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| brand ambassador: Freida Pinto in Cannes |
The Angel who dresses Freida for Cannes
The red carpet in Cannes is very important to L’Oreal, the French cosmetics firm that is one of the principal sponsors of the world’s most glamorous film festival.
So important, in fact, that the choice of what the L’Oreal girls wear is determined by the firm’s principal stylist.
So if people back in India like or don’t like what Frieda Pinto, Sonam Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan are wearing, the praise or blame should not be pinned on the L’Oreal brand ambassadors.
The secrets behind who gets to wear which outfit have been revealed in The Hollywood Reporter (THR).
“L’Oreal Paris had many stylish turned out brand ambassadors walk the steps of the Palais in Cannes: Eva Longoria, Freida Pinto, Jane Fonda, Julianna Margulies, Ines de La Fressange — and they all wore numerous and fashionable gowns that fit them like collective gloves,” THR points out.
“But except for Fonda’s sparkling red Roberto Cavalli gown, selected by her regular stylist, Tanya Gill, the ladies were dressed by L’Oreal Paris’s official stylist, Michael Angel,” discloses THR, which has a daily edition during Cannes fortnight.
Angel turns out to be a stylist based in New York, but was born in Melbourne.
“I have also been very fortunate in designing for women such as Freida Pinto, Amanda Seyfried, Beyonce, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gwen Stefani, Mary-Kate Olsen and Rihanna,” he tells the magazine.
This is his second year masterminding the Cannes look for Freida and the others. “The Cannes festival is important to showcase why these women are so amazing.”
Work begins way ahead of the festival in May. “Me and my team, which includes three assistants, start with a big selection of what we like and then begin weeks earlier to narrow down what the women like and are inspired by. The process is challenging as this event is globally one of the highlights of red carpet season. So securing and selecting gowns becomes quite hard — but I am a big believer in not forcing or pushing too hard — the right dress usually happens if it’s meant to be.”
Angel is pretty much the boss. “L’Oreal Paris fortunately allows me the freedom to choose what I believe is best. I love to work with designers that are inspired by the women or any relationships the women have.”
He leaves time for “at least one or two fittings” — and he takes a tailoring team. “Wouldn’t go anywhere without them! They ensure each woman fits and feels confident in what she is wearing. Also we have design houses provide couture seamstresses to work on gowns as well as some couture pieces are quite intricate.”
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| Gopi in distress: Radha Mitchell |
Holly’s Rani
The science fiction thriller Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell as FBI agents, was shown on BBC television last week, recalling once again the circumstances under which the leading lady acquired her name.
Radha — an Australian actress who was born in Melbourne on November 12, 1973, but has been based in Los Angeles since 1997 — is the daughter of parents who were influenced by Hinduism and Krishna in particular. So they named her Radha Rani Amber Indigo Ananda Mitchell.
Radha, who acquired her Hindu spiritual values from her parents, has said: “My mum had a clothing store, and we’d go on trips to India for fabrics.”
The story goes that she landed one year at Nice for the Cannes Film Festival without a visa and was in danger of being refused entry when she spotted Mick Jagger and threw herself on his mercy.
Radha said: “They put me in a security room at the airport and there was Mick. I introduced myself, and somehow he took mercy on me. He spoke to the officials in French and they let me go.”
That was generous of the former Rolling Stone but Jagger has always been one to help a gopi in distress.
Golden girl
Perhaps the time has come to consider making a biopic on Cornelia Sorabji (1866-1954), the pioneering Indian lawyer who was the first woman to study law at Oxford (1889-92).
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| Oxford honour: Kusoom Vadgama (left) with Lady Hale before the bust of Cornelia Sorabji |
A bust of Cornelia, golden in hue and sculpted by 83-year-old London artist S. Unavane, RIBA, FRSA, was unveiled in London last week in the impressive Great Hall of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn.
The bust was unveiled by the Right Honourable Lady Hale of Richmond, the most senior female judge in the UK.
The audience of some 300 was welcomed by Dame Janet Smith, treasurer of Lincoln’s Inn, while Cornelia’s nephew, Richard Sorabji, professor emeritus at King’s College, London, spoke about his aunt.
Historian Kusoom Vadgama, who has made a gift of the bust, appealed for a replica to be positioned in the Supreme Court in India.
I have suggested to Kusoom that Calcutta might be a more appropriate place for such a bust since Cornelia practised in the Calcutta High Court from 1924-1929. But she has her heart set on the Supreme Court in Delhi.
“I want the unveiling done by (Vikram Seth’s mother) Leila Seth (the first woman judge in the Delhi High Court and former Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh),” said Kusoom.
Shorts corner
Cannes is so dominated by the big films and the megastars that often the little nuggets get overlooked.
Nilosree Biswas, who moved from Calcutta to Mumbai to pursue making shorts, deserves to be commended for her 34-minute documentary, Broken Memory, Shining Dust, which tells of women in Kashmir — “half widows” — who wait for the men taken away by the Indian security forces for allegedly being linked to terrorists.
“My film was selected for two separate sections of Cannes, both under Cannes Court Metrege — one in the Short Film Corner and the other at Doc Corner under Marche Du Film,” says Nilosree.
The Cannes authorities explain: “The Doc Corner, a dedicated space for feature documentaries, offers buyers and festival programmers a digital library. More than 200 documentaries will be available at six viewing stations in the heart of the Marché du Film (the Cannes Market).”
Nilosree has told her story in human terms through Parveena Ahanger, a Kashmiri mother, and three other women who have lost their loved ones.
“There is both loss and hope in the land of the disappeared,” adds Nilosree.
Tagore retold
Filmmaker Sangeeta Datta (Life Goes On) liked what she saw inside the Indian pavilion in Cannes.
Apart from Anurag Kashyap, she spotted some “fellow Bongs”.
They included “Onir (born Anirban Dhar), the national award winner for I Am; Suman Mukhopadhyay, who is starting to film Shesher Kobita; and Q (once called Kaushik Mukherjee), who has just finished Taasher Desh”.
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Sangeeta is herself discussing a co-production deal with the NFDC. “My project is called Stranger Across the Sea — translation of Ogo bideshini — so you see Tagore looms large yet again!”
Tittle tattle
The word is Aishwarya was tempted but finally resisted the temptation to display Aaradhya as an accessory when she walked the Cannes red carpet for the premiere of Cosmopolis in a floor-length glittering black gown.
The betting is the baby, fast asleep in the Martinez, will be making her Cannes debut alongside mum as soon as she can walk.
