take the course back then. My classmates told me the course was quite an experience. The course's final assignment was a case study about a powerful individual and how s/he had made all the way up. Wendi Deng was one of the targets for Chinese students. I think that must be quite a study.
As for Ziyi Zhang, there has been a lot said and done about her. I have no intention here to analyze how she climbed the social ladder in just several years. But she was the actress came to my mind after I watched All About Eve, another great movie from 50's which I am about to blog later.
One thing that came to my notice is that both of the women have learned how to appropriately dress themselves over years' trial and error. Good for them! As pictured below, Wendi Deng looks gorgeous in that little black dress (LBD) and this is so far the best picture I have seen of her.
Path to Power, do you have what it takes to climb to the top?
"Jane Hudson, the middle-aged American spinster Katharine Hepburn(凯瑟琳.赫本) portrays, comes to Venice to fulfill a life-long dream. She meets and falls in love with a charming, married antique dealer (Rossano Brazzi). The affair is brief and one of great delicacy, but when Jane leaves Venice less than two weeks later, she carries with her a memory to light up her lonely future ..."
In spite of a bittersweet romance happened in Venice with 50's charming, I also enjoyed some other things that touched my nerve.
My favorite lines
(During their first date)
RB - “You are a surprising person.”KH - “Surprising?”
RB - “Every woman should surprise a man at least once.”
KH - “How many times have I surprised you?”
RB - “I think you surprised me all the time.”
KH - “Sometimes, you surprised me.”RB - “Pleasantly?”
KH - “Well, hah…Hah…”
RB - “Here it is – to many pleasant surprises!”
Gardenia
I was immediately connected and felt nostalgic when the antique dealer bought Jane a gardenia (well, actually she picked it from many other flowers) in their first date. Gardenia has been one of my fondest childhood memories. Almost every house in my hometown had gardenia in the front and/or back garden. During late spring early summer, booming gardenias would scent the air with its unique, sweet, and lasting fragrance. Little girls put them on as hair accessories; ladies use gardenia petals as fragrances in pockets; housewives kept fresh gardenia and buds in vases which can last weeks. It was heavenly especially at night when the breezes brought the gardenia scents to every corner of the town…
Dresses:
Given the nature of the character as a spinster, KH didn't have a lot of fancy dresses in this film. Most of the dresses she wore were plain, fully covered and in understated color tones - khaki, white, pale green/blue and burnt orange. Still, they looked great in KH's tall and slender figure accessorized with elegant pearl chokers and earings. As the romance between Jane and the antique dealer unfolded, KH was spotted in several beautiful dresses. She looked luminous in the lavender silk polka dot summer dress during their first date in the Piazza San Marco. For the second date, she wisely picked a little black dress (LBD), which she was stunning in. Here once again, I have to speak highly of the magic an LBD can bring to women. It is always there for you as an elegant and comfort companion in every important moment of your life.
Several beautiful dresses donned by the other ladies in the film are worthwhile to mention: the owner of the boarding house on the canal was elegant, mature in a navy blue full skirt with three rows of white lace decorated around the hemline. The delicate gold necklace and bracelet revealed her sophisticated taste and well-heeled lifestyle; the artists' wife who stayed in the same house also had several nice dresses. One of them was a full skirt in linen with denim patched stripes (as pictured)
And last but not least, the leading male character, the antique dealer was very well dressed too! He had impeccable suits, no matter the light gray suit he donned the afternoon they first encountered in Piazza San Marco, or the camel suit for their first date, or the blue suit at the second date. All of them were well tailored and fit and matched with white dress shirts and a hint of color touch by selected ties, very gentlemen and Italian. I guess guys without a clue about clothes can get some inspirations from the movie as well.
More pictures from the movie:
No.2 character Carolyn was also gorgeous in this film:
