Living in a classic movie world
July 02, 2016
Last year (almost exactly a year ago, actually!) Raquel did a series of posts on her classic film collections and I've been meaning to share my own collections ever since. I always have "one more thing" that I want to buy, or something I need to hang up, or a collection I want to organize. Today I finally decided to stop putting it off and snap some photos!
This post is focused on how I've decorated my space to reflect my love of classic film. I want to do a follow-up post that concentrates more on individual items that are special to me. I have a lot of movie memorabilia tucked away in storage because I have too much to display in one tiny room. Hopefully it won't take me a year to get around to that post! ;)
First and foremost -- movie posters! I have way more posters than I have room (including one 81" x 81" Any Number Can Win poster that I *will* find a spot for, someday!) so right now I'm only displaying a handful of my favorites. I love the Fred and Ginger poster above my bed, it's one of the few pieces of decor that has been a staple in my room for 5+ years.
And I had my eye on this poster of The Bride Wore Black for ages. I'm actually not sure which I love more -- the beautiful poster art or the movie itself!
I got this L'avventura poster from Criterion and found a spray paint color that matched the poster perfectly. The purple art of Jeanne Moreau (again from The Bride Wore Black) was painted by me. Next to it is a small German advertisement for Purple Noon that was a Christmas present from my dad. Above that is a small wood-block print of Bette Davis from Dark Victory.
I got this French Bride of Frankenstein poster last October. I had fully intended on this spot becoming a rotating display of seasonal movie posters (Easter Parade in March/April... Christmas in Connecticut in December, etc.) but once this one went up, I knew it was permanent. I can't imagine my room without it now! Up in the left corner is a Young and Innocent poster that I printed myself after purchasing some download credits at Cinematerial. I've never been able to find a good poster for this movie (and it's in my top 4 films) so I was pretty tickled to finally have it represented on my walls!
Aside from movie posters, the other major way I display my love of film is with 8x10 stills. I have a bit of a weakness (some might say obsession) with buying 8x10 stills. In Hollywood I was looking forward to browsing the still collection at Larry Edmunds almost as much as I was excited about TCMFF itself! I have a small fraction of them displayed across the ductwork in the middle of my room, over my bed, and over my windows. The rest are categorized by movie in protective sleeves (something I'll be sharing when I do that detailed collection post later!)
I don't like hanging up frames with glass in general, and especially not when me or my cats might be walking underneath said frames. So for this project I bought a bunch of cheap 8x10 frames at the dollar store and then cut down plastic sheets to 8x10 to replace the glass. This way my prints are still protected but I don't have to worry about falling glass.
I also love buying artwork that ties in to my favorite films (or just film in general) This painting of the Alien xenomorph hanging out with cats is just too good. I'm also dead-set on getting a print of this Breathless painting before they sell out.
I got the print of the movie theater years ago at a craft fair (the movie on the marquee is The Time Machine with Rod Taylor!) and that Charles Boyer drawing is a vintage wax transfer that says "I go for Charles Boyer" underneath. I die!
I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that I also make classic movie artwork (it's actually why I started this blog seven years ago) including the Charlie Chaplin print with a quote by Francois Truffaut. My classic film art (and jewelry/accessories) is all available here.
This is probably my favorite cheeky way of displaying my love of movies. I have a collection of family photos framed in embroidery hoops on one of my walls, and I snuck in a photo of Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Belmondo from The Mississippi Mermaid. (It's not in the photo but I also have Jim and Pam's wedding photo from The Office)
I added a little display shelf to my record unit, and I use it to display movie soundtracks! Modesty Blaise is one of my all time favorites (the music and the cover) but I usually alternate between this, Doctor Zhivago, La Piscine and Borsalino. Even if you don't have a record player, a lot of the covers for soundtracks are really nice and (at least in my area) old movie soundtracks tend to be $1 at the record store, or even 50 cents at Goodwill!
This is where I keep my collection of classic film books, and the black binders contain all of the dvds that I recorded from television (1,123 discs containing 2,317 movies!)
A closer look at some of my books. I tried to organize them slightly -- Truffaut books are grouped together and Alain Delon books are grouped together because I have so many on them. Then it's grouped by photo books, biographies, movie theory, French New Wave, and movie tie-in books.
A sampling of my movie tie-in collection! This is one of my absolute favorite things to collect. They're usually not terribly expensive, they don't take up much room, and I always feel like a bit of a treasure-hunter when I manage to find one by accident!
Can you even call yourself a classic film fan if you don't have at least a small collection of dvds scattered about somewhere in your room? Most of my collection is contained in those black binders I mentioned above, so my commercial disc collection isn't too sprawling. But I have run out of room in my towers and resorted to just stacking things on this little side table until I come up with a more permanent solution.
Recent/upcoming watches along with a stack of dvds that I need to put away in my binders... sorry to anyone who cringes when they see a dvd laying out without protection. I'm sorryyyyyy! Also please note Alain Delon peeking out over my dvds in the background. It's a movie poster for Joy House.
Funko tends to release mostly comic book and television characters (which is what most of my vinyl figure collection is comprised of) but every so often they produce movie characters like Willy Wonka (and an Oompa Loompa!) or the Xenomorph from Alien. They also make Wacky Wobblers (pop culture bobble-heads) and I have my eyes set on the Hitchcock one.
I'm obviously not one for subtlety when it comes to... well... anything. My room looks like a crayon box threw up on it and if you were wondering what sort of things I like, a glance at the walls would answer that question pretty quickly. That being said, I do actually enjoy coming up with some subtle nods to my favorite movies in addition to plastering their posters around my room.
This bouquet of yellow daffodils is a reference to Doctor Zhivago. I've had a bundle of yellow flowers in my room for a few years, but it wasn't until I read the BFI book on Doctor Zhivago last December that I found out the exact flowers used in the movie (specifically the dissolve from the frost on the window to the yellow flowers to Lara's face before she and Yuri are reunited.)
I've wanted a red phone (even though I have no landline and probably will never get one now that cell phones exist) ever since I saw it sitting on the bench in Cliff Robertson's apartment in Sunday in New York (you can see it in this post.) This one happened to go on sale while I had some modcloth store credit so I snatched it up immediately! It serves no function other than to remind me of Sunday in New York, but I think that's even more important than the normal function of a telephone (who needs connection to the outside world when you have movies??)
Last but not least -- TCMFF memorabilia! Most of the things I've purchased are either small (magnets/pins) or not really display-able (pens, chocolate bars) so I've made sure that this bag I managed to snag at the festival this year is on display all year long. And it's actually functional as decor -- it's filled with notepads, watercolor paints and palettes!
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4 comments:
You have quite the collection going there, impressive! I see you picked up the new Criterion edition of "Here Comes Mr. Jordan". I just love that film and glad it was given the Criterion treatment. Robert Montgomery is perfect as Joe Pendelton, but James Gleason gives my favorite performance in the film as Corkel.
I love your tie-in paperback collection! Also, Modesty Blaise is an amazing soundtrack. I never get tired of it.
WOW! Your room is a veritable haven for a classic-movie afficianado. I am agog. It's so cute, so crammed, so functional -- it's making me think of the marvelous, teensy apartment in The American in Paris (it's possibly my favorite thing in the whole film). Thanks for the tour!
PS You mentioned Hitchcock, and a friend of mine just announced she'll be hosting a Hitchcock blogathon next month, so I thought you might be interested. Go to her blog if you are :-)
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