fashion strikes again

mmm, i'm all for 'fashion,' you know... but i'm the first one to admit the whole game can be, and often is, pretty ridiculous. the sleekest and most beautiful model can look instantly dopey when some 'conceptual' designer or photographer comes up with some 'now' idea... like, evening gowns on trampolines with crimped hair... or like, posing 'glam dead' in a coffin with white goth makeup and weird arm angles. so, all things considered, this photo of the 'practically perfect' marisa berenson isn't that bad at all. they've got her on a beach? hey, i can 'rock' with that. her tan is stunning, and contrasts beautifully with the turquoise... erm, dress...?? no, it's the headdress that leaves me saying, '...huh??' i think i see actual oyster shells... probably some other kinds of shells too. yeah, i see other shells... some strands of (hopefully) fake seaweed junk. please tell me i don't see little crabs. still, despite all that, miss berenson's cool ways make it work. ...as long as you don't think about it too long.

sleeky marisa

okay, so 'sleeky' isn't really a word. and i'll freely admit, i don't have a lot of dazzling facts or tidbits to report about the gorgeous and glamorous miss marisa berenson. her wikipedia and imdb pages are enough to inspire a yawn or two. oh, hey... that's mean... i guess i shouldn't say that. after all, what would the movies 'cabaret' and 's.o.b.' be without the slim and sexy presence of miss berenson? of course, she was a fashion model before she was an actress. and she STILL looks great now. if i remember correctly, the saucy broads of 'absolutely fabulous' often mention marisa in an idealized way. she posed for so many mod and glam shoots in the 70's. here's just one example of her lush and glittery photographic legacy. enjoy! (and click to enlarge)

lady daydream

as i've mentioned in the post below this one, i've been having fun with my dvd copy of 'barry lyndon' lately. i was getting easily frustrated with the lack of sweet picksh of marisa berenson out there, so i decided to make my own. this one is a shot of marisa, as lady lyndon, in the last 3rd of the very long movie, taking a rich soak in a tub, attended by her maids. kubrick makes a point of closing in on her vacant and almost insane expression as the narrator relates the stagnant affairs of her ill-advised marriage to ryan o'neal's character, redmond barry. the film stock used on this project is exceptional. the grain is fine enough to tickle my brain. legened reports it was only filmed with natural light... in other words, 'available light,' ...therefore certain lenses had to be invented to accomodate kubrick's dedication to the conjuring of a world before electricity. (click to enlarge)

slinky marisa

hey i love, love, love 1970's glamour and high fashion photography. actually, this one might be late 60's... no, its gotta be around mid-70's. i dig this shot. the model is, of course, the slinky and always totally excellent miss marisa berenson. i don't know who the designer is, or who the photographer was, but that's not gonna stop me from posting her slinky excellence on the planet. hey, marisa can land here anytime, with her slinky and talented ways. i wish she would've worked more in film. i can only cite three times she graced 'the big screen,' ... in 'cabaret,' in 'barry lyndon,' and in blake edwards' 's.o.b.' (that's one of those films you can't really describe, you've gotta see it for yourself, you know?) other than that, i can't recall seeing her in anything. but i thought her acting in all of them was 'top drawer.' and i've recently googled her, and she's looking pretty hot these days. so here's to you, miss marisa berenson, you've been a wondrous representative of the stylish and slinky brunette for many, many years. and we love you here on the planet. (click to enlarge)

lovely lyndons

here's another one i've had for a couple of months now. jean-lucien sent it to me and i just haven't gotten around to posting it until now. but i love it. its got that sweet jeweled look to it. that is, of course, ryan o'neal as redmond barry in the lower left, and the wispy and exquisite miss marisa berenson as lady lyndon, his rich wife. i don't have much to say about this one, except that its gorgeous and i hope you dig it.

marisa, baring some

yeah, i know... that's a lame play-on-words. but hey, what a groovy picture of the slinky and always beautiful miss marisa berenson! i first became aware of her in fosse's 'cabaret.' subsequently, i swooned over her in kubrick's 'barry lyndon.' and, until the computer age came sluicing in on me, i had no idea she'd done so much straight-up fashion modeling in the late 60's-70's. jean-lucien has been great at finding groovy rare pictures of her like this one. i love that style of serpentine bracelet... when i was a kid, i thought that was like, the 'exotic-est,' and often attempted to draw them on girls... back when i used to draw. i love the twisted hair, too. she's sort of like the brunette twiggy... and you know most men of taste prefer brunettes... am i right, dark-haired girls?

m is for marisa

marisa berenson, ladies and gentlemen. i can't remember the first time i saw the lovely marisa. i'm thinking it might have been in blake edwards underrated black comedy 's.o.b.' but i know her best from her role as natalia in bob fosse's 'cabaret.' this shot, however, is from stanley kubrick's gorgeous 1975 epic 'barry lyndon,' where she played opposite ryan o'neal as the lilting, melancholy, ethereal lady lyndon. she looked perfectly appropriate in the grandeur of her costume. i read the william makepeace thackeray book when i was in residential rehab. i'm not trying to be melodramatic, that's the truth. the movie is surprisingly faithful to the original work. some of the dialogue was, i think, directly lifted. marisa was perfectly cast; in the book lady lyndon was little more than a wealthy, glamorous phantom. i don't remember where i found this shot. i mean, i didn't capture it from the disc, but i tricked it after i found it to bring out the contrast. i wish she had been in more stuff, i think she's wonderful.

marisa detail

i may not get to post a lot tonight. but i wanted to mark my place. this is a shot of the lovely and talented marisa berenson in her costume from the kubrick masterpiece 'barry lyndon.' this slice was just part of a much larger notebook cover of mine. i glued down marisa and added some hand-cut glitter and fairy dust. the entire cover was just today scanned in, despite the fact i wrote the book at least two years ago. despite the normal wear and tear of general handling, the images still come through nicely with mininal damage. marisa is truly beautiful enough that i caught myself just staring at this image today, and even used a scaled-down version for my temporary desktop. just lovely.

marisa

do you have any idea how hard it is to find marisa berenson on the web? pictures of her, i mean. its so weird; the larger and more expansive the Web gets, the more without rhyme and reason it seems to be. like, i'm sure there's some bizarre site out there devoted to leopard-print ladie's shoes, but i haven't found one marisa berenson fansite. i mean, if i want to look at the lovely marisa, i have to roll 'barry lyndon' or 'cabaret.' she's also in blake edwards' 'S.O.B.'. i'm not sure why she never got 'bigger,' you know? i think she's every bit as talented and beautiful as any other chick that was snagging awards and notoriety around 1980. so here's to you, mrs. berenson...