Aside from clothes I also like to pick up films and books in charity shops or at carboot sales.
I rarely go to the cinema and I don't have a TV or a Netflix account so my viewing is really limited to what I pick up, and that suits me just fine!
I tend to only watch things with a vintage angle these days and will always look for DVD copies of classic films, era appropriate box sets or modern films set in more vintage times.
This week I picked up "The Painted Veil" set in China in the 1920's, featuring Naomi Watts and Edward Norton. Full information available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446755/
The film is based on a novel by W Someret Maugham which I now would like to track down and read.
The central characters are Walter (Norton) and Kitty (Watts) and the movie begins with the pair looking deeply unhappy in a very soggy field in China. The reason for their unhappiness soon unfolds as the story cuts back to how they met and why they married in the first place.
I think it's fair to say that there is no use marrying for the reasons Kitty did!
Kitty and Edward move to China where his work as a bacteriologist keeps him somewhat busy, enough for pretty Kitty to have her head turned by the cad known as Charlie.
Charlie, being everything that Walter isn't, (passionate, exciting, a big fat liar) Kitty is drawn to him but their affair is soon discovered.
Walter reacts in the most frustrating, passive aggressive way and decides that he is volunteering in an area where a cholera outbreak is killing the local people, and that Kitty is coming too or he is divorcing and disgracing her.
Charlie of course proves useless in rescuing Kitty and reminds women everywhere of the age old truth that married men really don't just up and leave their wives.
This movie is the story of both Kitty's personal journey into becoming a "grown up" and of how a marriage gone wrong can work towards a happy ending.... but will it make it? You'll have to watch it to find out!
Kitty's Wardrobe
Of course being set in the twenties and Kitty being a sexy and spirited young woman she has some killer outfits...
In the opening scenes Walter is smitten with Kitty and in this gorgeous beaded flapper dress it is easy to see why!
Below: I just love the embroidered detail on Kitty's dress in this scene, and those to die for drop earrings!
As Kitty and Walter's relationship falls into what is seemingly a desperate state Kitty's wardrobe becomes a little more plain and almost downtrodden. One night Kitty decides enough is enough and pulls on this beautiful purple dress with intricate detailing to remind Walter of the girl he met in London. Funnily enough it does the trick
Later in the film whilst Kitty is learning her life lesson of not being such a terrible cheater of a wife her wardrobe, whilst still stylish, becomes ever more maternal in style. Walter starts seeing another side to his wife. I love embroidery and lace detailing and this dress is just so classic.
By the end of the movie Kitty's priorities have changed and her transformation is complete, I am a sucker for a floral print and I adore this outfit and it's beautiful bright colours.
Until Next Time
Love
Lucy
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(All images copyright of Warner Independent Pictures)
I really like this film too, we also pick up DVDs from charity shops. It's quite a hard-hitting subject though, cholera looks like the most horrible disease!! Worth sitting through to look at the dresses though...
ReplyDeleteI agree I found the story very sad but it has a strong lesson to be learned I think, I loved the way they used her clothes to really give a sense of the different stages of her internal conflict, so clever!
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