Film Friday: The Misfits

I've always adored Marilyn Monroe, which at the beginning of my "crush" came mainly from staring at Eve Arnold's portraits of her on and off the set. But when I started to watch some of her most well known films, I felt a bit let down by her trilling voice, silly scripts and comedic acting. I don't think it was her as an actress, but more the fact I'd seen a very different Marilyn when I envisioned what she'd be like. I found out recently that a lot of the portraits Eve Arnold took of Monroe were taken on the set of a film she did with Clarke Gable (I could make a whole love letter post about him, too, but 'll leave that for another day, I think!). The film is called The Misfits, made in 1961, and despite being a little skeptical I decided to watch it purely for curiosities sake.

And there on screen was the Marilyn I had envisioned whilst poring over photographs of her years ago - human, sad, funny, and of course beautiful. An honest and unnerving sort of beauty, I thought, just like I saw in the portraits. I'm only sorry I didn't discover it sooner, but in the last few weeks I've made up for that by watching it a handful of times already. It's made me want to go out to the mountains (not that we have any here) and wear sleeveless white blouses tucked into pretty high waisted jeans.

The Misfits is not only a wonderful, haunting and heart wrenching picture, but also quite an important one. One of the reasons is that it was both Marilyn and Clarke Gable's last completed film, as they both died not too long after its release. I won't go on and on about all the other reasons, but if you're at all interested I'd recommend looking here first.

Oh, and here is a piece of very specific and possibly useless advice. If you are going to watch this particular scene, with the sound turned down low then you musn't trust putting your iPod on shuffle during or afterwards. The reason being that this song might just start playing. It happened to me, and I do not recommend the experience! It turned me from (relatively!) balanced to a teary, rather damp mess. Oops!

These are the things that I like

I wanted to do a Film Friday post today but I'm still collecting stills so I thought I'd pop this one up first to remind myself to cheer up. So here is a document of the things that have been making me happy this week:

1. A very rich cake I baked with more chocolate in it than any other ingredient, slightly too sour raspberries and some fresh Devon cream, eaten while re-reading a copy of Lula.
2. The bedtime book I'm reading: Notes on Nursing by Florence Nightingale. She's always been a little bit of a mystery figure for me and so reading her own opinions, rather than a biography explaining them, on the profession I am aiming towards is pretty exciting and enlightening! It's also really interesting (for me at least) to hear about the origins of "modern" nursing, and how the basic theories she revolutionised are still relevant and applicable today, one hundred and fifty years on.
3. Two lovely letters from two lovely penpals in Hong Kong and America, and the most perfect dress package from 1385.

And there are some things that aren't pictured, too. Being offered a job I had my heart set on, watching a whole gang of ducklings crossing the road, an old man with a suit and bow tie who I met in the Post Office queue, sleeping through the night and finally the endless and indescribable wonderfulness of this lady here.

What things have made you happy this week?

All I Want

Alive, alive, I want to get up and jive
I want to wreck my stockings in some juke box dive

'All I really really want our love to do is to bring out the best in me and in you
I want to talk to you, I want to shampoo you
I want to renew you again and again
Applause, applause - life is our cause
When I think of your kisses my mind see-saws
Do you see - do you see - do you see how you hurt me baby
So I hurt you too then we both get so blue' - Joni Mitchell

Dress: Vintage from Thirteen-Eighty-Five.

I would exclaim at being a really terrible blogger but I always think that sounds a bit boring so I'm going to skip past it! I've had an extra difficult week, and Joni Mitchell is the only thing that's keeping me going - I got accused yesterday of channelling her which is fine by me! So I've been listening to my favourite album of hers, Blue, over and over and being cheered up by the postman delivering letters and things every other day! A few of my favourite penpals, and this gorgeous 1940s rayon dress from Francesca at Thirteen-Eighty-Five. Not only is it the prettiest dress I now own, but the packaging was so lovely and she even slipped in some bobby pins (which was perfect timing, I am terrible with losing bobby pins!) which I was pretty thrilled with! I took some pictures of that and the letters I've received over the last few days, which I'll save for a separate post.

It's been so long since I've taken self portraits, it was a bit strange to be doing it again and running back and forth from the camera. I think the last time I took photographs of myself was about a year ago! But it was quite fun too, and although this can't exactly be classed as an "outfit post" since all I have on is a dress, I plan to do more. Lately I've been wearing the same handful of things from my wardrobe, so maybe it will spur me on to think up more interesting combinations!

An Account of Thursday in Pictures

Here is a little list of the things that happened, in order of their happening:

1. House plants tended and watered
2. Straw hat embellished
3. Hotel booked
4. Penpal letters written and posted.

Life Development - Class C

The life I lived in The Life Development Centre

During the summer of last year, I travelled alone to Nepal. The trip was pre-planned - I spent months working for the man in order to afford it - and was the sort of typical middle-class, gap year rite of passage that I find myself making jokes about. It could have changed nothing but my bank account, my memories and (temporarily) my dress size. For a reason that I still can't quite figure out, it changed everything.

Most of my time was spent working at LDC, a privately run centre housing children and adults with mental and physical health problems ranging from mild to severe. The home was loud, dark, and claustrophobic, and the rooms I was working in even more so. The children were mainly left to their own devices with overstretched staff and limited resources - conditions went untreated and in many cases undiagnosed. The work was both physically and emotionally demanding, and there were a lot of times I felt helpless, frustrated and out of my depth.

For some reason - most likely stubbornness - I carried on regardless, and my experience of caring for the eleven children in the most "severe" group made me realise that actually, this is what I want to do with my life. It took me awhile to work out the implications of this realisation - six months later I found myself quitting my art degree, moving back home and applying for care jobs at my local hospital. All these changes might have happened anyway, but figuring it out now and not somewhere far into the future is really down to the time I spent with the class pictured above.