Caught this incredibly attractive movie again last night.
Come this time of year I can finally rest a bit and enjoy some leisure time. Being mainly a draught excluders maker means that, come April, my busiest months of the year are behind me and I can turn my attention to refreshing my catalogue and taking a moment to breathe.
Movies and art are always a great source of inspiration, especially when they are aesthetically immaculate - La Piscine is one such movie.
Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet and a young Jane Birkin star in this French thriller set on the lush hills above Saint Tropez, precisely in Ramatuelle.
The villa where the film is set is full of mid century inspiration. The furniture, the art on the walls, the clothing, everything is super stylish in that French Je ne sais quoi sort of way.
The film was directed by Jacques Derain in 1969. This is before bodies were sculpted and lips and cheekbones were artificially plumped. You were either beautiful or you weren't; looks homologation stopped at make up, haircuts and fashion. But when it came to it, you just had to work with what you had.
Cruel I know.
The feelings that link the characters soon degenerate into an interesting mess, but it was only two years after the mythical summer of love of 1967, so par for the course really.
My favourite quote from the movie is "He likes no one and he wants everybody to love him". Looking at this photo it is not difficult to understand who it was referring to.
The film left me with a sense of longing, for the summer, for the sun, for France, for small bikinis and for mid century aesthetics in general and I could not resist a flick through my catalogue of monochromatic wall pieces and bold palettes mood boards for ideas to develop in the future.
I went to Saint Tropez years ago and I am starting to think it's been too long.
Fashion played such an important part in the movie's aesthetic. The main characters walk around as if their clothes are weightless and that is a special quality we cannot buy, but clothes and accessories we can...
