Eight Claude Chabrol Films Screening at LACMA

Each element that makes a film directed by Claude Chabrol all the more compelling is also the one that renders it unseemly.

Thank you for not smoking. Jean-Pierre Cassel, Jacqueline Bisset, and Valentin Merlet in La cérémonie, 1995.

The astonishingly prolific French director Chabrol died last September at the age of 80, leaving behind more than 70 films marked by a predilection for passion, poison, and perversity. His filmmaking descended from the generation of Cahiers du cinema and the Nouvelle Vague, and it observed greed, adultery and murder with a narrow psychological intensity that made notions of sin or crime seem to be beside the point. 
He melded a lyric, semi-formal sensibility reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang with tense, cynicism-infused narratives, some derived from satirical suspense queens Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell. In his cinematic world, it’s an act of pitiable optimism to suppose there are only seven deadly sins. An insurance broker, bourgeosie chateau dwellers, or a country cousin are no match for the machinations of a debauched student, an illiterate maid, or a scheming Swiss chocolate heiress. 
The effect: equally pure and corrupt. 
From January 28 through February 5, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will be screening eight Chabrol films, starting with his first feature, Le beau Serge, and rounding out the set with recent work, including one of my favorites, Merci pour le chocolat.

Can’t miss: a guest appearance on Saturday night by Jacqueline Bisset, who appeared in La cérémonie as an industrialist’s wife undone by the machinations of the local postmistress.

January 28 7:30 pm, La femme infidèle, 1969
January 28 9:20 pm, The Bridesmaid, 2004
January 29 5:00 pm, Le beau Serge, 1958
January 29 7:30 pm, La cérémonie, 1995 (with a guest appearance by Jacqueline Bisset)
February 4 7:30 pm, Les cousins, 1959
February 4 9:35 pm, Les bonnes femmes, 1960
February 5 5:00 pm, Merci pour le chocolat, 2000
February 5 7:30 pm, This Man Must Die, 1969

LACMA’s 18th Century DIY Costumes

If you’ve ever wanted to spend a quiet evening at home watching NetFlix and licking the frosting off cupcakes in unparalled elegance, then the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is providing a grand opportunity to flounce around in stunning 18th century menswear rather than an ex-boyfriend’s faded, pizza-stained tee shirt. 
The curators and conservators of the LACMA’s Costume and Textiles Department have created patterns based on the designs of garments in their collection, including a man’s at-home robe (banyan), from China, 1700-50. And should you care to leave the manse, they’ve also provided annotated pdf patterns of styles that would suit even Mr. Darcy's legendary pride, including two waistcoats — with sleeves or without — from China for the Western market, c. 1740, and a man’s coat, France, 1790–95. It’s time to buy some silk jacquard or voided velvet and start sewing.

Pretty Is As Pretty Does

“My face has been my misfortune.” 

— Hedy Lamarr, from her 1966 autobiography, Ecstasy and Me

Ebony hair. Alabaster skin. Vermillion lips. 
Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler. Transformed into Hollywood screen goddess Hedy Lamarr. 
From the beginning, she was acknowledged for her beauty. Not so much for her acting. And finally, decades later, for her brains.
Her first foray into cinema was a 1933 Czech film, Ekstase (Ecstasy), in which she appeared nude and simulated fufillment of the movie’s title; other well-known roles include Algiers with Charles Boyer, 1938; White Cargo with Walter Pidgeon, 1942; and the technicolor Biblical potboiler, Samson and Delilah with Victor Mature, 1949.
In 1942, she and composer George Antheil shared a patent for inventing a technological system they called “frequency hopping”, an idea that she and the avant-garde American composer hatched at a dinner party. Their invention opened the doors to the spread-spectrum technology and cell phone usage. Talk about networking!
Unfortunately their idea languished until 1957, when it was adopted by engineers at Sylvania Electronis Systems. In 1962, it was installed in United States military ships, three years after the Lamarr-Antheil patent had expired. So Lamarr is credited with a portion of the credit but enjoyed none of the proceeds.  
In 1997, she and co-inventor Antheil won the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award. “It’s about time,” she reportedly said.
To learn more about Hedy Lamarr, tune into the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast about the Hollywood starlet who invested cellular technology.