Saturday, November 23, 2013

Have a Bonnie and Clyde Movie Party

Bonnie and Clyde 1930s
Pop Culture Influencers
Fashion, Film and Music
Offering lessons in Bad Ass 101

Bonnie & Clyde Cast 1967
Signed or Unsigned 

incl. Gene Hackman Autographed

There are so many fictional and nonfictional stories that Hollywood loves to recreate on the big and small screen. The story of Bonnie and Clyde is one of them.

It's similar to The Great Gatsby, a Jane Austen story or even an interpretation of a Shakespeare play. You've got something with a lot of drama/action, young lovers, the potential for great cinematography and costumes that can offer something good for actors and audiences alike.




Do you have a favorite Bonnie & Clyde film? Who would you like to see in the roles? Are you intrigued by their legend? How many other films are compared to this one? Young people on a crime spree, on the run from the law.... Why does this story always come to mind?

Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow in 1932. Both were from Texas. At least the year they met seems to be accepted. The pair robbed banks and killed people. To get a history and timeline you'll have to go elsewhere.

Their crime spree was a short one, considering their legacy. Only a couple of years if you take everything together. Barrow and Parker were ambushed and killed in May of 1934. Bonnie was 23, Clyde was 25 when they died.

In 1967, Arthur Penn directed the best-known version of the tale, Bonnie and Clyde, starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Estelle Parsons won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Blanche Barrow. Burnett Guffey won the Oscar for Best Cinematography.

There were several other nominations for the film including Best Picture and Best Costume Design, Theadora Van Runklebonn.  In the Heat of the Night won Best Picture for 1967. Katharine Hepburn won the Best Actress Oscar for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Just one other competitor the film had in 1967 was The Graduate.

Do you love the 1930s? The fashion, the films of that era?

Watch for this film appear on television on stations such as Turner Classic Movies. It's playing just before Thanksgiving on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 27, 2013. A new film about the duo will air in early December.

From the TCM blog: Bonnie and Clyde triggered a fashion revolution. It single-handedly brought berets back into style and triggered the move from the mini-skirts of the mid-'60s to the maxi.

Why not pop some popcorn? Get a cup, bottle, carton or can of something and settle down with loved ones for a little television while the pies are baking? A Bonnie and Clyde watching party? That sounds amazing. Only the coolest of families does that over the Thanksgiving holiday one would think.




Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde 8x10 Photo




1930s Slang:
Drilling, plugging, giving someone lead poisoning     Shooting a gun
Grifter     A con man or woman
Hard boiled     Tough
Make tracks, dangle     Leave in a hurry, leave abruptly
Meat wagon     Ambulance
Micky, Micky Finn     Drink spiked with a knock out drugs
Packing heat, wearing iron     Carrying a gun


Project Runway All Stars had a Bonnie and Clyde 1930s challenge called Partners in Crime. 
 
Competitors worked in pairs one making an outfit for a man, one for a woman. It was definitely one of the best and most fun of the season, spoken by someone who's partial to that style of clothing and to old movies. 
Guest judges were Austin Scarlett, Elie Tahari and Bar Refaeli.




In this challenge, I'd found myself rooting for Jeffrey Sebelia, a designer who'd been on the bottom in several of the challenges. Jeffrey was a winner of a past season of Project Runway. 

In his original season, he didn't come across as a particularly likeable character, but for what it's worth, I always liked most of his work. His menswear look was the winner and he really needed this win.




Designer Mychael Knight, a talented and very likeable designer who was also tasked with creating a menswear look, said he was aiming for something that combined the style of Cary Grant and James Dean. I agreed with the judges who said he came up with a jacket that was a little more 1980s than 1930s. The pants, though were fantastic.

Christopher Palu and Irina Shabayeva both did knock-out ladies' 1930s' inspired looks but it was Christopher's inventive play with opacity in his skirt and a holster-like belt that won over the judges in the end. He won for the women's outfit.

In this challenge it wasn't a matter of whose work was bad, it was whose was less than the best or didn't quite meet the challenge. Sadly Mychael was 'out' this week.

In the 1992 TV film, Bonnie and Clyde: The True Story, Tracey Needham played Bonnie, Clyde was portrayed by Dana Ashbrook.


Bonnie and Clyde is the name of a French-language song written by Serge Gainsbourg. It is performed by Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot and has been done by several other artists both in its original French and translated into other languages. 

Other artists as diverse as Merle Haggard, Mel Torme and Jay Z have done songs mentioning Bonnie & Clyde.




Today, Bonnie and Clyde-types would probably still be pretty unconventional. They wouldn't be going on Twitter or Facebook every few minutes saying where they were and what they were doing, what they were listening to and who they were with.

I don't think Bonnie and Clyde would let their cell phones know track them or be big on posting Selfies. To be this kind of spirit, you don't have to be a criminal. 



Project Runway All Stars had the challenge in part to promote the 2013 Bonnie and Clyde miniseries with Emile Hirsch and Holliday Grainger in the title roles. 

The two-part film aired in the US, December 8-9, 2013 simultaneously broadcast on A&E, History and Lifetime cable channels.

Check out the ideas and processes used by designers as they "bridge the gap between art, design, technology, and sustainability" in the book, Textile Visionaries: Innovation and Sustainability in Textile Design 


Get Smart Autographed Photo
Don Adams as Maxwell Smart : Barbara Feldon as Agent 99
8x10 Color
Photo also available unsigned


Bang Bang

I was five and you were six
We rode on horses made of sticks I wore black you wore white
You would always win the fight

Bang bang you shot me down
Bang bang I hit the ground
Bang bang that awful sound
Bang bang my baby shot me down

-- Excerpt from Cher's song Bang, Bang
Words and Music by Sonny Bono


References:
More 1930s Slang



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