People - you and me - are more important than principles.

Katie: Hubble, people are their principles.

Late night Sex and the City runs on Paramount have given me a lot of inspiration of late...

Oh, The Way We Were!

Gabrielle Luthy summarises the appeal: "This film is one of the best examples of internal conflict I've seen. No fueding families to push a couple apart, no serial killers to be on the run from, just two people who love and admire each other but know they're too different to make it work - but not without first trying. The chemistry between Streisand and Redford was electric and warm. Every time I watch this, just hearing the strains of the theme song chokes me up, and I usually get teary when Hubbell and JJ are on the boat and you see the look on Hubbell's face as he realizes he's losing Katie. By the end, when they meet again outside The Plaza and the pull is so obvious but they know they can't, when Hubbell asks if another man is being a good father to his child then ducks his head and is fighting tears, I'm blubbering. Fucking blubbering. It's the saddest moment I've ever seen on film. And yet I watch it again and again, because it's such an outstanding scene."

The ending won't make you *blubber* unless you've seen the whole film, so I'll spoil no more - you can watch the trailer (and hear the song!) here. Oh, the way they used to make movies! And yes, Hubbell is a bit of a hero...

...But it's Barbra Streisand as the passionate, fiercely intellectual, Jewish socialist activist Katie Morosky who captures my heart! My mother, who saw this movie first time around in the cinema, told me how the audience jeered and sniggered when Katie says, "I mean, I know I'm attractive... sort of." For me, it's her incredible character - with all its energy, animation and myriad flaws - that makes her infintely more compelling and loveable than Hubbell's, yes, more conventionally attractive high school girlfriend and choice of wife...

...And she was just inspiring when informing the flip golden boy and his cohorts that "You're all decadent and disgusting." Indeed, wonderful Lula magazine ran a feature on anti-heroines in the latest installment of fabulousness, starring such luminaries as Wednesday Addams and Violet Baudelaire:

Coral Stars magicked up the above collage and this commentary: "The darker, thoughtful, quiet & probably quite bizarre characters in stories that I, like April Long (writer of the Lula article), relate to most... Maybe you’re wondering why that is and my only attempt at answering can be to say that I see myself a bit like these kinds of characters... I know it kind of sounds like I have this mental image of myself of being an outsider kind of like these characters, but it’s not that. On the whole, I’m not an outsider, I fit into many bubbles in life, but to me, it doesn’t matter whether I fit into these bubbles or not. I just like to do things my own way! I like to wear things the way I want to, I like to have strong-minded, self-assured friends (I don’t have a vast many friends, but those who I actually consider true friends, are all very aware of themselves & are happy about who that is) and I like to be an occasionally quiet but fully independent person.
Lula was precisely on point with the article... and it rang so many bells for me personally. Not everyone will like or relate to these types of characters and there is nothing wrong with that. But the point with these characters, is that they demonstrate that it’s okay to be you and ultimately, the person who you need to please most, is you. As Lula says, 'They realised so much earlier than the rest of us that the only way through life is to be true to yourself - and every decision they make, every line they drop, every dress they put on is a testament to that.'"

Hooray! I have always had my own very distinct idea of who I want to be, regardless of the various agendas everyone else has tried to push, and I've been blessed to find a rare few people who encourage me to do that. It's something I've been thinking about a lot since starting at university - hopefully I've found a few more kindred spirits, but all too many are still way too preoccupied with trying to look way too *cool* instead of growing a character. In the words of the illustrious Cummings,

The Hardest Battle by shuah

And, of course, my beloved Rilke, who provides my life philosophy: "Most people have (with the help of conventions) turned their solutions towards what is easy and towards the easiest side of the easy; but it is clear that we must trust in what is difficult; everything alive trusts in it, everything in Nature grows and defends itself any way it can and is spontaneously itself, tries to be itself at all costs and against all opposition... Only in this sense, as the task of working on themselves ('to hearken and to hammer day and night'), may young people use the love that is given them."

LET'S RUN AWAY AND "walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours - that is what you must be able to attain." ~Rilke

Three further cheers for Shadows Bring The Starlight: "When did normal become the watchword? I am anything but normal. I'm a self-proclaimed dork. I have gone to a bar before and ordered hot chocolate and bread. I laugh at people or insult them when they hit on me. I relate to fictional characters more than most real people... I have an outfit I call my "Victorian childhood" dress... I feel things deeply and sense memories as physical beings. I have a hard time letting go. I hate bars and grew out of that scene before I grew into it. My daily conversations have allusions to old movies and classic novels. I buy wine because of the pretty bottles. I never had wild teenage years, and I have no problem with that. I rely on a good night's sleep. I am disgusted by the superficiality I observe around me. It makes me sad to say so, but I feel like very few people actually know me. Even fewer really appreciate me. Sometimes I feel like I'm the token misfit who is present only to make others aware of what the weirdos are like. In the movies it's the misfit who always attracts the most stereotypically attractive guy; they want 'girls with horn-rimmed glasses and vegan footwear and Goth makeup,' to quote Juno. Or they are Jake Ryan and interested in 'more than a party.' But I think it is much harder in real life to find people who actually appreciate eccentricity, rather than keeping it around for amusement or to make the supposedly "normal" feel superior. I don't want to think about myself as being different from everyone else-- but the more I look around the more I become aware of it. I want my quirks to be an added bonus that makes me me, not an impediment to connection. I used to have a theory called the Chipped Teacup Theory. The idea is that some people are chipped teacups on shelves, among the normal, "perfect" cups. Sometimes they sit ignored by those who think them deficient, but others snatch them up because they realize the chips add to the cup's beauty rather than taking away from it. The chipped cups are special, and not in the derogatory, scare quotes sense... But can you really ever find yourself in this world? Or are we discouraged from that and encouraged to embrace the ordinary?"

~Rob Ryan

IMDB on The Way We Were: "He took the easy way out, and is forced to admit this to himself, if only for a moment before he is swept back into his glamorous lifestyle as a screen writer. Katie, on the other hand, has stayed true to her beliefs, and she sums it up... perfectly when she tells Hubble that his 'girl' is 'lovely.' It is a girl he has chosen over a woman that could have brought out the very best in him, and helped him to be the kind of man he yearned to be, but didn't have the determination or courage for, and this is where the great tragedy of the film lies."

And do I dream again?

...For now I find
The Phantom of the Opera is there -
Inside my mind!

To Piccadilly Circus, for the theatre with the camerado!

OUTFIT OF THE *EVENING*:
Dress from Italian Apparel in Florence (very 'Music Of The Night')
White leather heels from New Look
A white woolen cape, borrowed from the camerado
Champagne 'Cheers!' bag from Global Crafts

Doesn't the camerado look like a big sparkly amethyst? And I adore her Cecil Beaton-style umbrella; very Eliza Doolittle at the races!:-

Fortune favoured the brave (or, in this case, fanatical), as we got to Piccadilly so early, and I enthused to such an extent, that everyone reluctantly agreed to traipse with me to Fortnum and Mason's... that couture cave of wonders! It really is the department store where you can imagine both Marilyn and Audrey buying absolutely everything. So, of course, all fell in love with it - and I got my pictures, my lovelies!

That's right - Bucks Fizz Truffle Chocolate Cupcakes...

Yes, let them! I love how you can just see our merry little troupe reflected in the mirror behind the counter...

The jams have hats!! Now, up in the golden elevator to the second floor...

Very Pushing Daisies, eh?

These are towels, believe it or not!

And these are shower caps, as modelled by the camerado:

- and me, but I accidentally cut myself out of the photo, and then one of the morning-suited staff started to advance on us ominously so we had to scarper...

The staircase!

Pouches of pink champagne!

Alas, although I could afford absolutely nothing in the entire stock (a packet of pink pick'n'mix shrimps was £6! Although I am sure they are the most delicious shrimps such money can buy), I was heartened to see the Moleskine diary I just bought in the more provincial Paperchase for the approaching Michaelmas term on display in the Stationery section! It's like a little piece of F and M!

The actual *point* of our outing, at Her Majesty's Theatre, was such a spectacle, what with the swinging chandeliers and candelabras rising up out of the mists of the Phantom's lake and the incredible costumes. But I hadn't realised it was such a horrible story! I was expecting something like Beauty and the Beast, and the Phantom was just a murdering ghoul-like monster. Set design had even added a creepy life-size doll of Christine in full bridal wear entombed in his underground lair.
Jess: "No! I love him... can't you just feel his heart break?"
Matt: "He was born broken!"

I'd take Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny, any day - especially played by Simon Bailey (a far cry from the doleful-looking specimen they picked for the movie - see the 'Think Of Me' Youtube clip). What a voice!

In Les Miserables.

And how very apt that the play was set in a Parisian opera house!

Some Lulu Guiness wisdom from the department store of dreams! Well, who wouldn't rather be in the City of Lights?

Monika Roe

And lo and behold, what should be on Paramount at midnight that very eve but the last ever episode of Sex and the City, set in - Paris! This clip makes me tearful, and not just because I want all of her clothes.

Balenciaga red ruffled polkadot cocktail dress with Christian Lacroix pink-trimmed waist-cinching coat. And those poor Christian Louboutins...
Then a robin's egg blue vintage coat and a furry white cap by Chanel.

"Oh, the last time I saw Paris, in the streets, in the rain
And as I walk along the boulevards with you, once again
And the leaves come falling down
In September, when the leaves come falling down..."

-Van Morrison

Photo found on Flickr by Gala Darling

But it all turns out alright in the end perfectly quirkily in true Sex and the City style, with a big finale (starring Big, of course - hahaha!) - so I shall say no more to avoid spoiling it for those who have yet to see:-

Big: "I have to hand it to you kid. Most people come to Paris to fall in love. You came and got slapped."

Speaking of Sex and the City rounds this post off quite nicely, as I found a fabulous scent in the Fortnum and Mason's perfumery (equipped with perfume taps - see above and believe!) called 'The Party In Manhattan'; the official site gives you an idea of what it smelt like, complete with soundtrack! Only available in Italy (with the notable exceptions of F&M's and the Harrods Haute Parfumerie), it was inspired by a fragrance originally launched in 1930s Hollywood at a party attended by 2000 show business luminaries and socialites... Roja Dove describes it as "reminiscent of the great scents which chic young women wore the most glamorous parties in the 1950s... We have created a fragrance of quality in 'The Party', belonging to that emotional and very glamorous world. The gentleman is well combed and elegant, caught lingering in the foyers of Broadway theatres, lifting your sets of suitcases and trunks of leather uphill on the walkways of yachts into Europe, at a bar in Manhattan where, mixed with the scent of Havana cigars, the heat of the drinks are a counterpoint to the thick snowfall that, as you could see from the windows, slowed down the traffic on Park Avenue…”

The scent is blended from a base of vetiver, oakmoss and grey amber, spicy head notes bergamot, mandarin, bourbon carnation and carrot, and a heart of "the best classical blooms": may rose, jasmine, iris and ylang ylang. And it is so intense that I could still just catch the smell of it on my wrists after three days!

The Perfume Posse reviewed it with their usual panache; March reports that "when my small vial of PIM showed up you could smell it through its plastic wrapping, through the Tyvek envelope and across the room – and it had not leaked. It’s just that embracing! It was so embracing, in fact, that when I sprayed a tiny bit on my wrist the smell engulfed the office in a cloud of scent the likes of which we do not often see... It’s incredibly elegant, and in an unmarked vial I’d have guessed vintage Guerlain or Caron." Lee notes: "Ripe, indolic, faintly scatological in its rich texture, it certainly has the classic nod to the unwashed fullness, the rounded ripeness, the Frenchy pourriture of scents from an earlier era... But then, it becomes leaner, angular, a Mitsouko without the peach, an austere and otherworldly chypre of impossible elegance. A cut glass beauty, oh too young, in a long cocktail dress, cigarette in filter holder, wan, sardonic smile, a world of smoke surrounding her, drifting impossibly away as the cocktail music (yellow cocktail music, just as in The Great Gatsby) merges with the laughter of a rapidly drunker crowd, increasing your blurred myopia. Like you dreamed it." Patty: "Being alone when I first opened this and spritzed it on, I can’t account for how anyone else reacted, but my reaction was laughter. The perfumer charged with making this must have screamed with joy when given the sketch and the latitude to make this... magnificently beautiful creation... The drydown exudes elegance and luxury, while never completely losing that little bit of the very real underside of life behind the carefully made-up face... For me, it’s one of the most fascinating things I’ve smelled in a good, long while. I’ve smelled the old Candide Effluve and Bouquet Faunes and other Guerlain skank monsters. They were pretenders to the throne that The Party in Manhattan now occupies."

"Each scent comes in a handmade box, made with hand-rolled Venetian paper and can be lined in different coloured silk lining if required. Each scent has a solid brass stopper, which can be customised with diamonds, rubies and other precious stones on request."

I am sure Carrie would approve. Sadly, prices *start* at £295. Why must good taste come at such a high price? Ah, well - at least I once smelt of £295...

You must have people around you who understand the same music. -Givenchy

#7: AUDREY HEPBURN

Richard Dreyfuss: "She was the best that we could possibly be. She was perfectly charming and perfectly loving. She was a dream; she was the dream that you remember when you wake up smiling."

AUDREY ON SEX APPEAL AND STYLE:

"I have more sex appeal on the tip of my nose than many women have in their entire bodies. It doesn't stand out a mile, but it is there."

"Sex appeal is something that you feel deep down. It's suggested rather than shown. I'm not as well-stacked as Sophia Loren or Gina Lollobrigida, but there is more to sex appeal than just measurements. I don't need a bedroom to prove my womanliness. I can convey just as much appeal fully clothed, picking apples off a tree or standing in the rain."

"Some people dream of having a big swimming pool - with me, it's closets."

On the Cecil Beaton dress she wore to the ball in My Fair Lady: "All I had to do was walk down those stairs. The dress made me do it."

AUDREY ON HER MOVIES:

"Those movies were fairy tales. That's always been me... I've never changed. A princess or a flower girl were all parts of me and I was parts of them."

"If ever I want to accentuate the importance of anything in any form of entertainment, it is the quality of the fairy tale. People go to the theatre and the cinema for the same reason that makes them like fairy tales."

"People associate me with a time when movies were pleasant, when women wore pretty dresses and you heard beautiful music. I always love it whne people write to me and say, 'I was having a rotten time, and I walked into a cinema and saw one of your movies, and it made such a difference.'"

"All my life I've been in situations where I've had no technique, but if you feel enough you can get away with murder."

AUDREY ON ROMANCE:

"Sabrina was a romantic who lived in a fairy tale, and she was a romantic, an incorrigible romantic, which I am. I could never be cynical. I wouldn't die. I'd roll over and die before that."

"I let my heart get the better of me. I often let my heart get the better of me!"

HOLLY GOLIGHTLY: "I'll tell you one thing, Fred darling, I'd marry you for your money in a minute. Would you marry me for my money?"

PAUL VARJAK: "In a minute."

HOLLY: "Well, I guess it's lucky neither of us is rich, huh?"
(Skip to 1:09 on the trailer to see this exchange):-


"Why do you look left or right when you cross the street? Because you don't want to get run over. But, you still cross the street."

AUDREY ON AUDREY:

"I did War and Peace in velvet and furs in August... In the the hunting scene the family was plodding across a big field in the blazing Roman sunshine and, all of a sudden, my horse fainted out from under me... So when they say I'm strong as a horse, I am. I'm stronger! I didn't faint. The horse did."

"I'm rather cheerful by nature - it's my best defence against the aches on the inside."

"I'm an introvert... I love being by mself, love being outdoors, love taking a long walk with my dogs and looking at trees, flowers, the sky."

AUDREY ON LIFE IN GENERAL:

"Not to live for the day, that would be materialistic - but to treasure the day. I realize that most of us live on the skin - on the surface - without appreciating just how wonderful it is simply to be alive at all."

"The more there is, the less I want. The more man flies to the moon, the more I want to look at a tree."

"The world has always been cynical, and I think I'm a romantic at heart. I hope for better things, and I thank God the world is also full of people who want to be genuine and kind."

"I am filled with rage at ourselves. I don't believe in collective guilt, but I do believe in collective responsibility."

"Well, it's all about the same thing, isn't it? Children and flowers, it's life, it's survival... I think that's what life's about, actually - about children and flowers."

AUDREY ON THE LITTLE THINGS:

"Would you be awfully shocked if I poured myself a small whisky? It's awfully early, I know, but it must be 6'o'clock somewhere in the world."

"Let's face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me."

OTHERS ON AUDREY:

Gregory Peck: "Audrey was as funny as she was beautiful. She was a magical combination of high chic and high spirits."

"Most people think of Audrey Hepburn as regal. I like to think of her as spunky... She was a cut-up, she was a clown. I think that would surprise people who didn't know her."

Vera Wang: Audrey dressed contrary to Hollywood at that time, she dressed for herself... The thing that strikes me about Audrey, still, is her courageousness of her personal style."

The Rat Pack called her "The Princess," and Frank Sinatra described her as "the kind of girl... they built best-selling musicals around."

Rob Wolders: Part of her charm was "not taking herself too seriously, but seriously enough."

Cecil Beaton: "In a flash, I discovered Audrey Hepburn chock-a-block with spritelike charm, and she had a sort of waifish, poignant sympathy. Without any of the preliminaries I felt she cut through to the basic understanding that makes people friends."

Pamela Keogh: "Audrey and Hubert (Givenchy) recognised that they were part of a natural aristocracy, one that had nothing to do with money, power or family placement and everything to do with talent, hard work and a faith that somehow they would prevail. There was an ingrained grace about each of them that money could not buy."

Billy Wilder: "Ah, that unique lady. She's what the Latin calls sui generis. She's the orignal."

John Loring: "Girls all over the world think, 'Wouldn't it be great to be like Audrey Hepburn?' Well, isn't that great? It would be a much nicer world if everyone were just like Audrey Hepburn!"

Sean Hepburn Ferrer (her son): "I think people love her for the right reasons and I think she was deserving of that love."

Jeffrey Banks: "You know the Audrey you saw onscreen? Audrey was like that in real life, only a million times better."

"Audrey, there can never be too many flowers for you."

"I must have an odd face, they can make it up to look wise. I am not." ~Audrey

AUDREY AMBASSADORS:

Vimala Thakar: "We are used to living on the surface, afraid of the depths, and therefore our actions and concerns about humanity are shallow, fragile vessels easily damaged. Ultimately nmost of us are concerned chiefly with our small lives, our collection of sensual pleasures, and our anxiety about sickness and death, rather than the misery created by collective indifference and callousness."

"By your life you do it, by living you do it! It is easy to perceive the truth, it is very difficult to consumnate it in your life. In spirituality there is nothing to acquire, only to understand the truth and live it."

Ma Jaya Sat Bhagavati: "Don't ask why - JUST DO SOMETHING! I have such passion about what can be done! And if we go down, we go down - but we go down trying. We go down knowing we did not waste our live and our life. Put it towards something. I know that if we help one human being, it's going to change the world. It has to. I may not know how, but I know it will. Somebody's going to come back next lifetime full of love because they weren't left to die alone in agony and pain. Make your life a clear expression of a passionate response to the overwhelming pain and suffering you see in the world."

All of the beautiful Audrey illustrations are by Monika Roe - Pamela Keogh used them for her book "What Would Audrey Do?"