Renowned luxury brand Cartier has teamed up with French band Air on a new short film entitled “Painted Love.” Based on the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea — and the impossible encounter between an artist and his muse — the film takes place in a downtown Manhattan loft and depicts the story of a young painter and his quest for his love, and his obsession with finding it.
The film was done with New York based directors Waverly (LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, Death Cab for Cutie, TV on the Radio) and continues Cartier’s tradition of artistic collaborations. The company has been working with international artists since 2007 on themed projects based around the question, “How far would you go for love?”
This latest film is both romantic and surreal, uniquely modern and yet vintage in feeling. You can download Air’s accompanying soundtrack at Cartier’s official Facebook page beginning this week. In the meantime, check out the film (and a behind-the-scenes clip) below:
Surf and lifestyle brand Hurley has announced the launch of a new limited-edition collection, celebrating the life and work of one of late artist Rick Griffin.
One of California’s most iconic artists, Griffin grew up surrounded by the sand and surf of the Pacific Ocean, influences that would later pop up in his posters and comic strips. Griffin was known primarily for his work during the psychedelic movement of the 60s, with his paintings and drawings characterized by their vivid colors and imagery. He went on to design posters and tour merchandise for everyone from Jimi Hendrix to The Grateful Dead, before his untimely death in a motorcycle accident in 1991.
The Hurley x Rick Griffin collection celebrates the artist’s legacy with a series of five graphic t-shirts, as well as a limited-run of Converse Jack Purcell shoes featuring one of Griffin’s most well-known original characters, “Murphy” (part of a comic strip Griffin developed for Surfer Magazine in the early 60s). The line is the latest from Hurley’s “H Space Artist Collections,” an on-going series of exclusive printable collections celebrating artists within the Hurley family that have helped shape the surf, art and music landscape.
The collection launches exclusively at Mollusk Surf Shops in Brooklyn, Venice and San Francisco in mid-November and will be available nationwide beginning in December at select retail locations. Get more details about the collaboration HERE.
Manolo Blahnik, Antonio Berardi, and Stephen Jones have more in common than simply their respective success in the worlds of art, fashion, and design; they are also all proud alumni of the illustrious Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, as well as the subject of a new documentary about the school entitled, “I Hate My Collection.” Directed by Oleg Mitrofanov, the film was not only inspired by the exceptional talent the college has produced, but also by the recent decision to move the iconic school from its SoHo site in London, to a new development at Kings Cross.
The documentary features interviews with numerous Saint Martins graduates, focusing on their time at the school and examining the phenomenon of how so many of the fashion industry’s most talented members claim the school as their Alma mater (John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Ricardo Tisci, just to name a few). Those eagerly anticipating the film’s release can expect the wait to continue as a lack of funding has indefinitely stalled the film’s completion and release. The two-minute teaser will have to hold us over for now, but we can safely speak for many fashion and art lovers when we express how utterly impatient we are! For now, check out a clip of “I Hate My Collection,” below:
Tilda Swinton walked back to her seat across from Toronto International Film Festival programmer Noah Cowen and looked a little uneasy. The crowd at her Mavericks speaking event had just watched a montage of some of her most memorable roles between 2000 and 2008. “I’m really happy to be here with you all but it is real torture,” Swinton she said with a laugh. “It’s like looking through a family album of pictures of you from high school that you wish no one had kept.”
The movie clips were part of a very unique and interesting pubic interview between her and Cowen during the festival’s Mavericks series that gives film geeks a special perspective of the movie industry’s most revolutionary members. This year’s Mavericks series also featured Francis Ford Coppola and Christopher Plummer.
Starting with her roles director by her mentor Derek Jarman in the mid 1980s, Swinton took the audience through her 15 year career with anecdotes and memorable clips. Do yourself a favour and look up Teknolust. It was a bit shocking to see Swinton in a brown curly clown wig and coke bottle glasses. The video journey took the audience through her memorable roles as Narnia’s White Witch, an angel in Constantine and a lawyer losing her nerve in her Oscar winning role in Michael Clayton.
Swinton’s latest project, We Need To Talk About Kevin, has blown through the festival circuit before landing at TIFF last weekend. Based on a critically acclaimed book, the movie tells the story of the events leading up to and following a school shooting through the eyes of the shooter’s mother, played by Swinton. Kevin is a suspenseful, frustrating and disturbing movie in the best way. The cast, and director Lynne Ramsay clearly had a unique bond. Cast in point: during a quick Q&A with Ramsay, Swinton and Ezra Miller who plays her son, Miller cozied up to Swinton with his head in the crook of her shoulder.
One of the most interesting parts of the interview was how clear Swinton’s absolute obsession with film is. She shared her story of buying the bingo hall in her small Scottish town to host a film festival of movies that her neighbours would normally never have the chance to see. “I love that we are all in a room together,” Swinton said. “Anyone could throw up at any moment or take of their clothes.” Her most passionate moment was when she talked about the 8 ½ Foundation that she started with Mark Cousins. The foundation established that a child’s 8 ½ birthday is the start of their film-loving life and kicks it off by mailing them a movie that they probably couldn’t catch at their local multiplex.
The real takeaway from Swinton’s interview was how much of an artistic collaborator she is in all of her projects, despite rejecting the title of actor. “I’m waiting for real actors to stand up and say, ‘Guilty!’” she said. But, I would hate to be the one to tell her that this Mavericks session only helped fuel the fact that she is a real actor herself.
Undoubtedly one of the best films we saw at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was Violet and Daisy. Directed by Geoffrey Fletcher of Precious fame, the film follows two teenage assassins Violet (Alexis Bledel) and Daisy (Saoirse Ronan) as they are forced to deal with the consequences of an assignment gone awry. We had the opportunity to chat with Fletcher about the film and asked him about the film’s imagery, girls with guns, and the “Internal Bleeding Dance.”
