Inspirational Icon Monday: Deborah Kerr

Every girl has their romantic fantasy. Even girls like me that will always choose a thrilling adventure or suspenseful mystery film over a sappy chick flick. For some reason, whether we're cynical or optimistic about love, when we see a film that actually has a moment that is breathtakingly sexy or emotionally true to the way human's deal with love, we can't help but be touched and imagine ourselves in the role of the on screen lover. There is no one that got female audiences as invested in their female lead's romantic woes in the 1950's more than Deborah Kerr.

The iconic image of Kerr and Burt Lancaster's intertwined bodies lying on an Oahu beach with splashing waves surrounding them in From Here to Eternity (1953) has long been considered the most romantic moment in the history of film. Who doesn't want an overwhelming love where raw lust takes over and even the idea of sand getting into undesired places is dismissed?

After a long power struggle, Kerr as Anna the Welsh teacher summoned to teach the many children of Siam's King Mongkut in The King and I (1956), discovers she's in-love with him when he gifts her with a ring as thanks for her successful efforts and she gifts him with a dance turned yearningly romantic. Politics and cultural conflictions keep them apart until he dies and leaves the already widowed Anna alone once again. Who hasn't experienced a love that was never realized?

Who can forget the moment Cary Grant's Nickie realizes the reason Kerr's Terry was a no show at their planned meeting a top the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day was because she was hit by a car and paralyzed in An Affair to Remember (1958)?

Kerr brought humanity to her prideful lover roles.  She demonstrated both onscreen and off [she had a string of jealous lovers and two husbands that disliked the attention she received for being a leading lady] that pride is the source of most conflict. On Valentine's Day, just like any other day of the year, women are not sitting around watching Kerr's romantic films or any other rom-coms fantasizing about the hardships of love. We fantasize about the beach scenes. We fantasize about the undying profession of love. We fantasize about being worth the tougher times and that the romance we see on screen could be ours. Not all the time, but it will be there. Whether we're single or married, we will continually and unexpectedly be whisked off our feet. I don't think that fantasy ever goes away. How could Deborah Kerr's 1950's romance films stand the test of time if it did?

 From Here to Eternity:

The King and I:

An Affair to Remember:

Love love love this dress!

Kerr Style:

I wish I looked this hot in short shorts!

This Writer's Unblocked Road

What have I been doing for the last month you ask? Interviewing celebrities and writing articles. Not for my blog, but for a nationally sold fashion and entertainment magazine called Zooey.

Zooey was founded a little over a year ago by the talented, driven and very young Lucia Tran. A fan of magazines for as long as she could remember, she wanted to showcase entertainment, the arts and women in a postive light. With all the tabloid magazines on shelves tearing stars down and exploiting their personal lives, Tran thought she could shed a light on the interesting career paths and inspirational stands female stars are making. With an exceptional and knowledgeable team of stylists, photographers and publicity supporting her, Tran has built upon this idea and has her magazine selling out all over the country...and I get to be apart of it.

Last November I began writing blurbs describing fashion shoots for the website, but within a couple of months Tran has entrusted me with writing the main articles for the print magazine and this includes next issue's cover story. More than I ever expected. Perhaps I was too afraid to dream. It was such a disappointment to have my acting career not happen in the way I had hoped. When I let go of that, I rested upon the expectation that I would be a teacher. I did major in English after all, and to use this major to write rather than teach isn't necessarily the most realistic. All doors toward teaching continually closed. That apparently wasn't the plan. At least not for now. The magazine world was in the back of my mind, however, and I began writing this blog with the intention of putting my ideas and writing out in the world to be seen. Nothing could come of it, but then again when you put yourself out there, possibility awaits. The most precious experience I could have ever imagined was waiting for me after writing this blog for six months: Zooey.

With no clue how this opportunity to write for a print magazine that I really believe in and love will turn out, I've relinquished all control. I'm along for the ride, enjoying each minute no matter how stressful, learning about the ins and outs of the magazine writing world and even more about myself, and sticking to my mantra that when opportunity arises, just say "yes."

                   Look for the March 2012 issue of Zooey Magazine
                             in Barnes & Noble and select newstands!
                                     http://www.zooeymagazine.com/

 

Vintage Tip Tuesday XXVI

Not that I want to appear as though I have put obvious effort intoany of my outfits (every outfit should have an ease to it), but there are times when I really can't put any effort in. When these times arise and they often do when I'm getting up early for work and decide to sleep instead of look cute, I go with red. Red shoes that is. The more quirky, vintage, intriguing or darling the better. There is nothing like a pop of red when you throw on your go to jeans and tee. Red shoes suddenly give you a coolness factor that would have been absent if you went for black.

Inspirational Icon Monday: Jean Seberg

Breathlessly cute. With her chic pixie cut, eye-catching bone structure and mischievously spirted personality, Jean Seberg became the most famous face of the French New Wave cinema. Her road to becoming a French movie star was an unexpected one-she wasn't even French. An American born in Iowa, Seberg and her audacious readiness was willing to change her game. Sometimes that's just what it takes.

When a neighbor entered her into a talent search contest for the next Joan of Arc for the 1957 film Saint Joan, she won $150,000 but was panned by critics. Her director gave her another chance by giving her a role in his next film, but that performance also received horrendous reviews. When her reviews from her third film attempt didn't come back at all favorable, Seberg decided to pursue the experimental film going on in France. This lead her to Jean-Luc Godard and a starring role in Breathless. Not only did this film become an international success and go down in history as the best French New Wave film of the sixties, but Seberg was hailed as the best actress in Europe during this era.

Her triumph in French cinema and the life she made in France--married first to French director François Moreuil and then to French novelist Romain Gary didn't stop the U.S from damaging her reputation from overseas. Her support of the Black Panther Party and the NAACP(The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)caused the FBI to fabricate a story for Newsweek that said the seven months pregnant Seberg had an affair with Clint Eastwood while filming Paint Your Wagaon, had an affair with a college student, and her unborn daughter was not fathered by her husband but by a Black Panther. Certain FBI agents admitted to planting the story to defame the actress after Nixon's resignation, but the damage had already been done. Seberg committed suicide in 1979 and her former husband Romain Gary took his life 15 months later.

Her life ended in heartbreaking tragedy, but her tenacity is encouraging. She didn't allow American film critics to keep her from pursuing her dream. She recognized what was not working and made a change. She went where she could flourish. So often people continue to hammer away in the same location, in the same way and with the same tools. Without attacking a different angle, nothing can change. Seberg knew this and dived into a new route that opened her up to an entirely new world. 

                                   Attempting to see change through the eyes of Jean Seberg...