Olive You, Leopard!

I love weird leopard print color combinations, and this one is no exception. Its colors remind me of green olives with the pimentos in them, sitting in the jar waiting to accompany some poor schmuck's gin. 

I can't take credit for this color combination, to be honest, I saw a rug that had the pattern, and I adored it (I wish I had bought it!) so I snapped a picture knowing that it would find its way onto my nails at some point.  I love the 'gradient' (ok not so much a gradient as a color change) from the tip of the nail to the cuticle edge.  The color of the orange shows up really red in the pictures, but its more of a burnt orangey red in real life. I think someone needs to develop one of them so I don't have to mix it. (think Essie Alligator purse, but more orange than red)

Anyway, on to the nails- for now all I have are pictures from the iPhone, because my camera is MIA right now. Hopefully I find it tonight, so I can take a picture of them with a real camera before they get destroyed by acetone. :)  

I used American Apparel California Trooper> as a base, with American Apparel MacArthur Park for the green, and a mix of Essie Alligator Purse and China Glaze Life Preserver for the orange. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Studies of Film Noirishness, with Love

50+ new links added on February 27, 2011

The above is a short video primer by Catherine Grant. It offers an audiovisual introduction to issues of gender, sexuality and movement in relation to Rita Hayworth's performance as Gilda in Charles Vidor's 1946 film.

Private Property - Joseph Losey's The Prowler by Matt Zoller Seitz 
at The L Magazine, March 2010
(also see Justin Stewart's essay on this film in the same issue)

Film Studies For Free is delighted to present its own contribution to the remarkable fundraising effort for the Film Noir Foundation that has been taking place in the last week, namely the For the Love of Film (Noir) Blog-a-thon, organised by film critics Farran Smith Nehme (Self-Styled Siren) and Marilyn Ferdinand (of Ferdy on Film).

Awed by the contributions so far, FSFF proffers (above) a little video-primer on its favourite noir - Gilda - together with a reposting of Matt Zoller Seitz's fabulous audiovisual essay on The Prowler (also above), and a whole host of direct links (below) to openly accessible scholarly reading and viewing on Film Noir, and on all varieties of Neo-Noir, too - taken altogether, some of the most essential of film studies topics.

The Film Noir Foundation works to preserve and restore movies in its chosen mode from many eras and from many countries. The film nominated to be restored with monies raised this year is a fine and important noir called The Sound of Fury (aka Try and Get Me) directed by Cy Endfield (1914–1995).

One of the resources FSFF links to is an excellent interview with Endfield, conducted in 1989 by Brian Neve, in which he discusses that film in the context of his career as a whole and the historical events which formed the background to his work. Here's what Endfield concludes about The Sound of Fury.

I consider that my talent for making pictures was best expressed in two pictures, Zulu and The Sound of Fury. I think the one big talent I have is to make big pictures. There is a sense of structure about something of dimension that I have found lacking even in pictures that were supposed to be big. [...] The Sound of Fury was made mostly from my blood circulation and nervous system. 

FSFF knows that feeling only too well! It can't wait to see the restored film. So, please, if you love Film Noir, join this blog's author in donating some of your hard-earned dough (or even some of your ill-begotten gains...) on this occasion. Just click here. Thank you!

• New Jason Ambrosiano, '"The Ties That Bind and Bless the Soul": Grace and Noir in Schrader's Light Sleeper', Journal of Religion and Film, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1998

• John Belton, 'Film Noir's Knights of the Road', Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 54, November 2006

• New Jamaluddin Bin Aziz, 'Future Noir', Crimeculture, Summer 2005

• New John J. Blaser and Stephanie L.M. Blaser, Film Noir Studies (dozens of essays and clips), 2008

• New Zoe Bolton, 'Entertainment and Dystopia: Film Noir, Melodrama and Mildred Pierce', Crimeculture, 2005

• David Bordwell, 'Cognition and Comprehension: Viewing and Forgetting in Mildred Pierce',  Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism Vol. VI, No. 2, Spring 1992

•  Dominique Bregent-Heald, 'Dark Limbo: Film Noir and the North American Borders', The Journal of American Culture, 29:2, 2006

• New Kurt Bullock, 'Vertical Apocalypse: Altered Noir Cityscape within Blade Runner’s Dystopia', SBCC.edu 

• Dan Callahan, 'Fatal Instincts: The Dangerous Pout of Gloria Grahame." Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 61, August 2008

• New Tessa Chudy, 'Cinema: Noir: The Darkest Vision', M/C Reviews, November 4, 2004

• Angela Curran, ' Review of Dan Flory, Philosophy, Black Film, Film Noir', Notre Dame Philosophical reviews, March 10, 2009

• 'Dossier: An Interview with Cy Endfield', Film Studies, Volume 7 (Winter 2005)

• Richard Dyer, 'Homosexuality in Film Noir', from Jump Cut, No. 16, 1977, pp. 18-21

• Dan Flory, 'Introduction: Philosophy and the Blackness of Film Noir', Philosophy, Black Film08, Film Noir, Penn State University Press, 2008

• Dan Flory, 'The Epistemology of Race and Black American Film Noir: Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam as Lynching Parable', In: Film and knowledge: essays on the integration of images and ideas / edited by Kevin L. Stoehr. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2002

• Vincent M. Gaine, '‘We’re on Flashdrive or CD-ROM’: Disassembly and Deletion in the Digital Noir of Collateral', Networking Knowledge, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2009

• Saverio Giovacchini, 'Introduction: Taking Hollywood Seriously', Hollywood Modernism: Film and Politics in the Age of the New Deal (Temple University Press, 2001)

• New John Hall, 'Touch of Psycho: Welles' Influence on Hitchcock', Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 14, September 1995

• Daniel Herbert, Transnational film remakes: Time, space, identity, University of Southern California, PhD Thesis, 2008

• Ken Hillis , 'Film Noir and the American Dream: The Dark Side of Enlightenment', first published in Velvet Light Trap 55, Spring 2005 (1-18). Reprinted (2006) in Multicultural Film: Essays, Pearson Publishing

• New Katharine and Lee Horsley, ‘Mere Fatales: Maternal Guilt in the Noir Crime Novel’,
  Modern Fiction Studies 45.2 (1999) 369-402

• New Lee Horsley, 'Fatal Women in the Hard-Boiled Fifties' An extract from The Noir Thriller (Palgrave, 2001; 2009)

• New Images Journal Special Issue (No. 2): 10 Shades of Noir, including essays on The Big Heat; The Big Sleep; The Big Combo; Double Indemnity; Force of Evil; Gun Crazy; Lady from Shanghai; Pickup On South Street; Shadow of a Doubt; Sweet Smell of Success; Some Additional Choice Noirs.

• New Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 10 (3), 2004: Special Issue on crime cinema and television, including essays on Deep Cover, NYPD Blue and Law and Order, among others.

• D.B. Jones, 'Review of Wheeler Winston Dixon, Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia', Screening the Past, Issue 25, 2009

• New Edvin Kau, 'Great Beginnings and Endings. Made by Orson Welles." P.O.V. , Issue 2, Nov. 1996

• New Matthew Kennedy, 'On Commies, Stoolies, and Other Assorted Lowlifes', Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 44, May 2004

• New Naomi King, ‘Male Identity and the Threat of the Feminine’, Crimeculture, 2002

• John Kraniauskas, 'Noir into history James Ellroy’s Blood’s a Rover', Radical Philosophy 163 (September/October 2010)

• Jennifer E. Langdon, Caught in the Crossfire: Adrian Scott and the Politics of Americanism in 1940s Hollywood (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008)

• Jennifer Langdon-Teclaw, 'Negotiating the Studio System: Adrian Scott and the Politics of Anti-Fascism in Cornered', Film Studies, Volume 7 (Winter 2005)

• New Scott Loren, 'Self-fashioning, Freedom, and the Problem of His-story: the return of noir', European Journal of American Studies, 1, 2008

• New Michael Mills,  'High Heels on a Wet Pavement: Film Noir and the Femme Fatale', Modern Times (date unknown)
  

• New Richard Misek, 'Wrong Geometries in The Third Man', Rouge, No. 11, July 2007

• Gary Morris, 'Film Noir.",' In: glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture, 2002

• New Gary Morris, 'Out of the Past: A noir classic revisited', Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 29, July 2000

• Brian Neve, 'The Hollywood Left: Robert Rossen and Postwar Hollywood', Film Studies Volume 7, Winter 2005, pp 54-65

• John S. Nelson, 'Four Forms for Terrorism: Horror, Dystopia, Thriller, and Noir', Poroi, 2, 1, August, 2003

• John S. Nelson, 'Realism as a Political Style: Noir Insights', Poroi, 5, 2, November, 2008

• Stanley Orr, 'Connected Guys: The Reconstructed Subject of 1990s Film Noir', in Darkly perfect world: colonial adventure, postmodernism, and American noir (Ohio State University, 2010) scroll down in PDF to p. 198

• Chris Pallant , 'Review: Mark T. Conrad, ed. (2007) The Philosophy of Neo-Noir. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press', Film-Philosophy, 14.1, 2010

• New Bryan D. Palmer, 'Night in the Capitalist, Cold War City: Noir and the Cultural Politics of Darkness',  Left History 1997

• Fred Pfeil, 'Revolting Yet Conserved: Family "Noir" in Blue Velvet and Terminator 2', Postmodern Culture, Vol. 2, No. 3, May 1992

• Brock Poulin, 'Dark time (s): non-linear narratives in the postmodern film noir', Masters Thesis, University of British Columbia, April 2005

• Julianne Pidduck, The "fatal femme" in contemporary Hollywood film noir : reframing gender, violence, and power, Masters Thesis, Concordia University, 1993

• Robert J. Read,  The film noir collection and the legacy of nineteenth century modernity. Masters thesis, Concordia University, 2003

• Nathaniel Rich,  "San Francisco in Film Noir,", Conversations with History, 6/23/05 (direct video link here)

• David Ross-Gerling, 'Spanish Cinema Noir and Novela Negra: A Case Study on Racial Profiling',  (scroll to p. 1263 in PDF), History and Civil Rights Monograph, Vol. 11

• New José Luis Sánchez Noriega, 'Psychoanalytical Culture in the American Film Noir', Journal of Medicine and Movies, No. 4, 2008

• Torben Schmidt, 'Christopher Nolan’s Memento – Analysis of the narrative structure of a noirish revenge film', Seminar: “Decadence and Modernism in Late 20th Century American Cinema, 2003

• New Alain Silver, 'Introduction', Film Noir Reader 1 (Limelight Editions, 1996)

• New Alain Silver, 'Kiss Me Deadly: Evidence of a Style', Film Noir Reader 1 (Limelight Editions, 1996) (Go to Kiss Me Deadly: Evidence of A Style, Part Two)

• Imogen Sara Smith, 'In Lonely Places: Film Noir Outside the City', Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 65, 2009

• Imogen Sara Smith, 'Past Sunset: Noir in the West', Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 66, 2009

• Imogen Sara Smith, 'Plumbing the Depths of Capitalism: On Force of Evil', Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 61, August 2008

• Imogen Sara Smith, 'Dana Andrews: The Forties Hero and His Shadow', Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 62, November 2008

• Peter Stanfield, 'A Monarch for the Millions: Jewish Filmmakers, Social Commentary and the Postwar Cycle of Boxing Films', Film Studies, Volume 7 (Winter 2005)

• Peter Stanfield, 'Review of Edward Dimendberg, Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity', Film Studies, Vol. 6, Summer 2005 (Scroll down in PDF)

• New Scott F. Stoddart, '"Queer Eye" for a "Straight Dick": Contextualized Homosexuals in Film Noir', MLA Convention, Philadelphia, 2004

• Stephen Swanson, The Stranger inthe Dark: the Ethics of Levinasian-Derridean Hospitality in Noir, PhD Thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2007

• Grant Tracey, 'Force of Evil' (10 Shades of Noir) Images, Issue 2 (scroll down for full index)

• New Anja Christine Rørnes Tucker,  "Teen Noir" A Study of the Recent Film Noir Revival in the Teen Genre, MA Thesis, University of Bergen, 2008

• Jans B. Wager, 'Percolating Paranoia: Fritz Lang's The Big Heat', Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 27, January 2000

• New Elizabeth Ward, 'The Post-Noir P.I.: The Long Goodbye and Hickey and Boggs', Film Noir Reader 1 (Limelight Editions, 1996)

• Deborah Walker, 'Re-reading the Femme Fatale in Film Noir: an evolutionary perspective', The Journal of Moving Image Studies, Vol. 5, No. 6

• New Nancy West and Penelope Pelizzon, 'Snap Me Deadly: Reading the Still Photograph in Film Noir', American Studies, 43:2, 2002

• New Emma Whiting, 'Dangerous Women and the Abject in the Noir Thriller', Crimeculture, 2005

Note: The first video essay (by Catherine Grant) embedded at the top of this post was made according to principles of Fair Use/Fair Dealing, primarily with scholarly and critical aims, and was published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License in February 2011. If you found this video or FSFF's Film Noir entry useful or enjoyable, please consider supporting with a donation the valuable work of the Film Noir Foundation. Thank you.

GINGER & LIZ and Barielle Nail Treatments on Hautelook!

Fun stuff for pretty nails today on Hautelook today!

There are Barielle Nail Treatments, as well as a bevy of Ginger & Liz nail colors at great prices!

Check it out at Hautelook

Gild the Lily

Last week, I showed a photo of the lovely flowers I received from my boyfriend. In the arrangement, there were several of a flower called Alstroemeria, which are commonly known as the Peruvian Lily, or Lily of the Incas. Since those flowers are still alive and going strong (all but the roses and one of the tiger lilies), I decided to use the Peruvian Lilies as inspiration for a nail art design. I love the way the color gradates from fuchsia to white with just a touch of yellow, then is punctuated with dashes of dark brown! I tried to represent it the best I could on my nail, using a drier brush than normal, and sort of 'flicking' from the cuticle toward the nail tip.

One of the Alstroemeria from my flowers- the inspiration!

and the nails:

I used MAC Vestral White as a base, with Finger Paints Heavenly Hydrangeas and Essence Surferama 'flicked' from the cuticle edge up, a mixture of American Apparel Trenchcoat and BB Couture Kokomo for the dash of yellow, then a mixture of American Apparel Hassid and Barielle Coco Bar for the dark brown dots/dashes. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat

WOOT! That's 3 posts in 2 days, trying to get back on track now that my hours are slightly reduced!! :)

Framing Fascination: Studies of Alfred Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW

'Ogling At Hitchcock's Rear Window' by Thibaut Degenne

[The above video shows an open installation that took place at London College of Communication on the 5th of October 2010. The setup was composed of two screens facing each other. The first screen was a frame (a symbolic window) with a transparent surface through which you could see the action unfolding on the second screen (the rear building’s apartments). For more information about this project, see here]

Often, as in Rear Window (1954), eavesdropping or spying is represented itself as a form of voyeuristic fascination that colors the mystery with the aura of something that is taboo and implicates the spectator in the same prurient fascination as the character. By placing within the scene a character who takes an illicit fascination in a mystery, the mystery is thereby lent an aura of perversity, over and above the perverse connotations that it may already carry. But the significance of the voyeuristic scenario is not limited to the perverse coloration it lends to subjective suspense. [Richard Allen, 'Hitchcock and Narrative Suspense Theory and Practice' in Allen, Richard, Malcolm Turvey (eds), Camera Obscura, Camera Lucida: Essays in Honor of Annette Michelson (Amsterdam University Press, 2004),  p. 178]

In Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), the audience looks ‘through’ a character’s eyes into a window which is also a cinema screen. The frame functions psychologically in many ways. It puts us in the position of being a voyeur and seeing through the eyes of a voyeur. Yet we are also external to this viewing: there is a switchback effect here of distance and involvement, of continually stepping back from watching people and watching through their eyes, feeling what they are feeling, but being aware also of a skilfully constructed fiction. In the same way, the frame of the screen is complemented by the frame of the rear window, but the frame of the cinema screen is also the frame of the lens, our eyes (the extent of our peripheral vision), the character’s eyes and Hitchcock’s eyes. These are all stages of the frame, their plurality alluded to in the image itself, in the plurality of its frames. [Gregory Minisalle, 'Beyond Internalism and Externalism: Husserl and Sartre’s Image Consciousness in Hitchcock and Buñuel', Film-Philosophy, 14:1, 2010, 190]

Film Studies For Free brings you one of its "studies of a single film" today: an entry dedicated to gathering direct links to high-quality studies of Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film Rear Window, and other items of related interest. Rather like L. B. "Jeff" Jeffries in that film, you don't even need to get out of your chair to enjoy them.

• Anders Albrechtslund, 'Surveillance and Ethics in Film: Rear Window and The Conversation', JCJPC 15(2), 2008
• Richard Allen, 'Hitchcock and Narrative Suspense Theory and Practice' in Allen, Richard, Malcolm Turvey (eds), Camera Obscura, Camera Lucida: Essays in Honor of Annette Michelson (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2004)
• John Belton, 'Introduction: Spectacle and Narrative', Rear Window (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)
• Jean Douchet, 'Hitch and His Public', in A Hitchcock reader, by Marshall Deutelbaum (Oxford: Wiley, 2009)
• Larrie Dudenhoeffer, 'Hitch-cockeyed: Ocular Dys/function in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, Cinephile, 5.2, Fall 2009
• Dean Flower, 'Some Refrigerator Talk About Alfred Hitchcock', The Hudson review, Volume LVIII, Number 4 (Winter 2006)
• Andrew Hultkrans, 'Surveillance in the cinema: here's looking at you, kid', Stim, 7.1, 2006
• James MacDowell, 'Ellipsis and Occlusion in REAR WINDOW', Hitchcock Annual, 16, 2010: pp.77-101
• Gregory Minisalle, 'Beyond Internalism and Externalism: Husserl and Sartre’s Image Consciousness in Hitchcock and Buñuel', Film-Philosophy, 14:1, 2010, 190
• Ken Mogg, 'Some Notes on Rear Window', The MacGuffin, 2003
• Juhani Pallasmaa, 'The Geometry of Terror: space, look and narrative in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window',  Ark, 4, 1997
• Douglas Pye, 'Enter Lisa: Rear Window (1954)', Film Moments: Criticism, History, Theory, edited by Tom Brown and James Walters (London: BFI/Palgrave, 2011) Scroll to p. 45
• "rear window views : sweiv wodniw raer" 
• Michael Joshua Rowin, 'Caught on Camera The photographic investigations of Blow-Up and (nostalgia)', Moving Image Source, April 21, 2009
• Jane Sloan, excerpt from Alfred Hitchcock: a filmography and bibliography (University of California Press, 1995)
• Michael Walker, Hitchcock's Motifs (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2005)
• Matthew M. Wylie, 'Avoiding the Masculine "Gaze": Frustrated Homosexual Desire and the Eroticized Role of the Camera In Hitchcock's Rear Window and Antonioni's Blow Up', Cinetext, February 2003

David Bordwell, Narration in the Fiction Film (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985)

China Glaze CRACKLE Glaze (Preview)

I know you've all probably been bombarded with this press release, but for those of you that haven't seen it or haven't heard of this collection (have you been living under a rock?! JK!! :-D ), I'll post it up here because I am SO freaking excited for it! I'm a dork, I loved Crackles when Cover Girl had them back in the 90s, and was elated when I saw that some of the bigger nail polish companies were bringing them back and making them better!! This China Glaze collection is no exception- the colors it contains are so beyond wonderful, and I can't wait to get my eager little paws on them!! (Especially Cracked Concrete and Crushed Candy!!!)

Here is the release from China Glaze in all her beautiful glory!!

LET’S GET CRACKING!

China Glaze Introduces Six New Crackle Colors

Los Angeles, CA – December 2010: Roughed up grunge meets gorgeous glam! China Glaze brings a whole new level to the game with “Crackle” polish! Create endless edgy looks and make a statement with fun, fearless, color. Everyone has asked for it, and now China Glaze is giving it to them! The six different Crackle colors include:


Lightning Bolt – White Crackle
Black Mesh – Black Crackle
Broken Hearted – Pink Crackle
Cracked Concrete – Grey Crackle
Fault Line – Purple Crackle
Crushed Candy – Teal Crackle


An innovative technology allows you to play with a wide array of color combinations and achieve an edgy, new wave look. This unique formula was developed to give your nails a “crackled” design over traditional nail color. Contrasting colors are used one over another to achieve a deconstructed shatter look that takes place right before your eyes. Instant art for your nails!


How do you do it? It’s easy! Apply your favorite China Glaze glitter, shimmer or crème. Depending on the color you are using, apply either one or two coats for full coverage. When the colored enamel is dry, brush on a thin layer of the Crackle color. Allow the Crackle to work its magic during dry time. After approximately 5 minutes when the crackled design has completely formed, apply a top coat to seal the design for prolonged wear.


China Glaze Crackle will be available starting February 2011 at Sally’s Beauty Supply and BSG in 12 piece displays and 3 pack color kits which will include a base color, a crackle glaze (Black Mesh, Broken Hearted or Crushed Candy) and a China Glaze Top Coat.


China Glaze is free of DBP, toluene, and added formaldehyde.


China Glaze nail lacquers are available through salons and professional beauty supply stores nationwide. For more information, visit: www.chinaglaze.com>www.chinaglaze.com or follow China Glaze on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ChinaGlaze>http://twitter.com/ChinaGlaze


China Glaze is a division of American International Industries.


About American International Industries
For nearly 40 years, AII has been the leading manufacturer and worldwide distributor of innovative, quality beauty and skin care products for men and women. Our product lines include Ardell, Andrea, Body Drench, Bye Bye Blemish, Checi, China Glaze, Clean + Easy, Clubman/Pinaud, Duo, European Secrets, EzFlow, Fright Night, Gena, GiGi, Gypsy Lash, IBD, Jeris-Lustray, No Tweeze/Micro Tweeze, 'N Rage, Prolinc, RAW, Seche, SuperNail, Surgi- Care, Waterworks, Winning Nails, Woltra, Woody’s, and Youthair. For more information, visit our website: www.aiibeauty.com>www.aiibeauty.com

Love Stinks!

OK, so love doesn't stink, and my Valentine's Day was wonderful, but I didn't want to post the gooey, sappy, heart-laden mushfest that comes out every Valentine's Day. I wanted to do a fun twist on love, since I experience a fun twist on it every day. My boyfriend is the sort to surprise me with a fountain Dr. Pepper instead of flowers, a bubblegum squirt gun instead of jewelry, and that shows me just how well he actually knows me. Anyway, I digress. This Valentine's Day, I did a quirky ode to love, and it was a super quick one too because it was late, so it's far from perfect. I did two skunks- a boy skunk and a girl skunk, and their tails make up the heart on the middle finger nail. I also used the Nicole by OPI Step to Beat of My Heart polish for the heart shaped glitter on my thumb and pinky. (the pinky hearts fell off during the day- sorry)

I used American Apparel Rose Bowl as a base, with American Apparel Hassid and MAC Vestral White for the skunk bodies. FOr the eyes, I used MAC Vestral White with a small dot of CND Anchor Blue for the iris. On the girl skunk, I painted a bow with Milani Red Sparkle, as well as using Orly Candy Cane Lane to paint lips on her and hearts on the ring finger and index finger nails. For the heart glitter, I used the Nicole by OPI Step to the Beat of My Heart nail polish from the Justin Bieber collection. (I cringed a little because it had his pic on the tag, but it's actually a cute polish) Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

PEE-EWWWW! ;)

U-G-L-Y, You Ain't Got no Alibi

Ok, so I'll admit, these nails are from several days ago, and I either didn't have the time, energy or what have you to get them posted. Fun thing is, when I DID have the time/energy (read: last night), my damn laptop (which boasts a hefty 7.5 years of heavy use) decided that it no longer wanted to recognize its airport card. What's this mean to you and I? It means no internet unless I want to haul my happy ass (and my power cord, since my battery no longer holds a charge) upstairs to the office where I could lay on the office floor, plug in the ethernet cable, and write up a fun little post for ya. Not gonna lie, I mean, I love you guys, but that's a little more work than I had energy for.

However, due to that little hiccup, you get two nail design posts today!! Rock 'n Roll, right?!

This nail design was requested by Chris, who suggested on multiple occasions that I do 'Ugly Doll' nails. If you're not familiar with Ugly Dolls, they're little stuffed monster dolls that, despite their name, are quite adorable. I'm showing both hands on these because both hands were different, please excuse the horrifying cleanup job- my hands were super dry when I tried cleaning them up, and the black pigment in the polish kind of sunk into the skin. (awesome.)

I used American Apparel Hassid as a base for all nails.

Left hand:

Thumb:

Finger Paints Chrysanthe-mum's the Word for the monster, MAC Vestral for the eyeball, a mix of MAC Vestral White and Orly Candy Cane Lane for the tongue, and American Apparel Hassid for the mouth and eyes.

Index:

China Glaze Life Preserver for the monster, MAC Vestral White for the eyballs, and American Apparel Hassid for the eyes and mouth.

Middle:

Finger Paints Carnation Creation for the monster, MAC Vestral White for the eyeballs, American Apparel Hassid for the mouth and eyes, and OPI Banana Bandana over MAC Vestral White for the teeth.

Ring:

Heavenly Hydrangeas for the monster, MAC Vestral White for the eyeball and teeth, and American Apparel Hassid for the eye and mouth.

Pinky:

A mix of American Apparel MacArthur Park and BB Couture Poison Ivy for the monster, American Apparel Manila for the eyeball, MAC Vestral White for the teeth, and American Apparel Hassid for the mouth, eye, and hair.


Right Hand:

Thumb:

Finger Paints Aren't You Glad-iolous? for the monster, American Apparel California Trooper for the eyeball and teeth, and American Apparel Hassid for the eyes and mouth.

Index:

Essie Alligator Purse for the monster, American Apparel Trenchcoat for the eyeballs, MAC Vestral White for the teeth, and American Apparel Hassid for the eyes and mouth.

Middle:

I THINK this monster is a mixture of Essie Alligator Purse and American Apparel Trenchcoat, but not 100% sure. For the eyeballs and teeth I used American Apparel California Trooper, and for the eyes and mouth, I used American Apparel Hassid.

Ring:

For the monster, I used American Apparel MacArthur Park, for the mouth and eye, I used American Apparel Hassid and for the tongue, a mixture of Orly Candy Cane Lane and MAC Vestral White.

Pinky:

Sally Hansen Gray by Gray for the monster, with American Apparel California Trooper for the eyeball and teeth, and American Apparel Hassid for the eye and mouth.

Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Yellow Brick Road (Preview)

Deborah Lippman, Lady Gaga?  Who ISN'T a fan of these two amazing women?  Check out this fabulous new color that comes out in April!  Gaga donned it for her Grammy performance this weekend. I'm super stoked for it- I LOVE yellow polishes!!

Are YOU excited?!

Lady Gaga is always pushing the envelope and exploring new trends. This year’s Grammy Awards proved no different. The award winner arrived in an egg pod and emerged wearing a bold, yellow nail.

  

The nail color is a new addition to Deborah Lippmann’s line and is called Yellow Brick Road. Celebrity manicurist Deborah Lippmann selected the color with the star to complement the canary yellow outfit she donned during her stage performance.

Yellow Brick Road launches on April 15 and will be available for $16 at www.deborahlippmann.com.

OPI BRIGHTS - Inspired by POTC: On Stranger Tides! (Press)

SO looking forward to this collection!  I LOVE the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and cannot WAIT for the next one to come out!  I'm super curious to see the SILVER shatter!! How totally kickass does that have the possibility of being?!  I think that the Shatter, as well as 'Stranger Tides' will be my favorites of this collection, at least based on description- can't wait to see pics! (or see them in real life!)

EDIT: Silver Shatter pic!!

Discover a Treasure Trove of Color with New BRIGHTS by OPI, Inspired by Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Create Waves with Silver Shatter!

OPI captures the bright colors and breathtaking escapades seen in Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides with six limited-edition Nail Lacquers and a new Silver Shatter!  Disney’s highly-anticipated fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise is directed by Rob Marshall and features an all-star cast, including Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz.

To celebrate the new film, OPI launches its Spring 2011 BRIGHTS Collection, which features a groundbreaking new color addition in the Shatter coat formula– Silver. Inspired by graffiti art, this shade leaves behind a crackled, two-texture silver finish when painted over any dry OPI hue.

“OPI is thrilled to celebrate the latest film in this beloved series,” said Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI Executive VP & Artistic Director.  “The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides lacquers were inspired by a world filled with mythical mermaids, gleaming treasure, and high-seas adventure. With shades ranging from sage and lavender to khaki gray and pastel pink, these colors are evocative of a warm, tropical setting, with a classic nautical influence.”

The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides collection includes:

Skull & Glossbones

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Mermaid’s Tears

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Steady as She Rose

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Planks a Lot

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Sparrow Me the Drama

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Stranger Tides

Explore this uncharted sea of sage.

Silver Shatter

A shimmering sea of silver with a two-texture finish.

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ABOUT THE MOVIE

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Rob Marshall, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” captures the fun, adventure and humor that ignited the hit franchise—this time in Disney Digital 3D™. Johnny Depp returns to his iconic role of Captain Jack Sparrow in an action-packed adventure. Crossing paths with the enigmatic Angelica (Penelope Cruz), he’s not sure if it’s love—or if she’s a ruthless con artist who’s using him to find the fabled Fountain of Youth. When she forces him aboard the “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” the ship of the legendary pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), Jack finds himself on an unexpected adventure in which he doesn’t know whom to fear more: Blackbeard or Angelica, with whom he shares a mysterious past. The international cast includes franchise vets Geoffrey Rush as the vengeful Captain Hector Barbossa and Kevin R. McNally as Captain Jack’s longtime comrade Joshamee Gibbs, plus Sam Claflin as a stalwart missionary and Astrid Berges-Frisbey as a mysterious mermaid.

The screenplay for “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” was written by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio, suggested by the novel by Tim Powers.  The film opens in theaters on May 20, 2011, in Disney Digital 3D™.

Film Festival Studies Redux

Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul enjoys some festival fun as he receives the 2010 Palme D'Or for his film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives at the Cannes Film Festival

Film Studies For Free has been catching up with some great resources lately. One set which should really not pass its readers by is In Media Res's recent collection of work on 'Diversity of Film Festivals in East Asia' curated by Dina Iordanova and Ruby Cheung. All items are linked to directly below.

Here's a little excerpt from Iordanova and Cheung's curators' note:

Like their counterparts in the West, film festivals in East Asia have proliferated [...]. While the oldest festival in the region, the Asia-Pacific Film Festival, has been running since 1954, many younger ones have come into being in the 1990s and 2000s; at least four new festivals came into being in 2010, and a new festival in China’s capital will have its inaugural edition later in 2011. Are these festivals just mimicking the West? Red carpet glamour is not solely confined to the most important A-list film festivals in the West, its symbolism has been taken up by high profile festivals like those in Pusan and Shanghai [...]. Their booming film markets that take place in parallel here bring together filmmakers, buyers and sellers from around the world to establish networks and carry out intra-Asia transactions that successfully bracket out Hollywood. The West is only just beginning to wake up to the importance of these film festivals to global film distribution.

Not only are there some fascinating considerations of these issues in prose but, as is In Media Res's wont,  there are some fantastic video resources, too - valuable work, indeed.

For more on festivals, do please check out an earlier FSFF post on Film Festival Studies and have a read of the following assorted, high quality studies:

• SooJeong Ahn, The Pusan International Film Festival 1996-2005: South Korean cinema in local, regional, and global context, PhD Thesis,  University of Nottingham, 2008

• Chris Berry, 'My Queer Korea: Identity, Space, and the 1998 Seoul Queer Film & Video festival', Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, Issue 2, May 1999

• Jamie June, 'Is it Queer Enough?: An Analysis of the Criteria and Selection Process for Programming Films within Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Film Festivals in the United States' (e-Thesis)

• S. Loist, M. de Valck, 'Film festivals/Film festival research: thematic, annotated bibliography', 2nd ed. (Hamburg: Universität Hamburg, Institut für Germanistik II, 2010)

• Renee Penney, Desperately Seeking Redundancy? Queer Romantic Comedy and the Festival Audience, PhD Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2010

And for some more inspiring viewing watch

• Researchers' Tales: Richard Dyer (8 Mar 2010): The writer and academic discusses his instrumental role in the creation of the BFI London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, one of the world's most prestigious celebrations of queer cinema.

In Media Res: 'Diversity of Film Festivals in East Asia'

• Dina Iordanova (University of St. Andrews) and Ruby Cheung (University of St. Andrews) presents: Diversity of Film Festivals in East Asia: Red Carpets and Parades (Monday January 24, 2011)

• Abé Mark Nornes (University of Michigan) presents: When Strangers Meet (Tuesday January 25, 2011)

• Ragan Rhyne (New York University) presents: Queer Comrades (Wednesday January 26, 2011)

• Jean-Michel Frodon (Institute of Political Studies, Paris) presents: The Cinema World, made of what? or made of who?  (Thursday January 27, 2011)

• Chris Fujiwara (Editor, Undercurrent) presents: Rewriting Japanese Film History: Shibuya Minoru in Retrospect (Friday January 28, 2011)

On Godard and Philosophy

Trailer for Deux de la Vague/Two in the Wave, an in-depth analysis of the relationship between French New Wave pioneers François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, as seen through rare archival footage, interviews, and film excerpts — written by former Cahiers du Cinéma editor Antoine de Baecque and directed by Emmanuel Laurent. Read more about this film here.

Thanks to the very wonderful Girish Shambu, Film Studies For Free was lucky enough to hear of a special issue of the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy on Jean-Luc Godard. The table of contents, with direct links to all items, is given below.

For more reading (and viewing) on Godard, do please check out FSFF's last post on this filmmaker in December 2010.

Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, Vol 18, No 2 (2008-2010) 

Special issue on Godard and Philosophy, co-edited by Burlin Barr and John E. Drabinski 

Table of Contents

• 'Philosophy as a Kind of Cinema: Introducing Godard and Philosophy' by John E. Drabinski

• 'Schizoanalyzing Souls: Godard, Deleuze, and the Mystical Line of Flight' by David Sterritt
  

• 'Happiness is Not Fun: Godard, the 20th Century, and Badiou' by Michael Walsh

• 'The Audible Life of the Image' by David Wills

• 'Shot and Counter-shot: Presence, Obscurity, and the Breakdown of Discourse in Godard’s Notre Musique' by Burlin Barr

• 'Pedagogy of the Written Image' by Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield

• 'Modernism as a Misnomer: Godard's Archeology of the Image' by Gabriel Rockhill

• Notes on Contributors

My World is Shattered

Hey all! I know I've been kind of MIA lately, and for that, I apologize! Things have been really hectic, and my work schedule just got more and more hours. I finally got to the point where I felt like couldn't keep up with everything in the way that I wanted to, so I decided to cut back on hours at the second job... from 35-40 down to hopefully 20-25 in addition to my 40 hours at my day job. I hope that in the next couple of weeks I'll get back on a more regular posting schedule, and I appreciate y'all being patient!! :-D

Today's nail art utilizes the super kickass new polish from OPI, Shatter! For those of you dear readers that were alive and interested in cosmetics in the 90s, you'll remember the Cover Girl Crackle polishes... this one is much better. ;-D I love that the cracks happen in the direction your brushstrokes go, so you can really play with it to make cool designs (I did diagonal on my thumb, and some zig zag when I initially tried the product (not pictured).

I also used the new Nicole by OPI Liquid Metals collection in this manicure!

I used Nicole by OPI Give me the First Dance (from Justin Bieber collection), with Nicole by OPI It Starts With Me, Nicole by OPI Miss Independent, Nicole by OPI Rich In Spirit, and Nicole by OPI The Next CEO sponged over it randomly. For the crackle, I used OPI Shatter in one quick coat. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Also, check out the awesome flowers my boyfriend sent me yesterday!! :-D It was a HUGE surprise! :-P

"An incarnation of the modern": In Memory of Miriam Bratu Hansen, 1949-2011

Last updated: February 14, 2011

From the lecture "ARTISTS AND MODELS (1955): Modernism, Medium-Specificity, and Mayhem" by Miriam Hansen, delivered in May 2009 at the University of Chicago, Film Studies Center.

Hollywood cinema was perceived, not just in the United States but in modernizing capitals all over the world, as an incarnation of the modern. [...]

American movies of the classical period offered something like the first global vernacular. If this vernacular had a transnational and translatable resonance it was not just because of its optimal mobilization of biologically hard-wired structures and universal narrative templates, but because this vernacular played a key role in mediating competing cultural discourses on modernity and modernization; because it articulated, brought into optical consciousness (to vary Benjamin), and disseminated a particular historical experience. [Miriam Hansen, “Fallen Women, Rising Stars, New Horizons: Shanghai Silent Film as Vernacular Modernism,” Film Quarterly 54.1 (Fall 2000): 10-22, 30]

[Miriam] Hansen’s argument [about “vernacular modernisms”] is that early “classical” or studio cinemas are inextricably intertwined with the experience of modernization and modernity. While this argument, as she claims, is in and of itself not incredibly radical, her argument provides significant [additions to] three areas of film scholarship: it enlarges the discussion of modernism to [include] other media affected by the process of modernization, it intervenes in the binary between psychoanalytic and cognitive approaches to classical Hollywood cinema, and it [...] speaks to the question of Hollywood cinema’s early global hegemony during the 1920s-40s. In this last discussion, Hansen speaks of Hollywood’s flexibility in appropriating an amalgamation of diverse domestic interests in its inauguration of mass audience. [Kirsten Strayer, Ruins and Riots: Transnational Currents in Mexican Cinema, PhD Thesis, University of Pittsburgh 2009, p. 49]

Miriam Hansen differentiates between the use of the terms “audience” and “spectator” not just as a theoretical or methodological distinction operative within viewer-oriented studies (as do Kuhn, Mayne, Staiger and others who posit the former as a “real” social collective and the latter as a hypothetical or ideal construct of the text); instead, Hansen argues that the emergence of the “spectator” (and concomitant suppression of the “audience” as such) is historically specific, marking a paradigm shift between early and later cinema (around 1909). [Melanie Nash, 'Introduction', Cinémas : revue d'études cinématographiques / Cinémas: Journal of Film Studies, vol. 14, n° 1, 2003, p. 7-19; citing Miriam Hansen, Babel and Babylon: Spectatorship in American Silent Film, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1991 (pp. 23-24), p. 18]

The unprecedented acceleration of technological innovation and circulation have created conditions in which consciousness is more than ever inadequate to the state of technological development, its power to destroy and enslave human bodies, hearts, and minds. At the same time, new media such as video and the digital media have expanded the formal and material arsenal for imaginative practices and have opened up new modes of publicness that already enact a different, and potentially alternative, engagement with technology.
    This antinomic situation eludes the perspective of strictly media theory, especially in its ontological and teleological bent (for example, Paul Virilio, Friedrich Kittler, Norbert Bolz), to say nothing of popular pundits' techno-pessimism. It requires understanding the practices, both productive and receptive, of technology in increasingly overlapping yet fractured, unequal yet unpredictable public spheres. It urges us to resume Benjamin's concern for the conditions of apperception, sensorial affect, and cognition, experience and memory—in short, for a political ecology of the senses.
    For us—teachers, scholars, intellectuals—to engage on both sides of this antinomy, we need theory, and we need aesthetics. The current reinvention of the aesthetic in the humanities would do well to heed Benjamin's lesson. The question of the fate of art in the age of technological reproducibility still maps a heuristic—and historical—horizon that no serious effort to refocus the study of literature and other traditional arts can afford to ignore. At the very least, awareness of that horizon should guard the renewed attention to formal and stylistic questions against illusory attempts to revive artistic autonomy, as an enclave protected against technical mediation and commodification. [Miriam Hansen, 'Why Media Aesthetics', Critical Inquiry, Vol. 30, No. 2, 2004-5]

When Film Studies For Free posted the above embedded video a week ago, in an entry on online film studies lectures at the University of Chicago, it couldn't have imagined the almost immediate and extremely sad circumstances in which it would be reposted. But word has come, via Tom Gunning and other film scholars, that Miriam Hansen, one of the true paradigm-shifters of our discipline, one of its most gifted historians and theorists, has passed away.

Miriam Hansen was Ferdinand Schevill Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she also taught in the Department of English and the Committee on Cinema and Media Studies. Her publications include a book on Ezra Pound’s early poetics (1979) and Babel and Babylon: Spectatorship in American Silent Film (1991). She was completing a study entitled The Other Frankfurt School: Kracauer, Benjamin, and Adorno on Cinema, Mass Culture, and Modernity. Her next project was to be a book on the notion of cinema as vernacular modernism.

Inspired by her lifelong study of the Frankfurt School, Hansen's work rethought cinema as a part of the public and counterpublic spheres, situating it within a larger discourse of popular culture, and thus opening up the essential study of such 'periphery texts' as fan magazines, gossip columns, movie reviews, and so on. But her development of the concept of vernacular modernism also completely set the scene for the field of world or transnational cinema studies; and her historical work on cinematic spectatorship and her highly original addressing of the sensual experiences of film and new media are likewise in the process of revolutionizing their field of study (as W.J. T. Mitchell argues in relation to 'Miriam Hansen’s urging that cinema and other media be regarded as a vernacular modernism in which new theoretical propositions might be articulated while the senses are being reeducated').

It is hard to think, then, of anyone who has made a more significant contribution to Film Studies (and, latterly, new media studies), in the context of the Humanities as a whole, than she did.

Film Studies For Free hopes that Hansen knew just how grateful we are for her research -- how changed we are by it -- as well as for her inspiring work as a teacher. Here is a link to a warm and touching tribute by one of Hansen's former students.

Links to some of Hansen's work, as well as to some of the work it inspired, are given below. Further links, including ones to online tributes to her, will be added here as they come to FSFF's notice.

Online Tributes to Miriam Hansen:

• Tom Gunning, 'A Tribute to Miram Hansen', Society for Cinema and Media Studies, February 7, 2011
• Margalit Fox, 'Miriam Hansen, a Scholar of Cinema, Dies at 61', The New York Times,February 12, 2011
• Steven Pate, 'Renowned Film Scholar Miriam Hansen Dies', Chicagoist, February 9, 2011
• Cinetrix Pullquote, 'RIP Miriam Hansen', Cinetrix, February 6, 2011
• Azra Raza, 'In Memory of Miriam Bratu Hansen, 1949-2011', 3QuarksDaily, February 6, 2011
• Chris Cagle, 'Miriam Bratu Hansen', Category D: A Film and Media Studies Blog, February 7, 2011 

Work by Miriam Hansen online:

• Miriam Bratu Hansen, 'The Mass Production of the Senses: Classical Cinema as Vernacular Modernism', Modernism-Modernity, Vol. 6.2, 1999

• Miriam Bratu Hansen, 'America, Paris, The Alps: Kracauer (and Benjamin) on Cinema and Modernity', John F. Kennedy-Institut fur Nordamerikastudien, Working Paper No. 72, 1994

• Miriam Hansen, 'Early cinema, late cinema: permutations of the public sphere', Screen, 34:3, 1993 (currently Open Access)

• Miriam Hansen, 'Why Media Aesthetics', Critical Inquiry, Vol. 30, No. 2, 2004-5

• Miriam Hansen, 'Benjamin, Cinema and Experience: "The Blue Flower in the Land of Technology"', New German Critique, No. 40, Special Issue on Weimar Film Theory. (Winter, 1987), pp. 179-224

• Miriam Hansen, 'Mass Culture as Hieroglyphic Writing: Adorno, Derrida, Kracauer', New German Critique, No. 56, Special Issue on Theodor W. Adorno. (Spring - Summer, 1992), pp. 43-73

• Miriam Bratu Hansen, 'Room-For-Play: Benjamin's Gamble with Cinema', The Martin Walsh Memorial Lecture, Canadian Journal of Film Studies; Spring 2004; 13, 1

• Miriam Hansen, 'Visual Pleasure, Fetishism and the Problem of Feminine/Feminist Discourse: Ulrike Ottinger's Ticket of No Return', New German Critique, No. 31, West German Culture and Politics. (Winter, 1984), pp. 95-108

• Alexander Kluge; Thomas Y. Levin; Miriam B. Hansen, 'On Film and the Public Sphere', New German Critique, No. 24/25, Special Double Issue on New German Cinema. (Autumn, 1981 - Winter, 1982), pp. 206-220

• Miriam Bratu Hansen, 'Excerpt from Benjamin and Cinema: Not a One Way Street', Critical Inquiry,Vol. 25, No. 2, 1999

Other Scholars on aspects of Hansen's work:

• Dudley Andrew, 'An Atlas of World Cinema', later published in Framework, 45.2, Fall 2004

• Chris Cagle, 'On Vernacular Modernism', Category D: A Film and Media Studies Blog, July 26, 2006

• Jan Campbell, 'Editorial: Kracauer', New Formations 61

• Stephanie Hanson, '“Electrical wonders of the present age”:cinema-going on the Far South Coast of NSW and rural discourses of modernity', Screening the Past, Issue 24, 2009

• Adrian Martin,'Balance and Linkage : Robert Mulligan's The Man in the Moon', Film Journal, Issue 11

• Allen Meek, 'Benjamin, the televisual and the "fascistic subject", Screening the Past, September 1998

• W.J.T. Mitchell, 'Medium Theory: Preface to the 2003 Critical Inquiry Symposium', Critical Inquiry, Vol. 30, No. 22004-5

• Andrew Nelson, 'Cinema from Attractions: Story and Synergy in Disney’s Theme Park Movies', Cinephile, Vol. 4, Summer 2008

• Justus Nieland, 'Modernism's Laughter', Modernist Cultures, Issue 4, 2009

• Justus Nieland, 'Archives of Modernist Cinephilia', MODERNISM/Modernity, 14(2), 347-355, 2007

• Kyoko Omori, Detecting Japanese Vernacular Modernism: Shinseinen Magazine and the Development of the Tantei Shosetsu Genre, 1920-1931, PhD Thesis, Ohio State University, 2003

• Kirsten Strayer, Ruins and Riots: Transnational Currents in Mexican Cinema, PhD Thesis, University of Pittsburgh 2009

• Chen Xiangyang, 'Technologizing the Vernacular: Cantonese Opera Films through The Legend of Purple Hairpin', David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies (LEWI), Working Paper Series, No. 67, September 2007