Supporting “Finding Franklin” and Other Fabulous Links!!!

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Hey Y’all,

Please think of supporting the film Finding Franklin. The film is being produced by my good friend Arabella Anderson. It has a lovely 1960s feel and supporting good films from up and comers is very important, says this screenwriter!

FRINGE HAS BEEN RENEWED FOR A 5TH SEASON!!!! I really wasn’t expecting this. I am so happy. Even though the plot of this show doesn’t usually work but the characters and acting is on point.

One of my favorite comic blogs, DC Women Kicking Ass, had it 2-year anniversary. 

Art of the Title has a great post about the title sequence for the original Ocean’s 11 created by the amazing Saul Bass. Jaunty, bombastic, and bright it seems a bit out of sync with the actual film but damn it is amazing!

Over at The Film Experience, Michael C. gives a run down of Romantic Comedy Pet Peeves. When romantic comedies are good they are really good but the genre is a mess nowadays. The first pet peeve, “The Blank Slate Dream Girl”, is an issue that really pisses me off. This girl has no life of her own, no personality, nothing that qualifies her to be an actually dream girl and yet there she is swooping in late in the story (usually) to get together with the lead. Also, this character can actually be of either gender.

Mmmm...Jean Dujardin.

My New Plaid Pants has had two, count ‘em TWO, fucking (emphasis on the fucking) glorious posts on Jean Dujardin here and here.

One of my favorite writers, Karen over at Shadows and Satin, has a week long event coming up starting April 30th. If you love noir, you owe it to yourself to follow this.

Paper Cuts and Celluloid #22

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“My nerves are turned on. I hear them like
musical instruments. Where there was silence
the drums, the strings are incurably playing. You did this.
Pure genius at work. Darling, the composer has stepped into fire.“

— excerpt from “The Kiss” a poem by Anne Sexton

My Birthday and The Year to Come on The Poison Pen

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Yes, William Holden and I share a birthday. Awesome, ain't it?

Today I turned 23 years old. This month also marks this lovely blog, The Poison Pen, running for a whole year. I wanted to do a major post but time doesn’t permit that this evening.

This year for me is about going beyond my boundaries, testing my limits, and enjoying life to the hilt. Last night I did just that. The emotions coursing through me could alternately be described as living exclamation points and jubilation. But also fear. I am the kind of woman who is used to comfort zones. A lot of these areas of comfort are changing. I am in fact looking for another apartment in Chicago in a completely different neighborhood than the one I have been living in since 2008. I am graduating college. I am looking for a new job while doing a lot of freelance work. I am dating.

Last night, I told a story from my own life on stage at The Moth StorySLAM. Not just any story but a deeply personal story. One that cuts right to the bone. I got lots of laughs, hardy applause and as I sauntered back to my seat after telling the story a few congratulations too. I had great conversation and drank the Oro Blanco at The Haymarket Pub and Brewery (which is surprisingly close to my current place). It was cathartic, refreshing, and exhilarating. 

By the by, expect a recap of my birthday shindig sometime Sunday or Monday as well! The shindig is happening on Saturday and I am SUPER excited. 

Oh, Romy.

What I’m really excited about is all the series I’m starting in the next few months and continuing others. So, you’ve probably read the About This Blog tab and wondered why I haven’t gotten to a lot of those series idea. Well, that’s for this year! Here are some things you’ll be seeing on The Poison Pen Cinema very soon:

-Book reviews! Some of these deal directly with classic cinema, others just suit my fancy but I think y’all will enjoy them all the same. 

-Animation Domination week!!! I will dedicate a whole week to cartoons such as Samurai Jack and track their classic cinema inspirations. I also will spend some time on cartoon depiction of classic actors. 

-A series exploring how mental illness is portrayed in classic cinema from the 1950s and 1960s. Specifically, schizophrenia, depression and dissociative disorders. I may eventually touch on more modern depictions if readers enjoy the classic run of the project.

-A series in which I watch, explore and discuss every Jean-Pierre Melville directed film.

-A Two-Part piece about Wonder Woman and how to translate her to the silver screen

-The Bette Davis Project will be exploring and discussing key Bette Davis films and her impact on actresses today.

-A series in which I argue that the women’s pictures of the 1930-50s are better in their overall depiction of women versus the modern equivalent (the chick flick). I will compare and contrast a classic women’s picture to a recent chick flick who share similar themes and story arcs to support my point. First up will be Dark Victory (1939) versus Sweet November (2001)

-Their will of course be a Noir Week exploring my favorite femme fatales and couples in the genre. 

Elizabeth is very excited! Are you?

Personal Icons: Elizabeth Taylor and How She Has Given Me Clarity as My Birthday Approaches

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Elizabeth Taylor in 1960.

How can a woman I’ve never met, an actress who seems more myth than human, give me clarity? I don’t take it lightly that this is my first post in the month of April, my birth month. So much of my life is in flux. My mood swings have grown severe, sharp enough to spin me into a furious mania or an exhausting depression. I should be ecstatic, even with all that is shifting in my life. After all, I’m turning 23 on April 17th with a birthday shindig on that Saturday. I am ecstatic but immensely afraid of the road that lies ahead. I am graduating and just coming into my own.

So who do I turn to at this time in my life? My mother, a woman as bright as the sun and sharp as a scythe, has given me some focus but she has the ability to hurt as much as heal in the same breath. I also have some truly amazing friends, you know who you are. But I needed more. So I have turned to the two most important aspects of my life: cinema and writing.

If Bette Davis is my icon in the professional/artistic sense, Elizabeth Taylor is my personal icon. Even (or especially) her mistakes have given me an odd sort of clarity. Causing me to pause and reassess my life in all its avenues. Taylor was iconic in a way so few stars or people could ever be. With eyes like violet pools of fire and a body composed of devastating curves, she was femininity incarnate. She was a gifted, at times even brilliant actress, trendsetter, Mother Courage, lover, warrior woman, activist, Mrs. Burton² and one hell of drunk.

She was a woman of excess, in which more was never enough. Food, alcohol, sex were her Dionysian impulses that she playfully and wonderfully gave into. I completely understand her desires…in fact, I know them all too well. She lived in a world where the largest diamonds, the most attractive men, and even all of Hollywood were at her feet. At times they were worshipping and damning her in the same breadth.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton on their wedding day on March 15th, 1964.

This isn’t to say Elizabeth Taylor walked in a world of utter perfection without any trials and tribulations. Her physical illnesses, varied and quite damning, are a testament to that. Also, the scrutiny she endured from the press was manic and pointed, to put it mildly. But most importantly her relationship with Richard Burton was a curious mix of hellish and heavenly. To think this goddess of sound and shadow, this titan of femininity could have troubles with men is at first baffling but then it becomes strangely uplifting and reaffirms her humanity.

No one should endure such pain for love. My desire to share my love with someone else and to be loved in the way I need has caused me to make plenty of mistakes (and I have decided to forgo that desire and enjoy men on a more casual level). To throw myself in the fire for men who wouldn’t do the same for me. No man is worth it. No one is worth it. Even, Elizabeth Taylor succumbed to this. Her relationship with Burton is that of legend. A maudlin, passionate affair with two bouts of marriage full of alcohol laced arguments, kinship, lust, neediness and misplaced frustrations.

I am reminded of another screen goddess who seems all too human in her personal life, Marlene Dietrich and the letter Noël Coward sent to her in regards to her waning affair with Yul Brynner. (hat tip to Self-Styled Siren) Below are a few snippets of the letter that affected me most.

She is human, after all.

Oh, darling.

It is difficult for me to wag my finger at you from so very far away particularly as my heart aches for you but really darling you must pack up this nonsensical situation once and for all. It is really beneath your dignity, not your dignity as a famous artist and a glamorous star, but your dignity as a human, only too human, being. Curly is attractive, beguiling, tender and fascinating, but he is not the only man in the world who merits those delightful adjectives…Do please try to work out for yourself a little personal philosophy and DO NOT, repeat DO NOT be so bloody vulnerable.

To hell with God damned ‘L’Amour.’ It always causes far more trouble than it is worth. Don’t run after it. Don’t court it. Keep it waiting off stage until you’re good and ready for it and even then treat it with the suspicious disdain that it deserves[...] Snap out of it, girl! A very brilliant writer once said (could it have been me?) ‘Life is for the living.’ Well that is all it is for, and living DOES NOT consist of staring in at other people’s windows and waiting for crumbs to be thrown to you.

Unpack your sense of humor, and get on with living and ENJOY IT.

Okay, my romantic life isn’t like that fiasco Dietrich dealt with but the letter is so poignant and heartfelt. So worthwhile to read when I let L’Amour define me. Most of my romantic pitfalls are courtesy of my own paranoia and frustratingly sharp desires or not trusting my gut instinct.

Back to La Liz.

So stunning she takes my breath away!

In honor of my upcoming birthday, here’s a list of 23 things I am doing to lift my spirits/celebrate, get myself on the right track (emotionally, mentally, and so forth) and to honor one of the beacons during the stormy moments of my life, Elizabeth Taylor. These are things to keep in mind (and do) now and for years to come.

1. Let my passions–writing, cinema, food, lust–rule but never define me.

2. Be quotable. 

3. Act like a diva but back it up with talent.

4. Be ambitious, proud, unapologetic. After all, “It’s not the having, it’s the getting”.

5. Do Liz and Dick role play with a guy . Or Batman/Bruce and Wonder Woman/Diana role. Probably both.

Morning after, eh?

6. Paint a beauty mark on my upper right jaw or go for a more Marilyn Monroe placement.

7. Revel in my sarcastic, vulgar humor and laugh. Laugh heartily and fully.

8. Don’t take myself too seriously.

9. Survive and thrive whilst living with my illness. Don’t ever let my illness define me as a person. As of my 23rd birthday this will be something I have been coping with for a decade. It is hard terrain to travel but I am stronger because of it. I am a worthwhile human being.

10. Survive everything.

11. Be a legend in my mind and the mind of others.

12. Surpass and defy expectations.

13. Be stunning and believe it, too.

14. Don’t give up my identity for any man (or woman)…no matter how great, sexy, funny, intelligent he is. There are others out there. Love is wonderful. I deserve to be share my love with someone who not only deserves it but who will love in the way I want and need. I deserve happiness. I deserve to love and be loved with equal measure. Remember this.

15. Forge unbreakable friendships.

16. Be loyal and true to my word.

17. Drink people under the table.

18. Finally learn to drive and when I have money get my dream car.

19. Travel. First stop? My home away from home, New Orleans.

20. Inspire others.

21. Challenge conventions.

22. Repeat my affirmations daily.

23. Love myself and know my self-worth.

xoxo.