#* 𝆕 . . . re: paris harrow. / i believe you and i know why. 𝄒

[deatheless]

tag dump 1

* 𝆕 . . . ooc. / do a little dancey dance! 𝄒

* 𝆕 . . . musings. / dance me back into the script. 𝄒

* 𝆕 . . . visage. / now you're deathless in art. 𝄒

* 𝆕 . . . aesthetic. / life is such a tease. 𝄒

* 𝆕 . . . re: paris harrow. / i believe you and i know why. 𝄒

* 𝆕 . . . re: andie king. / i hope it does not heal. 𝄒

* 𝆕 . . . re: lauren watts. / do you ever wish you weren't a coward? 𝄒

* 𝆕 . . . re: adriana foley-webster. / keep it together for both of us. 𝄒

[miminmimikyu]

Prodigy episodes 15-16: If at first you do not succeed (your first officer says "no, we should be sensible" re: your plan steal a ship AGAIN), try again (just immediately ask your former first officer, hoping for a different answer). King Janeway <3

Tell me this (top) doesn't remind you of this (bottom)

“I’m not your number one anymore…” “things can’t stay the same forever” god why are those two like this.

Iiiiiiinteresting that they’re discussing Endgame here. And I can't believe Janeway’s clothes are a bootstrap paradox now

I 100% wonder what the gang is assuming about Janeway and Chakotay’s relationship!! Is their takeaway message “ah. married?” or “huh. i suppose captain-first officer dynamics are like that”

Kinda obsessed with how often Janeway and Chakotay being loving towards each other is paired with Dal and Gwyn, either in the same frame or in a shot directly preceding/after it.

Ahh I’m reminded again about how Chakotay’s a former terrorist but was probably the most rule-abiding person on Voyager. There’s probably a higher chance of Tuvok agreeing to a plan involving ship stealing than Chakotay.

Ascencia has the worst (best) timing. Doesn’t realise that by attacking she’s given Janeway an ironclad legally bulletproof reason to ignore Starfleet orders and to continue with the mission (HER mission). Don’t get in the way of a Janeway who’s just been told they’re going to split up her crew. Ascencia may think she has a near-omniscient time traveler as a trump card but he didn’t tell her to wait x days until Janeway was locked up in her office before declaring war with the Federation!

Just the idea of Janeway sitting behind a desk is making me itch.

Obviously Ascencia couldn’t know about Jellico’s orders, but she really hasn’t studied Janeway enough (both during the time she infiltrated the crew of the Dauntless + any reading she did while in Starfleet). It’s interesting that just by the coincidence that Janeway was the highest in command on the ship Ascencia infiltrated, Janeway morphs into a representation of all of Starfleet in Ascencia's eyes and thus has turned almost Ascencia's entire focus of revenge towards Janeway. Notably, the other revenge target is Gwyn (Ilthuran's betrayal) and though that's definitely 95% personal/5% mission, she acts no different with Janeway. She's taking pleasure in seeing Janeway suffer, so similar to how she takes personal joy in Gwyn's suffering. Even more interesting is that Chakotay, the guy who foiled the future!Vau Na'kat plans with the Protostar, was right there in view when she videocalled Janeway. She must know of him, but she didn’t react to him at al-- just to Janeway & Gwyn (Or maybe that confrontation is for a later episode).

I’m loving Dal gaining some respect from the other Nova cadets. NOT loving that they’ve been sent off to battle

So many Tom Paris mentions (yay) but what i really want is a Harry mention....... please

Right, that's what I forgot about in episode 13: Jankom helping Zero through their body deteriorating is everything to me………"I just want to feel like... me." aaaaaaaaaaa

Dal has grown so much! I can’t believe he’s the one to put the gang at ease and reassure them that the Federation might better equipped to fix everything. No doubt that all the competent, trustworthy adults Dal has met since boarding the Protostar have had their hand in this change. Again, I really love that the Prodigy writers chose to have the S2 adults treat the children with respect, so we get moments like these.

God that space battle was so exciting! After so many Voyager-A crewmembers were killed by the Loom, it was so nerve-wracking seeing them sit there dead in the water! I for sure thought Tysess was a goner!

Zerooooooooooooo!! A harrowing experience and sacrifice worthy of any of the "adult" Star Trek shows!!! π_π Zero’s new suit is so nice! It's even crafted "from" the Protostar by Jankom, couldn't be nicer! Also I really like how this episode resolved the whole corporeal-noncorporeal binary with Zero settling on not one or the other, but something new and unique in between. Good for them!

(Too bad they can’t eat anymore, but if original Voyager’s crew is anything to go by, Tuvix’s food was the best anyone has ever eaten so after experiencing that, there’s nothing to beat that I suppose)

Maj'el is pretty bold doing that in front of everyone! Teenage "who cares" mentality or is that hypothesis about "unhinged" Vulcans ending up in Starfleet true?

[mlmgaze]

Fic snippet

Post-season 1 where Daniel escapes  gracefully exits Dubai but then Armand shows up and wants his interview. And other vampires show up as things go👀!!! 

This bit is from the first Daniel Armand interaction. Add to the (beautiful wonderful) pile of fics where the “whore number” line comes back up.

“Please. I insist.”

Not letting up on his glare, Daniel pulled up his bank’s web portal in another window.

And there it was. He resisted the urge to rub his eyes like a cartoon character. After nonetheless double checking himself a few times he looked up at Armand. “What’s this supposed to be?”

“Ten million dollars.”

Daniel kept as still as he could, like Armand was the fucking T-Rex from Jurassic Park, and tried to focus on keeping his thoughts to himself. “Why?”

“I believe that was the compensation you requested to sit in a room and let someone talk to you,” Armand said mildly.

Daniel exhaled sharply and started re-working his game plan for this whole encounter. He was fully aware he should be having some reaction to getting ten mil dropped into his fucking local credit union savings account, but he was more focused on the relief that Armand hadn’t said “whore number” anywhere in his answer.

“So…what, you want your turn now? Because it went so well with your boyfriend?”

“Most of what happened that week was inadvisable. But, yes, I have some things I’d like to get ‘on the record.’”

Unfortunately, Daniel believed him. The Vampire Armand was standing in his kitchen and Daniel wasn’t dead, and the money really was there. All signs pointed to another harrowing little story time. But it wasn’t reluctance with which Daniel flicked open a new notes document. No, it was only-barely-veiled excitement. Louis had given him decades of first-person testimony to history. The kind of primary source any historian would kill for. If he played his cards right, Armand could give him centuries of it. No academic would ever believe a word of it but Daniel would know. And he was desperate for it.

“All right, I accept.” He tried for a stern, unshakeable glare. “If you’re serious.”

Armand didn’t even blink. “I’m quite serious.”

“Okay.” Daniel gave a cursory shove to his glasses and dove in. “First question: Where’s Louis? And what did you tell that made him hit the road that fast?”

“I don’t think we’ll be starting tonight, Daniel.” Armand finally broke eye contact and glanced down to begin buttoning his coat. “Five hundred and fourteen years, remember? You need time to do your math. And your research.”

“Not a great start if you’re ignoring my first question,” Daniel commented dryly.

Armand was already at the door. “Good night, Daniel.”

“Yeah,” Daniel grumbled. He turned his attention to Google, wondering if he should go for post-war Paris or the renaissance first.

“Good luck with your taxes this year.”

Daniel snapped his head up to see Armand sporting what could only be called a shit-eating grin. And then he was gone.

Fucking vampires.

[eggcatsreads]

January Reading Wrap-Up

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Favorite Read of the Month:

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (GR review)

Oct. 11th, 1943—A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun.

Code Name Verity is the heart-wrenching story of a woman captured by the Gestapo as a Nazi spy - and her confession.

I HIGHLY recommend going into this book blind, without looking at ANY spoilers as I guarantee you will not see everything that's going on. This is also a book that really lends to a re-read, which is what this was for me. I had read this book last year, and even still this was still a top read for me - despite knowing what was going to happen. This book has a lot of hidden clues throughout that you only really catch on a re-read, but absolutely do not spoil the book for yourself. Trust me.

The beginning portion of this book can be very slow and seem to drag on for a while. Believe me when I say you need to push past it and finish to the end. Once the second section of this novel starts it's a whirlwind and everything you thought you understood for the first part is suddenly turned on it's head.

-----------------------

Other Five Star Reads:

Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham (GR review)

The story of Chernobyl is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth. A harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the 1986 disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand.

I highly suggest this read if you have ever been interested in the Chernobyl disaster and wanted a nonfiction book that brought it to life, and also explained nuclear physics in a way that even non-nuclear physicists could understand. I mostly listened to this through audiobook, and there were times I was glad I was working alone because my jaw literally dropped and I gasped and reacted out loud to what was going on.

-----------------------

The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror by Multi

Hauntings, and a variety of horrifying secrets, lurk in the places we once called home. These stories shed a harsh light on the scariest tales we grew up with.

What it says on the tin. An anthology of horror stories by various authors (many of which I personally love their other works). If you like horror, especially creeping gothic horror, check out these stories. It's a quick read, and a fun way to bring some spice into your life without the commitment.

-----------------------

Rest of Books Read Under the Cut:

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

The inspiring young women exposed to the "wonder" substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

Superheavy by Kit Chapman (GR review)

An in-depth look at how synthetic elements are discovered, why they matter and where they will take us. From the Cold War nuclear race to the present day, scientists have stretched the periodic table to 118 elements.

Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher by Brandy Schillace

In the early days of the Cold War, a spirit of desperate scientific rivalry birthed a different kind of space not the race to outer space that we all know, but a race to master the inner space of the human body.

-----------------------

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell

As the age of the photograph dawns in Victorian Bath, silhouette artist Agnes is struggling to keep her business afloat. But then one of her clients is murdered shortly after sitting for Agnes, and then another, and another... Why is the killer seemingly targeting her business?

The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff

Twelve women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home, their fates a mystery. 

Plastic Fantastic by Eugenie Samuel Reich

This is the story of wunderkind physicist Jan Hendrik Schön who faked the discovery of a new superconductor made from plastic.

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston

Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God.

-----------------------

Rating: ⭐⭐

White Horse by Erika T. Wurth

Haunted by visions of her mother and hunted by this mysterious creature, Kari must search for what happened to her mother all those years ago. 

-----------------------

All my reviews and opinions are my own, and if you liked something I didn't that's great! My rating system is super subjective (like all of them are) and I definitely don't like books others do, and that's fine since we're not all the same person, lol.

My ratings are generally:

5 stars: Books I enjoyed the entire time I read them. I had fun, it was exciting, and I wanted to continue reading. Many times, the difference between a 4 and 5 star read to me is simply the Vibes. If I had fun reading the book, or was really invested, I'll give it 5 stars even if it's not objectively That Great of a Book. If the Vibes say so, they say so.

4 stars: Great book, but there was simply something that didn't fully connect with me or there were a few slow spots. ALSO many of the debuts I read I tend to rate 4 stars, since they're a new author and I don't want to rate too harshly. 4 stars is my safe rating when I can't fully commit to a 5 stars, but it either wasn't "bad" enough or I don't want to be mean enough to rate anything lower.

3 stars: Run-of-the-mill. Nothing surprising. Book was read, but I could handle having not read it. If "Ehhh?" with a waving hand was a book.

2 stars: I disliked something about this book, and at times I may have finished it because I had already invested this much time into it. This book might have made me angry with something the author chose to do or include, but it never quite reached the spite reading stage.

1 star: I finished this book out of spite. If I could fight it in an alleyway I would. I wish I could bring back the tree that died to make this book so it could fight the author personally for doing this to it.

-----------------------

Books read so far this year: 11

[popculty]

52 Films by Women: 2020 Edition

Another annual challenge complete!

Last year, I focused on diversifying my list. This year I kept that intention but focused on watching more non-American films and films from the 20th century. Specifically, I sought out Agnès Varda’s entire filmography, after her death in 2019. (I was not disappointed - What a filmmaking legend we lost.) 

I also kept a film log for the first time and have included some of my thoughts on several films from that log. I made a point of including reviews both positive and negative, because I think it’s important to acknowledge the variability and breadth of the canon, so as not to put every film directed by a woman on a pedestal. (Although movies directed by women must clear a much higher bar to be greenlit, meaning generally higher quality...But that’s an essay for another day :)

* = directed by a woman of color

bold = fave

1. The Rhythm Section (2020) dir. Reed Morano - Not as good as it could have been, given Morano’s proven skill behind the camera, but also not nearly as bad as the critics made it out to be. And unbelievably refreshing to see a female revenge story not driven by sexual assault or the loss of a husband/child.

2. Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962) dir. Agnès Varda - If you ever wanted to take a real-time tour of Paris circa 1960, this is the film for you.

3. Little Women (2019) dir. Greta Gerwig - Still my favorite Little Women adaptation. I will re-watch it every year and cry.

4. Varda by Agnès (2019) dir. Agnès Varda & Didier Rouget

5. Booksmart (2019) dir. Olivia Wilde - An instant classic high school comedy romp that subverts all the gross tropes of its 1980s predecessors.

6. Girls of the Sun (2018) dir. Eva Husson

7. Blue My Mind (2017) dir. Lisa Brühlmann

8. Portrait of a Lady On Fire (2019) dir. Céline Sciamma - Believe the hype. This film is a master thesis on the female gaze, and also just really effing gorgeous.

9. Belle Epine (2010) dir. Rebecca Zlotowski

10. Vamps (2012) dir. Amy Heckerling - With Krysten Ritter and Alicia Silverstone as modern-day vampires, I was so ready for this movie. But it feels like a bad stage play or a sit-com that’s missing a laugh-track. Bummer.

11. *Birds of Prey (2020) dir. Cathy Yan - Where has this movie been all our lives?? Skip the next onslaught of Snyder-verse grim-darkery and give me two more of these STAT! 

12. She’s Missing (2019) dir. Alexandra McGuinness

13. The Mustang (2019) dir. Laure de Clermont-Tonnere - Trigger warning for the “protagonist” repeatedly punching a horse in the chest. I noped right out of there.

14. Monster (2003) dir. Patty Jenkins – I first watched this movie when I was probably too young and haven’t revisited it since. The rape scene traumatized me as a kid, but as an adult I appreciate how that trauma is not the center of the movie, or even of Aileen’s life. Everyone still talks about how Charlize “went ugly” for this role, but the biggest transformation here isn’t aesthetic, it’s physical – the way Theron replicates Wuernos’ mannerisms, way of speaking, and physicality. That’s why she won the Oscar. I also love that Jenkins calls the film “Monster” (which everyone labels Aileen), but then actually uses it to tell the story of how she fell in love with a woman when she was at her lowest, and that saved her. That’s kind of beautiful, and I’m glad I re-watched it so that I could see the story in that light, instead of the general memory I had of it being a good, feel-bad movie. It’s so much more than that.

15. Water Lilies (2007) dir. Céline Sciamma – Sciamma’s screenwriting and directorial debut, the first in her trilogy on youth, is as painfully beautiful as its sequels (Tomboy and Girlhood). It’s also one of the rare films that explores the overlap of queerness and girl friendships.

16. The Trouble with Angels (1966) dir. Ida Lupino – Movies about shenanigan-based female friendships are such rare delights. Rosalind Russel is divine as Mother Superior, and Hayley Mills as “scathingly brilliant” as the pranks she plays on her. Ida Lupino’s skill as an editor only enhances her directing, providing some truly iconic visual gags to complement dialogue snappy enough for Gilmore Girls. 

17. Vagabond (1985) dir. Agnès Varda – Shot with a haunting realism, this film has no qualms about its heroine’s inevitable, unceremonious death, which it opens with, matter-of-factly, before retracing her final (literal) steps to the road-side ditch she ends up in. (I’m partly convinced said heroine was the inspiration for Sarah Manning in Orphan Black.)

18. One Sings, The Other Doesn’t (1977) dir. Agnès Varda – Probably my favorite classic Varda, this film feels incredibly personal. It’s essentially a love story about two best friends with very different lives. For an indie made in the ‘70s, the diversity, scope, and themes of the film are impressive. Even if the second half a drags a bit, the first half is absolute perfection, engaging the viewer immediately, and clipping along, sprinkling in some great original songs that were way progressive for their time (about abortion, female bodily autonomy, etc) and could still be considered “bangers” today.

19. Emma (2020) dir. Autumn de Wilde

20. Black Panthers (1969) dir. Agnès Varda

21. Into the Forest (2016) dir. Patricia Rozema - When the world was ending (i.e. the pandemic hit) this was the first movie I turned to - a quiet, meditative story of two sisters (Elliot Page and Evan Rachel Wood) surviving off the land after a sudden global blackout. Four years later, it’s still one of my favorite book-to-screen adaptations. I fondly remember speaking with director Patricia Rozema at the 2016 Chicago Critics Film Festival after a screening, her love for the source material and desire to “get it right” so apparent. I assured her then, and reaffirm now, that she really did.

22. City of Trees (2019) dir. Alexandra Swarens

23. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020) dir. Eliza Hittmann - To call this a harrowing and deeply personal journey of a sixteen-year-old who must cross state lines to get an abortion would be accurate, but incomplete. It is a story so much bigger than that, about the myriad ways women’s bodies and boundaries are constantly violated.

24. Paradise Hills (2019) dir. Alice Waddington

25. *Eve’s Bayou (1996) dir. Kasi Lemmons – I’ve been meaning to watch Kasi Lemmons’ directorial debut for many years now, and I’m so glad I finally have, because it fully deserves its icon status, beyond being one of the first major films directed by a black woman. Baby Jurnee Smollett's talent was immediately recognizable, and she has reminded us of it in Birds of Prey and Lovecraft Country this year. If merit was genuinely a factor for Oscar contenders, she would have taken home gold at eleven years old. Beasts of the Southern Wild has been one of my all-time favorites, but now I realize that most of my appreciation for that movie actually goes to Lemmons for blazing the trail with her story of a young black girl from the bayou first. It’s also a surprisingly dark story about memory and abuse and familial relationships that cross lines - really gutsy and surprising themes, especially for the ‘90s.

26. Blow the Man Down (2019) dir. Bridget Savage Cole & Danielle Krudy - Come and get your sea shanty fix!

27. Touchy Feely (2013) dir. Lynn Shelton - R.I.P. :(

28. Hannah Gadsby: Douglas (2020) dir. Madeleine Parry - If you thought Gadsby couldn’t follow up 2018′s sensational Nanette with a comedy special just as sharp and hilarious, you would have been sorely mistaken.

29. Girlhood (2013) dir. Céline Sciamma

30. Breathe (2014) dir. Mélanie Laurent

31. *A Dry White Season (1989) dir. Euzhan Palcy

32. Laggies (2014) dir. Lynn Shelton

33. *The Old Guard (2020) dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood – Everything I’ve ever wanted in an action movie: Immortal gays, Charlize Theron wielding a labrys (battle axe), kinetic fight choreography I haven’t seen since the last Bond movie…Watched it twice, then devoured the comics it was adapted from, and I gotta say: in the hands of black women, it eclipses the source material. Cannot wait for the just-announced sequel.

34. Morvern Callar (2002) dir. Lynn Ramsay

35. Shirley (2020) dir. Josephine Decker

36. *Radioactive (2019) dir. Marjane Satrapi – The story is obviously well worth telling and the narrative structure – weaving in the future consequences of Curie’s discoveries – is clever, but a bit awkwardly executed and overly manipulative. There are glimpses of real brilliance throughout, but it feels as if the director’s vision was not fully realized, to my great disappointment. Nonetheless, I appreciated seeing Marie Curie's story being told by a female director and embodied by the always wonderful Rosamund Pike.

37. *The Half of It (2020) dir. Alice Wu - I feel like a real scrooge for saying this, but this movie did nothing for me. Nothing about it felt fresh, authentic or relatable. A real disappointment from the filmmaker behind the wlw classic Saving Face.

38. Mouthpiece (2018) dir. Patricia Rozema - I am absolutely floored. One of those films that makes you fall in love with the art form all over again. Patricia Rozema continues to prove herself one of the most creatively ambitious and insightful directors of our time, with this melancholic meditation on maternal grief and a woman’s duality.

39. Summerland (2020) dir. Jessica Swale - The rare period wlw love story that is not a) all-white or b) tragedy porn. Just lovely.

40. *The Last Thing He Wanted (2020) dir. Dee Rees – As rumored, a mess. Even by the end, I still couldn’t tell you who any of the characters are. Dee, we know you’re so much better than this! (see: Mudbound, Pariah)

41. *Cuties (2020) dir. Maïmouna Doucouré – I watched this film to 1) support a black woman director who has been getting death threats for her work and 2) see what all the fuss is about. While I do think there were possibly some directorial choices that could have saved quite a bit of the pearl-clutching, overall, I didn’t find it overly-exploitative or gross, as many (who obviously haven’t actually watched the film) have labeled it. It certainly does give me pause, though, and makes me wonder whether children can ever be put in front of a camera without it exploiting or causing harm to them in some way. It also makes one consider the blurry line between being a critique versus being an example. File this one under complicated, for sure.

42. A Call to Spy (2019) Lydia Dean Pilcher – An incredible true story of female spies during WWII that perfectly satisfied my itch for British period drama/spy thriller and taught me so much herstory I didn’t know.

43. Kajillionaire (2020) dir. Miranda July - I was lucky enough to attend the (virtual) premiere of this film, followed by an insightful cast/director Q&A, which only made me appreciate it more. July's offbeat dark comedy about a family of con artists is queerer and more heartfelt than it has any right to be, and a needed reprieve in a year of almost entirely white wlw stories. The family's shenanigans are the hook, but it's the budding relationship between Old Dolio (an almost unrecognizable Evan Rachel Wood) and aspiring grifter Melanie (the luminous Gina Rodriguez) that is the heart of the story.

44. Misbehaviour (2020) dir. Philippa Lowthorpe – Again, teaching me herstory I didn’t know, about how the Women’s Liberation Movement stormed the 1970 Miss World Pageant. Keira Knightley and Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s characters have a conversation in a bathroom at the end of the film that perfectly eviscerates well-meaning yet ignorant white feminism, without ever pitting women against each other - a feat I didn’t think was possible. I also didn’t think it was possible to critique the male gaze without showing it (*ahem Cuties, Bombshell, etc*), but this again, invents a way to do it. Bless women directors.

45. *All In: The Fight for Democracy (2020) dir. Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortes – 2020’s 13th. Thank god for Stacey Abrams, that is all.

46. *The 40-Year-Old Version (2020) dir. Radha Blank – This scene right here? I felt that in my soul. This whole film is so good and funny and heartfelt and relatable to any artist trying to walk that tightrope of “making it” while not selling their soul to make it. My only initial semi-note was that it’s a little long, but after hearing Radha Blank talk about how she fought for the two-hour run-time as a way of reclaiming space for older black women, I take it back. She’s right: Let black women take up space. Let her movie be as long as she wants it to be. GOOD FOR HER.

47. Happiest Season (2020) dir. Clea Duvall - Hoooo boy. What was marketed as the first lesbian Christmas rom-com is actually a horror movie for anyone who’s ever had to come out. Throw in casual racism and a toxic relationship treated as otp, and it’s YIKES on so many levels. Aubrey Plaza, Dan Levy, and an autistic-coded Jane are the only (underused) highlights.

48. *Monkey Beach (2020) dir. Loretta Todd

49. *Little Chief (2020) dir. Erica Tremblay – A short film part of the 2020 Red Nation Film Festival, it’s a perfect eleven minutes that I wish had gone on longer, if only to bask in Lily Gladstone in a leading role.

50. First Cow (2019) dir. Kelly Reichardt – I know Kelly Reichardt’s style, so I’ll admit-- even as I was preparing for an excellent film, I was also reaching for my phone, planning on only half paying attention during all the inevitable 30-second shots of grass blowing in the wind. (And yes, there are plenty of those.) But twenty minutes in, my phone was set aside and forgotten, as I am getting sucked into this beautiful story about two frontiersman trying to live their best domestic life.There is only one word to describe this film and that is: PURE. I’ve never seen such a tender platonic relationship between men on screen before, and it’s not lost on me that it took a woman to show us that tenderness. Reichardt gives us two men brought together by fate, and kept together by a shared dream and the simple pleasure of not being alone in such a hard world; two men who spend their days cooking, trapping, baking, and dreaming of a better life; two men who don’t say much, but feel everything for each other. The world would be a much better place if men showed us this kind of vulnerability and friendship toward each other. Oh, and it’s also a brutal take-down of capitalism and the myth of the American Dream!

51. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) dir. Patty Jenkins - My most-anticipated film for the past two years was...well, a mixed bag, to say the least. Too many thoughts on it for a blog post, so stay tuned for the upcoming podcast ep where we go all in ;)

52. *Selah and the Spades (2019) dir. Tayarisha Poe

I hope this gives you some ideas to kick off your new year with a resolution to support more female directors!

What were your favorite women-directed movies of last year? Let me know in the tags, comments, or asks!

[aldridge]

Things I Liked in 2018

The flowers that make Chanel No 5

I pulled a 1,500-year-old sword out of a lake ("People on the internet are saying I am the queen of Sweden. I wouldn’t mind being queen for a day, but when I grow up I want to be a vet. Or an actor in Paris.")

FILMS: Phantom Thread was 2018's lushest costume drama, swooniest romance, most giffable comedy, most twisted psychological thriller, and best film. Other very good films this year, in approximate order: Lady Bird ("It's the titular role!"), Beast, Cold War, First Reformed, A Fantastic Woman, Faces Places, Shoplifters | The best thing about moving to Leeds so far was the Leeds Internation Film Festival; my favourites there were Birds of Passage (like if The Godfather was set among the Wayuu people of north Colombia), Shoplifters again, Colette | The two best films I saw this year were the re-release of 2001: A Space Odyssey (if we rank films purely on what cinema can do that other art forms can't, this is perhaps the greatest film of all time) and the re-release of Vertigo (this was about my fourth or fifth time seeing it – first on the big screen – and I think I finally got it). Plus I saw at the Watershed in Bristol (which I miss) Do the Right Thing and The Battle of Algiers, which are both excellent | I went to the cinema 89 times this year, which is roughly 1000% more times than I went last year. General endorsements: Go to the cinema more often. Sit one row closer to the screen than you think you want to. | It's not exactly a film, but I saw about four and a half hours of The Clock (Wikipedia, The New Yorker) at the Tate Modern, and it's completely riveting in an unusual way | The most nail-biting short film of 2018 was this:

Today as I was walking home after my run I saw a large lemon rolling down the hill. It kept rolling for about a quarter mile. And now you can see it, too. pic.twitter.com/dQoHi4RrXS

— Mike Sakasegawa (@sakeriver) July 11, 2018

On printer jams and the people who try to solve them

Conflict theory vs. mistake theory | Grifters vs. grafters

TV: My two favourite series were deliciously good fun on the outside and, in different ways, kind of clever and important on the inside: Killing Eve and A Very English Scandal | I would recommend Stephen, the terrific and harrowing documentary about Stephen Lawrence, his murder, and what came after, but I don't know any way to watch it legally | I know you thought Collateral was bad because it was preachy and obvious, and I don't really have a good counterargument, but I just liked it (although it's no State of Play) | Last Week Tonight

The White Darkness – David Grann writes about Henry Worsley's solo track across the Antarctic

Check out the big brain on Brett pic.twitter.com/3nH4hxENzI

— oscarboyson (@ohboyson) September 28, 2018

Lauren Collins on the royal family has more delightful sentences than anything else I read this year

In memoriam: Helen Rosner remembers Anthony Bourdain | Zadie Smith remembers Philip Roth

MUSIC: Best album: Chris by Christine and the Queens, with 2012–2017 by Against All Logic and so sad so sexy by Lykke Li as runners-up | Best singles: Nobody by Mitski and Noid by Yves Tumor | Best video/song which I feel bad about recommending because it's actually an advert: Spike Jonze x FKA twigs x Anderson .Paak [above] | Best film soundtracks: Phantom Thread by Jonny Greenwood, A Fantastic Woman by Matthew Herbert, You Were Never Really Here by Jonny Greenwood again, edited highlights from Suspiria by Thom Yorke | My favourite music writing: Rob Sheffield on Radiohead live in New York | a playlist

"I will admit that I am not well. That writing this, right now, I am not well. This will colour the writing. But it is part of why I want to write, because another part of the problem is that we write about it when we are out the other side, better. And I understand: it’s ugly up close; you can see right into the burst vessels of the thing. (Also, on a practical level, it is difficult to write when one is unwell.) But then what we end up with has the substance of secondary sources."

Taffy on Goop

I cried on the train reading this essay by Junot Diaz, but I also believe the people quoted in this story | Asia Argento's speech at Cannes was just one minute long and took my breath away, but there's also this story

PODCASTS: Slate's Culture Gabfest – for example, on the dad joke [36:15] | Adam Buxton interviewing Paul Thomas Anderson is very good because no one else would dare open with "The reason I liked There Will Be Blood so much is that Daniel Day Lewis used a funny voice" | This American Life: Five Women, on libraries | Unpopped on Come Dine With Me | The New Yorker Radio Hour: an hour on Phillip Roth, 15 minutes weeding with Parker Posey | The BBC's radio adaptation of Lucy Prebble's play The Effect, although I can't find it online anywhere | Reply All: Negative Mount Pleasant | You don't need me to tell you whether you want to listen to Stephen Fry on No Such Thing as a Fish or would rather gnaw your own arm off

Six Glimpses of the Past by Janet Malcolm (although perhaps you have to be a pre-existing Malcolm fan for this one)

Cat Power is my favorite musical artist named after two kinds of nap.

— Lauren O'Neal (@laureneoneal) April 5, 2018

SPORT: I took the day off work to watch Stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia, which turned out to be a good decision | It seems like another lifetime, but apparently England v Colombia in the World Cup was only six months ago

I have no idea if it's fair, but this pan of Jill Soloway's book by Andrea Long Chu is a dark delight

OLD THINGS I CAME ACROSS THIS YEAR: Kate Bush's The Dreaming is so good that it's definitely in the top four Kate Bush albums | Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion, which I preferred to her more famous nonfiction | Consider the Weasel is, sadly, not the title of this Annie Dillard essay | The original pre-release version of Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks (Alex Ross, Spotify)

Fact-checking with Daniel Ratcliffe

Previously: Things I liked in 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014

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At Haute Culture we can’t think of any other 20th-century artist of whom we would like to read 50 facts about, let alone write them. But Frida Kahlo was much more than a painter, more than a feminist, more than a fashion icon. Her paintings themselves have stood the test of time and are arguably more intriguing to a modern audience than they were in her time and they certainly become richer the more you know of her fascinating life story. Frida’s 47 years were often filled with pain but always fuelled by passion. Read on to discover 50 incredible facts on this fascinating woman’s life, loves and legacy.

Frida Kahlo Art Facts

Frida was a self-taught artist and received no formal art training or education. She learnt how to paint as a cure for boredom whilst being bed bound during her recovery from a near-fatal accident.

She did not consider herself a surrealist artist. Surrealism, during its heyday, was defined as art inspired by the unconscious mind. Unlike surrealist artists such a Salvador Dali and René Magritte, Frida Kahlo stated “I never painted my dreams. I painted my own reality.”

She was the original queen of the selfie, painting over fifty-five self-portraits.

The colours used in her paintings represented her emotions.

Frida often painted directly onto tin in order to emulate traditional Mexican folk art. She also used a variety of mixed media in her works such as newspaper cuttings, photos and shells.

The vast majority of her works are very small in scale.

Frida was a trailblazer for her time. It was very rare for an artist to make their art so personal; the ill health and emotional traumas that directly influenced her work were acknowledged as being completely original for their time. She painted herself as she felt and she wanted to make her feelings known.

Her 1939 painting Dos desnudos en el bosque (La tierra misma) sold for over $8 million in 2016, the highest auction price for any work by a Latin American artist.

Frida was the first Mexican artist to sell her work to a major international museum: The Frame, 1938 was purchased by The Louvre Museum in Paris the same year.

She once arrived at her solo exhibition in her own four-poster bed.

Andre Breton famously referred to Frida’s art as “A ribbon around a bomb”.

Frida did not start to take her painting seriously until much later on in her life.

“I am my own muse. I am the subject that I know best, the subject I want to know better.”

– Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo standing in front of her largest self-portrait Las Dos Fridas 1939. Photo Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS.

Frida Kahlo Fashion Facts

The majority of Frida’s wardrobe and many of her other personal possessions were kept locked away in a bathroom for fifty years. (Click here to read our post on How Frida Kahlo Used Fashion To Build Her Legacy)

Frida was famous for shunning mainstream contemporary fashions in favour of wearing traditional Mexican indigenous dress.

She dressed not only as a way to express her personal style but also to express her political and feminist beliefs. The majority of Frida’s iconic outfits were from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a region in the south of Mexico famous for its powerful matriarchal society.

She would customise her own clothes with ribbons, bells and trinkets.

Pablo Picasso made a pair of earrings for Frida.

Parisian fashion design Elsa Schiaparelli designed a dress titled Madame Rivera in Frida’s honour.

She was twice featured in Vogue magazine.

Frida choose flamboyant clothes with lots of pattern colour and decoration as a tool to conceal her disabilities.

She dressed as much to impress her husband, who adored traditional attire, as she did for herself.

Throughout her life she frequently played with society’s gender boundaries surrounding fashion at the time by wearing men’s garments such as work shirts, dungarees, denim and suits.

Dressing elaborately was not just for public show. Frida would wear her dazzling dresses, Aztec jewellery and hair full of flowers around the house to do daily chores and paint in her studio.

“The gringas really like me a lot and pay close attention to all the dresses and rebozos that I brought with me, their jaws drop at the sight of my jade necklaces.” – Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo dressed in her daily attire two years before her death. Bernice Kolko, 1952

Frida Kahlo Relationship Facts

Frida adored her father, Guillermo Kahlo, who was a photographer for the Mexican government. Her father proclaimed Frida as his favourite child.

However, she had a tense relationship with her mother who she referred to as being “hysterically religious”.

Frida had three sisters; Matilde, Adriana, and Cristina. Her younger sister, Cristina, whom she also considered to be her best friend, broke her heart by having a love affair with her husband Diego in 1934.

Frida’s husband Diego Rivera was one of the most famous artists in the world at the time of their marriage.

Frida believed, without a shadow of a doubt, that she and her husband Diego Rivera were soul mates,. This is why she consistently tolerated his behaviour towards her.

Although Frida did not officially “Come Out” there are multiple reports of Frida having romantic relationships with both men and women.  The most famous of these was the French/American entertainer Josephine Baker.

Frida and Diego were married, divorced and married a second time only one year after their divorce. They mutually acknowledged that they couldn’t live without each other. Part of the re-marriage agreement was that they would abstain from having sex with each other.

The couple had countless affairs with other people during their marriage. Frida’s longest affair (around 20 years) was with the famous fashion photographer Nickolas Muray. Her most controversial affair was with their mutual friend, the exiled Russian Revolutionist Leon Trotsky. Frida and Diego lived in separate houses which were only joined by a rooftop bridge that allowed them to entertain their guests privately.

Frida’s Doctor, Dr Leo Eloesser, was one of her closest lifelong friends. They frequently wrote letters to each other for most of her life.

Frida kept many pets such as dogs, deer, birds and monkeys, which most critics believe were substitutes for the children she could not have.

“Make love. Take a bath. Make Love again.” – Frida Kahlo.

Leon Trotsky (second right) and his wife Natalya Sedova (far left) are welcomed to Tampico Harbour, Mexico by Frida Kahlo and the US Trotskyist leader Max Shachtman, January 1937. Photo credit: Getty Images/Gamma-Keystone.

Frida Kahlo Heath Facts

Frida contracted polio when she was six years old which resulted in a shorter and more withered left leg.

At the age of 18, Frida was in a tragic bus accident which almost left her for dead. The collision resulted in multiple full body breaks and fractures to her spine, legs and pelvis which would inhibit her from carrying a child to term and continue to slowly kill her over the next twenty-eight years.

Due to the lack of contraception and her inability to carry a child to term Frida was the victim of numerous miscarriages. The most notable miscarriage took place in Detroit in 1932 which subsequently resulted in Frida producing some of the most original and harrowing works of the twentieth century.

She was in pain for most of her life and underwent over thirty operations and procedures to try to correct her ever-deteriorating body, she wrote in her diary and in a letter to a friend that she felt death frequently dancing around her bed.

She was suspended for the ceiling with bags of sand tied to her feet.

In 1950, she spent nine months in the hospital due to the presence of gangrene which eventually saw her left leg amputated.

Towards the latter years of her life, she became drug and alcohol dependent due to the incredible physical and emotional pain she endured from being repeatedly bed bound for months at a time.

She lied about her age. Frida was born in 1907 but told people she was born in 1910 to give the impression that she was born during the same year that the Mexican Revolution began.

She died in her bed of a pulmonary embolism when she was just 47 years old. She knew the end was in sight and wrote in her diary “I hope the exit is joyful – and I hope never to return – Frida”, just a few days before passing.

“Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly.” – Frida Kahlo.

Frida painting in her bed, Anonymous, 1940. Photo Credit: Frida Kahlo Museum

Frida Kahlo’s Philosophy Facts

Frida was a feminist and her ideals made a very unique woman for her time. She lived and travelled alone, she earned her own money by making her own art, she expressed her emotions, sexuality and political views freely and fiercely fought for equality throughout her life.

She was a communist and a part of the Young Communist League and the Mexican Communist Party. Frida believed that communism meant community and wished for the masses to rise up and take leadership of Mexico.

Frida was, at heart, an optimist. She was a fighter and rarely let the poor fate she was served both physically and romantically get the better of her.

“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.” – Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo laying down by Nickolas Muray. Photo credit: Google Arts and Culture

Frida Kahlo’s Loves in Life

Frida was an avid writer. She kept a diary and had many pen friends.

She collected dolls and traditional Mexican folk art.

She loved to entertain guests by cooking big meals and hosting frequent parties.

She had a deep love of music and would dance whenever she was able.

Frida was an incredibly passionate and hopelessly romantic woman. Diego was the greatest love of her life and she never gave up on him.

“I love you more than my own skin and even though you don’t love me the same way, you love me anyways, don’t you? And if you don’t, I’ll always have the hope that you do, and I’m satisfied with that. Love me a little. I adore you.” – Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo’s lipstick print on a photograph of her husband Diego Rivera by Anonymous, 1940. Photo credit: Frida Kahlo Museum

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Useful Information if you’re heading to Mexico

  Recommended Reading

THE FRIDA KAHLO MUSEUM: 5 REASONS TO VISIT THIS INCREDIBLE WOMAN’S HOUSE! or A FRIDA KAHLO LOVERS GUIDE TO COYOACAN IN MEXICO CITY! (WITH FREE MAP)

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50 Incredible Facts Every Frida Kahlo Lover Should Know! At Haute Culture we can't think of any other 20th-century artist of whom we would like to read 50 facts about, let alone write them. 1,935 more words