darlings
mon dieu.
we have no Earthly idea what it was about but Holy Motors was possibly the Most Beautiful piece of cinema we have seen for Quite a while (and, as you know, we watch a Lot of Movies).
when we tried to explain it to someone on the (baby pink princess) phone last night, we said, something garbled and breathless like this:
there was a man – and a very chic femme d’un certain age chauffeur in probably couture, possibly vintage – and the man kept changing shape/appearance/character and there was some stylized violence and realistic declarations of love and clearly intertwined sub-plots and dark alleys and rooftops and then there was Kylie, singing.
KYLIE?
yes.
Kylie who has a very big gay following and has dated some of the most gorgeous men of our generation, that Kylie?
yes. and had breast cancer and triumphed over all and is now rather splendid in her 40s. that Kylie.
didn’t you say it was a French movie?
yes. Kylie speaks beautiful French. completely sans accent.
wow.
(pause)
so – do you recommend it?
only if you want to be truly absorbed by beauty and strangeness and don’t mind having absolutely no idea what’s going on……
oh.
(pause).
a bit like the movie you’re making me see tonight, then?
ah. yes.
quite probably.
About teamgloria
I used to make my living from writing. And then it all stopped and so I went and did something else, part of which entailed a whole new look from Brooks Brothers (it wasn’t really me, but it was necessary). But a decade later I started to write again (during nights and weekends and frustrated lunch-times and long haul business travel) and one of the things I wrote (or came to me – as I do believe in the whole Muse concept) was a character called Gloria.
Gloria was a trainee angel and sat “up there” waiting for her first assignment. To occupy the hours she should have been studying humans and their foibles, she spent her time enjoying the new celestial movies-on-demand channel and became obsessed by Doris Day. So you can imagine the drama that unfolded when she came to Earth. Quite a shock to the system. But Gloria was determined to see Manhattan through the eyes of a vintage Doris Day movie and something magical started to happen – to me too.
Because I started to do the same thing and life became easier (and then I got Tobias the tumor which changed the trajectory, for now).
There are a lot of glorious people, places & things that help me get through my day – they make my life great – and so I call them “team gloria” (although they don’t usually know that). So I thought I’d start documenting them, and looking out for new people, places & things on a daily basis, and sharing them with you (whomever you are – do say hello. Oh, and tell me who your team gloria is :-)
