Gone With The Wind

You guys have seen Gone with the Wind, right? I think it is one of those movies you don't want to admit you haven't seen- like The Godfather. At any rate, I adore the character of Scarlett O'Hara, played by Vivien Leigh.
She started out spoiled and rich and content, living on a Southern plantation with slaves and all of that. She basically sat around pining for this guy down the street named Ashley- but he married someone else- a really nice girl named Melanie. So nice that you want to roll your eyes. There is nothing worse!

Scarlett also met a charismatic guy named Rhett Butler, but she found him shady. He was super confident and insisted he would get her one day. She was like, please, you aren't getting near me.

Next thing you know, the Civil War breaks out and everyones worlds are turned upside down. If you don't remember what the Civil War was all about, I won't judge you. Real quick, it is when the Northern states fought the Southern states and well, The South lost. So basically, all of those plantation parties and girls in big hoop skirts? Well, the shit was over. The South was now in flames, burning down.

After seeing tons of death and destruction, Scarlett O'Hara was about to break. She wasn't cut out for things like that. But then she saw her families plantation, Tara, in ruins. When something like that happens, you either just lay down and die, or you raise up and fight.

She decided not to give up. Holding the dirt from Tara's cotton fields, Scarlett vowed she would do whatever it took to survive and take care of her family.

Next thing you know, she is hustling. She kind of assumed the role of the man, because no one else was there to do it. Most of the men in town had died in the war. Scarlett fed and took care of her remaining family members and even Ashley's wife and child. She was in rags, wiped out and miserable every day- but she refused to fold. Some guy said he wanted to buy Tara and Scarlett realized she couldn't pay the taxes on the thing and she was in danger of losing it. She thought to herself...I need to find a sucker to help me out. I need to find Rhett Butler.
Rhett Butler said he had no money to help her. She was pissed. But then she ran into her sister's fiancee, and decided to steal him, because he had a general store. She turned the thing into a huge sawmill, which was prosperous, as The South needed to be completely rebuilt after the war.

After she has her own money and her husband dies, Rhett Butler comes sniffing around again. He proposes and she accepts, as she is tired of hustling. She wants to live the good life, which he can now provide for her. Things start to go awry when Rhett sees that she still loves this Ashley guy and he decides to leave her. Ashley's wife ends up dying and when Scarlett realizes how much Ashley loved her, she realizes that she screwed up with Rhett Butler. She tries going back to him and he gives her a huge F. U.

Gone With the Wind is a really long movie, but is worth watching because it is so beautifully done. The film won ten academy awards in 1939 and is considered one of the greatest movies of all time.

Here is the trailer:

Marnie

Have you guys seen the Hitchcock film Marnie? It isn't as famous as The Birds, which also starred Tippi Hedren, or Psycho, but it is awesome. I like Hitchcock films in general just because they have beautiful cinematography and luscious scores, but some stand out to me more than others. Marnie is this beautiful, yet crazy chick who steals money from her temp jobs and then changes her look and gets a new job and does it all over again. She sends the money to her mother. She can keep her craziness under control unless she sees the color red. It throws her into a horrible panic attack (which I can understand, because I hate the color red in general- you won't see a stitch of it in my room or closet.) It reminds her of something terrible, but as the viewer you don't know what it is. She is also freaked out by thunderstorms and men in general. Aren't we all?

Sean Connery is one of her bosses and he catches her stealing. He blackmails her into marrying him, or else he will tell on her and have her thrown in jail. Nice.

She doesn't want to sleep with her "husband", but her makes her. She then tries to drown herself.

When she has her panic attacks, the screen goes red and the music gets all scary- I actually got scared watching this the other night. Frickin Hitchcock always gets me.

Despite her looniness, Marnie is very elegant, composed and refined, with beautiful hairstyles and clothing. Grace Kelly was going to take this part, but it went to Tippi (mother of Melanie Griffith in case you didn't know) because Grace had just married the crowned Prince of Monaco, and the country didn't think it would look good if she went back to acting.

Another thing about this movie was that they had to postpone it's first days of shooting because Kennedy had just been shot and the nation was in mourning.

Oh, and if you are curious as to the color red and thunderstorms- we find out at the end that Marnie's mother was getting it on with a sailor when she was little, and the sailor heard Marnie crying over the scariness of the thunderstorm. He tried to comfort her and Marnie's mother came in and thought he was trying to hurt her, so she attacked him. All hell broke loose and Marnie ended up stabbing the sailor with a fireplace poker or something, hence the sight of red blood during a thunderstorm.

Here is a scene from Marnie:

Gypsy

Saw the movie Gypsy last night, starring Natalie Wood, who is one of my very favorite actresses. Wow! Loved it. It is based on the memoirs of famous burlesque dancer Gypsy Rose Lee. The movie starts out showing the early life of Gypsy, whom is really named Louise.

Louise plays a boy in the background of a Vaudeville act featuring her younger sister, who was billed as Dainty June. They had this crazy stage mother named Rose, who would stop at nothing to make the act a hit. She dragged them all over the country and pushed them to perform their hardest. There came a point in time where June was over it- she wanted out. She ran off and married one of the background dancer guys. Rose was plucked! But she picked herself up by the bootstraps and found a new act to manage. She decided her less talented daughter Louise was going to be the headliner. But times were changing. People were not interested in Vaudeville any more, because sound films were being introduced into theatres. Louise and her mother were accidentally booked at some crappy theatre, not realizing it was a house of burlesque.

They were out of money, so Louise agreed to go on stage and perform some Burlesque. Her mother told he to keep it classy- just remove your gloves and at the end maybe just pull down one shoulder strap. She told her to go easy on the make up, put her hair up and wear a nice gown- that was going to be her gimmick- that she wasn't trashy. Well, the gimmick worked. Guys went nuts because she barely showed anything. She ended up this huge crazy star.

Her mom was so annoying and stage mothery, that she was banned from many of the theatres. She finally got backstage to one of them and tried to tell off her famous daughter. She said "Why do you think I did all of this?!" and her daughter was like "I thought you did it for me." But it was clear that Rose was doing it all for herself- she wanted to be a star.

Great movie, great music and Natalie Wood was just perfect.

Marie Antoinette: HBIC

Need I even write about this? It is perfection, I tell you. Surrounded by beautiful French pastries in petticoats, having someone massage your feet? Actually, I don't know if she is getting her feet massaged. This movie was so visually beautiful that I learned nothing of Marie Antoinette because I wasn't paying attention to the dialogue. So let me look it up and tell you what I learned. Let's see...

Okay, if you must know, Marie Antoinette was HBIC from birth. She was born an Archduchess of Austria. Her parents were emperor/empress. I imagine you don't talk back to your parents when they are that high up, but who knows. Anyway, She married some dude ( a second cousin) at fourteen who later became the King of France. They were married at the Palace of Versailles. He gave her very little affection and had a mistress, which confuses me, because he was said to be impotent. They did not consummate their marriage until later on.

Marie took her mind off that shit with a lot of shopping for make up and clothes and gambling on horses. I am not kidding. But she was expected to lead the country in fashion, so shopping wasn't considered terrible.

Things started looking bad when the country fell into debt after the Seven Years' War and she was still spending up a storm. There were rumors her walls were covered in gold and diamonds. She also bought a really elaborate chateau and redecorated the thing, all while her country was broke. People started getting pissed and both Marie and the king started to become unpopular.

Then the French Revolution occurred. There were riots in Paris and everyone fled France- but not Marie Antoinette. She stayed to stand by her man, even though his power was taken away by the National Constituent Assembly. The royal family tried to escape Paris and were caught. People were even more pissed by that time. They were calling for their heads on a platter, and back then, they really meant it!

Monarchy ended in France and the king was put on trial for sucking so bad. He was considered ineffective, uninformed and naive. Marie Antoinette was declared guilty of treason and was executed nine months later. Damn...that is horrible! I will not go into the details because,again, this site is called Sprinkles and Puffballs!

Well, now I know the story. No wonder I didn't remember it from the movie. I will say this though- lovin' the decor and costuming on those sets! I pay much homage to Sofia Coppola for this movie- very visually stunning, girl.

Old Movies That Didn't Bore Me

One of my favorite old movies is Sabrina starring Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. It is about this chauffeur's daughter who goes away to Paris and comes back all stunning. The two rich brothers her dad works for start fighting over her. You have to deal with the movie being in black and white, but it is worth it to see her in the white Givenchy gown, know what I'm sayin?

Another good old movie is Sunset Boulevard starring Gloria Swanson.

Delusional Norma Desmond

That movie fuckin creeped me out, I am not kidding. Just the eerie music alone. It is about this old washed up movie star who is a total recluse. This struggling writer ends up staying with her for a few days and she makes it very hard for him to leave because he doesn't know what she is capable of. Things turn ugly when he falls for a nice normal chick and tries to get away from the old kook.

I also watched Bette Davis in All About Eve, about a calculated young girl stealing an aging actress's thunder.

Keep your friends close

The girl starts out as this grateful fan who becomes the star's assistant. She is humble and sweet but is secretly studying the actresses every move and befriending all of her friends and even trying to steal her man. It was good.

I watched an Elizabeth Taylor movie called A Place in the Sun the other night, also starring Montgomery Clift.

Liz and Monty

It was about a poor guy trying to climb into the upper class when he knocks up some chubby co-worker and it threatens to ruin him with his beautiful new socialite girlfriend and her family, so he plots to kill her Laci Peterson style! Scandalous.