Marlin and I had a lively conversation about what to include on a list of general audience film recommendations. He worked in a video rental store and a theater for many years, so between the two of us we have seen a lot of domestically-available film. It is a list of film I would unequivocally recommend to a general audience, it’s not necessarily a list of classics or “good” film. Three considerations are how well the film has aged for the modern audience, how obtainable it is, and if I would watch the film with kiddo at the appropriate age. There are plenty of films I like that I wouldn’t necessarily want to watch with my kid.
I’m currently reading a Taschen book about Tamara de Lempicka, which was written by Gilles Néret. He occasionally goes on rants about the bourgeois, who apparently couldn’t handle Cubism and didn’t want anyone messing with their nudes. I have a really basic understanding of the avant-garde of the period, but this is the first I’ve read of the pushback–what Néret refers to as André Lhote’s call to order.
Many of the portraits have similar heavy-lidded expressions. See her iconic work, Autoportrait (Tamara in a Green Bugatti). I accidentally stumbled across the auction of Portrait de Madame M., which Christie’s sold for 6.1 million. I don’t really understand the art world and the valuation of works.