Classic Woman-centric Movie Review: Love Affair
A classic romance with a happy ending is this week’s classic woman-centric movie pick. Love Affair, starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, was released in 1939 and was directed by Leo McCarey. It has been remade twice, the first time being An Affair to Remember in 1957 and the second being Love Affair in 1994.
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Five New Biographies to Read This Summer
Since it’s almost the middle of May and just weeks away from the unofficial start of summer, I’m getting my summer reading list set. Here are five biographies that are currently on my to-read list. What do they all have in common? They’re all about badass women in history.
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Fateful Symmetry: The Marriage of Oscar I of Sweden and Josephine of Leuchtenberg
In a matter of years, the Ancien Régime of France was no more, and an ambitious young soldier by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte saw it as a chance to insert himself into the realm of politics and lead France into the approaching nineteenth century. His quest to create a new French empire in Europe would forever change history and …
Read MoreClassic Woman-centric Movie Review: The Last Time I Saw Paris
Well, Persephoneers, it’s an F. Scott Fitzgerald weekend: Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gastby premieres this Friday, and I’m rather excited to see it, but I’m going to wait until some of the furor dies down. Meanwhile, I’ve got a movie pick that all of you might like, The Last Time I Saw Paris, which was released in 1954 and is based on Fitzgerald’s …
Read MoreThe Chemise a la Reine, an Eighteenth-century Fashion Trend
In 1783, Marie Antoinette scandalized her subjects when she had court artist Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun paint this portrait of her.
Read MoreClassic Woman-centric Movie Review: How to Marry a Millionaire
Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, and Betty Grable scheme together to marry wealthy, attractive men in the 1953 film How to Marry a Millionaire, directed by Jean Negulesco and also starring William Powell and Rory Calhoun. The film was based on two plays and was one of the first movies to be made in Cinemascope.
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We Try It: Deep Conditioning Hair with Coconut Oil
Awhile back another Persephoneer tried a couple of deep conditioning treatments with olive oil and mentioned that she might try coconut oil next. I’ve just started deep conditioning with coconut oil as of last week because of what I saw on the Cheap as F blog, and I wanted to report on my results.
Read MoreThe Attitudes of Emma, Lady Hamilton
Before her infamous affair with Lord Horatio Nelson, Lady Emma Hamilton was already well-known in British society as an artist’s model and dancer. She was a favorite subject of George Romney, who had many sketches of her and produced many paintings of her long after she had left England for Naples.
Read MoreClassic Woman-centric Movie Review: That Hamilton Woman
Hello, Persephoneers! Let’s wrap up another long week with a historical romance, starring one of classic film’s greatest couples. This week’s movie pick, That Hamilton Woman, released in 1941, was directed by Alexander Korda and stars Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh as real-life lovers Admiral Horatio Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton. The couple had just been married at the time of …
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Getting That Perfect Playlist
Probably just like you, I need to have a certain ambiance when I’m writing. I need to sit in a certain place, have my tea and my munchies at the ready, keep my notes on hand, and of course, have that perfect playlist on. A playlist is a big necessity, because it sets the mood of the story and helps …
Read MoreClassic Woman-centric Movie Review: I Was a Male War Bride
Hello, Persephoneers! It’s been a very long week for me, as I’m sure it has been for all of you, so this week’s classic movie pick is going to be light and humorous. I Was a Male War Bride, which stars Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan, was released in 1947 and was directed by Howard Hawks, who is well known …
Read MoreClassic Woman-centic Movie Review: Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957)
I was in a weird mood one day and needed something mindless to watch on Netflix Instant, when lo and behold, I found the film Gunfight at the OK Corral, made in 1957, and a documentary about Wyatt Earp from PBS’s American Experience, which I’ve seen before. The film is so cheesy that on the scale of cheesiness, it would probably be …
Read MoreLa Dame aux Camelias: The Tragedy of Marie Duplessis
The story has captured many hearts and minds for over a hundred years, and it has almost become a part of our collective consciousness. It’s La Dame aux Camelias, or Camille, by Alexandre Dumas, which chronicles the doomed love affair between a young Frenchman, Armand Duval, and a dying courtesan, Marguerite Gautier. The novel has inspired a play, an opera, a ballet, …
Read MoreClassic Woman-centic Movie Review: A Farewell to Arms (1932)
Happy weekend, all! This week’s pick is a film based on Hemingway’s classic novel of love during war, A Farewell to Arms. This version, made in 1932, stars Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes, and Adolphe Menjou and was directed by Frank Borzage.
Read MoreClassic Woman-centric Movie Review: Gigi (1958)
This weekend, let’s take a trip to the dazzling, dizzying world of the Paris demimonde during the Belle Epoque. We’ll do it through the 1958 Lerner and Loewe musical Gigi, based on the novella of the same title by Colette and starring Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan, and Maurice Chevalier and directed by Vincente Minnelli.
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STFU, Steven Moffat!
As a writer, I’m always looking at what other writers say about the craft and their technique. But when I saw this little gem of genius erroneously attributed to Steven Moffat, I was, for lack of a better word, gobsmacked:
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