Five Things Meme | Answers, Part Une

Book Ships
for dae_dreemer

I don't really ship for books much (with books I tend to just go with canon, I guess) - I don't even really have ships for HP anymore, I just want everything to be innocent and cute like when they were babies - so I just tried to pick relationships I really loved / things that weren't canon but I wished were / things that didn't work but I wanted to work / stuff that was pretty. And obvs I had to separate it out into grownup choices and tweeny choices.

Non-Tweeny

George and Jim, A Single Man


THAT QUOTE DESTROYS ME. THAT ENTIRE BOOK DESTROYS ME. A Single Man is hands-down my favorite grownup book, the language is just stunning, the entire novel is heartbreaking and everyone just go read it right now. George and Jim are particularly painful because Jim has already died by the time the novel starts, so you're only getting bits of their relationship filtered down as George happens to think of him throughout the day. And it's things like this - the house being so small, so cluttered, that Jim's physical presence becomes all the more acutely absent. There's an even more heartwrenching edge to it when you learn the story behind the novel - Isherwood and his longtime boyfriend Don had broken up for a time, with Isherwood going to SF to teach a class during their time apart. This inspired Isherwood to write the novel - as though Don had died - because their separation pained him so much. I'm saying IT IS BASICALLY A BEAUTIFUL TRAGIC LOVE LETTER. 

The movie version is such utter fucking bullshit that if you are on my friends list and you liked it, I demand you unfriend me right now.



Sebastian and Charles, Brideshead Revisited


This boooook. Sebastian is my sweet prince of this novel, though I love Julia so much too, even if things get to be kind of a bummer once it gets all heteronormative and Sebastian goes away. I have a serious business soft spot for pretty gay period pieces where boys fluff around Oxford and drink wine with lens flares. So. That is mainly why they're here. I just love all the poncy prose and the gazing, there's so much gazing.

Someone wrote me a gorgeous Sebastian/Charles fic for Yuletide, though, everyone should go read it: Sebastian Revisited. THEY GET TO RECREATE THEIR BEAUTIFUL MISSPENT YOUTH. It is basically how Brideshead Revisited should have ended.



Lux Lisbon and Trip Fontaine, The Virgin Suicides


Also one of my favoritest books. This passage and the one with Trip and Lux in the car are some of my favorite parts - where she just attacks him, basically, and it's later described as the silence in which Lux flayed him alive. How do I not ship that. What is writing.



Lily and Selden, House of Mirth


I have so. many. feelings. about. this. book. LILY AND SELDEN'S LOVE THO. Their garden conversations! Selden catching her unawares in moments where her facade is not yet up! THAT IS HOW SHE LOOKS WHEN SHE IS ALONE. Selden being snarky middle class to Lily's conniving secret rich-but-poor girl thing! Lol, secret sharing time: Selden reminds me of Dan Humphrey, and that is probably why I love him so much.

P.S., in the movie in my head, Christina Hendricks plays Lily (I know she's too old). THINK ON THAT. (And yes, that is a cap from Titanic, wut wut.)



Sal and Dean, On the Road


Look how haaaandsome they are. Look at my husband Jack be so fine. I think it's fair to say Jackie was basically in love with Neal, but really, who wasn't? Their relationship hits like all of my shipping buttons. Pretty foxy best friends with ambiguous homoerotic undertones who are constantly falling in love with the same women? I mean. It practically has my name on it.




Tweeny

Ella and Char, Ella Enchanted


THIS BOOK IS THE BEST BOOK. I'm sorry. All your faves could never. Ella and Char's love is perfect and untouchable. I have read this book so many times my copy is in literal shreds, my entire childhood, my creys, etc.



Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Harry Potter


I really don't ship much for HP anymore, except that the trio = everything that is good and right. I think we can all agree on that? I read a really lovely little trio fic recently that I think captures why I love them so much (it's called the restless ghost in his old hotel). They just fit together.



Harry and Luna, Harry Potter


I really don't have HP ships! BUT, that said, I adored Luna and I felt like there was a real depth to her relationship and conversations with Harry that I really enjoyed. She got him, you know? Like that moment at the very end of Book 7 where everyone is just sitting around the Great Hall post-battle and Luna finds him, knows immediately what he wants, and then creates a diversion so he can sneak off. I just think it's funny that, IMO, their relationship felt so deep in such a short time but Harry's relationship with someone like Ginny, who'd been around since day one, was so one-note and empty. Juuust my opinion. If he'd had like, one of the conversations he had with Luna with Ginny instead, I'd totally buy that relationship. It's weird, JKR. Why did you do that? I think maybe it was laziness, like in her head she knew it was always going to be Ginny so she didn't even bother setting it up right. Though that's still weird, is that not the point of writing, to set things up correctly so the payoff is earned? W/E, Harry and Luna should have gotten married and had weirdo babies with godawful hair.



Kaye and Roiben, Tithe


Lol, welcome to my tweeny baby goth past, y'all. 



Katniss and Peeta, The Hunger Games


PEETA'S BLONDE EYELASHES. If I did not already ship them, I would ship them based on the fact that Peeta has blonde eyelashes. 

Mad Men Episodes
for lookinglassgirl
THIS WAS SO HARD. I tried to choose just one from each season, as there've been five seasons, but it was still SO HARD so I cheated.


Smoke Gets In Your Eyes


Lol, look at me pretending Betty was even in this episode. I have such a soft spot for the pilot because literally all it took was the opening twenty seconds - basically the back of Don's head - and I was fucking sold. I was done. Mad Men and I were in love. Then follows one of my favorite scenes maybe of the series - Don discussing cigarettes with the waiter. Such a good scene. So definitive of Don's Don Draperyness. It's such a good setup episode for the series and then it ends with one of my favorite songs! The Platters! Smoke Gets in Your Eyes! The entire pilot is filmed in a haze of cigarettes! 1960s!



The Wheel


I lied: the scene in this episode where Don gives the presentation is the most definitive scene of his Don Draperyness. THIS DEVICE ISN'T A SPACESHIP, IT'S A TIME MACHINE. And then you see all the mysterious happy Draper family past moments that seem totally unreal but are amazing! Betty and Don are so sad but still in love! THERE IS STILL HOPE. And I believe this episode ends with Bob Dylan so, you know. Fucking wins. 



Meditations in an Emergency

One day you're there and then all of a sudden there's less of you. You begin to wonder where that part went - if it's living somewhere outside of you - and you keep thinking maybe you'll get it back. But then you realize. It's just gone.

Tbh, and I will say this about almost every episode of this show, but this episode might be one of the absolute best. Peggy's speech to Pete is one of my favorite moments ever. Betty coming to terms with how to deal with her unexpected pregnancy while separated from Don. It opens with one of my favorite things Mad Men does sometimes - they did it also during Joan's rape - where Betty is looking at the picture on the wall and you see the picture and her looking at it and it's such a weird, insignificant, real thing. You would remember, if you were Betty, being miserable and pregnant and denied an abortion while sitting in your doctor's office looking at that fuck ugly picture of a rabbit. Then her romp with the bland cute bar guy. And Don recovering from his time with the Angel of My Heart, Anna Draper, trying to finally be the man Betty deserves but he can never really be. THE BEAUTIFUL LETTER OF LIES HE WRITES TO BETTY. Them sitting holding hands, both unsure about having the baby but knowing they're stuck together. PEGGY'S SPEECH, again. 

That was so incoherent, I apologize. 



The Fog


THIS IS THE BEST EPISODE THOUGH. This episode is so fucking scary. If anyone wants to tell me January Jones can't act, please go watch The Fog. Giving birth in the sixties is fucking scary as fuck. From the moment Don sends her off with a 'good luck, Bets' and she looks back to see him small at the end of the hallway, and then gone, her segment of the episode descends into this dreamy hazy nightmare. Her dreams! Her creepy parents! Medgar Evers, randomly? And of course all the insight into Betty - you're a housecat, her father tells her. This is what happens to people who speak up, her mother says, holding up a rag covered in Medgar Evers' blood. And Betty, in reality still trapped in her twilight sleep (actual creepy phrase for the fucked up drug haze you'd be in while giving birth), says what I think is the saddest line ever on earth, I'm just a housewife, why are you doing this to me? It reminds me so much of that scene from The Bell Jar, does anyone know what I'm talking about? I hate that book. Then Betty wakes up, still looking all feral, and the camera pulls away to see the baby just there in her arms. Terrifying. Point is: don't have babies. Side note: Sally and Don bonding!!



The Suitcase


No, seriously: this is the best fucking episode. MY HEART. IT JUST RIPS OUT MY HEART. Peggy and Don's platonic forever love! He says she knows she's cute as hell! Her mom thinks Don is the one who knocked her up! He tells her about growing up on a farm! They share life secrets! Peggy cries in the bathroom like she couldn't in season one! Don cries in her arms! They hold hands! I CAN'T. It also kills me when actors on this show really get a chance to show off, because you can tell how much they love working with and playing off each other. This episode just makes me sob, I can't.



Mystery Date | Far Away Places


Mystery Date is mostly here because I felt weird about not having a Joan-heavy episode in the list and she gets to tell off Dr. Rapist while looking hotter than any fucking person I have ever had the pleasure of looking upon. I think this is the main reason why The Other Woman bothered me so much. We finally get to see Joan stand up for herself and take control of her life only to lose that control so spectacularly just a few episodes later. 

Far Away Places was just a great episode. I loved all the three story lines, but especially Roger's, because LSD. And I think this episode marks the only time I didn't totally hate Megan's existence entirely - I only hated it a little. It was an extremely unsettling episode. It's been a pretty unsettling season. I loved the strangeness of Ginsberg's confession to Peggy (still shipping it). I really loved everything about Roger and Jane's LSD trip; I even loved Jane, finally. And I was glad the cracks finally started to show between Don and Megan, but can they get divorced already?






Gay Films
for thmaymuc


Velvet Goldmine

Directer: Todd Haynes, Starring: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Ewan McGregor, Christian Bale, Toni Collette. 

This movie is 100% responsible for my entire personality. Seriously. I saw this when I was twelve and it fucked me up in the best way possible. I still die for this movie like I did when I was a tween, it makes me as excited to watch as it ever did. The costuming and casting and soundtrack are all amazing. The plot is...there, one could say, but it's really incidental to how awesome everything is. It's a hazy, surreal kind of movie, which suits its subject matter - it's about a reporter (Mr. Bale, in one of the only roles I've ever liked him in) who, for a story, is kind of reliving his misspent teen days as a glam rocker. It's also about the singer he was most obsessed with, a kind of blatant Bowie stand-in named Brian Slade (Johnny Rhys), and Slade's life - how he grew up, his childhood, his style and music evolution, his relationship with his wife (an Angie Bowie stand-in, played by Ms Collette) and his lover (Ewan, playing a kind of amalgamation of Iggy Pop and Lou Reed). BASICALLY IT IS THE BEST AND I LOVES IT. Just look how pretty! That is not even one tenth how gorgeous it is.



Maurice

Director: James Ivory, Starring: James Wilby, Hugh Grant, and Rupert Graves

Remember how I love Oxford boys fluffing around being gay together? That is essentially what at least half this movie is. It's really such a lovely little film. A lovely book, too, and a very faithful adaptation; maybe even better than the book, I might say, because it does a better job of creating context for some of the character's actions. It's all very British, very class-based - middle class Maurice (pronounced Morris) has a long-running if totally chaste affair with upper class Clive (Hugh Grant), whose very nice manor is basically crumbling, and ultimately finds happiness with working class Alec (Rupert Adorable As Fuck Graves). Hugh Grant gives what is probably the best performance he's ever given in a movie. The novel wasn't published for a reeeeally long time after it was written, not because it was gay but because it ended happily. But it's okay because just LOOK at that pretty sunshiney lounging in a field goodness.

Secret: I ship Maurice and Clive WAY MORE.



Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Director: John Cameron Mitchell, Starring; John Cameron Mitchell

Guys, idk how many ways to say BEST EVER anymore. This movie is just so beautifully put together. It started as a stage musical, nearly a one-man show, and it was written by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask. I would say it is probably the only legitimate rock musical to exist. People are free to fight me on that. I live and die for the styling in this film, the costumes, wigs, makeup. And John Cameron Mitchell's performance is just insane amazing, gorgeous, and he has the loveliest voice. It really kills me that he doesn't seem to act anymore, because he's such a good actor.

Just a quick plot overview, for anyone familiar: Hedwig was born a boy named Hansel in East Berlin and eventually meets and falls in love with an American GI named Luther. To take Hansel out of East Germany, they must get married; to get married, Hansel can't be a boy. So, after a botched operation that leaves Hansel somewhere in between male and female, he becomes Hedwig. I'm not trying to draw lines between gender or anything, if anyone's offended: that's how the film presents it. Hedwig occupies a space between two genders, never sure where she fits or who she is or who she belongs with. It's a really interesting and clever film, and it has this one animated sequence that is TO DIE FOR.



My Beautiful Laundrette

Director: Stephen Frears, Starring: Gordon Warnecke, Daniel Day-Lewis

Baby Daniel Day! This was his first movie, I think, or Room With a View was; either way, they came out at exactly the same time and couldn't be more different. This is an interesting little movie. It's not really...super plot-driven or even super character-driven. It just kind of presents these people and you get to take a peek at their lives for a period of time. The main character is Omar. He's taking care of his alcoholic father and kind of at a loss as to what to do with his life, so he takes over this launderette from his uncle and renovates it, basically. That is inconsequential. He also reconnects with Johnny. Johnny and Omar used to be together when they were kids, but then Johnny became a racist skinhead. It's mostly alluded to. Johnny leaves his skinhead pack and gets back together with Omar and really, Daniel Day has always been such a good actor. He's very different and very charming as Johnny, and the genuine pain and regret that shows on his face when Omar brings up the whole SKINHEAD THING is lovely. All of the themes are very subtle, never directly addressed by the script. It's about race and class and relationships and England in the '80s and all kinds of things but you really have to figure it out for yourself, because the movie gives you no definitive answers. 



But I'm a Cheerleader!

Director: Jamie Babbit, Starring: Natasha Lyonne, Clea Duvall

I just love this movie to pieces. It's so lolzy and campy and wonderful. The color scheme is so aggressive. It's really sad that Natasha Lyonne went all nutty, because I adore her and she should have been in alllllll the movies. The movie is about a cheerleader (big surprise) whose family decides she is a lesbian and sends her off to get straightened out. She's not so certain, at first, but soon enough falls in love with one of the other girls there. Idk, it's just a really funny and sweet movie, everyone watch it.



The History Boys

Director: Nicholas Hytner, Starring: Richard Griffiths, Stephen Campbell Moore, Frances de la Tour, Samuel Barnett, Jamie Parker, Russell Tovey, gross Dominic Cooper, etc.

The History Boys is one of those, like, definitive movies for me. I feel in love with the play first, reading it without having seen it, and I think the movie does a pretty good job of capturing it (there are some things cut that I wished weren't, but overall it's very good as they use the original cast). It's just so smart and just pretentious enough, and I love all the characters to pieces. Scripps is my main man, but POSNER. My besties and I spent like all of high school quoting and reenacting it. It's very very close to my heart.






Dan/Blair Mourning Songs (the embarrassing ones especially)
for thmaymuc
This is basically a totally incoherent fanmix. 


Gone, N'Sync (or, Justin and the Pips)

YT link to song/most awesome lolzy angsty music video of all time. It starts with some random Charlie Chaplin shit, for gods sake.

"Gone" is a flawless song. That's it. I'm serious. Please try and think of a more flawless N'Sync song, or a more flawless breakup song. YOU CAN'T. 



Shake It Out, Florence + the Machine


Ahhh this song is just 100% my song for Blair. IT'S SO SAD. Yet slightly hopeful? Yet ultimately everything is just terrible for Blair so does it even matter?



Last Goodbye, Jeff Buckley

YT link to song

Anyone who has sniffed through my mixes knows that Jeff is my sweet prince of all things and I have a habit of connecting him in particular to Dan. "Last Goodbye" is a very beautiful and poignant song, in Jeff's fashion, and I didn't really do a good job of choosing lyrics for the art because they're all so good and appropriate. I really do urge everyone to click on over and listen to it, it's so lovely. And like, not to get all fanwanky on y'all, but the line 'kiss me out of desire, baby, no consolation' is one of my favorite lines in the song and also kind of fits the whole DS cheating situation really well? Like, I can see how at that point he would have felt Blair was kissing him out of consolation, being with him to sort of make up for everything he'd done for her, and he just wanted someone who really wanted him. I AM NOT SAYING THAT IS WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. I am of the opinion that Blair was in love with Dan but she just has issues. HOWEVER I think that Dan would not be so forgiving towards her or himself.  



Angel, Mr. Little Jeans


This one's just to torture myself.



Let My Love Open the Door, Sondre Lerche

YT link to song

I actually don't like this original song at all, or Pete Townsend in general, because I think the lyrics are super obnoxious and condescending. Like, really, I'm lucky you're around because I'm such a mess I can't do anything on my own? Please go fuck yourself, Pete. That said, I think the Sondre Lerche cover of it takes a lot of that out and undercuts the lyrics with a real sweetness and wistfulness. Then it actually becomes rather fitting for Dan and Blair.



Once I Was, Tim Buckley

YT link to song

In general, this is actually more of a Katniss/Peeta song for me, but this particular section is so painfully DB. I mean. Look at that shit. Cuts your heart right out.



Just Like Heaven, The Cure


This is also just to torture myself. STOLE THE ONLY GIRL I LOVED AND DROWNED HER DEEP INSIDE OF ME. Why does the Cure know everything about how to make me cry.






Favorite Nate/Blair Moments
for thebadunkadunk
Lol, I kind of have a clear bias for NB kissing scenes? They are just so pretty at kissing. The snow kiss and the pool kissing are just nice to look at. The pilot macking is probably one of my favorite macking scenes on the show ever, even though Nate was a class A dickweasel, just because it actually looked like making out instead of that weird lame fish-kissing we have to put up with every time Chuck and Blair mash their faces together. I have a fondness for their prom cuteness even though that breakup was utterly stupid. And I really, really loved their post-IP bonding and am very bitter it didn't last. I like their friendship and the idea of them being friends since they have so much history, and I like when Nate gets to be on her side and stand up for her. Also...if anyone understands your lover turning you into an accidental prostitute, it's Nate Archibald.









Favorite Dan/Blair Moments
for thebadunkadunk
Um...I like it when they fight? There are really too many DB moments to choose from now, but this wasn't really as hard as I thought. The start of their cute friendship in 2x08 is what put me on the road towards shipping them, though at the time I just wanted them to be BFFs. AND THEN THE WHISPER FIGHT HAPPENED. The whisper fight during the play is my everything, it is like the most perfect encapsulation of their relationship, and it is everything good and right in the world. Consequently, I also adore all of their other fight scenes, particularly the post-wedding one, because adorable. Everything at W was flawless, so I'm counting that as one moment. Idk why the W arc couldn't have lasted all season. It was way cuter and more useful than anything do to with any of their other season-long plots. Like the Spectator or Fish Industries. It was zany, there can be events related to it, it's about fashion, this show is about fashion, bitch pls. And the kiss in 5x16 is my favorite kiss of theirs. 









Guilty Pleasure Ships
for thebadunkadunk
This list was surprisingly instantaneous to come up with.


Daenerys/Viserys, Game of Thrones


What is WRONG with me. Viserys is TERRIBLE and ABUSIVE. But still I have a weird obsession with the two of them and how they lived their lives pre-series, I have written like a bajillion (read: three) fics about them. Maybe it's just because Harry Lloyd is cute? And I really like their bleach blonde hair? And fictional incest is fun? Viserys and Daenerys' childhood is so tragic to me, like it makes so much sense why he turned into such a fucking psycho but also it's so sad. Idk, I'm glad things went how they went but I still am all attached to them and stuff. 



Barney/Lily, How I Met Your Mother


Because they were pretend married that one time! And his sexist 1960s fantasies of being her husband! And that threesome blooper!



Jackie/Eric, That 70s Show


I loved Jackie and Hyde the most as a couple, but Eric was hands-down my favorite and I was really indifferent to Donna because she's such a milquetoast who can't act. Eric and Jackie would have been the kind of couple I tend to be into, i.e. Xander/Cordy, Dan/Blair. The rich bitch and the smart ass. It's just quality stuff.



Buffy/Xander, Buffy the Vampire Slayer


I have felt super weird about being secretly into Buffy/Xander for a long. ass. time. Because I wouldn't ever want it to happen except secretly I would be into it if it did? I loved when she let him down gently in s1 and then he was a brat, then when they made up in s6, and then in s7 they were being all Mom and Dad, taking Dawn to school and stuff. I was kiiinda hoping it would happen in the comics but...let's just not talk about the comics.



Don/Joan, Mad Men


I am having so many conflicting feelings about these kids lately. This would definitely be the moment the show jumped the shark, but would I even care? Loook at them standing next to each other being so pretty! They both look like cartoon drawings of people from the 50s. And Joan GETS him, plus she has zero time for his bullshit, and Don is clearly terrified of her, which is awesome. IDK, pretty people should kiss.






Fannish Kinks or Tropes
For 12_12_12
THIS WAS HARD. I wasn't really 100% sure what you meant? Because I tend not to recognize tropes as I'm watching (at least not more than 'oh this seems familiar') but I did my bestest. 


1. Bitches | I consistently have found that I will fall completely in love with whichever character is the most heinous bitch on the show, in the book, in the movie. I am just drawn to that kind of character, I guess. I don't even really need them to have a softer side, though hidden vulnerability is nice.
2. Zeppos | Another character type I am super into. The sort of smart ass sidekick type of guy with an inferiority complex who never stops talking - I am all over that. These type of characters tend to walk the line between nice guy and jerk and I...am into that also.
3. Banter-y, fight-y couples | I feel like I am not being terribly original here? I mean...who doesn't love characters that yell at each other and are brats and say cute snarky words? That is always my favorite type of couple.
4. Unreliable narrators | I loooove unreliable narrators. I feel like they are difficult to execute properly outside of novels, but I like that sense of not knowing for sure what's bullshit and what isn't.
5. Hero complexes | I feel like the characters ppl tend to not like at the ~hero ones but I always love those stupid noble sons of bitches.
6. Heterosexual life partners | Bro 4 lyf is like my #1 reason to ship something. Honestly I only ship bros and ppl who ~hate each other. I wonder what this says about me as a person.






Moments in Harry Potter
for 12_12_12
ALSO HARD.


1. Trio sit together post-battle / Luna knows what's up
If JKR had not tacked on that bullshit epilogue, then the last novel would have ended perfectly. Harry, Ron, and Hermione together, just as it should be. And I mentioned earlier how much I loved Luna showing up knowing exactly what Harry needed.

2. Sirius asks Harry to live with him
ALL MY SIRIUS BLACK FEELS. HE AND HARRY WERE GOING TO BE A FAMILY. AND THEY NEVER EVER GOT THE CHANGE TO BE.

3. Cho and Harry's first date
Lol, I live and die for this scene. It is so lolzy. JKR was always strongest at comedy, IMO, and this scene is just perfect. There is another couple making out at the next table! Harry goes to take Cho's hand but she moves it so he has to disguise his gesture by grabbing the sugar bowl! Then she bursts into tears while a little cherub harasses them with glittery confetti! Harry ends the date by muttering about ~women even though he is a fifteen year old idiot! It was one of the teenagery moments in the books that really worked (as opposed to, say...all of book 6). 

4. Neville + parents | Neville kills that fucking snake
ALL MY NEVILLE FEELINGS. Omg omg, that scene in book 5 where they go to the hospital? And Neville sees his parents? And his mom gives him like a candy wrapper AND HE KEEPS IT? And your heart shatters into a thousand million pieces? Yeah. That scene.
ALSO, however, I adored when Neville took a level in badass and pulled the sword of Gryffindor out to behead the snake. THAT was some awesome shit. I wished fiercely at the time that the seventh book had taken place in Hogwarts with Neville's little student militia as opposed to the nonstop camping bullshittery. 

5. Ron and Hermione kiss
Another teenagery type moment that worked really well. And I think the levity of the moment - the fangs clattering, Harry shouting THERE IS A WAR ON - really cut through a lot of the sadness that was to come in just a few pages. 






Classic Hollywood Starlets
for hereticalvision
Hard!


Audrey Hepburn


I grew up watching Audrey movies and have just always loved her. It's hard to verbalize sometimes, like you grow up watching someone so much and loving them and they just become a part of your psyche. When it comes to Audrey, the classics are good but I suggest one of her later films, Two for the Road, for mandatory viewing. It's such an excellent film and I think she does some of her best acting in it.



Marilyn Monroe


I've only recently started to love Marilyn and of course become utterly consumed by her. She's just so fun to watch and so alive and most certainly a better actress than a lot of people have given her credit for. She's a very good dramatic actress, but she's just flawless at comedy. And look at that faaaace. I think the thing with a lot of ~iconic type people is that there is something about them that is really timeless - I think if you dropped Marilyn into a movie now, she'd be just as sparkling and charming as she ever was.

I am going to link to a Scandals of Classic Hollywood article about her, because I think it does such a phenom job of capturing and putting into context what makes her such an enduringly iconic figure.



Katharine Hepburn


The best thing about Kate is that she probably weighed like two pounds but if provoked she could most certainly rip your face off. That scene in Bringing Up Baby of her wrangling a ferocious leopard just with sheer strength and sass is probably one of my favorite film moments of ever. And in real life just as much of a sick bitch! She had NO TIME for any bullshit! She was just awesome, 24/7.

There is also a Scandals of Classic Hollywood article about here that I totally recommend; seriously, check out the tag because there are a ton of those articles and they're all utterly brilliant. 



Natalie Wood


Natalie Wood just has the cutest face ever. Her EYES. They are GIANT. One of my favorite moment in Sex and the Single Girl (Natalie is so precious in that movie) is when she goes to win back Tony Curtis and all she has to do is look up at him with her giant eyes welling with tears and he is hooked. IT'S SO CUTE. And obviously Splendor in the Grass is like torturously good. Ahhh and Miracle on 34th Street!

PS There's a Classic Hollywood article for her too! Seriously go read all of them.



Olivia de Havilland


My love affair with Olivia de Havilland is very recent, and based primarily on the fact that The Heiress is fucking awesome. I really just adore her face, which seems to vacillate between beautiful and unremarkable really easily, and I just love watching her act. She's brilliant at it. I don't think during Gone With the Wind you're supposed to love Melanie Wilkes the most so...oops, I guess, but I can't help but love her. There's something about her face that is just so open and sweet. And did y'all know she's still alive?? Sister's 97! She was born in 1916!






Until Part Deux!