La Piscine

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In typical 1960s French film fashion, love is a dangerous game, mixing fast cars, beautiful legs, jazz and a sparkling swimming pool – all set in the French Riviera in Jacques Deray's 1969 film La Piscine (The Pool), which was just was just rereleased in the UK and is popping up theatrically. Starring Romy Shneider, Alain Delon, Jane Birkin, and Maurice Ronet, La Piscine is a gripping tale of sexual longing that is beautiful to watch.

Elisha Smith-Leverock's film "I Want Muscle"

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Winner of the 4th ASVOFF (A Shade View On Fashion Film) MK2 Grand Prix, 'I Want Muscle,' directed by Elisha Smith-Leverock, is a film that plays with taboo and gender stereotypes. It aims to explore a different kind of female beauty, providing a glimpse into the world of Kizzy Vaines, a female bodybuilder. She is the only British competitor for the Olympia Fitness title in Las Vegas.

MANIAMANIA: THE THIRD MIND part 3

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MANIAMANIA’S Spring 2012 Collection, ‘The Third Mind’ channels the dreamlike spirit and unpredictable visual collisions of the surrealist age. Free from the constraints of rational thought, the collection is constructed in ways that allude to the Exquisite Corpse technique - whereby words and images are collectively assembled and relish an absence of control. The range moniker pays homage to The Third Mind, a 1978 book and concept by William Burroughs and Brian Gysin, which showcased the ‘cut ups’ technique originating from the Surrealists - a form later adapted to film making by Kenneth Anger and Maya Deren. In this mode, unrelated texts and images where literally cut up and rearranged to form radical narratives and vistas. The concept signifies a shared consciousness and creative output, only reachable by two or more people; a place neither could reach alone. In MANIAMANIA tradition, primary metals and natural stones are transfigured. ‘The Third Mind’ meshes Brass and Sterling Silver with Pyrite crystal stone, Amethyst and Tourmalinated Quartz in a series of exquisite forms and symbols to free ones self from time and convention. This fourth range fromMANIAMANIA expands with extensions on signature best sellers from the Immortals series, including a Limited Edition exclusive ‘Abbey Lee Ring’, inspired by modern muse Abbey Lee Kershaw. Collaborating with filmmaker, Elle Muliarchyk and featuring Abbey Lee for a second season, a three part series of short films and campaign images were created using artful techniques of the avant-garde. This included a set built of a life size kaleidoscope which created hypnotic repeat mirror imagery which looks as technical and modern as the digitally mastered alternative, but has tell tale realism of warped angles and beautiful accidents; elements also achieved within MANIAMANIA’s ‘Third Mind’ collection. View film after the jump.

This Side of Paradise

From the pages of Jonas Mekas diary: “Unpredictably, as most of my life’s key events have been, for a period of several years in the late 60s and early 70s, I had the fortune to spend some time, mostly during the summers, with Jackie Kennedy’s and her sister Lee Radziwill’s families and children. Cinema was an integral, inseparable, as a matter of fact, a key part of our friendship. The time was still very close to the untimely, tragic, death of John F. Kennedy. Jackie wanted to give something to her children to do, to help to ease the transition of life without a father. One of her thoughts was that movie camera would be fun for the children. Peter Beard, who was at that time tutoring John Jr. and Caroline in art history, suggested to Jackie that I was the man to introduce the children to cinema. Jackie said yes. And that’s how it all began. I bought them a very easily operable 16mm movie camera, and even wrote a “mini-textbook” suggesting some simple movie exercises…The images in the exposition, with a few exceptions, they all come from the summers Caroline and John Jr. spent in Montauk, with their cousins Anthony and Tina Radziwill, in an old house Lee rented from Andy Warhol, for a few summers. Andy himself spent many of his weekends there, in one of the cottages, as did Peter Beard, whom the children had adopted almost like their older brother or a father they missed. There were summers of happiness, joy and continuous celebrations of life and friendships. These are ‘Little Fragments of Paradise.’ " Tomorrow night marks the opening of “This Side of Paradise,” an exhibition of photo prints taken from original 16mm film from Jonas Mekas’ celebrated film “This Side of Paradise: Fragments of an Unfinished Biography” (1999). The exhibition will mark the first time these rare and personal images of the Kennedy and Radziwill families are on view in NYC in their entirety. Opens September 24 at the Agnès B Gallerie Boutique - 50 Howard Street New York, NY.

TOM FOOL ARE WE

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Tom Fool are We? The third innovation born from the collaborative efforts of designer Lindsey Thornburg, photographer/director Olivia Malone and director/editor Crystal Moselle follows two mischievous “clowns” as they gallivant through the countryside. The films inspiration comes from French new wave films and psychedelic directors such as Jean Rollin and Alejandro Jodorowsky.  In addition to the cloaks for which Thornburg is most well known, Fall Winter 2010 Lindsey released her first full ready to wear collection. See film after the jump.

Love Jim, James Deans Love Letters For Sale

Three intimate love letters from James Dean to his first 'serious' love Barbara Glenn will be sold at an auction this Novemeber in Christie's popular culture category.  The letters, which were found in a drawer by Glenn's son, reveal a smitten James Dean prior to his magnesium flash into celluloid iconography.  The auction will be held November 23.

[fashion film] BELLA FREUD 'SUBMISSION'

Designer Bella Freud (daughter of the late painter Lucien Freud) collaborated with director Martina Amati to create of short fashion film for her 2011 Fall collection.  Starring  models Susie Bick and Abbey Lee Kershaw, and actresses Antonia Campbell Hughes, Phyllis Wang and Olympia Campbell, Submission takes place in the world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu "where you learn to use your opponent's strength to vanquish them. The unlikely winner engages us in her internal dialogue, remembering the moment in her childhood when she discovered how she wanted clothes to serve her as a protective armor" Bella Freud premiered her short film last week in London, and if the film is a testament to a talent in filmmaking, the creative direction and sartorial aptitude of Bella Freud proves genius might just be hereditary.

Jack Smith: A Feast for Open Eyes

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The ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) presents a fortnight of films, events and symposia dedicated to the legendary American artist, filmmaker and actor, Jack Smith (1932-1989). Working in New York from the 1950s until his death in 1989, Smith unequivocally resisted and upturned the world of accepted conventions, whether artistic, moral or legal. Irreverent in tone and delirious in effect, Smith’s films, such as the notorious Flaming Creatures (1961), are at once wildly camp and subtly polemic. Although best known for his contributions to underground cinema, Smith’s influence also extends across the realm of performance art, photography and experimental theatre. Jack Smith: A Feast for Open Eyes is on view until September 18.