The Sluts

I will start off this week’s Flik with a warning: this book is not for everyone. It is violent. Very violent. But it deserves its place here due to its interesting style and pure power of fascination. The novel is The Sluts by Dennis Cooper, published in 2004.

It is an interesting read – both because of the story and the ingeniousness of its narrative. The plot revolves around a young male prostitute called Brad, and his customers and lovers. Possibly. The thing is, you never really know what’s going on. Part 1 of the novel consists of reviews of “Brad” posted on a site for male escorts. Several customers post their opinions and experiences with Brad, and there’s the occasional post by the webmaster interspersed. However, since this is an online forum, nobody can be sure that the posters are who they say they are, and even whether they are different people – for all we know, one person could be behind the whole discussion. From their posts, you can glimpse the fate of the boy they call Brad, but you need to work to distinguish between what is plausible and what is most likely made up. We don’t even know if the “Brad” in question is the same young man throughout!

Part two is made up of ads for prostitutes and conversations between the man who posted the ads and his potential lovers. Part three is an online message board dedicated to “Brad” and whatever happened to him, and features a number of more or less active posters. Again, many of the posts are revealed to be fake, while others are shrouded in uncertainty. Part four is an e-mail exchange between someone who may or may not be Brad, and another man who may or may not be his former lover (and possible serial killer), Brian. Again, the reader has to work to separate fact from fiction – particularly since we only get one side of the e-mails: the replies are not included. In the fifth and final part of the novel, we come full circle back to the reviews. In addition to the main story of Brad, there are several subplots which are equally confusing. You always get the feeling that there is so much going on that you cannot quite grasp – but you really really try. It’s not a book to be read passively.

The novel deals with sado-masochism, violence, sex, disease and abuse within a fraction of the gay community in California – and one boy’s fate within this community. It is at times a difficult read, due to its graphic descriptions of violence. But if you can stomach that, I truly recommend it: it’s one of those books you cannot put down until you finish it (I actually left a concert early to finish it…), and it’s also a fairly quick read. It’s structurally complex but the language is stylish, easy and straight-forward. It will leave an impression on you whether you like it or not.

But don’t take my word for it! The great Bret Easton Ellis himself calls Cooper a “brilliant, triumphantly lurid writer as well as a supremely talented elegant stylist, whose prose is smart and nervy.” And The Sluts was also named one of the Top 25 Books of the Year by the Village Voice.

Enjoy this slightly disturbing read! I promise I’ll come back with something sweeter and nicer next time…

Love, Mari

Romance and Cigarettes

This Friday you are in for a real treat! I present to you the magical movie musical Romance and Cigarettes (2005).

Romance and Cigarettes is a down-and-dirty musical set in working-class New York. Nick Murder is an ironworker married to the seamstress Kitty Kane, who discovers his affair with the prostitute Tula. Singing and dancing ensues.

The film is directed by John Turturro and the cast includes such lovely actors as James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet and Steve Buscemi.

The film is wonderfully colorful, surreal and humoristic. If you haven’t already seen it, do so today!

Love, Elin

Kate Winslet

This week’s hottie is the wonderful English actress Kate Elizabeth Winslet (1975- ).

At the age of 12 Winslet starred in a commercial for Coco Puffs, and she later got a role in a children’s series called Dark Season. She comes from a family filled with actors so there is no wonder her brilliant career began so early. Her talent was obvious from the start and she has received multiple awards and nominations.

Some of her amazing acting can be seen in

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind – with Jim Carrey

 

Hamlet – with Kenneth Branagh

 

The Reader

 

Revolutionary Road

 

Romance and Cigarettes

 

Sense and Sensibility – with Emma Thompson

Not only is Kate Winslet very talented, she is also very cool. One of the things she’s been criticized for over the years is her weight (because, as everyone can see, she’s, like, so fat!), but she refuses to let the unrealistic standards in Hollywood dictate her appearance. She believes that women should be proud of the way they look no matter size. Cudos to her!

Here are some more  lovely photos:

Love, Elin

1910s

My plan for this Wednesday Vintage was basically to introduce you to one of the great dressers of yore, American novelist Edith Wharton (1862-1937). However, as I scoured the internet for pictures of her, not many was to be found. So, I had to broaden my concept, and decided that this Vintage day should be about the 1910s – a period often overlooked, I feel, but with great stuff for both inspiration and emulation.

Edith Wharton, looking smashing

Edith with fabulous skirt

Fabulous skirt again. I need to make myself one of those.

And that’s sadly all I could find of Edith, except for portraits and stuff. But who cares about portraits? Clothes, people. That’s what we want. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you, though, that there are some cool pictures in Edith’s memoir, A Backward Glance, which are a good reason in themselves to check out the book at your nearest library. And, of course, once you’ve already borrowed it, you might as well read it too.

I degress. Back to the clothes of the 1910s. Ready?

Kind of makes you long for some glamour, doesn’t it?

Love, Hanna

Roberto Cavalli

Hello again, wondrous Flik’ers! Today’s designer is the divine Italian fashion guru Roberto Cavalli (1944).

Cavalli has studied art, specialized in textile print and presented his first collection at the age of 30. (Which gives me about five more years to prepare…)

There are many reasons why Cavalli’s clothes are awesome, but one, for me, very important reason, is that he is not afraid to use color. At all. And color is important, people. Banish the black! (Or at least add on some color to go with it).

 

His designs tend to be wild and fun and scrumptiously glamourous. The man is simply a genius. ‘Nough said. Picture time.

Maybe not the most subtle you’ll ever wear, but who wants to blend in anyway?

Love, Hanna

Living Lars

So, this Monday I would like to present to you the brand new music video for the song Far Away, by Living Lars (my baby brother, yes I’m quite proud of him):

Not only is Living Lars (Lars Erik Fjøsne) my brother, he is also a Norwegian music producer, working with several people, including an upcoming norwegian rap group. His musical experiences varies from Techno to movie scores. He is focusing on house-tracks at the moment and is working solo as well as a duo with his American budd “Brian Hardisty”. Together they’re known as “BLARSA”. Living Lars has currently entered the stage as a new and fresh DJ, and is expected to grow on that area as well as on the production part. For the past years he has also done russemusic for several buses like “Olympen, Madhouse, Entertainer and Barnslig”, stretching from 2006 to present and is still going strong (This is quoted shamelessly from his facebook).

You can find out more about him here: http://www.livinglars.com/

Enjoy the music:)

Love, Elin

Vili Flik Design

Dress: Read! by Hanna Marie Volle

 

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

In later years, holding forth to an interviewer  or to an audience of aging fans at a comic book convention, Sam Clay liked to declare, apropos of his and Joe Kavalier’s greatest creation, that back when he was a boy, sealed and hog-tied inside the airtight vessel known as Brooklyn, New York, he had been haunted by dreams of Harry Houdini.

Welcome, dear readers, to another great flik. This week I have chosen to present to you one of my more resent favorite books, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000) by the equally amazing author, Michael Chabon. As I am way too lazy (it is, after all, Saturday, the day of pre-rest) to invent my own plot summary, I will quote from the international fountain of wisdom that is Wikipedia:

“The novel begins in 1939 with the arrival of 19-year-old Josef “Joe” Kavalier as a refugee in New York City, where he comes to live with his 17-year-old cousin Sammy Klayman. Joe escaped from Prague by hiding in a coffin along with the inanimate Golem of Prague. Besides having a shared interest in drawing, the two share several connections to Jewish stage magician Harry Houdini: Kavalier studied magic and escapology in Prague,  which aided him in his departure from Europe, and Klayman is the son of the Mighty Molecule, a strongman on the vaudeville circuit.

Klayman gets Kavalier a job as an illustrator for a novelty products company, which, due to the recent success of Superman, is attempting to get into the comic-book business. Renaming himself Sam Clay, Klayman starts writing adventure stories with Kavalier illustrating them, and the two recruit several other Brooklyn teenagers to produce Amazing Midget Radio Comics (named to promote one of the company’s novelty items). The magazine features their character The Escapist, an anti-fascist superhero. The Escapist becomes tremendously popular, but, in a similar vein as the story of Superman’s creators, the writers and artists get a minimal share of the publisher’s success. Kavalier and Clay are slow to realize that they are being exploited, as they have private concerns: Kavalier is trying to help his family escape from Nazi-occupied Prague…” and then there’s some stuff I think you need to find out for yourself.

There is also a part where Kavalier enlists in the Navy and ends up in Antartica – but the main part of the story takes place in New York City. It is a truly wonderful story of the crazy adventures of the Jewish cousins, and it left me wanting to read the comic books they created. Alas, I thought, they don’t exist – but they actually do! People have been inspired by this awesome novel to create comic books such as The Escapist. I haven’t read those yet, but believe me, I will.

Enjoy! Believe me, you will. 😉

Love, Hanna

A Clockwork Orange

Hello dear readers, and welcome to another Friday Film. Today, we’re going back to the early seventies with Stanley Kubrick’s sensational and controversial A Clockwork Orange (1971).

The film is based on Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel of the same name, and stars Malcolm McDowell as delinquent Alex DeLarge. Alex’s passions in life are Beethoven, rape and “ultra-violence”, and he narrates the film in his own special language, which is an amalgamation of Slavic, English and Cockney rhyming slang. Alex and his “droogs” (his equally violent buddies) run around wreaking havoc upon a dystopian future England until the former is caught and is forced to participate in an experimental psychological trial which is supposed to “cure him” of his violent tendencies. Things don’t always work out according to plan though…

The film is a social commentary on youth gangs and their violence, as well as psychiatry. It questions morality and the concept of “goodness”, and is critical towards behavioural psychology. It features quite a lot of nudity and some very disturbing violence, and is as such not suitable to the exceedingly squeemish. It is however, a wonderful and extremely interesting film, because of the plot and themes as well as the innovative and now iconic costumes, the visually stylised cinematography and the technical innovation employed by director Kubrick.

A Clockwork Orange was critically praised upon release, but it simultaneously sparked a lot of controversy due to its heavy use of violent images and nudity – which some reviewers said to be there just for titilation. Some also commented on changes made in transition from novel to film, but that is criticism every film adaptation of a plot from another media is bound to face. It continues to be one of the world’s most famous and popular film titles, currently residing at number 55 on imdb’s Top 250-list. As I’ve said, it may not be a film suitable for all audiences, but luckily, the trailer is!

If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, you could do worse than to check out this Kubrick classic!

Love, Mari

Emma Thompson

This week’s hottie is another wonderful and talented actress, the enchanting Emma Thompson.

She was born in London in 1959, daughter of actors Eric Thompson and Phyllida Law. With that heritage it is no wonder she ventured into the world of acting herself. She went to Cambridge with fellow Vili Flik hottie Stephen Fry and the lovely Hugh Laurie (a probable future hottie…) and the glorious trio were all in the prestigious comedy troupe the Footlights together.

Emma has won two Oscars: one for best actress for her performance in Howards End (1992), and another for best screenplay for her adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility (1995). She has also won multiple Baftas (the British equivalent of the Oscars, for those who are not familiar with this one), including several best actress awards for her work in films as well as television. As a recipient for both best actress and best writer awards, she has proven her intellectual capacity as well as her wonderful talent as an actress – a true Vili Flik hottie! Not to mention the fact that she is indeed very pretty. And hilarious! An example: her acceptance speech for her best screenplay Golden Globe award for Sense & Sensibility:

So far, she has 53 titles to her acting resymé on imdb, and 11 credited titles for writing. Not bad for a woman who is in her early fifties (and who still looks as gorgeous as ever)! This wonderfully talented woman can be seen in such brilliant films as Howards End, Peter’s Friends (1992), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), The Remains of the Day (1993), Sense & Sensibility, The Winter Guest (1997) (where she starred alongside her mother, and which was directed by frequent co-star Alan Rickman), Love Actually (2003), the Harry Potter-films (2001-11), and An Education (2009) among many others.

Sense & Sensibility

Harry Potter

Emma has a daughter and an adopted son – a 16-year-old Rwandan refugee who they adopted to stop him from being deported – with actor Greg Wise.

Clever, funny, beautiful and talented, in addition to seeming like a really interesting and kind person, Emma Thompson is truly a hottie, and as such, deserves her place in our hall of fame. And again, I will leave you with a Vili Flik favourite, which we’ve featured a few times before. However, this cannot be seen to often! Oh yes, it’s the Footlights sketch with Emma and Stephen! Enjoy its gloriousness and fentestical fentesticality!

Love, Mari