Yes, this year they were a bit “blah” and over-managed but the Oscars are the Oscars. If you love movies and all the fanfare that goes with them then, love them or hate them, you can’t miss the Oscars. For awhile, I couldn’t get ABC and so started a sensual tradition of a simple but wonderful girlfriend getaway that I continue to this day. Oscar night, another movie-loving friend or sister and I rent a room at the Hilton, order up room service and celebrate along with the stars. We start the evening off by catching up on an Oscar nominee that we haven’t seen (this year “Precious”–we try and watch as many as we can before the Big Night), then we watch Barbara Walter’s special (goodbye, Barbara!) and then we order dinner in time for the red carpet. In the morning, we catch up on all the post-Oscar complaints, behind-the-scene stories, and accolades in USA Today while we have breakfast in bed. Then we take the morning to get back on track, working out in the gym, going for a swim and finishing off with the hot tub. It ends up being about $100/person and it is worth every penny. A time to catch up with girlfriends or a favorite sister, a time to splurge and spoil yourself a little while you take a break from the every day, a time to share your love of movies and celebrate the glitz and glamor–but this kind of getaway could be extended to any event or non-event. Take some time for yourself and a friend and enjoy the sensual in your own way. As a friend told me, “This is one of your more fabulous ideas!”
PS And just a quick note on what was sensual about the Oscars–Lauren Bacall winning a lifetime achievement award–that is one speech they should have spent some time actually airing in entirety–she is Hot!
March 10th, 2010 in Uncategorized by Francesca | Comments (0) »
A girlfriend told me she was planning to buy tickets for the movie theater HD satellite showing of “Carmen” at the MET and take her husband to the show as a secret destination for a date night. They had seen the posters of voluptuous Elina Garanca playing the seductive gypsy and discussed how fun it might be to go. I thought it was a fantastic idea for a sensuous evening to share with a husband or boyfriend.
Think you hate the opera? Think again. I myself was slightly skeptical when my mother-in-law invited me to see HD version of “Three Tales of Hoffman” at the local movie theater, especially as, upon arrival, I appeared to be one of the few people without gray hair in the audience. From the little experience I have with opera, I know it could go both ways for me—“Madame Butterfly” seemed painfully endless to me but I loved the fun of “Marriage of Figaro” and the fantastical drama of “Faust.” After only a few moments into “Three Tales of Hoffman,” I was swept away and, if you have any love for theater, you will be too by opera on the screen.
The “live” version is just that. One moment you are walking through the popcorn fumes of the movie lobby and the next you are listening to the orchestra warm up at the MET and people watching the wonderful variety of New York opera lovers (do these people know they are on camera?!). You can feel the magic and anticipation in the air. Then the opera begins and you have a front row seat to all the fabulous costumes, drama and connection between the singers even to the single teardrop that falls from the soprano’s eyes when she lies dying. And at intermission, there are interviews with the performers the moment they come dashing breathlessly off the stage just having sung their hearts out. Meet the director who won a Tony for his production of South Pacific and hear his reasons for how he staged the opera. Meet the costume designers and see their fantastic creations up close. Meet the personalities with the amazing voices–divas indeed–who amaze you in that they come from all different countries, sing in languages that are not their own and talk about it with excited passion in English. Watch the stagehands set up the next scene and, finally, hear the stage manager direct the “maestro to the pit.” It is very “live” indeed.
Think you hate opera? Think again. Think Cher–tears streaming down her face–and Nicolas Cage–taking her hand–in Moonstruck when their characters Loretta and Ronny have their first date at the MET at a performance of “La Boheme!” Choose the opera you go to carefully for theme (”Tales of Hoffman” was wonderfully sexy and romantic) and perhaps familiarity (yes, you know more opera than you imagine) but go, take a date and try it. You may just discover a completely wonderful sensual experience that will stay with you long after the singing is over.
January 14th, 2010 in Opera by Francesca | Comments (0) »
Earlier in a blog posting, I mentioned a romantic sensual scene between Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney in Out of Site where they have “a moment” in a deserted bar while fat snowflakes fall outside their window and sleepy, jazzy music plays. Today we are up to two feet in a snowstorm and I can’t think of a more sensual setting. If it is going to be cold, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. We braved the roads to drive out to some girlfriends’ house in the country and snuggled in to eat good food drink wine and talk the night away. In the morning, we snowshoed out onto the frozen, snow-buried pond and then came back to put wood on the fire and have warm soup for lunch. A barn owl flew up into the trees weighed down in snow and kept us entranced until it flew off into the dark, snow-heavy woods. What a wonderful time. And if you are lucky enough to be with someone you love and make love late in the night with the room still warm from the fire and the blanket of snow all around your cozy home…well, someone needs to capture that sensual scene in a movie. Let me know if you know of one!
January 3rd, 2010 in Sensuality Talk by Francesca | Comments (0) »
I went to see “It’s Complicated” with Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin tonight. I sat in the back row of the theater with a girlfriend and laughed hysterically. Not a great movie but a lot of fun with some great comic acting on the part of Alec Baldwin. Santa Barbara, California looked oh so beautiful in the opening shots. Meryl Streep was her usual competent self but Alec Baldwin was all too winning as the overweight bad boy husband who you end up adoring anyway. He is definitely not shy about exposing his big belly-ed body which makes him all the more winning. Not a sensual movie but it is always a warmly sensual experience to go to a romantic film with a girlfriend and laugh together at the same things. And, yes, it is nice to see the mom of three who can cook up a storm end up being more attractive than the flat-bellied twenty-something.
December 30th, 2009 in Movies by Francesca | Comments (0) »
There was a little bit of Barefoot Aphrodite reviewer resistance to having to watch an entire series for the web site, the one series that we feature, Pride and Prejudice, but it is hard to exclude such a perfect example (my pick, mind you) of a sensual film for women. We may attempt another series down the line but for now, we will have to make do with some honorable mentions in the blog. My choice would be the entire “Sex and the City” series which I think I have mentioned earlier here–not for the sex and men so much as the “girlfriend” energy between the characters themselves and between them and the audience as you grow to know and love them. Teresa would choose “Nip and Tuck,” the entire series. A newer one that was discovered by Barbara is “Reckless” and here is her opinion:
I don’t know how many Francescca Annis fans there are out there, but I am one. I first saw her when she was really young in the series Lillie, based on The Prince and the Lily, the story of Edward, the Prince of Wales and his long lasting love affair with Lillie Langtry. The next time I saw Francesca Annis was as an older but still very attractive woman when she played the rather scary mother in the series Wives and Daughters. Later I saw her as a much older woman in the new version of Jane Eyre and a very old woman in Cranston. I was therefore delighted to come upon her again in a wonderful little series called RECKLESS. In this series, Annis is sublime. She has hit her stride as a woman in her forties who finds herself betrayed by her husband and madly pursued by a much younger man. Annis is absolutely gorgeous in this role. The whole cast is great, and the series well worth watching, but she is definitely the star. She carries the show beautifully.
Let us know if you have your own favorite!
December 2nd, 2009 in Movies by Francesca | Comments (0) »
I just went to see “Coco Before Chanel” last night. Was it sensual? Oh, yes! And French films don’t feature heavily in the Barefoot Aphrodite sensual films for women archives or as much as you would expect. I lived in France and find the language beautiful (although not as sensual as Italian!) but always have found French films in general to be a little cold and cerebral. Coco Before Chanel has an element of that but mostly because, as portrayed in the movie, in Coco’s time wealthy men used women and ran the show and a woman who wanted to be independent had to be cold and calculating.
Coco tries her hardest to be cold and calculating and as uncaring as men and succeeds to some degree but there is always a sense that a warm, passionate, joyful woman is captured inside a body born into the wrong era. The best visual of this is when Coco goes horse riding for the first time and hoists her skirts so she can straddle the horse and then arrives home breathing heavily and undoing all the constraints of a woman’s typically binding clothing. And, of course, when she falls in love and believes it is returned, her face and body suddenly show all the warmth and feeling she is capable of. And then there is the parade of Coco creations with a sudden burst of color (originally only black is acceptable) and passion as a reflection of all she will not be able to express otherwise.
Audrey Tautou is incredible and shows a depth of character way beyond her “Amelie” days. She carries the film but I was also very touched by the performance of Benoit Poelvoorde who is intrigued by Coco, takes her on as a mistress and then falls hard for her. More than the handsome lover, I felt his love and need for Coco and my heart ached for him.
Sometimes a cosy livingroom couch is a better venue for a sensual film but run out and see Coco while you can–she lived large and her life is better seen on the big screen!
November 19th, 2009 in Movies by Francesca | Comments (1) »
Secret confession–I LOVE “So You Think You Can Dance.” Almost more than I love movies. I love the contemporary dance love stories. I love the tango and salsa. I love when the judges are so moved they cry. Shouldn’t there be more movies that flaunt the sensuality of song and dance in the Barefoot Aphrodite sensual movie archives? Our top reviewer pick, The Piano, embraces the music with the rapturous love affair of Ada with her piano that then translates into her sexual passion with Baines. There is a beautiful dance sequence (surprise, with Holly Hunter again) in Living Out Loud where the heroine expresses her full embrace of her life and who she is. And then more obvious movies like Shall We Dance (ah, the instructions from J-Lo to Richard Gere on how to win the dance contest…) but it seems like there should be more. A lot more. It just seems like dance is what it’s all about and you need the music to get there…
November 17th, 2009 in Movies by Francesca | Comments (0) »
For me, this blog is the most unsensual part of the site. Yes, it offers the potentional for a wealth of information and thoughts about sensual films for women but it means I need to sit down in front of a computer and spend some time with a screen and a keyboard. Now that I think of it, there is probably the potential to make even that experience sensual with music, scents or just a general awareness of what is around me.
This morning I had the pleasure of sharing the site through e-mails from visitors. One person noted that the Sensuality Test is not working–the fix is in the works as I write! It’s worth taking if you haven’t yet. Another visitor resuggested the movie “House of Sand” (or, much more sensually, “Casa de Areja”) which I wrote about awhile ago on the blog. I have decided to make it a “Visitor’s Pick” and have the team of reviewers watch it so look for it in the future. It reminded me that another woman who has regular Barefoot Aphrodite movie nights with a group of friends recommended the movie “Bread and Tulips.” Again, look for it as a future Visitor’s Pick.
So this morning the blog has been a little more of a sensual experience just because I had the opportunity to share it with some real women out there. Please keep writing and suggesting films and adding comments to the discussion!
November 11th, 2009 in Sensuality Talk, Movies by Francesca | Comments (0) »
I watched “Away We Go” the other night. It was pay-per-view and my husband and I were looking for something we could both enjoy that was not too serious but not too fluffy either and a friend had recommended it. A perfect choice. It was very funny but it also had some very touching moments and a glowy, feel-good ending.
Something I keep coming back to in my mind is the lead actress, Maya Rudolph, who I know mostly from Saturday Night Live. I can’t watch a film without asking myself if it qualifies as a sensual movie for women and should be selected for the Barefoot Aphrodite site. While this movie had it’s moments (it’s loving one or two shot summaries of the beauty of each place the couple visited, the love between the main couple, the dance of pain by the wife who has miscarried five times), it didn’t have enough depth for me to feel that it was really sensual overall. But something about Maya Rudolph’s eyes and her strength of character really connected with me. She was beautiful in a very natural way but also very beautiful in spirit in the way she loved her husband, sat by a child’s bed and sang her to sleep, let herself be held by her sister and moved to tears by memories of her parents. I could really feel her internal struggle throughout the whole film to figure out how to bring a baby into the world and how to find a place where she and her family would fit in. She really was quite lovely.
Another surprise sensual woman (for me anyway) that comes to mind as I write this is Jennifer Lopez. She shows up in two Barefoot Aphrodite picks: Out of Sight and Shall We Dance. Julia Child is not on the site but she would quaify for sure. Maude in Harold and Maude, Holly Hunter in The Piano…Actually, maybe it should not be a surprise after all. A woman who is who she is with no apologies…that’s sensual.
November 5th, 2009 in Movies by Francesca | Comments (0) »
Yesterday, our nieghbors had a dessert party and I spent most of the afternoon in the kitchen baking an Apple-Cider Caramel Cake while listening to Bob Dylan and Lucinda Williams. It was a rainy gray fall day outside and it was all cosy in the kitchen with the smell of hot cider and the warm kitchen light. In the context of this site, it reminds me of how sensual it is for women to be in the kitchen cooking but how even more sensual it is to meet a man who is comfortable in the kitchen as well. I remember a young French student impeccably dressed flinging pans around in the kitchen with ease at a school party and how sexy that was. In movies, I can think of many examples of men who are at ease and sensually present in the kitchen or with food. Imagine the the gnocchi rolling scene with Andy Garcia and Sofia Coppola in Godfather III or the blindfolded taste test scene in Mostly Martha where the character of Mario feeds a blindfolded Martha soup. Those are just two that immediately come to mind and I am sure there are many more. Any suggestions of other sensual food scenes with men in the kitchen?
October 10th, 2009 in Movies by Francesca | Comments (0) »
