"Bond, Shaken Not Stirred" At ACMI

Last night I left work and raced to the City.  The "Bond, Shaken not Stirred" event at ACMI  started at 6pm.  The free event was being held as part of the Hollywood Costume exhibition.  Unfortunately my wife couldn't make it though.

I managed to get a great (free) park and walked/ran to Fed Square, snapping these photos as I went.

I entered the building, asked one of the staff at Information where the event was, and then took the escalator downstairs.  As I arrived the first speaker, Lindsay Horner, was already discussing the title credits to "Dr No" so I trust I didn't miss much.

Lindsay obviously had a love of film and talked about how difficult it was to create film titles back in the 60's (prior to computers), the influence of Saul Bass, the use of women and silhouettes, "Casino Royale" as the first completely animated title sequence, and rotorscoping and motion controlled cameras on the "Quantum Of Solace" title credits (Lindsay commented these titles were the pinnacle and he could watch them all day).

End of "Dr No" gunbarrel - title sequence designed by Maurice Binder.

"From Russia With Love" - title sequence designed by Robert Brownjoh.

 "Thunderball" (from memory) - again designed by Maurice Binder.

 

"Casino Royale" - title sequence designed by Daniel Kleinman.

During the first intermission they played the short film "Designing Bond" featuring Lindy Hemming (costume designer for all four Pierce Brosnan Bond films) and Ken Adam (easily the most famous Bond set designer).

Then the next speaker was Dave Kerr who runs a bar and spends his day/night making drinks for lucky customers.  He showed how to make a great Martini, and then presented it to the MC, Byron Bache for a tasting.  Dave also discussed the Vesper drink, created by Ian Fleming in the novel "Casino Royale".

Another intermission.  I counted at least 60 people attending.

Entrance to the Hollywood Costume exhibition.  One of the costumes I was told was from a Daniel Craig Bond film.

Drinks were available for purchase while waiting for the next speaker.

This time the speaker (name unknown, sorry) was involved in the fashion industry, perhaps owning a store himself.  He talked about Bond as a fashion style icon.  He also explained how Bond breaks the fashion rules by staying away from trends, unlike films like "Scarface".  He said that the costume designers for the Bond films had been very clever to do this and gave the films a more timeless quality.  He did however discuss some of the bad fashion decisions that had been made in a couple of the films, including the blue terry towelling suit from "Goldfinger", but these were minimal.  There was also a discussion about the watches promoted in the films, bow ties and tie knots.

Discussing Sean Connery's suit from "From Russia With Love".

Talking about Daniel Craig in "Skyfall".  Apparently in the Craig films Bond rarely wears a belt.

Pierce Brosnan wearing Italian suits.

Another intermission during which a makeup artist created a few Bond girls from the audience.

Closeup of the stage area.

The final speaker, Laila Sakini, discussed whether the Bond girls were empowered or powerless.  It was a very entertaining discussion talking about everything from sexual coercion, Bond girls wearing scanty clothing, Bond girls given occupations in the film previously designated as male oriented roles, the use of the double entendre in the films, and Bond girl's names and their sexual connotations.  Laila also commented that Bond and the Bond girl were almost the "Adam and Eve of cultural icons".  When pushed to name her favourite Bond girl she couldn't answer, however she did say she liked the retro futuristic fashion of the 60's Bond films.

And then just before 9pm the event ended with some music by a DJ (Laila again in another guise).  The speakers were all really entertaining and the MC, Byron, did a great job.  Overall a fantastic (free) Bond event in Melbourne.

Here's some more links I've found about the night:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cwilding/8700711879/

http://www.facebook.com/acmionline?group_id=0

http://www.weekendnotes.com.au/bond-shaken-not-stirred/

Finally, some more snaps on my walk back to the car.

And Another Gardner Arrives

I received "Win, Lose Or Die" in the mail today.  Like the other Gardner reprint received last week, this copy is also from Pegasus and part of the Dan Mogford US Anniversary series.  I'll hopefully add the book to the website tonight.

Unfortunately, as disclosed on The Book Bond website a couple of weeks ago, these two reprints appear to be the last to be released from Pegasus until early next year.

Another New Gardner Reprint Arrives

I received another book in the mail today, a copy of John Gardner's "Brokenclaw" from Pegasus.  It's part of the Dan Mogford US Anniversary series.  There are now just nine books missing from this series, although only one of those nine has been reprinted so far - "Win, Lose Or Die".  I'll try and add a scan of this "Brokenclaw" cover to the website ASAP.

Bond, Shaken Not Stirred

Just a couple of months after the announcement that the "Designing 007: 50 Years Of Bond Style" exhibition is coming to Melbourne Museum on November 1, 2013, another event is being held here to celebrate 50 years of James Bond.  "Hollowood Costume: Up Late" will hold an event on May 2, 2013 at ACMI (Fed Square) for one night only to also celebrate 50 years of Bond. 

According to details on the ACMI website (http://www.acmi.net.au/up_late_bond_shaken.aspx) there will be music, conversations and pop-up workshops.  They will also "pay homage to the designer behind the famous gun barrel opening and his latter-day colleagues.  We will question whether the litany of Bond women are empowered or one dimensional. And do not miss Dave Kerr, cocktail master and owner of The Beaufort, who will present us with the history of the Martini and other Ian Fleming favourites."


Sounds very exciting.

ps. Lucky my wife noticed this one

Melbourne International Comedy Festival Again + Two Op Shop Visits

My wife and I visited the City again last week to see another gig at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.  On the way to the venue we walked past an electronic store and I took this photo of the entrance.  The latest James Bond film for purchase on DVD and Blu-Ray was being prominantly promoted.

The same electronic store had this free in-store mag which I picked up.

Before reading about my two Op Shop visits below, here's some non-Bond related pics I took during our walk to the comedy venue.  I love the City at night.

Flinders Street Station at about 6:40pm.

We then visited Hosier Lane next door to the Forum Theatre famous for it's graffitti.  I don't usually like graffitti but this art is very impressive.  This laneway is often used as a location for wedding and tourist photos.

 Detail of the woman's face above.

Detail of the graffitti above.

I like this style of art too.  There were a few examples of this in the laneway.  I know the famous graffitti artist Banksy has visited Melbourne in the past, although I doubt any of the art shown here is his own.

Fed Square over the road at night.

And the venue, the Forum Theatre again.  This is the same venue we visited at the other day.
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Then last weekend I visited a strip of shops in Bentleigh where there are plenty of Op (Opportunity) Shops.  These are also known as Thrift or Charity Shops.  Here's some photos of two.

This Op Shop only had one Bond, a Higson Young Bond.

 

The second Op Shop had a number of Bond paperbacks as you can see above.  These books were well categorised so I had to move them about to take this photo of the 7 Bonds above.  I actually took one photo, then found another Bond and took the photo again, then another Bond and so on so this is the fourth photo I think. Unfortunately I had them all though.

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

In the past few days my wife and I have visited the City twice for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. On the first night after seeing a great comedy gig we walked past Her Majesty's Theatre where "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was still playing.  I had already decided I should have purchased a programme of the play after seeing it a few weeks ago.  So inside I went.  I also took some better photos than last time.

 

 

Then last night we attended another comedy show, this time at the historic Forum Theatre with some friends.  (The faux Roman interior is brilliant.)  While on our walk to the show I managed to grab these photos of "Skyfall" DVD/Blu-Ray advertising on the side of some trams.

 

And then before the show started I quickly ran over the road to Fed (Federation) Square where book stalls are setup every Saturday.  Unfortunately they were just pulling the stalls down as it was after 5pm, however I managed to find 5 Bond novels - two Book Clubs ("Dr No" and "Colonel Sun"), a 2nd edition Cape ("Thunderball"), a Penguin paperback ("OHMSS") and another paperback I'd never seen before ("James Bond: His World Of Values" by Lycurgus M. Starkey Jr).  I didn't purchase any of them though.  I wonder if these were the same books Luke mentioned in his comment on this blog a couple of months ago?

And finally some photos of the Forum Theatre while we waited to go in for the comedy gig.