Manolo for the Big Girl

A few years ago at one of those truly truly horrific “Industry Parties” where every air kiss comes with a free knife in the back, a New York filmmaker who had a moderately successful doc on her hands was holding court. The subject of Isaac Mizrahi and Unzipped came up. Her response was “Isaac looooooves Isaac.”
Well, that may be true, but I still love Unzipped. Released in 1995, Unzipped centers around the creation of Mizrahi’s 1994 Fall ready-to-wear collection –it’s a frothy doc for folks who rejoice in footage of Andre Leon Talley and funky little fashion troll John Galliano getting their tarot cards read in Paris while gasping over the divinity of a bathroom wallpaper (for which, we are to understand, Donna Karan would murder.) Watch Eartha Kitt speak in tongues and burst into dance! Witness Linda Evangelista pitch a pretty funny fit at having to wear flat shoes for two shows while Naomi Campbell gets heels! Be astonished as Polly Mellen drops pearls of wisdom like “too short looks long!”

Check out the heels incident here.

A warning to Harry Potter fans: if you are a sensitive soul with deep emotional ties to everybody’s favorite gay and aged wizard, Albus Dumbledore, you might do well to avoid Peter Greenaway’s seriously twisted 1989 black comedy The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover starring Helen Mirren and Michael Gambon because it is entirely likely your world view vis the aforementioned magical headmaster will be changed entirely until the last, or at least next to last, trumpet.

For the rest of you, seriously consider renting this flick. The costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier are (not unlike Gaultier himself) sick and magnificent, and the rest of the film follows, er, suit. Witness Helen Mirren’s red dress, perfectly matching the oppressive red dining room of Le Hollandais, lose all as she enters the stark white restroom, and of course the birdcage corset dress that made such a scandal on the theatrical release photos.

Chock full of obscene food, fashion and sex, The Cook also holds the dubious honor of being the only movie I had to watch over the course of two nights because the damn thing disturbed me so much.

Watch the trailer here.

Mmm, Francesca loves a good sale at Nordstrom.

She cannot wait to wear this gorgeous single-button jacket, which is marked down 70%, from $432 to $129!

And a trench coat which Francesca has previously recommended is marked down 40%, from $188 to $110.

Happy shopping!

xoxo,

Francesca

I do not say that 8 Femmes, today’s glammy movie is the glammiest movie that will ever be made. I am only saying it is the most glamorous movie that has ever been made.

I’m sure that modern science, once it has sent a middle-aged man to Jupiter supplied with pills ensuring readiness for all the interplanetary nookie he can, ahem, stand, that the fine doctors and scientists will turn their heads to creating a film that is actually glamorous at a molecular or even sub-atomic level.Until then 8 Femmes, a stylishly torrid, often humorous murder mystery (and each actress has a musical number!) will just have to tide you over.

The day before Christmas sometime n the late 1950’s, eight women in an isolated French estate try to figure out which among them is responsible for the master of the house’s current state of repose (read: dead, locked in a bedroom with a knife in his back) The cast is stellar. Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Beart, Virginie Ledoyen and Ludivine Sagnier as the sweet young daughter before she got her kit off in Swimming Pool.

I don’t want to give too much away but I will tell you that Catherine Deneuve, who plays the freshly-minted and not-entirely-grieved widow and Fanny Ardant, the murdered man’s sister of ill-repute have the single most glamorous catfight I’ve ever seen. Lily ponds and shoulder pads be damned.

Watch the trailer here and prepare to die of chic.

Last evening, Francesca crossed off the last item on her to-do list, scrubbed the kitchen counters as she does every night, took a bubble bath, and got into bed with Rhett Butler.

Life just does not get any better than this.

First of all, you’re not going to find “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” on this list. Yes, Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly is a delight to look at and the chicest example of that old hooker with a heart of gold chestnut, but voluntarily pseudo-helpless women –no matter how good they look in Givenchy– bore me to tears. Holly Golightly lacks inner resources and what’s more I firmly believe her character is directly responsible for the popularity of those loathsome “Return to Tiffany’s” heart and toggle gewgaws which are so tacky as to provoke in me the most violent and unrestrained of purple fits.

Oh, and don’t get me started on the girls who run around in the most ridiculously large sunglasses because it makes them “feel like Holly Golightly.” Hepburn’s signature shades were plain old Ray-Ban Wayfarers.

Still, I suspect my beloved readers would attack stately Château Gâteau –by which I mean my apartment (we take the wide view on châteaux here at Manolo for the Big Girl)– with pitchforks and blunderbusses (blunderbi?) were I to exclude all Audrey Hepburn flicks from this list.

It is thus with an eye to the sanctity of my already high renter’s insurance premiums that I offer unto you “Funny Face.” Released in 1957 and starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire, it’s essentially an extremely fast and loose biography of photographer Richard Avedon —-Astaire’s character is Dick Avery— with a handful Gershwin tunes and Givenchy thrown in for good measure.

The real treasure of this little flick is Kay Thompson who gives a fantastic send-up of Harper’s Bazaar editor and glorious wackdoodle Diana Vreeland. Her imitation is brilliant, from her constant use of “pizzazz” to DV’s signature hunchbacked ballerina posture. In fact, the best line in the film –and a valuable life lesson to boot—comes in right after the first number, “Think Pink” (click to watch it on Youtube) where La Thompson admonishes the women of the world to wear nothing but –you guessed it—pink.

One of the honchos exclaims that her campaign is a triumph and that he hasn’t seen a woman in anything but pink for weeks. “

What about you?” he asks as he eyes her in her charcoal suit.

“Me?” she says “I wouldn’t be caught dead.”

I know it’s not my usual day, but I just had to butt in and remind everyone that today is International No Diet Day. In honor of the day ignore diets, which foods are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ (Unless, of course, we’re talking a serious medical question like diabetes or a potentially lethal peanut allergy. After all, the idea is for people to enjoy life through enjoying foods they love without guilt, not to kill anyone.), or what effect one freaking donut will have on your waistline.

Me? I had some yummy pumpkin granola for breakfast, sundried tomato ravioli in pesto sauce for lunch with a devil’s food cupcake chaser, and I’m looking forward to a tasty dinner of turkey burgers, brown rice, spinach salad, and fresh strawberries for dessert. Why? Because I love eating every single thing on that list. I was having a craving for cottage cheese, but I don’t have any. Hmmm…maybe I’ll head to the store and have some as a mid-afternood snack.

Whatever you eat today, though, remember to savor it.

That’s Georgia the Baltic state, rather than Georgia the deep southern state.

This recipe comes from Please To the Table by Anya von Bremzen and John Welchman, a fabulous collection of recipes from all over the Russian states. This is something I’ve made for my family and friends much to their delight. In the summer, it’s great for the grill at a backyard dinner, and in winter it’s easy to make in the oven or with a grill pan.

This cookbook has some amazing recipes and is very easy to follow. It definitely gets the Twistie Stamp of Approval.

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For the merry month of May, I’ve decided to use my weekend slot here at Manolo for the Big Girl to celebrate good food. Some of my posts will contain recipes, some recommendations for cookbooks or cooking equipment, or I might meander into tales of meals I have known and loved. Some of my posts may revolve around meat, while others will be vegetarian - and even vegan - friendly. I am an omnivore, but I absolutely respect that not everyone is. The one thing I will not promote here is diet food. If something I make is low in calories, it’s because the things I’m using are naturally low in calories. There will be no discussion of low-fat or low-calorie alternatives. After all, if you wish that information goodness knows there are enough sources to help you find them. If you need to watch cholesterol, carbs or fat for health reasons (like my diabetic husband with high cholesterol and a tendancy to high blood pressure), then some of these recipes and recommendations may need some tweaking for your needs while others are simply best avoided. The goal here is to celebrate food in all its glory. That goal does not include a side order of guilt. There will, however, be talk of pie.
All of that said, my first recipe is more of a thumbnail sketch of a family favorite at Chez Twistie. It’s vegan-friendly (though it can also be done with meat, if you prefer), and can be made without breaking - or even bending - Mr. Twistie’s carb and fat restrictions. What’s more, it makes an equally delicious main course or side dish, depending on precisely what you put in it and what else you choose to serve with it. It’s no fuss, seat-of-the-pants cooking for a steamy hot day, and everyone I’ve served it to has loved it. It’s also a great way of using up those tag-ends of unrelated veggies it’s so easy to accumulate in a fridge.

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Okay gang, it’s Friday afternoon and my day has consisted solely of coffee and the bitter bitter tears shed over a pair of all-but-destroyed Pradas. I’m in need of a little levity. I’m ALSO in need of getting this song out of my head and decapitation seems to be the only option.

Francesca and Plumcake want to know:

How do YOU get an earwormed song out of your head?

Have a great weekend everybahdy!