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© Linda McIntosh
ARCHIVAL FASHION ZINE PROFILING
CONTRARIAN HEROINES OF FASHION,
FILM AND ART.
RUN BY JESSICA ANN RICHARDSON
& GIRL GANG OF CONTRIBUTORS
marchioness > blog
Little Women (2019)
Urban Life
Under Greta Gerwig’s directorial vision, Amy, the oft-overlooked March sister rises to the fore in pursuit of her dreams and ambitions. Working with Gerwig to uncover this lost complexity, Florence Pugh charms us as a vivacious and determined heroine who holds her own alongside sister Jo in this newest adaption of the beloved March women.
Nocturnal Animals (2016)
Urban Life
Fashion designer turned film auteur, Tom Ford’s second feature film explores the past, present and conflicted inner world of LA Art dealer Susan Morrow. Amy Adams’ intricate performance varnishes this neo-noir with it’s devastating portrayal of youth’s unjaded buoyancy and regret’s silent torment.
Cruella (2021)
Urban Life
Whether you’re a fashion lover, Disney lover or you enjoy films that have a boss-bitch attitude throughout then take some advice…go and watch 'Cruella'. Full stop. As a fashion student, I have been so excited for the release of Craig Gillespie’s take on the villainess’ origin story played by Emma Stone, as I expected the costume design by Jenny Beavan to be impeccable. And it is. In the 1996 live-action 101 Dalmatians, we saw Glenn Close portray the supervillain Cruella as a cold, puppy-skinner fashion designer who loved fur and we all questioned how did she get like this? Who could hate puppies?!
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Urban Life
In late 18th century France, a female artist - Marianne, is summoned from the city to the stormy and isolated peninsula of Brittany to paint a portrait for a girl betrothed to a Milanese suitor. Unbeknownst to Marianne, this is the second time a painter has been summoned to depict the recalcitrant subject, and the second daughter of hers to be promised to the overseas gentleman.
Papicha (2019)
Urban Life
A woman’s right to self-expression and to be who she wants to be is something that’s so often overlooked by those who’ve only ever known this freedom. Mounia Meddour’s ‘Papicha’ explores ideas of ownership, censorship and religious fundamentalism, all while maintaining likeable and relatable characters to its viewers.
Pretty Persuasion (2005)
Urban Life
Marcos Siega’s Pretty Persuasion follows the vengeance of Kimberley Joyce, a precocious and manipulative high school student turned vindictive sex kitten, who accuses her English and Drama teacher of sexual harassment. A black-comedy at its core, the film takes no prisoners in amassing its great wreckage, ensuring that this Beverly Hills High school is a ritual of humiliation.
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
Urban Life
You may most recently remember Elizabeth Olsen as the leading lady of Marvel's Wanda Vision, a dazzling supernatural heroine who uses her powers to sustain a magically engineered world. In Martha Marcy May Marlene however, Olsen proffers to her audience a dejected and paranoid victim whose escape from a modern Manson-family styled cult is revealed one harrowing flashback at a time.
Sleeping Beauty (2011)
Urban Life
Australian writer Julia Leigh’s directorial debut comes in the form of a rather beguiling, hyper-explicit innovation of the childhood fairy tale we know and love. Starring the ethereal Emily Browning, this Sleeping Beauty elects to send herself to sleep so that strange and ailing men may indulge their repressed yearnings with her lifeless form.
Promising Young Woman (2021)
Urban Life
Promising Young Woman is a candy-coloured contemporary fever dream, full of unease and anger that broods beneath the bubblegum aesthetic. Cary Mulligan is a powerhouse as Cassie, whose destructive destiny is the unstoppable juggernaut driving the film. Everything is calculated as deception; from the good-girl day time fashion of florals and fluffy jumpers, to the night time femme fatale outfits, the audience is invited to question everything- the stereotypes she uses to enact her revenge, the motivations behind the revolving cast of characters that fall into her orbit, and the moral ambiguity of her relentless quest for revenge. Unsettling? Certainly. Iconic? Definitely.
Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)
Urban Life
Meet Rhodora Haze - Haze Gallery owner, Josephina - her protege turned rival and Morf Vandewalt - art critic/resident dandy, in this bizarre series of events that send glamour and snobbery to a cathartically undignified end. In ‘Velvet Buzzsaw’, high brow art, material opulence and moral poverty collide to indulge your fantasies of glamour and satisfy your need for graphic retribution.
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