A Single Man (2009)

Tom Ford. The great Tom Ford made a beautiful movie. He put this wonderful story to the silver screen and made it shine. It is one of the most visually pleasing movies I have ever seen. I have told many many people about it in the last 3 days, since seeing it in the theater, and when professing my love for this movie I described it like this...

It is like living in a realistic 1962, going to see a fashion show, a classical concert full of strings, and visiting a wonderfully glamorous art gallery all within 2 hours.

I am just in awe of the vision this movie has. Not only is it a perfect love story between two normal people with different views in the wrong decade, but it shown and told so very well.

I couldn't get enough of the sadness Colin Firth's character, George Falconer, felt. No one could quite understand him or grieve with him, since he was forced to live his true life in private. His happy moments in the film were brought about by bursts of brilliant color and vibrance. It is now one of my favorite movies of all time and by far the best visual movie I have ever seen.

I kept expecting to be let down in some portion of the movie but it kept getting better and better. By the end of the movie, it was whole and complete with nothing left to wonder about. Carly and I just sat through the credits in awe. We just kind of stared at each other with the same feelings about what we had just experienced.

If I happened to be a film critic, I would recommend this movie to anyone who has felt love in their lives. I give it two thumbs up, five stars, and an A+.

Just last week I wrote a post about my favorite fashion in movies... this one is now at the top of the list.

I am writing this on both blogs because it not only has to do with fashion but life and the beautiful things there are to see.

movie inspirations

If you know me, you know that I love movies. I also love fashion in movies as it helps set the tone of the character and of course the movie itself. How can fashion + movies not be my favorite combo?

I thought I would put together a list of films that are great fashion inspirations to me.

*Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night (1934)
*The Women (1939)
*Joan Fontaine in Rebecca (1940)
*The Palm Beach Story (1942)
*Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity (1944)
*Bette Davis in All About Eve (1950)
*Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face (1957)
*Marilyn Monroe (and Jack Lemmon & Tony Curtis) in Some Like it Hot (1959)
*Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
*Paul Newman & Julie Andrews in Torn Curtain (1966)
*Valley of the Dolls (1967)
*A Clockwork Orange (1971)
*Mia Farrow & Robert Redford in The Great Gatsby (1974)
*Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta in Grease (1978)
*Bernadette Peters in The Jerk (1979)
*Peter Sellers & Shirley MacLaine in Being There (1979)
*Richard Gere in American Gigolo (1980)
*Olivia Newton-John in Xanadu (1980)
*Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface (1983)
*Meryl Streep in Out of Africa (1985)
*Kim Cattral in Mannequin (1987)
*Edward Scissorhands (1990)
*Heathers (1992)
*Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny (1992)
*Alicia Silverstone in Clueless (1995)
*Kate Winslet in Titanic (1997)
*Cruel Intentions (1999)
*Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
*Kate Blanchett in The Aviator (2004)
*Rachel McAdams in The Notebook (2004)
*The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
*Kirsten Dunst in Marie Antoinette (2006)
*Keira Knightly in Atonement (2007)
*Sex and the City: The Movie (2008)
*Zooey Deschanel & Joseph Gordon-Levitt in (500) Days of Summer (2009)

A lot of these movies have a really classic feel to them. I just love styles from the period piece films. So many of these movies have classic styles which all other future fashions are based on. The others are just fantastic representations of the period in which the movie is made.

After looking through movie titles to try to come up with this list, I have found that most of my favorite movie costumes come from the wonderfully talented Edith Head. She mainly did the gowns, suits or costumes for the leading ladies like Tippi Hedron, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Ingrid Bergman, Judy Garland, Rita Hayworth, Julie Andrews, Shirley MacLaine, and many many more.

I love, love, LOVE Edith Head!

It took me a really long time to come up with these movies/inspirations. I have loved them for a long time but just recently realized that I should truly start paying good attention to the fashion in movies.

watch movies. dress well.