Rear Window at Film Fatale

So as I mentioned in my previous Hitchcock post, Rear Window (1954) is my all time favourite of the famous director's films. You can imagine my excitement then when I found out that Film Fatale were hosting a "Rear Window" night. The idea behind Film Fatale, for those who haven't heard of it, is that each month an old movie is picked and shown in the Sugar Club on Leeson Street, decorated like a vintage movie theatre. Those attending are encouraged to dress in the style of the movies characters, themed cocktails are served, a singer performs before the film and a dj afterwards. Tickets are 15 euro each and all cocktails are a fiver, which is pretty decent.

Rear Window stars Jimmy Stewart as Jeff- a professional photographer, who following an accident during a hazardous work assignment, finds himself recouperating in his apartment in a wheelchair with his leg in a cast. Unable to work or otherwise entertain himself, he begins to watch his neighbours in the building across from his rear window apartment, none of whom seem to understand what their curtains are for. Not that he should be looking in the first place, but still. He becomes particularly interested in the comings and goings of Lars Thorwald, a middle aged salesman, living with his invalid wife- she mysteriously disappears from the apartment one night and Jeff is convinced that Thorwald has done away with her. Enabling him in formulating this theory are his insurance company nurse, Stella, who provides some light relief and his girlfriend Liza (Grace Kelly), who provides plenty of glamour. Like all of Hitchcock's films, the tension in the film slowly creeps up on you as the pieces start to come together. Meanwhile, distraction is provided by the activity in the other apartments in Jeff's vision. I really just love everything about this film. A particularly noteworthy scene is the opening shot where the camera artfully pans across the courtyard and lands on Jeff, sweating and sleeping fitfully in the cruel New York Summer heat.
Jimmy Stewart has an incredibly descriptive face. Because he's on his own the majority of the time, his facial expressions are used to tell us his reactions to what's going on around him- a clever way to tell the story.
All of Grace Kelly's scenes are just fabulous. Apart from being absolutely stunning, she really did have an enviable grace and elegance, as well as being a great actress. The costumes are beautiful too by the by, Jeff is mostly just in pajamas, but the character of Liza is a wealthy socialite so she has some amazing outfits. Regardez vous:

Stunning. She was a bit of a legend really. That being my style inspiration for the night I threw on some false lashes, red lipstick, pearls and a tulle-skirted dress.

While it would be fairly impossible to match the unbeatable style of Princess Grace, I really enjoyed getting to dress in the style of my favourite era, the 50's. Good practice for my forthcoming hen (Mad Men themed) and wedding (50's style dress)!
Next month film fatale are showing "Some Like It Hot", another of my all time favourite movies...I think I may be making another trip to the Sugar Club. In fairness, I really don't think I can pass up the opportunity to dress up like the lovely Marilyn :-)

YSL La Laque Couture

Ooh, fancy! HTB was in the duty free recently and along with my favourite mascara (YSL Faux Cils) and a lovely new bronzer (YSL again, review to follow soon!) he also picked me up the brand's La Laque Couture in no 4, Coral Colisee:

Yup, he's a good'un. This is part of their S/S range, I had already scoped it out in Brown Thomas, where I couldn't stop picking it up from the display, proclaiming "Shiny..pretty..". The SA gave me the big sell (completely unnecessary given my appreciative mumblings)- apparently this is "like Shellac in its finish", "doesn't chip", "not like all other nail polishes". Sold! Except they had none in stock. Boo. Luckily HTB found it in the airport and I giddily did my nails soon thereafter. This is it with 2 coats, apologies for the impromptu photo but I sensed the chipping force was strong in this one and that a photo should be taken, stat!

Anyway, after the pictured coffee (accompanied by brunch of eggy bread, crispy bacon, mascarpone and maple syrup..heart attack on a plate but so good!) I went home and threw on another layer with a top coat of Seche Vite:

So shiny and pretty! This is seriously easy to apply, it has quite a wide brush and it dries super fast- no streaking or waiting about. Lasting ability is not so great. What's that?-"Like Shellac" you say? "Doesn't chip", you say? Hmm..it had already chipped after a day. Now in fairness, I'm never sure if chipping is due to my poor quality nails but then again, some polishes last me for ages without chipping so it could well be more the poor quality of the polish itself than anything else. Polish pretty much never chips on my toes though so I think this'll be a nice Summery colour to wear with sandals, if Summer does in fact decide to make a reappearance (slash appearance full stop). 

This is completely neither here nor there but the name of this keeps reminding me of Game of Thrones:

Khaleesi, that is. Not Colisee. Similar though.

Aaargh, Game of Thrones, so addictive!

Hitchcock

Every so often I revel in a day off to snuggle up at home with tea and my Hitchcock boxset. I saw Rear Window when I was merely a young'un and the seed of love for these super stylish, classic thrillers, horrors and suspense films was sown.
Recently I wasn't feeling too great and so crawled back into bed with the aforementioned tea and box set (and eh, my laptop..staring at the cover of a box set would be a bit pointless really). While I've pretty much seen every Hitchcock film ever made, this post would be stupidly long if I went through them all, so instead here are my favourites:

The Birds
This 1963 horror stars one of Hitch's favourite icy blondes,  Tippi Hedren, playing a somewhat standoffish socialite who decides to follow her potential love interest from San Francisco to his small-town Californian home, but ends up with more than she bargained for when mysterious attacks involving birds start to plague his small fishing village. The suspense is built up so slowly in this that each episode of violence, although kind of expected, is still quite shocking- herein lies the power of the mighty Hitchcock.
At times the acting is a little wooden and some of the special effects aren't the best (still quite good though considering it was 1963) but to this day it's creepy enough to make the most jaded film goer jump in their seat. As a side note- I've also read the short story of this by Daphne du Maurier and seen the play, both of which are completely different to the film- Hitchcock took the general bones of the story and made it his own. That's neither here nor there but a bit of useless information never hurt anyone.

Psycho
Potentially one of Hitch's most well known and critically acclaimed films, this 1960 horror still packs quite the punch. Starring Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates himself) and Janet Leigh (hapless victim/criminal/blonde beauty Marion Crane), Psycho shocked viewers at the time for the film's voyeuristic and violent scenes. Rumour has it the story is based loosely on that of real life cannibal and human-skin-wearer Ed Gein..so you can imagine that this isn't exactly fun for all the family type of stuff. Personally, I love it (not the human-skin-wearing and cannibalism, before you alert the authorities)- the storyline, the sets, the UNBEARABLE suspense! For anyone who hasn't seen it, the story starts off with Marion swindling her boss out of a load of money and skipping town- we're with her the whole way from the beginning so our only real frame of reference is her..until things end badly when a rainstorm forces her to pull over into the Bates motel for the night..and, eh have a shower. Ahem. The viewer is then left a bit helpless- the film's heroin, although clearly flawed, is now gone and this all happens not too far into the plot. What we thought was the story- Marion being a big mad thief and generally a femme fatale turns out to be a rouse. This was an unusual tactic for films of the time and makes it still quite unique. I won't tell you the ending- (one of the most shocking scenes in any of his films) because this is well worth a watch if you've missed it up till now.

Rope
Ah, Jimmy Stewart. One of Hitch's favourite actors, and mine too. Rope was made in 1948 and is based on the play of the same name, which in itself was based on the real life murder case of Leopold and Loeb. The film opens on the murder (using a length of rope, hence the title) of a college student by his classmates Brandon and Phillip, who then place his body in a trunk, which they cover and use as a table for snacks for their party that same evening. Nice. Amongst the guests at the party are the parents of the boy they just killed..the purpose being to see if they could commit the perfect murder and not only get away with it but get away with it on a grand scale by being super great actors. So far, so macabre. Unfortunately, they haven't bargained on the awesome detection skills of one Mr Jimmy Stewart- who plays their old college ethics professor. I know it sounds a bit grim but again, the suspense is just so well done that you're on the edge of your seat until the final scene. Amazing. (Also, if you're not singing that "On a rope, on a rope got me hanging on a rope" etc song already, well you are now. If I must suffer with a catchy-ass song, then every one else must too. Apologies).

Vertigo
This 1958 classic again stars Jimmy Stewart, this time as a private detective (suffering from acrophobia, hence the title) hired to follow his friend's wife Madeline (played by Kim Novak- another one of Hitchcock's cool blondes) around, to get to the bottom of her recent odd behaviour. Instead of closing the case as usual however, he becomes obsessed with her, falls in love and they start a romance. All goes well until tragedy strikes- she commits suicide. He ends up in a sanatorium, suffering from depression, his life in tatters. When he re-emerges back into the world he then sees a woman who he thinks is Madeline, although she looks different. He follows THIS woman (I know, right? Stalker much) back to her hotel where he introduces himself and they start seeing each other. As you do. He's still obsessed with Madeline however, and gets this new woman, Judy, to start dressing like her and wearing her hair like her etc. Way to be creepy, Jimmy. Anyway, I can't tell you the ending of this cause that would be cruel but needless to say this is a magnificent thriller and well worth watching- for the psychedelic falling scene alone, if nothing else.

My all time favourite, however, is the aforementioned Rear Window. I could watch this a million times and never get sick of it- it's practically perfect in every respect, in my humble opinion.
As I'm going to a special screening of this in the Sugar Club for Film Fatale on Saturday night though I'm going to leave this to a separate post. "Thanks be to Jesus", says you, there's only so much of my Hitchcock ramblings any one person can take. That said, I have plenty of other favourites, including Dial M for Murder, Marnie, Rebecca and Strangers on a Train so there shall no doubt be a part 2 coming your way at some stage and you can also expect a post devoted entirely to Hitchcock's famous blondes! The other day I was particularly excited to read Emma's post on Beaut.ie about Chanel's upcoming A/W range, inspired by Hitchcock's films. Chanel AND Hitchcock???!! Swoon.

Mascaras! Rimmel, YSL, Bourjois and Benefit.

This post is a little compilation of my 4 most recently used mascaras- two high end, two drugstore brands. Two of them are currently in use but I held onto the other two in order to share my thoughts!

Benefit's They're Real, Bourjois Volume Glamour Max, Yves Saint Laurent Effet Faux Cils and Rimmel Volumeflash Scandaleyes. 

1) Benefit's They're Real, 25.05 euro on www.feelunique.co.uk. A black mascara which supposedly "lengthens, curls, volumises, lifts and separates lashes...using an exclusive brush with precision bristles ...revealing lashes you never knew you had!" 

Hmm. While I agree in principle that this definitely adds to the appearance of lashes, I feel like this is achieved more through the tar-like formula rather than through the actual brush itself. Speaking of which, I found the brush really hard and uncomfortable to use. Plus if you wanted to refresh your make up after a days wear and went to throw on an extra coat-good luck to you with that. Once this is on and dry there's no adding to it or, really taking away. Cause that's the other thing- this takes lots of make up remover to get it off, something I began to find a bit tedious after just a few weeks of use. As aforementioned in a previous blog post, this has the tendency to make you look like the Joker when a bit of make up remover is applied. It did last me ages though and it made my lashes look more substantial, in fairness to it. I won't be repurchasing though, price and inconvenience of removal make it a big no for me.

2) Bourjois Volume Glamour Max in black. I like Bourjois mascaras. This set me back 13.20 euro and is the one I'm currently using for daytime. I really only got this cause it was on offer with something else but I have had good experiences with Bourjois mascaras so I said I'd give it a lash (see what I did there?!)

This is grand (such enthusiasm). It doesn't do a huge amount if I'm honest, other than add a little extra definition to the lashes, but nothing spectacular. I won't be repurchasing purely because I think 13.20 is a bit much to spend on something that doesn't really do a whole lot. From now on I'll take that 13.20 and add it to my YSL fund...

3) Speaking of same, this is YSL's Effet Faux Cils mascara in black, yet again. I love this one. A bit more costasach at around 23 sterling (ouch) on the HOF website but this one is actually worth the spend. 

I love this. Unlike Benefit's offering, the brush on this adds volume and lifts the lashes without resorting to the infliction of pain. Yeah, it is obviously more expensive but sometimes it's worth spending a bit extra for a good quality product. This is about my third time rebuying this and I'll certainly be getting it again when it runs out (HTB just picked me up a new one in the duty free with some other pretty things..more on that in another post).

4) Rimmel's Volumeflash Scandaleyes. That's the ridiculously bright orange one in the above photo, just in case you missed it, which is unlikely. 

I got this one on special offer too so luckily it didn't actually cost that much, although I can't for the life of me remember how much it was. Apologies. Look at the big mad brush on it. Terrified so I was to put this near my eyes. When I did use it it pretty much did nothing. All that neon and massive brush fibres for nothing. Disappointing.

Anyone else tried any of these? 

OPI "Into the Night"

And so my search continues for the perfect blue polish. The winner will most likely feature on my toenails as my wedding day "something blue". So obviously it's fiercely important. Ahem.
Anyways, this is "Into the Night" from OPI, as part of their Summer brights collection, this time a tie-in with The Amazing Spiderman. This is a full size 15mls but a set of four minis from the collection are also available from Asos if you'd like to try out more than one without making a commitment. Or as much of a commitment as one can consider buying a nail polish.
This is a rather beautiful metallic midnight blue, gorgeous in the bottle and even more stunning on the nail. I love it so:

Super easy to apply, this reached full opacity with two coats although it actually had a nice shimmery iridescence from one coat only. It also wears really well, no chips so far and it's a few days in. Hurrah!
I may well be checking out a couple of the others in the collection, in particular, "Just spotted the Lizard", a metallic yellow-green and "Your Web or Mine", an interesting pinky/red.