Thursday, May 20, 2010

Helena Bonham Carter

A young HBC

Going for the hippy-I-live-in-Glastonbury-Village look

The tights, the tutu, the heels and the corset-like jacket are just lovely

Long black coats/cardies always look fab especially when matched with big boots and a feminine dress

The best picture of Helena. Her long curly hair in pigtails and wearing my favourite coat of hers - tailored double-breasted and stripy, that's how i like 'em. With dark sunglasses, a white dress and big black boots.

I cannot really put into words just how much I love Helena Bonham Carter, her style and her film roles. I feel like she's a tumour of mine (in a Tim Minchin kind of way).
I want her hair, her cheekbones, her clothes, her house, her kids, her relationship with her parents, her intelligence, her wit, her originality, her talent and her talented husband.

Here is my top five of all Helena's acting roles:

Marla Singer, Fight Club

I actually got a coat exactly like that one. She copied me though, obviously.

She loves hats in real life too. (And corsets).

Marla at the Paper Street Soap Company

Marla and Edward Norton

Fight Club is my second favourite film of all time (my first being Withnail & I). The characters' wardrobes and make-up, the themes, the way its shot, the plot, the acting and most of all the characters themselves. It stars Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter and was directed by David Fincher. It is based on a book of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk, which is also brilliant (although, as a rare exception, I think I prefer the film). Marla Singer is a very funny stylish intelligent chain-smoking depressed gothic fairy who attends support groups for cancer patients mostly, which is where she meets the protagonist (Edward Norton). Soon after, the protagonist (whose name is never explicitly stated - much like Marwood in Withnail & I - yet by fans it is assumed he's called Jack due to a line in the film where he says "I am Jack's raging bile duct") he meets the witty, anti-capitalist, controversial Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). Themes include consumerism, capitalism and madness. It's also about Brad Pitt's fantastic body. If you haven't seen it, get out from under that rock and watch it now asap.

Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry Potter (5, 6, 7 part 1 and 7 part 2)

Now I love Harry Potter, the books and the films, and when I discovered that they had decided to combine my favourite actress and my favourite series of books... well I can barely express the happiness I felt. I always thought she was perfect for the part of the evil conniving Lestrange sister anyway, as a lot of her roles are beautiful gothic rather evil powerful women (The Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland, Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd and Kate Croy in The Wings of the Dove).

Helen Schlegel, Howards End

I adore Howards End, a film based on an E.M. Forster novel and starring Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins and Vanessa Redgrave as well as Helena. Most people would expect her role of Lucy Honeychurch in A Room with a View to be here, her first big part film which is another E.M. Forster novel adaptation, but I personally prefer Howards End.

Kate Croy, The Wings of the Dove

Helena received an Oscar nomination (as well as a BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations and 12 other award wins) for this role. Its main theme is the extent people go to for money and balancing this with love.

Rosemary Waterlow, Keep The Aspidistra Flying

This isn't a very well-known film. It's an adaptation of an equally unjustly unappreciated George Orwell novel of the same name. Bonham Carter plays Rosemary opposite Richard E Grant (I love him too) as Gordon Comstock. It's 1930s London and the story tells of a middle class couple who are not very well off and both work at an advertising company. Gordon wants to reject his life that revolves around money and social status and instead become a poet. The plot follows his struggle to do so.

1 comment:

theundergroundrestaurant said...

Wings of a dove is my fave...