Outside the classic Italian beauties (Sophia, Gina etc.) I’m not quite sure that anyone of that ilk came close to Pier Angeli.
And in color:
Just exquisite. And a tragic, early death from suicide at age 39.
Tag: Things of beauty
Art, music, whatever
Still More Doubles
My old post on Doubles should serve as background to this post, so go back in the mists of time to read it.
Here we have a couple new entrants to this crowded field, Maya Jama and Maya Henry.
Maya Jama:
Maya Henry:
I know, they look nothing alike. But when one sees, for example, a headline shouting “MAYA SHOWS HER BOOBS!”, you will understand my confusion as to which superstructure I’ll be seeing when I click on the link.
It’s a tough life of confusion I live, to be sure.
Stick Figures
I see that Stick Figurine Posh Spice / Victoria Beckham has decreed that the Age Of The Skinny Chick is OVAH.
‘It’s an old-fashioned attitude, wanting to be really thin. I think women today want to look healthy, and curvy. They want to have some boobs – and a bum. Every woman wants a nice, round, curvy bottom, right? For that, you need a really tight knit that nips you in at the waist and holds you in all the right places,’ she explained.
Uh huh.
I think she needs to start telling others about this new thing — people like Ann Hathaway, Alessandra Ambrosio and the future Queen of Britishland:
Ugh. Sorry, but I need a little pick-me-up just to restore my sanity:
Okay, I feel much better now. Carry on.
Classic Beauty: Anna Magnani
Quite possibly the greatest actress who ever lived, Anna Magnani was so good because whatever character she played, she was always playing herself. No better description of her acting is this one: “Whenever Magnani laughs or cries (which is often), it’s as if you’ve never seen anyone laugh or cry before: has laughter ever been so burstingly joyful or tears so shatteringly sad?”
And her best quote ever:
“No man can control me, although many have tried.”
Classic Beauty: Suzanne Pleshette
I’ve loved this extraordinary woman since I was a 6-year-old boy, when I tagged along with my parents to see Roman Holiday (a.k.a. Lovers Must Learn ), coming soon to TCM. OMG that face, that laugh, and that voice…
Not to mention her other attributes:
Here’s a political joke:
If I’d ever woken up next to her, you’d have had to pull me out of bed at gunpoint — with no guarantee of my compliance, either.
Classic Beauty: Greer Garson
It is a great pity that most memories of flame-haired beauty Greer Garson are going to be in black-and-white, because she was extraordinary even by the standards of her time.
The best part about Garson is that initially, she never had any intentions of becoming a movie actress. She graduated from university with a degree in French and 18th-century literature and worked in an ad agency in her native London. Then she got into some stage acting, and when she was spotted at a performance by L.B. Mayer, he offered her an acting contract on the spot. Her effect was immediate: she got an Oscar nomination (the first of seven) for her very first movie role in Blossoms In The Dust, and won Best Actress for Mrs. Miniver just a couple years later.
Most British actresses were portrayed in the contemporaneous stereotype of the calm, classy woman, but Greer Garson somehow managed to escape the typecasting occasionally, such as the dancer in Random Harvest (coincidentally, one of my all-time favorite romantic movies, by the way):
…and she was also capable of being not just beautiful, but sexy as well. Here she is in (yet another of my favorite movies) Mrs. Miniver, showing off her new hat to her husband, wearing a nightgown which… I don’t wanna talk about it:
Maybe it was an inadvertent act on the part of the movie’s director (I doubt it), but that scene is one of the most understated yet sexiest ever filmed — no nudity, no sexual banter, nothing but Greer Garson’s astonishing beauty. And in both the above movies (they came out in the same year, 1942) she was already thirty-eight years old, an advanced age by Hollywood standards.
Here are a few more examples of what I’m talking about:
If only they’d been taken in glorious Technicolor… but hey, I’ll take what I’ve been given.