Thursday, July 10, 2008

Classic Cleavage?

Victoria at Sundries posts a picture of Lauren Bacall I will not reproduce here, in a post titled "What Were They Thinking?"

It's not that she doesn't have a point, it's just that that is not Lauren Bacall. This is Lauren Bacall.

(Are those...pointy?) Ms. Bacall made her impossibly beautiful debut in To Have and Have Not and hooked up with Mr. Bogart, to the ire of Howard Hawks, at the age of 17. (People will watch Cyborg 2 for the 17-year-old Angelina Jolie decades from now...or something.)

Thing is--and don't hate me for saying it--Bacall aged rapidly. I attribute that to the smoking, but if you watch her first few movies, she ages like she's trying to catch up with Bogey. Of course, at some level, that's sort of modern-puritanism talking: There could be lots of reasons for her to have aged rapidly. (And I'm not one to talk, I look about 112, and I don't smoke or drink, etc.)

In fact, in Edward Bianchi's 1981 disappointing film debut, The Fan, I thought she looked absolutely horrible. Setting aside that difference between 17 and 57, she's actually gotten better looking since then. Although now, of course, there's the difference between 57 and almost 87. (Bianchi, by the way, would come into his own 20 years later directing episodes of "Deadwood" and "The Wire".)

I've wondered, lately, if part of the reason exquisite beauty like Bacall's is so moving is because it's so fragile.

6 comments:

  1. You don't understand. Christopher gave her a beat down when he stole her gift bag on the red carpet.

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  2. Plus whats wrong with boobage. If Ms. Bacall wants to put it out there, more power to her. She was a sex symbol for a lot of years. Too skinny for my taste but still.

    And Rumor Willis is just a young kid. Lets be kind.

    Hey did you hear about Stings kid. She is hooking up with that Pete Doherty the junkie singer and old Sting has his drawers in an uproar. Hee hee. Don't stand so close to me. Hee hee.

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  3. I did hear about Sting's kid--but I have no idea why.

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  4. In one of the episodes of the Sopranos, Christopher Moltasanti mugs Laren Bacall and steals her gift bag. Its pretty funny.

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  5. Oh...Sopranos humor.

    I'll break down and watch "The Wire" but I draw the line at "The Sopranos".

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