{Like so? Photographic collage, 2008.}
I had gone into the department store with only the intention of purchasing a few small items needed. A little pot of this for the cheeks and a little pot of that for the eyes, and I ended up seated on a tall white seat near to a mirror. Artfully, bronzer was applied liberally to my temples and cheekbones and jaw line, drawing a figure three on my face in profile. As she blended and stroked my face with the brush, wielding it like a purple wand, I told her, when asked, that I favoured the Dadaists. She thought I was a very smiley person and I felt momentarily like Sally Hawkins in Happy Go Lucky minus those high-heeled boots that so enrage her driving instructor. It is funny hearing how other people see you, other people whom you’ve only just met. From my wallet with its zip that runs around three of its four square sides, she deemed me a neat person.
Such encounters thrill me for they are wholly unexpected. I left with my intended purchases and a gently sun-kissed complexion. Sound and complimentary parting advice received: those with blue eyes should wear a little pink blush on their cheeks in order to enhance the colour of their eyes. Advice I shall implement.
+ Another film I have rented recently on dvd, the beautiful Since Otar Left (a first feature by French director Julie Bertuccelli) set in the city of Tbilisi, Georgia. Three women, Eka (grandmother), Marina (mother) and Ada (daughter), live in one apartment, surrounded by leather-bound volumes of Rousseau and letters received from France from Eka’s son, Otar; it is a film about maternal love, loss and deception, and the music throughout is wonderful.
What have you seen of late, film or otherwise?
