Cine-Picks Style #2

For my second cine-picks style, I've chosen two films and a television show. They are wildly different, their only commonality is that the women are over 40...and the fashion is amazing.

The first film is "Something's Gotta Give" (2003) starring Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. I liked this movie very much when I saw it in the theater. It's the classic girl gets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy back..with some twists.  Keanu Reeves was quite charming and as with all of Nancy Meyer's films, the houses are a character that I always fall in love with.

Diane Keaton was fifty-seven in this movie and I thought she looked sensational. Her clothes were minimal and classic but never boring. When she steps into the room for her date with Keanu wearing that black dress, honestly she looked fantastic for any age.

The next pick is an Australian television show called "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries". It first aired in 2012 and has a bit of a cult following, not to mention countless pinterest boards devoted to the wardrobe of the protagonist Miss Phryne Fisher.

Phyrne is a Private Detective in 1920's Melbourne. She is single, financially independent, well traveled, whip smart, compassionate, sexually confident, progressive and sleeps with whomever she chooses. Her best friend is a brilliant lesbian doctor and she has an ongoing flirtation with the local Detective. She has a live-in personal assistant, a cook/butler and a SPECTACULAR wardrobe. Which I covet.

I love that in the books Phryne is twenty-seven but in the series the actress, Essie Davis, is forty-two. It makes her experience, wisdom and self- confidence that much more believable. She is an inspiring, delightful character.

The last film, which made such a visual impression on me so many years ago is "Death in Venice" (1971) directed by Luchino Visconti. I first saw images from the film in the December 1970 issue of Vogue when I was ten. I think it's where I first read about Venice and became aware of the stunning and oh-so glamorous Silvana Mangano. Doesn't she have THE most fantastic profile?? The costumes were designed by Piero Tosi, a frequent collaborator of Visconti's. Together they worked on "The Damned" and "The Night Porter" with Charlotte Rampling and of course "The Leopard" with Claudia Cardinale, a classic. Tosi also designed the costumes for Sophia Loren in "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" and "Marriage Italian Style."

"Death in Venice" is a tragic and beautiful film based on the novella by Thomas Mann. Most of it takes place in the Hotel Des Bains* and the beaches of the Lido in 1910. It is youth, age, poverty, beauty, desire, wealth, disappointment, possibilities and finally death.

All films are available on Netflix. You can even see the entirety of "Death in Venice" on YouTube, albeit with Greek subtitles!

* The first time I went to Venice was in 1983 with my mother and I HAD to go to the grand Hotel Des Bains.  Lido was disappointing but the hotel was glorious. Now, alas, it is under renovation, to be converted into luxury condominiums.