Still Stile is back on track. I subjected the site to a little make-over, refined some details and changed the post lay-out. Still Stile is now active on Facebook, so like the page to keep up to date on the newest posts. There is some great content on the way with a couple of movies related to the great Heinrich Harrer, the Austrian mountain climber, attached is a little teaser for now.
Still Stile has been absent for quite a while, but we’re back! There’s a lot of great content awaiting to be shared and today I finally took the time to throw the first Still Stile post online since months. My latest contribution has been the guest post on Denimhunters and there’s gonna be some more specials on the indigo cotton appearance in cinema too. As a start, I have picked a short movie with some incredible architectural and visual elements that was recommended to me by Marc Foley some time ago.
Círculo Uno is the first short movie directed and written by visual artist César Pesquara who started out directing a few commercials and music videos (quite interesting as well). Círculo Uno is shot beautifully in a very straight and severe way with little camera movement, resulting in amazing geometrical shots. It reminds of THX 1138 a lot and according to the director himself it was of much influence to him, as was the work by Stanley Kubrick and Dante’s poem Divine Comedy. The movie has a pleasant pace and the build-op of suspense is just amazing.
The short tells the story of René, who lives in a simple small apartment and works at a simple small office behind a desk with an early 80s computer. He’ll soon be promoted to a different division and will be transferred to Circle Six. Somehow this upcoming development disturbs him, strengthened by the weird stuff that occurs in his apartment. Paranoia and the feeling of enclosure follow.
I recently wrote a guest post on denim in cinema which was published yesterday at Denimhunters.
“When you to think of denim and Jack Nicholson, immediately the imagery from “One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest” pops up. This is not surprising, his outfit throughout that movie is marvelous. Yet when it comes to Americana clothing and Jack Nicholson there are quite a few other noteworthy movies. Let’s take “Five Easy Pieces” for example.”
To get the complete picture of Jack in denim and boots, head on over to Denimhunters to view the full amount of stills.
This is a true classic. Starring Steve McQueen, considered one of his most cool appearances, and a real walhalla for the vintage militaria addict. It’s the adaption of the true story of the 1943 “Stalag Luft III” escape during the second World War. British army men were held captive in the camp alongside some Canadians, Polish, Americans and more. The many months of preparation and effort paid off in the end when 76 prisoners flee the camp through the dug tunnels. However most of them were arrested or shot dead during their attempt to cross the borders. Three of them really succeeded and got away: two Norwegians and a Dutch.
McQueen’s outfit here is often discussed and not surprisingly. He wears a leather A-2 Type flight jacket that was worn by American pilots during WWII. Underneath he has a raglan sweater with cut-off sleeves at elbow length. The khaki trousers he wears are a replica, but Steve insisted on having them in a slim cut for a better look, also note the short length on them. The boots are M-43 Type III rough out leather boots, which means the leather was turned inside out with the soft side out. When Steve escaped he steals a German Army motorcycle supplied by BMW in the war, although for the film a Triumph TT Special 650 was used customized and painted to resemble the BMW version. Not very obvious but really nice is McQueen’s 1930′s U.S. Navy peacoat he wears when digging the tunnel. Furthermore the worn-out woolen knits are well represented in the movie. But the aforementioned British militaria is really striking in this picture. We spot two types of the British Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) woolen jackets, the 1937 Pattern Battle Dress jacket and the 1940 (P40) version. The latter one had the zippered front of the 1937 type replaced with buttons, and the pocket buttons were now exposed instead of concealed. Note you can see the conductor leading the choir wearing the corresponding cargo pants with suspender buttons of the 1940 pattern BDU.
Lately this has not been the frequently updated blog I’d like it to be and unfortunately I now update it quite irregularly. This is partly due to busy periods in the masters course Design Cultures I started last year, for which I’m now in the final phase of writing my thesis. I’m doing research on the colonial style homes and interiors in the Dutch East Indies and these large and spacious interiors were characterised by their neoclassical style furniture mixed with the tropical and vernacular influences. Well since it keeps me off the streets lately I thought to share a little something of some video footage I recently watched.
Most of the footage was shot between 1910 and 1930, including home videos, registrations of the streets scenes and short documentaries. I captured some stills to share here. Remarkable is the clean and bright white clothing so typical of colonials. Of course this expressed their (imagined) superiority, showed their ability to wear clean clothing every single day, since white is extremely contagious in the tropics, but moreover the repellent white was just very cool (as in cold). In the colony cars were much more common than they were in the homecountry and the Ford models were well represented. Yet, it wouldn’t be a Dutch colony if there were no bikes present and I really like the street scene where you see the Europeans commuting on their classic style bicycles. Please note the cinema too, a form of entertainment hugely popular at the time, where they screen the Fritz Lang movie Die Nibelungen: Siegfried. To get back to my topic of research, the homes and the interiors, it is a pity we only see the luxurious houses of the rich administers and clubs in these videos, which are not really representative of the usual colonial home. Although the neoclassical style is evident, the villa in the first picture really resembles a Palladio design. His I Quattro Libri Dell’Architettura was extremely popular amongst the colonials. The furniture made of rattan cane seen on two stills, is more representative of an East-Indian home. Chinese entrepreneurs introduced them to the colony and with huge success: moisture resistant, easy to move around and very airy in the hot climate.
By the way acclaimed Dutch director Paul Verhoeven is now busy filming De Stille Kracht, a novel from 1900 by Louis Couperus set in the Dutch East Indies.
