Fabian Perez Artist

'It's been thirty years that my wheels travelled on a sandy road. In my tracks, I've left things behind, and lost many others. As the wheels turn I can see a road ahead that will take me on many new experiences.' ~ Fabian Perez 'Reflections of a Dream'

* Fabian Perez was born November 2, 1967 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As a teenager he was fascinated with martial arts and fine arts. Therefore, he dedicated himself to study both disciplines. Karate helped influence his character giving him great discipline as well as opening him up to other forms of art. Much of what he learned through his Eastern studies influenced his paintings. He left Argentina when he was 22 to live in Italy, where he resided for seven years. It is there that his career in painting and writing took an ascendant journey. It is also in Italy where he was inspired to write his book 'Reflections of a Dream', which was published later in the United States. He then went to Japan where he lived for one year. While there he painted 'The Japanese Flag' and 'A Meditating Man' which are on display in a government house. He left Japan to go to Los Angeles where he devotes his life to inspire others with his paintings and writings. His style is unique... he wishes not to be categorized... he feels this limits the artist as well as the work. The bold and symbolic imagery feels intensely passionate. Fabian paints with his emotions and each painting reflects his drive and energy.

© Frank Borsellino™
© From Where I Sit™
writer/blogger/bon vivant

* Fabian Perez Artist - self-portrait '1967

'To Catch a Thief' (1955)

'I have a feeling that inside you somewhere, there's somebody nobody knows about.' ~ Alfred Hitchcock

In his fourth colour feature and his first widescreen 'To Catch a Thief' (1955) is rarely considered one of Hitchcock's top masterpieces. Yet, its picturesque locale, phenomenal star pairing of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, as well as its exquisite production design, and glamourous costume design – the latter orchestrated to perfection by the legendary Edith Head – make 'To Catch a Thief' a rare delight. A feast for the eyes, without Hitchcock's patented perversion or twisted psychosexual leanings (although truly, that's why we love him, don't we?), 'To Catch a Thief' is a stylish mid-century romp through the bistros, beaches, and rooftops of the French Riviera. A rare murder-free thriller (which isn't to say there is not a dead body or two), it proves some of Hitchcock's strengths in comic timing, as well as the superior craftsmanship of his collaborators (Edith Head, cinematographer Robert Burks, and Art Directors J. McMillan Johnson and Hal Pereira). Nominated for Oscars in Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design (Edith Head would win for her costumes), it is one of Hitchcock's best-looking films.
Cary Grant plays John Robie – a supposedly reformed jewel thief known as 'The Cat'. Living in the French Riviera, Robie, who hasn't committed a crime in fifteen years, is questioned by police after a series of jewel heists – remarkably similar to The Cat's M.O. – are committed at a hotel. An insurance adjuster, worried at the vast payouts he'll have to dole out if the thief isn't caught, enlists Robie to help catch the copy-cat burglar. Clients of the adjuster are the heavily bejewelled mother/daughter duo, the Stevens, guests at an illustrious Cannes hotel. Smitten with Robie, the daughter Frances (Grace Kelly) aggressively pursues him, as does the teenage daughter of his former accomplice Danielle (Brigitte Auber), all the while the cat burglar sets Robie up for a fall.

At age fifty-one, Grant had been retired from acting for two years when Hitchcock persuaded the thespian to once again collaborate with him. He had previously starred in Hitchcock's 'Suspicion' (1941), playing a cad of a husband suspected of plotting his wife's death, and in 'Notorious' (1945), playing a cad of a lover who enables his paramour to be murdered by her husband (the 1940s were quite a time for marriages and affairs), and he would of course go on to star in Hitchcock's masterpiece 'North by Northwest' (1959) – apparently retirement didn't take. Tanned, as would be appropriate for a Riviera-dweller, fit, and still as handsome as the day he debuted in 'This is the Night' (1932) nearly twenty-five years prior, Grant was at the top of his game and one of the most recognized male stars Hollywood had ever known. No wonder Hitchcock wanted him for his roguish burglar. Pairing him with the director's most coveted starlet, Grace Kelly, the director created a dynamic on-screen pairing, even if the age difference between the 50+ Grant and twenty-four-year-old Kelly did raise some eyebrows. Kelly was Hitchcock's ultimate blonde, having only appeared in seven films at the time of production – two of which were Hitchcock predecessors 'Dial M for Murder' & 'Rear Window' both in 1954. Her true blueblood origins perfectly suited the character of a wealthy American heiress. Rounding out the cast was twenty-six-year-old French ingénue Brigitte Auber, who Hitchcock personally selected after seeing her in a number of French productions. Auber plays Robie's former accomplice's daughter – a rambunctious spitfire out to ensnare the cat in her romantic exploits, despite Frances' designs on him.

Filmed on location amidst the Côte d'Azur's Mediterranean beauty, 'To Catch a Thief' made great use of Paramount's newly-minted VistaVision process. A rival to CinemaScope and exclusive to Paramount, VistaVision oriented the 35mm film vertically, rather than horizontally, allowing for a higher resolution image, much like the recently resurrected 70mm process. And while Hitchcock was skeptical of widescreen's true value (assuming it a gimmick like the 3D he used in Dial M for Murder), he and cinematographer Robert Burks nonetheless made incredible use of it by filming elaborate car chase scenes along the cliffs and vineyards of the Riviera from a helicopter – something that in 1955 had rarely been attempted and required careful customization of the vehicle and camera to make possible.

'To Catch a Thief' also rendered colour in a remarkable way. A film concerned with fine jewels, it is bathed in emerald green lighting for the film's twilight sequences, including its rooftop climax of dueling cat burglars. It's an element of style that would be used three years later for 'Vertigo' and its encroaching green fog of jealousy and obsession. Throughout 'To Catch a Thief', jewel tones predominate, whether the green lighting, the sapphire blues of the sea, or Frances' gold lamé ball gown – worn for the film's final act. Like the Technicolor epics to soon follow, each hue was meticulously thought out and utilized to subtly to tell the story – nowhere is this truer than with the costumes designed by Head and worn exquisitely by Kelly.

'To Catch a Thief' was Head's third collaboration with Hitchcock – having previously designed costumes for Grant and Ingrid Bergman in 'Notorious' and for Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly in 'Rear Window'. They would collaborate on another eight films for a total of eleven. Head was, and still is, the most awarded costume designer in the history of film, with an astounding thirty-five Oscar nominations and eight wins, which also makes her the most anointed woman in Oscar history. In 1955, she would win for 'Sabrina' starring Audrey Hepburn and a year later, she achieved Oscar gold again, winning for 'To Catch a Thief'.

Edith Head always claimed, when asked in interviews (and she was invariably always asked), that Kelly was her favorite star to work with, and one can see why when you look at the dresses in 'To Catch a Thief'. From Frances' swimsuits (which Hitchcock insisted be one-pieces and not those cheap new-fangled bikinis sweeping the beaches of France), to her chiffon evening gowns, to her ostentatious, but oh-so-fun 18th-century inspired ball gown, Kelly and Head's collaboration was movie magic. Indeed, some of Head's most recognized pieces are in 'To Catch a Thief'. While glamour was key Head was keen, as was Hitchcock, to tell the story of the film through costumes, rather than thinking of the costumes as mere decoration to an elaborate, high budget production. Tracing the transition in colors of Frances' costumes, from the whites and ice blues she wears in her more shrewish phase, to the brilliant gold of her lamé gown in the film's climax, there is a transformation in her character illustrated via colour – from cool and calculating, to warm and in love. Head, like Hitchcock, was never one to miss a beat, rather within all that glamour is a calculated storytelling technique.

From its costumes, to its breathtaking cinematography, to the beauty of its environs, 'To Catch a Thief' is a jewel in Hitchcock's crown. And while it may not be revolutionary in its filmmaking – like 'Psycho' (1960) or 'Vertigo' (1958) – it is, nevertheless, an important entry in Hitchcock's much-studied and admired filmography. With its use of colour, widescreen, and design, it served as a testing ground to the epics he was about to embark on. The perfect rainy-day film, it shouldn't be thought of as Hitchcock-lite as many critics and historians have suggested, but rather, a nice, light appetizer (French-inspired) to a much heavier, calorie-rich main course soon to arrive on the table.


© Frank Borsellino™
© From Where I Sit™
July 31, 2018

* '1955 Sunbeam Alpine Series III Roadster

'Cinema Paradiso' @ 30 Years

'I'm not young enough to know everything.' ~ J.M. Barrie

It is now 30 years since 'Cinema Paradiso', one of the most internationally acclaimed films in modern Italian cinema, was released.
Giuseppe Tornatore was just 32 when he made Cinema Paradiso, his second feature. The film flopped initially. But a new cut, released in 1990, propelled it to awards success in the shape of an Oscar for best foreign language film and a clutch of Baftas, cementing Tornatore's reputation as a director of note. For many, it remains his best picture, though personally I'd struggle to choose between 'Cinema Paradiso' and 'Malèna' (2000), his emotional film featuring Monica Bellucci as a vulnerable widow in wartime Sicily, whose descent into prostitution is observed by a group of adolescent boys.
It's no accident that Cinema Paradiso's nostalgic celebration of the power of great film-making, and of cinema as a communal experience, so captured audiences' imaginations. It came at a time when home video was leaving live cinema in the doldrums, with many film theatres falling derelict across Europe and North America: the present-day demolition of the Nuovo Cinema Paradiso to make way for a municipal car-park is one of the film's most powerful scenes.
The film's overall tone, too, is elegiac: it must have been easy, when 'Cinema Paradiso' first came out, to see it as a swansong for movie-going – to imagine that, in a few years' time, no local cinema would again have the same ability to bring together an isolated rural community, opening a window into other worlds.
Three decades later, we know that such worries were more or less unfounded: cinema-going is still alive and well, despite the triple-headed threat of DVD, Blu-ray and the internet, and many small independent cinemas are thriving. But for Cascio, and for the film's many fans, its message remains very relevant.

'Cinema Paradiso is about the power of dreams. In the film, we see the people go to the cinema to dream: by watching great movies, they forget all their problems. In becoming a great film director, Totò achieves his own personal dream, too. In today's world, with this crisis that we're all experiencing both in politics and in society, the film reminds us that we can, and must, keep on dreaming.' ~ Salvatore Cascio

© From Where I Sit™
www.fromwhereisit.co
writer/blogger/bon vivant
July 12, 2018

* Salvatore Cascio & Philippe Noiret - 'Cinema Paradiso' (1988)

Monte Carlo @ Le Bijoux

'During sex, people are often way too focused on giving or taking to actually just celebrate this moment, be themselves completely, and rejoice in their own realities.' ~ Roberto Hogue

'Monte Carlo', was a private club downstairs at 'Le Bijoux', which was in itself an a premier jazz bar/restaurant. Membership cards to 'Monte Carlo' were these heavy, rectangular, gold-plated plaques, the size of a lighter, another one of Liz Swann's clients. Liz was a Marketing Guru, and she was responsible for the launch of this new hotspot. Her duties included marketing, advertising, filling the place up with celebrities and captains of industries. Anything and everything that would put this place on the proverbial social map, of course, due to our recent rapprochement, I received such a membership. The criteria, was only for millionaire friends of the owner, who was a famous old-time impresario of the arts and the club scene, since way back in the sixties. He had the hippest, sharpest and coolest clubs and restaurants in Old Montreal. One of these was called 'Le Bijoux'. In the film 'Once Upon a Time in America' (1984), there is a scene inside the restaurant, and in the Bruce Willis movie 'The Whole Nine Yards' (2000), there are actually several scenes, filmed inside a jazz club, that's the one. Well, 'Monte Carlo' was downstairs.
I recall, the first time I went, it was a couple of days after the opening. I never go to
openings, too much fanfare and attention on who is coming and going, in my world, it wasn't germane. Anyway, when I was lead to the bar, in the back (if you pay attention, I always end-up in the back of bars, that's where the real VIPs were, with the ladies). To my right, I notice a very prominent politician and philanthropist, who happens to be an old family friend and some other gentlemen I don't know, seated with some beautiful nubiles who don't look like their wives. I turned the cheek and head to the bathroom, hoping he did not see me. It would be awkward for him and me.

On my way I see seated in this tiny phone booth, the club had set up in a sort of alcove,
adjacent to the ladies' room, Liz. As I crossed her path, she hung up the phone and dropped her long, slender, incredibly sculpted leg out and blocked my passage, it was a tiny and dark area. As I followed that long, luscious limb to see where the Yellow Brick Road stopped and Heaven started, I saw her gorgeous lips, cheekbones and inviting eyes. I gave her a beguiling smile and dropping my eyes back down to her slightly spread thighs, now further opened, I had to blink twice because it seemed as though her bloom was glistening bare for my eyes to see.

I discreetly looked again and though dark, my vision adjusted, her female alcove was now slightly gaping and clearly moistened with anticipation of my reaction. This is one of those moments where you determine your path... I had to make a quick decision. Her message was clear, I had longed dreamed of taking a woman so passionately and covertly in public view... in such a rapid motion that it would undermine her plans and bring out the animal passion that she had planned to give up on her terms. Certain, that her hungry eyes were inviting me, I grabbed her hips and hoisted her onto the back wall of the booth. In no time I had freed my throbbing member and rammed it as far as I could into her slickened, silk flower. It rode in faster than a Porsche on the Autobahn and we were off to the mesosphere. She cried out in such sheer, unbridled lust and ecstasy that I had to cover her mouth so that patrons would not be directing their stare towards us. Her beautiful eyes dilated and drugged with pleasure were locked onto mine, as I continued hard and methodically thrusting as I evoked deep throat cries of gratification from her slightly parted full lips.

I felt her melt into me, her slender body, tight against me while I am pinning her against the wall I could feel a heart beating hard and fast as her breath was gasping to keep up, her musky smell intoxicated me as did the taste of her mouth and skin, her body trembling uncontrollably, her long legs wrapping tighter around me, she returned it back at me in a rhythmic fashion, her hungry and aggressive flesh for my manhood, possibly the best sex I ever had. I knew she couldn't last much longer, nor could I. Her lips quivered as I kissed her hard, caressing and pinching her mammillas through her sheer lace bra. I easily unhooked it from the front and her perfectly formed breasts sprang free, my mouth watered with wanting to suck those swollen little Hershey's Kisses. Finally, as I am slamming her with my turgid member, we both enjoyed wave after wave of pure bliss. I couldn't believe she would put herself in this completely exposed position, if someone were to round the corner, they would see a palpably compelling man with a beauty unashamedly with skirt up above her hips, and pantieless. The musky smell of her desire, which was soaking my sex by now, and the vision of a woman on the verge of the most powerful orgasm she was to attain in her life, these thoughts helped me hold out for just the time I needed.

She was now hovering on the brink, amazingly she was trying to hold back from coming to prolong the pleasure but she was losing the battle rather quickly, her deep moans started to become louder and faster, her trembling dissolved into uncontrollable jerking as her pudenda grabbed and quivered around every inch of my shaft, I was hazy with pleasure I'd never known quite like this, presently and I felt it begin to grab my aching phallus with faster rhythm, suddenly her body stiffened, her rock hard teats thrust upon my chest as her back arched, her vagina grinding into my groin, my hands now balancing her shapely buttocks as she let out one final cry of surrender and came over and over until she went limp in my arms, it was then that I finally shot my load into her, long and hot juices commingled as I spent myself fully with deep satisfaction. I leaned into her as we were wrapped in the ecstasy and exhaustion of mindblowing sex.

The moment I came back to Earth, and my senses fully recovered, I thought fast, we had gotten away with much; I slid her skirt down and urged her into the ladies room. As I watched her well-toned derrière mounted on now trembling legs that barely got her through the door, a wet spot soaked her skirt, I sighed with relief, incredible, unbelievable, I too hastened to the men's room and emerged a few minutes later glowing, relaxed and returned to my table.

Though a good man never tells, one of my friends inquired,

"What held you up?"

Jokingly I answered, "A mad passionate woman was determined to have her way with me right then and there and I didn't want to be rude."

The table of friends roared with appreciation of a good comeback. Come back, yes, she would definitely have to come back, again and again. What had just transpired was only the beginning. I swilled my wine and privately toasted my good fortune.


* FINE *


* excerpt from 'Finnegan's Journey' by © Frank Borsellino™