Last week, the world was treated to the very first presidential letter to have ever been Instagram’d, courtesy of Zooey Deschanel. The New Girl darling tweeted, “I am SO EXCITED!” upon opening a special envelope from President Obama, who took to some White House stationery to send his warmest wishes on her 32nd birthday. Jealous? Yeah, we are too. Zooey’s not the first celebrity to receive a letter from an admiring president — check out some fan letters, get-well-soon cards, thank-you notes, and party invitations after the jump.
The portrait, as far as we’re concerned, is one of the most arresting forms of art. Not only does it portray a person, but it can affix a million meanings or emotions to that person, adding to and possibly conflicting whatever baseline emotions their visage stirs up in the viewer. Here, we’ve collected a few of what can best be described as the most iconic portraits of the most iconic figures, from musicians to actors to artists to politicians. Note: we’re not claiming that these are the most iconic figures of the 20th century hands down (although some would definitely make the cut), but rather that these portraits rank among the most powerful and enduring photographic images of the century. Indeed, many of these photographs have transcended their subjects to become iconic in their own rights as images — for instance, even those who have no idea who Che Guevara is would probably recognize his face as captured by Alberto Korda and spray-painted on a t-shirt. Click through to see 10 of the most enduring portraits of pop culture icons taken in the 20th century, and since of course there are many more that could have been included on this list, be sure to chime in with your own suggestions in the comments.
Whether you borrow style tips from Karen O, with outrageous prints and dramatic silhouettes, or you take a more demure cue from Catherine Deneuve’s delicate shift dresses and trench coats, chances are you’ve looked to pop culture for fashion inspiration at one time or another. So it’s only natural to be curious about where the iconic looks that have guided our style fantasies over the years actually originated. To that end, we’ve put together a gallery of original sketches that designers such as Edith Head and Yves Saint Laurent created for looks that continue to influence both the runway and fans’ personal style, after the jump. Read More »
She may have been a punchline to some and sex personified to others, but the life of blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe has become the ultimate tale of tragedy since her premature death at age 36 in 1962. Before she became a titillating screen goddess, Norma Jeane spent her childhood in foster homes, but fame didn’t give her the life she truly desired. Emotional insecurity, failed marriages, and drug dependency are just a few of the many things that took over the fragile woman’s life before her early demise. This week, audiences will get a chance to get a glimpse of Monroe’s inner struggles in the film, My Week with Marilyn. However, there have been many other screen queens before Monroe who suffered similar fates. Click through for a look at some of Hollywood’s fallen film goddesses. Read More »
Michelle Williams is already getting Oscar buzz for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn, which opens in theaters this Wednesday. “She channels every facet of the legend’s persona — her seductiveness, her neuroses, her candle-in-the-wind vulnerability and sometimes breathtaking naïveté — while keeping her feet planted firmly on the ground,” writes Rene Rodriguez at the Miami Herald. “Williams makes Monroe simultaneously seem larger than life and heartbreakingly human.” Even critics less impressed with the film as a whole — like Ronnie Scheib at Variety or David Rooney at Hollywood Reporter — seem enamored of her performance.
But Williams is just one of many actors who have portrayed iconic stars — some to universal acclaim, and others to widespread derision. Click through as we examine some of the most noteworthy examples. Read More »
Editor’s note: Welcome to Dear Costume Department, a new bi-weekly feature brought to you by our fashion-minded friends from Of a Kind, a curated shopping site of limited-edition goods by emerging designers. With each installment, they’ll bring you a head-to-toe look inspired by a buzzed-about pop culture personality — complete with info on where to grab the pieces for your own closet. Enjoy!
Michelle Williams has some big (high?) shoes to fill when her new film My Week with Marilyn hits theaters later this month — there’s the walk, the voice, the hair. And so does the person dressing her, whose job it is to achieve Marilyn circa 1956 — post-The Seven-Year Itch and pre-Some Like It Hot. The requisite balance between subtlety and sensuality… well, here’s how we’d do it. Read More »
Steve Jobs’ sister Mona Simpson recited her brother’s eulogy during the Apple CEO’s funeral held several weeks ago. The touching words were published in The New York Times this weekend. Composing a speech worthy of a visionary like Jobs seems like an impossible task, but Simpson’s able words tell the story of a man who had a passionate hunger for knowledge, was dedicated to his family and loved ones, and never stopped following his own path. ” … What I learned from his illness, was how much was still left after so much had been taken away,” Simpson writes. It’s an intimate look into the late Pixar exec’s life and final days that paints an inspiring portrait of the “absolutist” and “romantic.”
We’ve gathered several other impassioned and inspirational eulogies past the break. Some will make you laugh before crying, while others are a tad confusing, but hopefully these words move you as much as they did us.
Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. We’ve got six new trailers this week, and — for the first time in the feature’s history — they all look varying degrees of worthwhile. Check ‘em out after the jump.
As you may have already heard, today the first Thursday in October, and is thus National Poetry Day. In celebration of this beloved writerly holiday, those of us over here in the film corner of your Flavorwire decided to post some of our favorite poems about our favorite subject: the movies. Join us after the jump for a few of our favorite cinematic poems, as suggested by the indispensible volume Lights, Camera, Poetry!(edited by Jason Shinder); feel free to add your own (or what the hell, make one up) after the jump.
Artist and graphic designer Stefan Da Costa Gomez, whose work we first spotted over at Colossal, paints classic portraits of Hollywood stars — with a twist. Though each painting hints at the vices that would ultimately kill their subjects, Gomez means to bring them “back to life” by rendering them in such a way as to become 3D when viewed with traditional anaglyph 3D glasses, an attempt to “combine the classic analog craft of painting with the contemporary technology and today’s hype of digital 3D film to create a new way of viewing and experiencing a painting.” Though we certainly don’t wish for every painting to wind up in 3D, we love this idea and Gomez’s flawless execution. Click through to see his work, and head over to his website for even more.
