mercredi 24 avril 2013

Anna Karenina



I just watched the latest Anna Karenina movie.  I  really was in a mood for a beautiful  romantic version of this beloved book. I cannot say my wish was fulfilled. It is an original adaptation  with ballet scenes and theater settings as to indicate that life is a show where we have fixed roles that we cannot change. I couldn’t find anywhere Tolstoi ‘s atmosphere of deep dramatic Russia. The casting was disappointing as well.  While many film critics praised Kyra Knightley’s interpretation, I found her far away from the 19th century Russian aristocrat, more like a flirty young contemporary woman and some times even vulgar. Vronsky, her lover played by Aaron Taylor-Johnston looks like a good for nothing, superficial lad. How could she fall in love with him is miracle.  Jude Law is Anna’s cuckold husband, but his role was much expanded and his character much humanized and deviated from the original. Still, he is the best actor in the movie and the title should have been “Mr Karenin”.

I hope I will like more the forthcoming Great Gatsby.


The picture in the lookbook is of Vivien Leigh in a much better version of Anna Karenina.


Anna Karenina



Other actresses who played Anna Karenina:



Vivien Leigh, 1948


Greta Garbo, 1927, 1935


Jacqueline Bisset, 1985


Keira Knightley, 2012


Tatiana Samoilovna, 1974


Sophie Marceau, 1997

lundi 22 avril 2013

White leopard and Spring



I had a pause in blogging. It is true, I was very busy with my work  but still, not that busy.  I wanted to write something about the passing away of Margaret Thatcher but I didn’t feel doing so after posting about Maya Angelou.  They are different characters, both strong women but at different extremes.
What is important is that Spring is eventually coming here and I shed away furs and woolen coats. Today I was wearing my white leopard coat bought from Asos for a song.  First I saw it on the delicious blog Le monde de Tokyobanhbao. And then, lucky me, I found out it was still available.  



White leopard and Spring


jeudi 4 avril 2013

Still I Rise

Happy Birthday to Maya Angelou, a great poet!





Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.