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| I had a dream these existed, and I just might want them. |
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| 1 min |
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| 1 min, each |
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| 10 min |
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Life drawing
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| Above: from photo ref |
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| Figure drawing, 10 min. |
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| 20 min |
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| 30 min |
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
The Queen of Versailles: The Film!
Today I saw the documentary 'The Queen of Versailles' which is the story (mostly) of Jackie Siegel, wife of the owner of a huge timeshare company, and her family. Originally the film was intended to outline the story of the construction of the largest single-family owned home in America (at 90,000 square feet), but the stock market catastrophe of 2008 got in the way of that.
I was quite impressed how the director and producer of the film managed to a) stick with the family while filming when the goal of the film was supposed to be about a house and b) Still had a story to tell despite the unexpected change of focus.
The family, themselves, first have this strong impression that you'd expect when watching the incredibly wealthy (especially new money): they spend all the time, everywhere, on too many pointless, expensive things and the audience can laugh and say 'How stupid; does anyone need that many _____'s?'. But as the film progresses, we see just how much the recession affected them (admittedly not as much as many, many others) and how much stress is stirred up among the family members and how a company built completely off of making people spend money tries to live when there's no more money to go around.
It's a strange dynamic, Jackie and Dave. Dave is incredibly wealthy and Jackie being essentially a trophy wife. There's a strong impression Dave isn't too thrilled to have her as a spouse (probably not helped by him being 70-ish and her being 40-ish and as much as they loved one another, they're in different life stages). Jackie, having formerly been a model as well as a 'Mrs. Florida' (not Miss, Mrs!) champion, sticks to what she knows : poise, a smile in the face of stress, and looking good. Dave is the businessman down to his bones and lives with boxes and boxes of papers and reports around him both in the office and at his home, all while fretting over bills when times get tough.
Balancing out the entire family are also introductions to some of the children, Dave's son from another marriage (although their relationship is strictly employer/employee), the limo driver for the Siegels, and the cleaning/nanny staff members. Particularly interesting was Jonquil, Dave's unofficially adopted daughter. She had come from a tremendously poor mother and at times were sleeping on the streets. To go from this to opulence is a big deal, and Jonquil provides some comments that relate to the audience, as well as imply her feet are on the ground, so to speak.
So without revealing too many spoilers (if they exist in a documentary of this kind), this was a good film that is an interesting story, with interesting characters that sometimes follow stereotypes that are just who they are. If you can, give it a look.
0 = deathly boring
10 = mind-opening
The Queen of Versailles = 7
Monday, August 13, 2012
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