PascaleRichard's Blog

Rokia Traoré… Africa, Africa

pascalerichard — Thu, 17 May 2012 02:48:03 +0000

I discovered Rokia Traoré at Global Fest. Her new album Roots is a tribute to Africa…

http://download.liveweb.arte.tv/o21/liveweb/flash/player.swf?appContext=liveweb&eventId=3153&mode=prod&priority=one&embed=true

Dior and Schiap on The Big Screen

pascalerichard — Sat, 12 May 2012 10:33:30 +0000

Christian Dior discovered Hollywood early on. It was one of his first clients Marlene Dietrich introduced him to Alfred Hitchcock. “No Dior, No Dietrich” used to say the star in a famous line that no slogan could match. After Dior’s death in 1957 others actresses chose the famous brand for the big screen from Sophia Loren in Charlie Chaplin’s An Unknown Countess in Hong Kong (1958) to Penelope Cruz in Almodovar’s Broken Embraces (2008). An exhibition running through the Summer in France, in Christian Dior Museum in Granville, Normandy, explores the intricate ties between la Maison Dior and the stars.

Elsa Schiaparelli was no stranger to Hollywood. The exotic couturier that was inspired by Surrealists artists like Francis Picabia, Jean Cocteau or Dali had discovered America in 1921 with her husband. Ten years later she was the talk of the town and a households name with her unique creations seen in Every Day’s a Holiday with Mae West and Moulin Rouge with ZsaZsa Gabor.

In an exhibit that just opened at the Met in New York, Elsa Schiaparelli converses with Muccia Prada on the world of fashion yesterday and today in a movie directed by Baz Luhrmann.

www.met.com

http://www.musee-dior-granville.com/

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isAudio=1&isUI=1

Paris vs New York in New York!

pascalerichard — Wed, 02 May 2012 04:03:55 +0000

A show of Graphic Designer Vahram Muratyan’s ubiquitous drawings on Paris and New York opens at Benoit Restaurant in New York this month. Vahram was artist in residence at the Lycee Francais de New York last month. You probably know him or you know his blog Paris vs New York a Tally of Two Cities, viewed by over four million people all over the world. The blog has become a book, published in France with a yellow cover (slightly larger format, different choice of drawings also arranged in a different order)and in America with a white cover by Penguin. He also contributes to Le Monde M Magazine and recently signed the latest Accessories ad campaign at Prada.

The man is not only in Paris and in New York: he is everywhere! Welcome Vahram!

Are you fan too?

parisvsnyc.blogspot.com/

C’est fini l’Aventura

pascalerichard — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:18:30 +0000

Eric Charden est mort! Stone et Charden, mon premier reportage pour OK magazine Mademoiselle Age Tendre. Ils habitaient un apart. avec poutr’app’ et venaient de conquérir la France avec l’Aventura

Breath In.. Breath Out

pascalerichard — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:07:38 +0000

I am so glad Raf Simons is taking over as creative director at Dior. He had beautiful collections at Jil Sanders. His sensibility seems in phase with Christian Dior’s own inspiration. After all, Dior loved his garden in Granville filled with roses, pale grey and white for the interior of his Maison de Couture and nothing really ostentatious. The Belgian are back!

I am so sad that Betsey Johnson is filing for bankruptcy. She was the impossible colorful American woman of fashion. There was no much point attending her show for me as she was not known outside of the US but I did. It was always so much fun, blatantly sexy. I bought a black top from her last year with lots of ribbons. It is vintage already. How chic!

Still Banging on that Can

pascalerichard — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:01:30 +0000

They started in the late 80″s in Soho and decided to create New Music. 25 years later they gave an All Star concert at Alice Tully Hall, last night, a 3-hour marathon of New Music with instruments from all over the world producing sounds that sometimes made you clinch your teeth but most of the time rhythms that where pure discovery. It is still “New” 25 years later. “When we started Bang on a Can in 1987, in an art gallery in SoHo, we never imagined that our one-day, 12-hour marathon festival of mostly unknown music would morph into a giant international organization dedicated to the support of experimental music, wherever we would find it,” write Bang on a Can Co-Founders Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe. Last night David Lang explained how he had asked all his team (for the finale they must have been more than 50 on stage) to wander all over the world and come back with inspiring sounds. Some dwelt on the Swiss Yodeling for an inspiration, others preferred the industrial sound of chains rattling as starting notes for a full orchestral extravaganza. Alice Tully Hall was full. I thought only in New York people would be so avid for newness even if on stage many were bolding middle aged musicians. Great videos by Swiss artist Christian Marclay.

Sennelier, My Passion

pascalerichard — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:35:15 +0000

Finally THE book is out in France and will be distributed in the US in the Fall. It has been a hard 2 years of work tracing back oral history with Dominique Sennelier. I enjoyed so much writing this book and discovering the intimate relationship between artists and materials, rediscovering this great cultural exchange between France and America as Sennelier products were introduced on the US market in 1980.

http://www.editionsduchene.fr/livre/la-passion-sennelier-3483344.html

Stormy Weather

pascalerichard — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 04:55:59 +0000

The storm is raging outside. I am thinking of the fig tree I left on the terrace in the country house. By now the poor thing must be a wreck. I thought Spring was there. But Spring was only in the polls with rosebuds flowering again in France. By the way, the symbol of the Socialist party – a rose held in a tight fist – was created in 1969. Was not the world quite different then? I see tight fists everywhere and no time for roses…

Shit!

pascalerichard — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 01:25:08 +0000

It is all we can say, right? Children and a teacher killed in Toulouse outside a Jewish school…. Where is the world heading?

The Ballad of Marie Losier

pascalerichard — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:31:37 +0000

French film maker Marie Losier has signed a very poetic and disturbing documentary film on Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, a leading figure of the acid house and techno scene with groups like Throbbing Gristle (1975 to 1981) and Psychic TV (1981 to present). He has become a she, not wanting to be what others wanted for him , but also by osmosis with his/her great love and wife Lady Jay who died in 2007. Together, through many operations of cosmetic surgery, they tried to resemble each other creating as a result a third human being, “their child” Breyer P-Orridge . With archives videos and present filming, with much sensitivity, Marie Losier leads us in the intimacy of these two extraordinary artists , through her lenses, transcending the trashy surroundings of underground life and creating poetry. From Body image (“This suitcase that carries us around “) to the place of art ( “the manner in which you live your life is the highest and most unimpeachable form of art that exists.” Says Marie Losier), the film raises very important questions. For Genesis, life is an ongoing performance, even when doing house work ( Genesis dresses up with high heels, silk stockings and sexy underwear to pass the vacuum cleaner). “Ch ch ch changes.. .’’, constant changes to transform one’s body but really one soul is her motto.

The film, which won many awards, is a tribute to love, to art. It is a MUST see !!

The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye // Trailer

Screenings at the Chelsea Cinemas