These busts are one of the first interactive elements that guests encounter as they “drag their bodies to the dead center” of the waiting area, as cast members remind them to do when they reach the Mansion proper. Each bust in the new Haunted Mansion graveyard (the new waiting queue) features a member of the Dread family. Below the statuary are brief epithets that, when taken all together, form a “whodunit” riddle. Can you figure out who killed whom?

One of the Murder Mystery train's passengers stops by for a chat with 6A's driver, John, before the train departs for Nobelius Siding for a sit-down dinner and a classic case of "whodunit".

French postcard in the série chanteurs by Les Editions GIL, no. 125. Madonna in Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987).

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

French postcard, no. 1232. Photo: Steven Meisel. Publicity still for Madonna: Truth or Dare/In Bed with Madonna (Alek Keshishian, 1991).

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 498. Photo: Vaselli.

Dorian Gray (1928-2011) was a very elegant Italian actress in films by Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini. She was also a sexy seductress in comedies with Totò. In 1965, Gray completely vanished from the public eye.

Dorian Gray was born as Maria Luisa Mangini in Bolzano, Italy in 1928. Gray made her stage debut in 1950 and quickly became a known and acclaimed actress. However, after only five years she left the world of the theatre and devoted herself to the cinema. In 1951, she had made her film debut in the crime drama Amo un assassin/Appointment for Murder (Baccio Bandini, 1951) with Delia Scala. The role she played most often in films was that of a seductive sex kitten in comedies like Totò, Peppino e i fuorilegge/Totò, Peppino, and the outlaws (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956). For this film, Peppino De Filippo was awarded a Silver Ribbon for the best supporting actor. She played another titular ‘bad girl’ in Totò, Peppino e la malafemmina/Toto, Peppino, and the Hussy (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956). It was the top-grossing film of the year in Italy and is now considered as one of the classics of Italian comedy. The following year, she had the chance to demonstrate her dramatic talents in Michelangelo Antonioni's Il grido/The Cry (1957). She co-starred with Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, and Betsy Blair to great critical acclaim. At the peak of her popularity, she also took part in Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) featuring Giulietta Masina. The film was loaded with awards, including an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1958.

After 1957, Dorian Gray made several more films, but none ever had the shine of her works of 1956 and 1957. She starred with Vittorio Gassman in the comedy Il mattatore/Love and Larceny (Dino Risi, 1960). She also played in one of the Peplums of that era. La regina delle Amazzoni/Colossus and the Amazons (Vittorio Sala, 1960) In this sword and sandal satirical comedy she starred opposite two actors imported from America, Rod Taylor, and bodybuilder Ed Fury. Gray was among the all-star cast of the whodunit-comedy Crimen/...And Suddenly It's Murder! (Mario Camerini, 1960). She played the love interest of Foreign Legion captain Stewart Granger in the action drama, Marcia o crepa/Commando (Frank Wisbar,1962), set during the Algerian War. Her career ended by choice soon thereafter. In 1965, she made her final film, Fango sulla metropolis/City Criminals (Gino Mangini, 1965) with Tony Kendall. That year, awaiting the birth of her son, she retired completely from acting. She never made another public appearance. In 2011, Dorian Gray committed suicide by gunshot at her home in Torcegno. She was 83 years old. IMDb and other media, however, report her age as 75, since she herself claimed to have been born in 1936.

Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

We were in the middle of a hot summer. Liz and I had never met. I picked her up at the train station and we drove half an hour to this nice restaurant in a small town where we had lunch. Then we went for an afternoon shooting in a beautiful villa. For some reason I didn't like the pictures taken that day, and now when I come back to them I find there are a few gems. I will leave it up to your opinion.

Strobist info: Elinchrom 400W with barn doors, obviously top right of camera.

Who killed the bunny?

French postcard by Editions Humour à la Carte, Paris, no. ST-56.

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS # 1

What's to Love: Dive headfirst into an original, modern ongoing series that will appeal to both nostalgic fans and new readers who enjoy epic, action-adventure fantasy stories.

This is Green Ranger Year One! The Green Ranger's addition to the team has brought new instability and uncertainty to the Rangers. With remnants of Rita Repulsa's control still stirring in the back of Tommy's mind, he must confront the fact he may be more of a danger to his new team than a help. As Rita plays the heroes against each other, her ultimate plan begins to take form, and vengeance for the Green Ranger's betrayal will be unleashed on Angel Grove. Also featuring a Bulk & Skull short story by Steve Orlando (Midnighter) and artist Corin Howell that puts the pair on the ultimate mission to impress Kimberly and Trini!

DEADPOOL (2015) # 8

DEADPOOL VS. SABRETOOTH STARTS NOW! Deadpool has no idea that he killed his own parents. SHHH! Don’t tell! Only problem is...he’s investigating whodunit, swearing vengeance. Don’t worry! He thinks SABRETOOTH did it! This is gonna be a fun fight.

The Thrilling Adventure Hour Presents… Beyond Belief # 3

BASED ON THE HIT NERDIST PODCAST! A haunted tree makes nature monsters who make trouble for the Doyles who make drinks! Also: An ancient blood magick cult thinks it’s so great! And the return of America’s # 1 Underthe- Bed Boogeyman...Mr. Fuzzyface!

CAVEWOMAN RAPTORELLA # 1

Something strange is brewing in the far off jungle. Meriem soon discovers she is being stalked while traveling through the jungle by the new apex predator of the Cretaceous Period. Can Meriem survive against this new threat, the dino riding Raptorella? A quirky new story from Devon Massey!

BATMAN & ROBIN ETERNAL # 22

It’s the catastrophic conclusion of the acclaimed weekly series that brings together all of Batman’s one-time partners! Mother’s trap has been sprung, and the whole world is feeling her wrath! Can Dick Grayson pull together his allies to fight an entire army of foes? Is one among them still under Mother’s control? And what will become of Cassandra Cain? You won’t believe how huge this battle can become!

The House of Montresor, Part 2

Edana Fortunato is the sole surviving heir of two great families: clan Fortunato and the House of Montresor. The terms of her inheritence dictate that not only must she demonstrate she is of sound mind, free of the shadow of madness and melancholy that have plagued the Fortunato bloodline, she must also inhabit the estate for a period of one month or else lose her claim to the Fortunato and Montresor lands.

Edana has still to meet her guardian, the enigmatic Count Montresor, but malevolent stares from the shadows, and a whispered warning during a visit with her ailing grandmother, lead Edana to wonder if she wants any part of what The House of Montresor has in store.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” the villanous Montresor gleefully tells the tale of depraved vengeance he carries out upon his unsuspecting rival, Fortunato. Poe fans have long speculated what grave insult warranted so cruel a death for the hapless victim and why Montresor chooses to confess the crime fifty years after the murder.

The House of Montresor is a sequel to Poe’s classic revenge tale, delving into the mystery of the enigmatic murderer’s motive and ultimate fate.

French postcard by Editions Spiral Rock, Réf. SP 23.

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

American postcard Classico, San Francisco /Winterland Productions / Rock Express, no. 460-053. Photo: Herb Ritts / Boy Toy Inc., 1991.

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Serbian promotion card. Photo: Warner Bros. Eric Bana as Hector in Troy (Wolfgang Petersen, 2004).

Australian actor Eric Bana (1968) had his breakthrough in the Australian crime film Chopper (2000). In Hollywood, he starred in such blockbusters as Black Hawk Down (2001), Troy (2004) and Munich (2005). And he was the star of the comic book adaptationHulk (2003).

Eric Bana was born Eric Banadinović in Melbourne, Australia, in 1968). His father, Ivan Banadinović, came from Zagreb, Croatia, and was a manager for the American construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar, and his mother Eleanor, was a German hairdresser. Eric was popular among his schoolmates for his talent of making comic impressions of his teachers. He actually wanted to become a car mechanic and racing driver. At first, he tried odd jobs such as washing cars or bartending at a hotel bar, where he also performed as a stand-up comedian. Bana then studied acting in Sydney and appeared several times in Shakespeare performances. He was later accepted at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. After graduating, Bana began a career as a stand-up comedian and became known for the Australian comedy sketch series Full Frontal (1993-1997). He gained popularity for making impressions of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise and Peter Falk as Columbo. Along the way, he hosted the TV show Eric (1997), for which he also wrote the scripts and served as co-executive producer. He also appeared live in the variety show The Eric Bana Show (1997). The most established character of his early career was Poida, an Australian "bogan", a term from Australia and New Zealand describing a white, young working-class man. After a small role in the low-budget Australian hit The Castle (Rob Sitch, 1997), Bana retired from the entertainment industry for a few years. He returned as the lead in the film Chopper (Andrew Dominik, 2000), based on the life of criminal Mark "Chopper" Read. Steve Shelokhonov at IMDb: "For the role, Bana gained 30 pounds, by eating junk food; he also spent a few days with Read in prison, in order to perfect his mimicry. Bana completely transformed himself into a bald, plump, disturbed criminal. He would arrive on the film set at four in the morning, spending several hours in makeup, being tattooed exactly like Read. " Chopper received mostly positive reviews and won three Australian Film Institute Awards, including Best Actor. Bana won three other film awards. American film critic Roger Ebert praised Bana: "Since the real Chopper is again behind bars, the film depends entirely on its casting, and in a comedian named Eric Bana the filmmakers have found, I think, a future star. He creates a character so fearsome and yet so clueless and wounded that we can't tell if the movie comes to praise or bury him."

International audiences discovered Eric Bana through his role as US Delta Sergeant Norm 'Hoot' Gibson in the blockbuster Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott, 2001) with Josh Hartnett and Ewan McGregor. Bana had been recommended to the director, Scott, by Russell Crowe. Then he starred as Marvel's Bruce "The Hulk" Banner in Hulk (Ang Lee, 2003) for Universal. Hulk was one of the most expensive films ever made, with almost $140 million in budget. Reactions to the film were mixed to negative. Universal could have been in big financial trouble if the film flopped, because of its huge cost. However, the film was a financial success. On its premiere day, the film already brought in $25 million. Total, worldwide revenue was over $245 million. Thanks to Brad Pitt who had noticed him in Chopper, Eric Bana got the role of the heroic Trojan Prince Hector in Troy (Wolfgang Petersen, 2004), alongside stars like Peter O'Toole, Orlando Bloom and Pitt himself. The film is about the Trojan War, which took place around 1200 BC on the west coast of present-day Turkey and is based on Homer's 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey'. Troy was also received with mixed reactions by viewers and critics. The film's total production costs came to $175,000,000, making Troy even more expensive than Hulk. Worldwide, the film brought in a total of nearly $500 million. Then, Bana starred with Daniel Craig in Steven Spielberg's Munich (2005), about Israel's response to the 1972 attacks on the Olympics. Bana played the role of the Israeli Mossad agent Avner. Munich was nominated for the Oscars for best film, best script, and best direction, among others. Then followed roles in the poker film drama Lucky You (Curtis Hanson, 2007) and Romulus, My Father (2007). Bana starred as Henry VIII alongside Nathalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson in the historical drama The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). In 2009, he starred in the best-selling film adaptation The Time Traveller's Wife (Robert Schwentke, 2009) and played the villain Nero opposite Chris Pine as Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock in Star Trek (J. J. Abrams, 2009), the eleventh Star Trek film.

Eric Bana made his directorial debut with the documentary Love the Beast (2009). He co-starred with Saoirse Ronan and Cate Blanchett in the German-British-American road movie and first-rate thriller Hanna (Joe Wright, 2011). Also interesting was the American-French action-thriller Deadfall (Stefan Ruzowitzky, 2012) with Olivia Wilde and Charlie Hunnam. In 2013, Bana starred as an advertiser in the short film Duels (Matteo Garrone, 2013) for the campaign for Bulgari's men's fragrance Man Extreme. His later films include the war film Lone Survivor (Peter Berg, 2013) starring Mark Wahlberg, the horror thriller Deliver Us from Evil (Scott Derrickson, 2014), the historical drama The Finest Hours (Craig Gillespie, 2016) starring Chris Pine, and the Irish drama The Secret Scripture (Jim Sheridan, 2016) with Rooney Mara and Vanessa Redgrave. He also had s a supporting part in Guy Ritchie's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (Guy Ritchie, 2017) starring Charlie Hunnam and Jude Law. In 2018, Bana starred in the Netflix True Crime series Dirty John. Bana is married to Rebecca Gleeson, a former publicist for Australian broadcaster Seven Network (also producer of the television series Full Frontal). In 1995, they began dating and he following year, Bana was named "Bachelor of the Year" by Cleo magazine. He won a trip for two to the United States and invited Gleeson. He proposed to her during that trip and the two were married in 1997. Their son, Klaus, was born in 1999, and their daughter, Sophia, was born in 2002. The family lives in Melbourne. Bana is a big motorsport fan and supports the St. Kilda Football Club. He still regularly confirms that he is a very talented actor. About one of his most recent films, The Dry (Robert Connolly, 2021), Sheila O'Malley writes at Roger Ebert.com: "Bana is wonderful at mixing the confidence of the "big city" cop with the anxiety of a man grappling with his dark past. Whatever his guilt may or may not be in regards to Ellie's death—and the film is a "whodunit" on two separate tracks—he feels inhibited from proclaiming his innocence. There's a sadness in Bana's face, in his posture, a tortured grief and guilt, but overlaying that is the competence and canniness of a cop alert to suspicious behavior and inconsistencies. In its own quiet way, it's a very effective and emotional performance."

Sources: Steve Sholokhonov (IMDb), Roger Ebert (Roger Ebert. com), Sheila O'Malley (Roger Ebert.com), Wikipedia (Dutch, German and French), and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard New-Line, no. 229. Photo: Madonna and Warren Beatty in Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990).

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

As with any good story, context is critical: where a single 6-foot-tall-by-30-foot-wide mound in a grassland prairie is but a mound, acres upon acres of mounds, sharing similar a shape and size and packed in clumps like eggs in a carton, create a mystery with many possible explanations.

The hummocks have starred in their own geological whodunit — or, perhaps, whatdunit — ever since Capt. Charles Wilkes, leader of the U.S. Exploring Expedition that charted the Northwest, happened upon them in the mid-1800s. Wilkes thought they might be Native American burial sites, but he found only earth inside. Geologists and others have since developed several dozen hypotheses, including glacial freeze-and-thaw cycles, erosion, the interplay between wind and vegetation, an earthquake or two, a tsunami, and perhaps a volcanic eruption.

One of the most delightful and popular theories credits generations of grubbing pocket gophers with creating the mounds while building underground dens and recently, the gopher explanation has gained traction among scientists. But despite the appeal of this gopher-driven explanation, there is nothing close to a consensus.

Among the other theories: gravel, stones, and soil that washed upon a melting ice-age glacier may have collected in pits called “suncups.” As the ice melted, the sediment pits settled in mounds. Alternatively, there is a nice, mathematically elegant theory that says that earthquakes sent shockwaves through the soil and moved the earth into mounds wherever the peak waves intersected. Or possibly........

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mima_Mounds_Natural_Area_Preserve

And

www.pnwanderers.com/blog/the-mysterious-mima-mounds-natio...

COLLECT EVIDENCE HERE!!!!!

(Sorry about the sloppy editing...Been sick and don't care LMAO)

"Volunteer Killer still needed!!!!"

Heres how it goes...I will list a couple contacts of mine.....

You have to go through their photo streams (Only from the last month of photos) ....there is something from one of their photos intertwined into the crime scene...that would be WHO DUN IT!!!!

CAN YOU FIND THE KILLER???

Here are the list of 5 contacts you need to scour through. Photos uploaded from Aug 27th - Sept 27th only.

dana-yi

docyank

dixieroadrash

aussiemumof4

babs4180

Once you think you have found the killer...copy and paste the exact photo's url into the comments so that the photo appears in the comments and put a note on the crime scene of where the evidence is!!!!!! Got all that????

OK...to keep this game going and more intriguing...I need volunteer contacts ( I WILL NOT go into your photostream unless I have your OK)...heres what happens...I will go into your photostream, find something in your photos from your last month...save one photo so that I can take a peice out of it and place into the crime scene...then your photo is deleted from my computer...honestly...I have too many of my own to keep yours...lol

If you would like to be a volunteer murderer..LMAO...just add it in the comments that you would like to be a KILLER (giving the OK)....DUN DUN DUN!! and if you are not already a contact..please add me as a contact for the game.

If you get it right...what do you win????

Winners will recieve a $15.00 gift certificate to Adorama Camera

Killers recieve a $5.00 gift certificate to Adorama Camera just as thank you...so please sign up to be a killer...we need more!!!!

READY SET.....FIND THE KILLER!!!!!!!!

Game goes to October 31st!

Clue anyone?

In the shadowy hallway of the clockmaker's old house a policeman is found murdered, a steel clock hand embedded in his neck. A thing with gilt-painted hands scuttles across London roof-tops. These are just two of the frightening scenes in Dr. Gideon Fell's most frightening case- a case that starts with a knife-wielding shoplifter and ends with a portly detective using a mad-man to capture a murderer.

Vintage postcard, no. DK 647.

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Milano, no. 382.

Dorian Gray (1928-2011) was a very elegant Italian actress in films by Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini. She was also a sexy seductress in comedies with Totò. In 1965, Gray completely vanished from the public eye.

Dorian Gray was born as Maria Luisa Mangini in Bolzano, Italy in 1928. Gray made her stage debut in 1950 and quickly became a known and acclaimed actress. However, after only five years she left the world of the theatre and devoted herself to the cinema. In 1951, she had made her film debut in the crime drama Amo un assassin/Appointment for Murder (Baccio Bandini, 1951) with Delia Scala. The role she played most often in films was that of a seductive sex kitten in comedies like Totò, Peppino e i fuorilegge/Totò, Peppino, and the outlaws (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956). For this film, Peppino De Filippo was awarded a Silver Ribbon for the best supporting actor. She played another titular ‘bad girl’ in Totò, Peppino e la malafemmina/Toto, Peppino, and the Hussy (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956). It was the top-grossing film of the year in Italy and is now considered as one of the classics of Italian comedy. The following year, she had the chance to demonstrate her dramatic talents in Michelangelo Antonioni's Il grido/The Cry (1957). She co-starred with Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, and Betsy Blair to great critical acclaim. At the peak of her popularity, she also took part in Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) featuring Giulietta Masina. The film was loaded with awards, including an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1958.

After 1957, Dorian Gray made several more films, but none ever had the shine of her works of 1956 and 1957. She starred with Vittorio Gassman in the comedy Il mattatore/Love and Larceny (Dino Risi, 1960). She also played in one of the Peplums of that era. La regina delle Amazzoni/Colossus and the Amazons (Vittorio Sala, 1960) In this sword and sandal satirical comedy she starred opposite two actors imported from America, Rod Taylor, and bodybuilder Ed Fury. Gray was among the all-star cast of the whodunit-comedy Crimen/...And Suddenly It's Murder! (Mario Camerini, 1960). She played the love interest of Foreign Legion captain Stewart Granger in the action drama, Marcia o crepa/Commando (Frank Wisbar,1962), set during the Algerian War. Her career ended by choice soon thereafter. In 1965, she made her final film, Fango sulla metropolis/City Criminals (Gino Mangini, 1965) with Tony Kendall. That year, awaiting the birth of her son, she retired completely from acting. She never made another public appearance. In 2011, Dorian Gray committed suicide by gunshot at her home in Torcegno. She was 83 years old. IMDb and other media, however, report her age as 75, since she herself claimed to have been born in 1936.

Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

This play opens tonight such a fantastic show. This is just one of the many photos I did of the shows last practice. I am still editing all the shots. it is so much to decide what I will keep and what I will get rid of. Many fantastic shots but in this shot I did a lot of extra Photoshop. I would enjoy doing more like this. My oldest daughter 16 is running the light board for this show. I have been photographing her plays for about six years. This is the first play I've ever posted images from. For this show I did all the head shots and promotional shots. I have only posted the shots I like best here.

Nikon D300s

50mm lens 1/80 f2.5 ISO 500

Process in Adobe Raw

Manipulated in Photoshop CS6

www.lovestreetplayhouse.com/

Performances December 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16 & 17

Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30p

Sundays at 2:00p

All Tickets are $20 (check out our new seating plan with every seat having a great view)

The Broadway star William Gillette playing Sherlock Holmes, has invited his fellow cast-members for a weekend of revelry. But when one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house of tricks and mirrors quickly turn dangerous. The danger and hilarity are non-stop in this glittering whodunit set during the Christmas holidays.

Directed and Produced by Melinda Pallotta

Photo by Mike Patnode

— with Tracy Sacdalan, Bethany Pithan, Michael McElliott, Lorraine Volkman Little, Kevin Taylor, Henry Lorch, Debbie Amable Chunn, Debbie Blake, Marlowe Conde, Lou Pallotta, David Roberts, Ellie Templin and David Bareford.

Weapon: Steel Racket

Motive: Mr. Boddy ridiculed his weak backhand.

Model: Seth Warner

True crime in a box.

French postcard by Editions Humour à la Carte, Paris, no. A-C 1216. Photo: UGC Distribution. Madonna in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986).

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Vintage postcard.

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard, no. C050. Harvey Keitel as Mr. White Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992). Caption: "If some asshole starts to think he is Charles Bronson break his nose on the butt of your gun."

American director/screenwriter/actor/producer Quentin Tarantino (1963) was the most distinctive and volatile talent to emerge in American film in the 1990s. Tarantino learned his craft from his days as a video clerk at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, CA. He developed a fusion of pop culture and independent arthouse cinema. With Pulp Fiction (1994) he won the Palme d'Or for best film at the Cannes Film Festival. He also won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, in addition to nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. Inglourious Basterds (2009) also received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. He won his second Oscar for the screenplay of Django Unchained (2012).

Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennesse, in 1963. He was the only child of Connie McHugh and aspiring actor Tony Tarantino, who left the family before his son's birth. Quentin grew up in Los Angeles, and his stepfather Curtis Zastoupil encouraged Tarantino's love of cinema. The summer after his 15th birthday, Tarantino was grounded by his mother for shoplifting Elmore Leonard's novel 'The Switch' from Kmart. He was allowed to leave only to attend the Torrance Community Theater, where he participated in such plays as 'Two Plus Two Makes Sex' and 'Romeo and Juliet'. Later, Tarantino attended acting classes at the James Best Theatre Company, where he met several of his eventual collaborators. During his five years at Video Archives, he began writing screenplays. In 1987, he completed his first, True Romance, with his co-worker, Roger Avary who would later also become a director. Tarantino tried to get financial backing to film the script. After years of negotiations, he decided to sell the script, which wound up in the hands of director Tony Scott. During this time, Tarantino wrote the screenplay for Natural Born Killers. Again, he was unable to come up with enough investors to make a film and gave the script to his partner, Rand Vossler. Tarantino then used the money he made from True Romance to begin pre-production on Reservoir Dogs, a Neo-Noir about a failed heist. Reservoir Dogs received financial backing from LIVE Entertainment (now Lionsgate) after Harvey Keitel agreed to star in the film. Word-of-mouth on Reservoir Dogs began to build at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, which led to scores of glowing reviews, making the film a cult hit. While many critics and fans were praising Tarantino, he developed a sizable number of detractors. Claiming he ripped off the obscure Hong Kong thriller City on Fire, the critics only added to the director/writer's already considerable buzz. In 1993, Tarantino wrote and directed his next feature, Pulp Fiction, which featured three interweaving crime storylines; Tony Scott's big-budget production of True Romance was also released that year.

In 1994, Quentin Tarantino was elevated from a cult figure to a major celebrity. Pulp Fiction won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, beginning the flood of good reviews. Before Pulp Fiction was released, Oliver Stone's bombastic version of Natural Born Killers hit the theatres. Tarantino distanced himself from the film and was only credited for writing the basic story. Pulp Fiction soon eclipsed Natural Born Killers in both acclaim and popularity. Made for eight million dollars, the film eventually grossed over 100 million dollars and topped many critics' top ten lists. Pulp Fiction earned seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay (Tarantino and Avary), Best Actor (John Travolta), Best Supporting Actor (Samuel L. Jackson), and Best Supporting Actress (Uma Thurman). It won one, for Tarantino and Avery's writing. After the film's success, Tarantino was everywhere, from talk shows to a cameo in the low-budget Sleep With Me. He directed a segment of the anthology film Four Rooms (1995) and acted in Robert Rodriguez's sequel to El Mariachi, Desperado, and the comedy Destiny Turns on the Radio, in which he had a starring role. Tarantino also kept busy with television, directing an episode of the NBC TV hit ER and appearing in Margaret Cho's sitcom All-American Girl. The latter half of the 1990s saw Tarantino continue his multifaceted role as an actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. In 1996, he served as the screenwriter and executive producer for the George Clooney schlock-fest From Dusk Till Dawn, and the following year renewed some of his earlier acclaim as the director and screenwriter of Jackie Brown (1997), an homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s. The film was an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel 'Rum Punch'. It won him the raves that had been missing for much of his post-Fiction career. In 1999, he was back behind the camera as the producer for From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money.

Quentin Tarantino laid relatively low in the early years of the new millennium. In late 2002, the hype started to build around his fourth feature, Kill Bill (2003). Though originally envisioned to be a single release, Kill Bill was eventually separated into two films entitled Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 when it became obvious that the story was simply too far-reaching to be contained in a single film. A kinetic homage to revenge movies of the 1970s, Kill Bill Vol. 1 featured Uma Thurman as a former assassin known as 'The Bride'. While the first film in the pair was an eye-popping homage to Asian cinema and all things extreme, the outrageous violence of Kill Bill Vol. 1 stood in stark contrast to the dialogue-driven second installment that concluded the epic tale of revenge and betrayal. The gambit of separate releases paid off, as both earned a combined sum of more than 130 million dollars domestically. In the wake of the Kill Bill films, rumors abounded concerning Tarantino's next feature. In 2005, Tarantino did step back into the director's chair to helm a segment of Robert Rodriguez's eagerly anticipated comic book adaptation Sin City. A longtime friend of Rodriguez, Tarantino agreed to take part in the filming of Sin City, not only to repay the versatile filmmaker for providing soundtrack music for the Kill Bill films but also to try his hand at digital filmmaking. Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMovie: "After this, the two directors joined forces again, for one of the most ballyhooed and hotly anticipated pictures of 2007: Grindhouse. A no-holds-barred elegy to the sleazy, seedy, often half-dilapidated inner-city theaters of the 1970s that would churn out similarly sleazy movies, Tarantino and Rodriguez divided Grindhouse into two portions: the first half, Death Proof, directed by Tarantino, starred Kurt Russell in homage to the high-octane auto thrillers of the '70s. Merging low-brow thrills with blunt, existential dialogue, the Tarantino segment garnered the lion's share of the film's considerable critical praise, although the three-hour-plus Grindhouse ultimately failed to connect with audiences, much to the dismay of The Weinstein Company, who released it." Separate versions of Death Proof and Rodriguez's Planet Terror were then prepped for European release, with Tarantino's effort screened in competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2009 Quentin Tarantino issued Inglorious Basterds, a sprawling World War II epic about a band of Jewish American soldiers fighting an Apache resistance behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France. The film, starring Brad Pitt, was a hit around the world and garnered Tarantino nominations from the Writers Guild, the Directors Guild, the Hollywood Foreign Press, and the Academy for his screenplay and his direction. He took three years to craft his follow-up, the revisionist Western Django Unchained (2012), a film about the revenge of a former slave (Jamie Foxx) in the U.S. South in 1858. The slave teams up with a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) to get his wife away from a sadistic plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio). Django Unchained was another international box office hit, grossing over $425 million worldwide against its $100 million budget, becoming Tarantino's highest-grossing movie to date. It also earned a number of year-end awards including a second Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Tarantino. Quentin Tarantino's eighth film was the Western The Hateful Eight (2015), starring Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern, as eight strangers who seek refuge from a blizzard in a stagecoach stopover sometime after the American Civil War. The original score was Italian composer Ennio Morricone's first and only for a Tarantino film, his first complete Western score in thirty-four years. Daniel Gelb at AllMovie: "It's a viscerally bloody, chronologically fractured whodunit full of betrayal and biting wit. It's profane, protracted, violent, and yet another achievement in a career full of inspired filmmaking. After teasing what he could do with the Western genre in the good but not great Django Unchained, Tarantino's second consecutive Civil War-era picture is a fully realized epic. (...) Despite its three-hour runtime, its hold on the audience's attention never wavers. Tarantino's trademark dialogue (never known for its brevity) keeps us riveted inside Minnie's Haberdashery, and the stellar cast manages to bring out the deadpan hilarity in the script." Tarantino's ninth film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), turned out one of his best. It recounts an alternate history of events surrounding the Tate–LaBianca murders in 1969, and Leonard DiCaprio and Brad Pitt star as a fading actor and his stuntman. Providing a sense of intrigue during the long 161-minute runtime, the epic weaves in and out of tense moments and comedic relief. Travis Norris at AllMovie: "Hollywood is a great behind-the-scenes look into the end of an era. The film touches on the pursuit of perfection: how it is never obtainable yet always worth striving for. These are words that seem to drive Tarantino, and it is apparent while watching a film like this. A fun and genuine ride, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is a must-see." Since 20018, Quentin Tarantino is married to Israelian singer Daniella Pick.

Sources: Stephen Thomas Erlewine (AllMovie), Daniel Gelb (AllMovie), Travis Norris (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Record Vision / Ballantine's / Cine Company. Photo: Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde, Quentin Tarantino as Mr. Brown, Harvey Keitel as Mr. White, Chris Penn as 'Nice Guy' Eddie, Lawrence Tierney as Joe Cabot, Tim Roth as Mr. Orange, Steve Buscemi as Mr. Pink and Edward Bunker as Mr. Blue in Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992). Caption: Picture of the family: the Reservoir Dogs complete. They are seven gangsters who only know each other by their nicknames. Reunited in a robbery, they are held in check by the cops. There is only one certainty, and that is that someone has betrayed them.

American director/screenwriter/actor/producer Quentin Tarantino (1963) was the most distinctive and volatile talent to emerge in American film in the 1990s. Tarantino learned his craft from his days as a video clerk at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, CA. He developed a fusion of pop culture and independent arthouse cinema. With Pulp Fiction (1994) he won the Palme d'Or for best film at the Cannes Film Festival. He also won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, in addition to nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. Inglourious Basterds (2009) also received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. He won his second Oscar for the screenplay of Django Unchained (2012).

Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennesse, in 1963. He was the only child of Connie McHugh and aspiring actor Tony Tarantino, who left the family before his son's birth. Quentin grew up in Los Angeles, and his stepfather Curtis Zastoupil encouraged Tarantino's love of cinema. The summer after his 15th birthday, Tarantino was grounded by his mother for shoplifting Elmore Leonard's novel 'The Switch' from Kmart. He was allowed to leave only to attend the Torrance Community Theater, where he participated in such plays as 'Two Plus Two Makes Sex' and 'Romeo and Juliet'. Later, Tarantino attended acting classes at the James Best Theatre Company, where he met several of his eventual collaborators. During his five years at Video Archives, he began writing screenplays. In 1987, he completed his first, True Romance, with his co-worker, Roger Avary who would later also become a director. Tarantino tried to get financial backing to film the script. After years of negotiations, he decided to sell the script, which wound up in the hands of director Tony Scott. During this time, Tarantino wrote the screenplay for Natural Born Killers. Again, he was unable to come up with enough investors to make a film and gave the script to his partner, Rand Vossler. Tarantino then used the money he made from True Romance to begin pre-production on Reservoir Dogs, a Neo-Noir about a failed heist. Reservoir Dogs received financial backing from LIVE Entertainment (now Lionsgate) after Harvey Keitel agreed to star in the film. Word-of-mouth on Reservoir Dogs began to build at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, which led to scores of glowing reviews, making the film a cult hit. While many critics and fans were praising Tarantino, he developed a sizable number of detractors. Claiming he ripped off the obscure Hong Kong thriller City on Fire, the critics only added to the director/writer's already considerable buzz. In 1993, Tarantino wrote and directed his next feature, Pulp Fiction, which featured three interweaving crime storylines; Tony Scott's big-budget production of True Romance was also released that year.

In 1994, Quentin Tarantino was elevated from a cult figure to a major celebrity. Pulp Fiction won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, beginning the flood of good reviews. Before Pulp Fiction was released, Oliver Stone's bombastic version of Natural Born Killers hit the theatres. Tarantino distanced himself from the film and was only credited for writing the basic story. Pulp Fiction soon eclipsed Natural Born Killers in both acclaim and popularity. Made for eight million dollars, the film eventually grossed over 100 million dollars and topped many critics' top ten lists. Pulp Fiction earned seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay (Tarantino and Avary), Best Actor (John Travolta), Best Supporting Actor (Samuel L. Jackson), and Best Supporting Actress (Uma Thurman). It won one, for Tarantino and Avery's writing. After the film's success, Tarantino was everywhere, from talk shows to a cameo in the low-budget Sleep With Me. He directed a segment of the anthology film Four Rooms (1995) and acted in Robert Rodriguez's sequel to El Mariachi, Desperado, and the comedy Destiny Turns on the Radio, in which he had a starring role. Tarantino also kept busy with television, directing an episode of the NBC TV hit ER and appearing in Margaret Cho's sitcom All-American Girl. The latter half of the 1990s saw Tarantino continue his multifaceted role as an actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. In 1996, he served as the screenwriter and executive producer for the George Clooney schlock-fest From Dusk Till Dawn, and the following year renewed some of his earlier acclaim as the director and screenwriter of Jackie Brown (1997), an homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s. The film was an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel 'Rum Punch'. It won him the raves that had been missing for much of his post-Fiction career. In 1999, he was back behind the camera as the producer for From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money.

Quentin Tarantino laid relatively low in the early years of the new millennium. In late 2002, the hype started to build around his fourth feature, Kill Bill (2003). Though originally envisioned to be a single release, Kill Bill was eventually separated into two films entitled Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 when it became obvious that the story was simply too far-reaching to be contained in a single film. A kinetic homage to revenge movies of the 1970s, Kill Bill Vol. 1 featured Uma Thurman as a former assassin known as 'The Bride'. While the first film in the pair was an eye-popping homage to Asian cinema and all things extreme, the outrageous violence of Kill Bill Vol. 1 stood in stark contrast to the dialogue-driven second installment that concluded the epic tale of revenge and betrayal. The gambit of separate releases paid off, as both earned a combined sum of more than 130 million dollars domestically. In the wake of the Kill Bill films, rumors abounded concerning Tarantino's next feature. In 2005, Tarantino did step back into the director's chair to helm a segment of Robert Rodriguez's eagerly anticipated comic book adaptation Sin City. A longtime friend of Rodriguez, Tarantino agreed to take part in the filming of Sin City, not only to repay the versatile filmmaker for providing soundtrack music for the Kill Bill films but also to try his hand at digital filmmaking. Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMovie: "After this, the two directors joined forces again, for one of the most ballyhooed and hotly anticipated pictures of 2007: Grindhouse. A no-holds-barred elegy to the sleazy, seedy, often half-dilapidated inner-city theaters of the 1970s that would churn out similarly sleazy movies, Tarantino and Rodriguez divided Grindhouse into two portions: the first half, Death Proof, directed by Tarantino, starred Kurt Russell in homage to the high-octane auto thrillers of the '70s. Merging low-brow thrills with blunt, existential dialogue, the Tarantino segment garnered the lion's share of the film's considerable critical praise, although the three-hour-plus Grindhouse ultimately failed to connect with audiences, much to the dismay of The Weinstein Company, who released it." Separate versions of Death Proof and Rodriguez's Planet Terror were then prepped for European release, with Tarantino's effort screened in competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2009 Quentin Tarantino issued Inglorious Basterds, a sprawling World War II epic about a band of Jewish American soldiers fighting an Apache resistance behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France. The film, starring Brad Pitt, was a hit around the world and garnered Tarantino nominations from the Writers Guild, the Directors Guild, the Hollywood Foreign Press, and the Academy for his screenplay and his direction. He took three years to craft his follow-up, the revisionist Western Django Unchained (2012), a film about the revenge of a former slave (Jamie Foxx) in the U.S. South in 1858. The slave teams up with a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) to get his wife away from a sadistic plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio). Django Unchained was another international box office hit, grossing over $425 million worldwide against its $100 million budget, becoming Tarantino's highest-grossing movie to date. It also earned a number of year-end awards including a second Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Tarantino. Quentin Tarantino's eighth film was the Western The Hateful Eight (2015), starring Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern, as eight strangers who seek refuge from a blizzard in a stagecoach stopover sometime after the American Civil War. The original score was Italian composer Ennio Morricone's first and only for a Tarantino film, his first complete Western score in thirty-four years. Daniel Gelb at AllMovie: "It's a viscerally bloody, chronologically fractured whodunit full of betrayal and biting wit. It's profane, protracted, violent, and yet another achievement in a career full of inspired filmmaking. After teasing what he could do with the Western genre in the good but not great Django Unchained, Tarantino's second consecutive Civil War-era picture is a fully realized epic. (...) Despite its three-hour runtime, its hold on the audience's attention never wavers. Tarantino's trademark dialogue (never known for its brevity) keeps us riveted inside Minnie's Haberdashery, and the stellar cast manages to bring out the deadpan hilarity in the script." Tarantino's ninth film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), turned out one of his best. It recounts an alternate history of events surrounding the Tate–LaBianca murders in 1969, and Leonard DiCaprio and Brad Pitt star as a fading actor and his stuntman. Providing a sense of intrigue during the long 161-minute runtime, the epic weaves in and out of tense moments and comedic relief. Travis Norris at AllMovie: "Hollywood is a great behind-the-scenes look into the end of an era. The film touches on the pursuit of perfection: how it is never obtainable yet always worth striving for. These are words that seem to drive Tarantino, and it is apparent while watching a film like this. A fun and genuine ride, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is a must-see." Since 20018, Quentin Tarantino is married to Israelian singer Daniella Pick.

Sources: Stephen Thomas Erlewine (AllMovie), Daniel Gelb (AllMovie), Travis Norris (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

"And So to Murder" is a mystery novel by the American writer John Dickson Carr (1906–1977), who published it under the name of Carter Dickson. It is a whodunnit and features the series detective Sir Henry Merrivale and Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Humphrey Masters.

English postcard by Anabas, Romford, no. AP182, 1986.

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Vintage postcard, no. PP 059. Caption: Madonna IV.

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Insurance investigator Milo March is under pressure to solve a classic whodunit in a small town. Athens, Ohio is a place full of historic monuments, many of them still walking the streets . . . Google Books.

M.E. Chaber is a pen name for the American pulp fiction and science fiction writer Kendell Foster Crossen (1910-1981). He was the creator and writer of stories about the Green Lama and the Milo March detective and spy novels.

French postcard by L.P., no. 35.

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard by Santoro Graphics, London, no. BW123. Photo: Steven Meisel. Photo for the cover of the album 'Like a Virgin' (1984).

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard, no. FA 213. Rosanna Arquette and Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985).

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Vintage card.

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1452. Photo: Agencia Liliana Biancini Sabatello.

Dorian Gray (1928-2011) was a very elegant Italian actress in films by Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini. She was also a sexy seductress in comedies with Totò. In 1965, Gray completely vanished from the public eye.

Dorian Gray was born as Maria Luisa Mangini in Bolzano, Italy in 1928. Gray made her stage debut in 1950 and quickly became a known and acclaimed actress. However, after only five years she left the world of the theatre and devoted herself to the cinema. In 1951, she had made her film debut in the crime drama Amo un assassin/Appointment for Murder (Baccio Bandini, 1951) with Delia Scala. The role she played most often in films was that of a seductive sex kitten in comedies like Totò, Peppino e i fuorilegge/Totò, Peppino, and the outlaws (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956). For this film, Peppino De Filippo was awarded a Silver Ribbon for the best supporting actor. She played another titular ‘bad girl’ in Totò, Peppino e la malafemmina/Toto, Peppino, and the Hussy (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956). It was the top-grossing film of the year in Italy and is now considered as one of the classics of Italian comedy. The following year, she had the chance to demonstrate her dramatic talents in Michelangelo Antonioni's Il grido/The Cry (1957). She co-starred with starring Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, and Betsy Blair to great critical acclaim. At the peak of her popularity, she also took part in Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) featuring Giulietta Masina. The film was loaded with awards, including an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1958.

After 1957, Dorian Gray made several more films, but none ever had the shine of her works of 1956 and 1957. She starred with Vittorio Gassman in the comedy Il mattatore/Love and Larceny (Dino Risi, 1960). She also plated in one of the Peplums of that era. La regina delle Amazzoni/Colossus and the Amazons (Vittorio Sala, 1960) In this Italian sword and sandal satirical comedy she starred opposite two actors imported from America, Rod Taylor, and bodybuilder Ed Fury. She was among the all-star cast of the whodunit-comedy Crimen/...And Suddenly It's Murder! (Mario Camerini, 1960). She played the love interest of Foreign Legion captain Stewart Granger in the action drama, Marcia o crepa/Commando (Frank Wisbar,1962), set during the Algerian War. Her career ended by choice soon thereafter. In 1965, she made her final film, Fango sulla metropolis/City Criminals (Gino Mangini, 1965) with Tony Kendall. That year, awaiting the birth of her son, she retired completely from acting. She never made another public appearance. In 2011, Dorian Gray committed suicide by gunshot at her home in Torcegno. She was 83 years old. IMDb and other media, however, report her age as 75, since she herself claimed to have been born in 1936.

Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 809. Madonna in Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992).

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

French postcard in the 'série chanteurs' by Editions Gil/Edition F. Nugeron, no. 131. Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985).

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Vintage postcard, no. PP 086. Caption: Madonna XIII.

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1991) and Frozen (1998). And we're still fan, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father is Italian, her mother was French-Canadian. Her siblings are Anthony Ciccone (1956), Martin Ciccone (1957), Paula Ciccone (1959), Christopher Ciccone (1960), and Melanie Henry (1962). In 1962, Madonna's mother, pregnant with her sixth child, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delayed treatment until her baby was born, but by that time it was too late. A harrowing, yearlong battle with the disease ensued. She lost her battle with cancer in 1963. In 1978, Madonna moved to New York and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey. She joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called 'Breakfast Club', and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (Stephen Jon Lewicki, 1979) and Crazy for You (Harold Becker, 1985), starring Matthew Modine. Her first film, A Certain Sacrifice (1979), was released in 1985, after she became a star, but was actually shot in two parts, the first in 1979, and the other, in 1981. However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. In 1984, she started fashion trends with her unique look using rosaries and crosses as jewelry and black rubber typewriter bands as bracelets. Legions of adolescent girls mimicked her look and a Madonna clothing store was opened in New York. Again in 2001, another huge fashion trend was set off by the "Material Mom", this time with western wear - cowboy hats and mud-splattered jeans. In 1986, she starred with then-husband Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard, 1986), which was savaged by critics. She managed to somewhat improve her standing in the cinema with her next two films, the off-beat Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, 1989).

Madonna played in the big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990) bad girl Breathless Mahoney flirting with Warren Beatty. The epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the whodunit Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1992) with Willem Dafoe, an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón opposite Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas in Evita (Alan Parker, 1996), a fairly well-received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the film cameras for several years, returning to co-star with Rupert Everett in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger, 2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002) for husband Guy Ritchie. If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) starring Pierce Brosnan. Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the comedy Filth and Wisdom (Madonna, 2008), and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (Madonna, 2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple. The film was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Masterpiece'. Madonna has 6 children: daughter, Lourdes Leon (1996) with an ex-boyfriend, Carlos Leon, son, Rocco Ritchie (2000), and adoptive son, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie (2005) with ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, and adoptive daughters, Mercy James Ciccone (2006), Estere Ciccone and Stella Ciccone (2012).

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1406. Photo: Agencia Liliana Biancini Sabatello.

Dorian Gray (1928-2011) was a very elegant Italian actress in films by Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini. She was also a sexy seductress in comedies with Totò. After the birth of her son, Gray completely vanished from the public eye.

Dorian Gray was born as Maria Luisa Mangini in Bolzano, Italy in 1928. Gray made her stage debut in 1950 and quickly became a known and acclaimed actress. However, after only five years she left the world of the theatre and devoted herself to the cinema. In 1951, she had made her film debut in the crime drama Amo un assassin/Appointment for Murder (Baccio Bandini, 1951) with Delia Scala. The role she played most often in films was that of a seductive sex kitten in comedies like Totò, Peppino e i fuorilegge/Totò, Peppino, and the outlaws (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956). For this film, Peppino De Filippo was awarded a Silver Ribbon for the best supporting actor. She played another titular ‘bad girl’ in Totò, Peppino e la malafemmina/Toto, Peppino, and the Hussy (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956). It was the top-grossing film of the year in Italy and is now considered as one of the classics of Italian comedy. The following year, she had the chance to demonstrate her dramatic talents in Michelangelo Antonioni's Il grido/The Cry (1957). She co-starred with Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, and Betsy Blair to great critical acclaim. At the peak of her popularity, she also took part in Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) featuring Giulietta Masina. The film was loaded with awards, including an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1958.

After 1957, Dorian Gray made several more films, but none ever had the shine of her works of 1956 and 1957. She starred with Vittorio Gassman in the comedy Il mattatore/Love and Larceny (Dino Risi, 1960). She also played in one of the Peplums of that era. La regina delle Amazzoni/Colossus and the Amazons (Vittorio Sala, 1960) In this sword and sandal satirical comedy she starred opposite two actors imported from America, Rod Taylor, and bodybuilder Ed Fury. Gray was among the all-star cast of the whodunit-comedy Crimen/...And Suddenly It's Murder! (Mario Camerini, 1960). She played the love interest of Foreign Legion captain Stewart Granger in the action drama, Marcia o crepa/Commando (Frank Wisbar,1962), set during the Algerian War. Her career ended by choice soon thereafter. In 1965, she made her final film, Fango sulla metropolis/City Criminals (Gino Mangini, 1965) with Tony Kendall. After the birth of her son, she retired from acting completely. She never made another public appearance. In 2011, Dorian Gray committed suicide by gunshot at her home in Torcegno. She was 83 years old. At the time, the media, however, reported her age as 75, since she herself always claimed to have been born in 1936.

Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Weapon: Poison

Motive: Mr Boddy pricked the doctor with his own needle.

Model: Ciel Beaumont

Italian postcard by B.F.F. (Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze) Edit., no. 3719 Photo: G.B. Poletto / Compagnia Edizioni Internazionali Artistiche Distribuzione (CEIAD). Dorian Gray in Racconti d'Estate/Girls for the Summer (Gianni Franciolini, 1958).

Dorian Gray (1928-2011) was a very elegant Italian actress in films by Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini. She was also a sexy seductress in comedies with Totò. In 1965, Gray completely vanished from the public eye.

Dorian Gray was born as Maria Luisa Mangini in Bolzano, Italy in 1928. Gray made her stage debut in 1950 and quickly became a known and acclaimed actress. However, after only five years she left the world of the theatre and devoted herself to the cinema. In 1951, she had made her film debut in the crime drama Amo un assassin/Appointment for Murder (Baccio Bandini, 1951) with Delia Scala. The role she played most often in films was that of a seductive sex kitten in comedies like Totò, Peppino e i fuorilegge/Totò, Peppino, and the outlaws (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956). For this film, Peppino De Filippo was awarded a Silver Ribbon for the best supporting actor. She played another titular ‘bad girl’ in Totò, Peppino e la malafemmina/Toto, Peppino, and the Hussy (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956). It was the top-grossing film of the year in Italy and is now considered as one of the classics of Italian comedy. The following year, she had the chance to demonstrate her dramatic talents in Michelangelo Antonioni's Il grido/The Cry (1957). She co-starred with Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, and Betsy Blair to great critical acclaim. At the peak of her popularity, she also took part in Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) featuring Giulietta Masina. The film was loaded with awards, including an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1958.

After 1957, Dorian Gray made several more films, but none ever had the shine of her works of 1956 and 1957. She starred with Vittorio Gassman in the comedy Il mattatore/Love and Larceny (Dino Risi, 1960). She also played in one of the Peplums of that era. La regina delle Amazzoni/Colossus and the Amazons (Vittorio Sala, 1960) In this sword and sandal satirical comedy she starred opposite two actors imported from America, Rod Taylor, and bodybuilder Ed Fury. Gray was among the all-star cast of the whodunit-comedy Crimen/...And Suddenly It's Murder! (Mario Camerini, 1960). She played the love interest of Foreign Legion captain Stewart Granger in the action drama, Marcia o crepa/Commando (Frank Wisbar,1962), set during the Algerian War. Her career ended by choice soon thereafter. In 1965, she made her final film, Fango sulla metropolis/City Criminals (Gino Mangini, 1965) with Tony Kendall. That year, awaiting the birth of her son, she retired from acting completely. She never made another public appearance. In 2011, Dorian Gray committed suicide by gunshot at her home in Torcegno. She was 83 years old. At the time, the media, however, reported her age as 75, since she herself always claimed to have been born in 1936.

Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

This quite rare Mediart release of the cult mystery horror flick "The Cat and The Canary" (1978) plays up the solid 'spec' of its A-list cast, including 007 James Bond series alumna Honor Blackman. Promises plenty of thrills and suspense. Unusual film was helmed by Radley Metzger, best known for the after-darkers "The Lickerish Quartet," "Camille 2000," and others.

三人称でのウォーショースキーは吸血鬼並みだった；サラ・パレツキーの『アンサンブル』｜今日のミステリー

Ensemble : The V.I. Warshawski Series | Sara Paretsky

www.kandamori.net/2017/04/blog-post_13.html

#本 #小説 #読書 #ホラー #ミステリー #SF #推理 #探偵 #刑事

#book #novel #reading #horror #mystery #sci-fi #whodunit #detective #story #private #detective

French postcard by Editions Cahiers du Cinéma, Paris, 1997. Photo: Traverso. Quentin Tarantino, Festival de Cannes 1994.

American director/screenwriter/actor/producer Quentin Tarantino (1963) was the most distinctive and volatile talent to emerge in American film in the 1990s. Tarantino learned his craft from his days as a video clerk at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, CA. He developed a fusion of pop culture and independent arthouse cinema. With Pulp Fiction (1994) he won the Palme d'Or for best film at the Cannes Film Festival. He also won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, in addition to nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. Inglourious Basterds (2009) also received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. He won his second Oscar for the screenplay of Django Unchained (2012).

Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennesse, in 1963. He was the only child of Connie McHugh and aspiring actor Tony Tarantino, who left the family before his son's birth. Quentin grew up in Los Angeles, and his stepfather Curtis Zastoupil encouraged Tarantino's love of cinema. The summer after his 15th birthday, Tarantino was grounded by his mother for shoplifting Elmore Leonard's novel 'The Switch' from Kmart. He was allowed to leave only to attend the Torrance Community Theater, where he participated in such plays as 'Two Plus Two Makes Sex' and 'Romeo and Juliet'. Later, Tarantino attended acting classes at the James Best Theatre Company, where he met several of his eventual collaborators. During his five years at Video Archives, he began writing screenplays. In 1987, he completed his first, True Romance, with his co-worker, Roger Avary who would later also become a director. Tarantino tried to get financial backing to film the script. After years of negotiations, he decided to sell the script, which wound up in the hands of director Tony Scott. During this time, Tarantino wrote the screenplay for Natural Born Killers. Again, he was unable to come up with enough investors to make a film and gave the script to his partner, Rand Vossler. Tarantino then used the money he made from True Romance to begin pre-production on Reservoir Dogs, a Neo-Noir about a failed heist. Reservoir Dogs received financial backing from LIVE Entertainment (now Lionsgate) after Harvey Keitel agreed to star in the film. Word-of-mouth on Reservoir Dogs began to build at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, which led to scores of glowing reviews, making the film a cult hit. While many critics and fans were praising Tarantino, he developed a sizable number of detractors. Claiming he ripped off the obscure Hong Kong thriller City on Fire, the critics only added to the director/writer's already considerable buzz. In 1993, Tarantino wrote and directed his next feature, Pulp Fiction, which featured three interweaving crime storylines; Tony Scott's big-budget production of True Romance was also released that year.

In 1994, Quentin Tarantino was elevated from a cult figure to a major celebrity. Pulp Fiction won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, beginning the flood of good reviews. Before Pulp Fiction was released, Oliver Stone's bombastic version of Natural Born Killers hit the theatres. Tarantino distanced himself from the film and was only credited for writing the basic story. Pulp Fiction soon eclipsed Natural Born Killers in both acclaim and popularity. Made for eight million dollars, the film eventually grossed over 100 million dollars and topped many critics' top ten lists. Pulp Fiction earned seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay (Tarantino and Avary), Best Actor (John Travolta), Best Supporting Actor (Samuel L. Jackson), and Best Supporting Actress (Uma Thurman). It won one, for Tarantino and Avery's writing. After the film's success, Tarantino was everywhere, from talk shows to a cameo in the low-budget Sleep With Me. He directed a segment of the anthology film Four Rooms (1995) and acted in Robert Rodriguez's sequel to El Mariachi, Desperado, and the comedy Destiny Turns on the Radio, in which he had a starring role. Tarantino also kept busy with television, directing an episode of the NBC TV hit ER and appearing in Margaret Cho's sitcom All-American Girl. The latter half of the 1990s saw Tarantino continue his multifaceted role as an actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. In 1996, he served as the screenwriter and executive producer for the George Clooney schlock-fest From Dusk Till Dawn, and the following year renewed some of his earlier acclaim as the director and screenwriter of Jackie Brown (1997), an homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s. The film was an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel 'Rum Punch'. It won him the raves that had been missing for much of his post-Fiction career. In 1999, he was back behind the camera as the producer for From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money.

Quentin Tarantino laid relatively low in the early years of the new millennium. In late 2002, the hype started to build around his fourth feature, Kill Bill (2003). Though originally envisioned to be a single release, Kill Bill was eventually separated into two films entitled Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 when it became obvious that the story was simply too far-reaching to be contained in a single film. A kinetic homage to revenge movies of the 1970s, Kill Bill Vol. 1 featured Uma Thurman as a former assassin known as 'The Bride'. While the first film in the pair was an eye-popping homage to Asian cinema and all things extreme, the outrageous violence of Kill Bill Vol. 1 stood in stark contrast to the dialogue-driven second installment that concluded the epic tale of revenge and betrayal. The gambit of separate releases paid off, as both earned a combined sum of more than 130 million dollars domestically. In the wake of the Kill Bill films, rumors abounded concerning Tarantino's next feature. In 2005, Tarantino did step back into the director's chair to helm a segment of Robert Rodriguez's eagerly anticipated comic book adaptation Sin City. A longtime friend of Rodriguez, Tarantino agreed to take part in the filming of Sin City, not only to repay the versatile filmmaker for providing soundtrack music for the Kill Bill films but also to try his hand at digital filmmaking. Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMovie: "After this, the two directors joined forces again, for one of the most ballyhooed and hotly anticipated pictures of 2007: Grindhouse. A no-holds-barred elegy to the sleazy, seedy, often half-dilapidated inner-city theaters of the 1970s that would churn out similarly sleazy movies, Tarantino and Rodriguez divided Grindhouse into two portions: the first half, Death Proof, directed by Tarantino, starred Kurt Russell in homage to the high-octane auto thrillers of the '70s. Merging low-brow thrills with blunt, existential dialogue, the Tarantino segment garnered the lion's share of the film's considerable critical praise, although the three-hour-plus Grindhouse ultimately failed to connect with audiences, much to the dismay of The Weinstein Company, who released it." Separate versions of Death Proof and Rodriguez's Planet Terror were then prepped for European release, with Tarantino's effort screened in competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2009 Quentin Tarantino issued Inglorious Basterds, a sprawling World War II epic about a band of Jewish American soldiers fighting an Apache resistance behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France. The film, starring Brad Pitt, was a hit around the world and garnered Tarantino nominations from the Writers Guild, the Directors Guild, the Hollywood Foreign Press, and the Academy for his screenplay and his direction. He took three years to craft his follow-up, the revisionist Western Django Unchained (2012), a film about the revenge of a former slave (Jamie Foxx) in the U.S. South in 1858. The slave teams up with a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) to get his wife away from a sadistic plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio). Django Unchained was another international box office hit, grossing over $425 million worldwide against its $100 million budget, becoming Tarantino's highest-grossing movie to date. It also earned a number of year-end awards including a second Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Tarantino. Quentin Tarantino's eighth film was the Western The Hateful Eight (2015), starring Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern, as eight strangers who seek refuge from a blizzard in a stagecoach stopover sometime after the American Civil War. The original score was Italian composer Ennio Morricone's first and only for a Tarantino film, his first complete Western score in thirty-four years. Daniel Gelb at AllMovie: "It's a viscerally bloody, chronologically fractured whodunit full of betrayal and biting wit. It's profane, protracted, violent, and yet another achievement in a career full of inspired filmmaking. After teasing what he could do with the Western genre in the good but not great Django Unchained, Tarantino's second consecutive Civil War-era picture is a fully realized epic. (...) Despite its three-hour runtime, its hold on the audience's attention never wavers. Tarantino's trademark dialogue (never known for its brevity) keeps us riveted inside Minnie's Haberdashery, and the stellar cast manages to bring out the deadpan hilarity in the script." Tarantino's ninth film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), turned out one of his best. It recounts an alternate history of events surrounding the Tate–LaBianca murders in 1969, and Leonard DiCaprio and Brad Pitt star as a fading actor and his stuntman. Providing a sense of intrigue during the long 161-minute runtime, the epic weaves in and out of tense moments and comedic relief. Travis Norris at AllMovie: "Hollywood is a great behind-the-scenes look into the end of an era. The film touches on the pursuit of perfection: how it is never obtainable yet always worth striving for. These are words that seem to drive Tarantino, and it is apparent while watching a film like this. A fun and genuine ride, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is a must-see." Since 20018, Quentin Tarantino is married to Israelian singer Daniella Pick.

Sources: Stephen Thomas Erlewine (AllMovie), Daniel Gelb (AllMovie), Travis Norris (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

French postcard by Télérama 'l'hebdomadaire culturel français'. Photo: Patrick Swirc / Télérama.

American director/screenwriter/actor/producer Quentin Tarantino (1963) was the most distinctive and volatile talent to emerge in American film in the 1990s. Tarantino learned his craft from his days as a video clerk at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, CA. He developed a fusion of pop culture and independent arthouse cinema. With Pulp Fiction (1994) he won the Palme d'Or for best film at the Cannes Film Festival. He also won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, in addition to nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. Inglourious Basterds (2009) also received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. He won his second Oscar for the screenplay of Django Unchained (2012).

Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennesse, in 1963. He was the only child of Connie McHugh and aspiring actor Tony Tarantino, who left the family before his son's birth. Quentin grew up in Los Angeles, and his stepfather Curtis Zastoupil encouraged Tarantino's love of cinema. The summer after his 15th birthday, Tarantino was grounded by his mother for shoplifting Elmore Leonard's novel 'The Switch' from Kmart. He was allowed to leave only to attend the Torrance Community Theater, where he participated in such plays as 'Two Plus Two Makes Sex' and 'Romeo and Juliet'. Later, Tarantino attended acting classes at the James Best Theatre Company, where he met several of his eventual collaborators. During his five years at Video Archives, he began writing screenplays. In 1987, he completed his first, True Romance, with his co-worker, Roger Avary who would later also become a director. Tarantino tried to get financial backing to film the script. After years of negotiations, he decided to sell the script, which wound up in the hands of director Tony Scott. During this time, Tarantino wrote the screenplay for Natural Born Killers. Again, he was unable to come up with enough investors to make a film and gave the script to his partner, Rand Vossler. Tarantino then used the money he made from True Romance to begin pre-production on Reservoir Dogs, a Neo-Noir about a failed heist. Reservoir Dogs received financial backing from LIVE Entertainment (now Lionsgate) after Harvey Keitel agreed to star in the film. Word-of-mouth on Reservoir Dogs began to build at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, which led to scores of glowing reviews, making the film a cult hit. While many critics and fans were praising Tarantino, he developed a sizable number of detractors. Claiming he ripped off the obscure Hong Kong thriller City on Fire, the critics only added to the director/writer's already considerable buzz. In 1993, Tarantino wrote and directed his next feature, Pulp Fiction, which featured three interweaving crime storylines; Tony Scott's big-budget production of True Romance was also released that year.

In 1994, Quentin Tarantino was elevated from a cult figure to a major celebrity. Pulp Fiction won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, beginning the flood of good reviews. Before Pulp Fiction was released, Oliver Stone's bombastic version of Natural Born Killers hit the theatres. Tarantino distanced himself from the film and was only credited for writing the basic story. Pulp Fiction soon eclipsed Natural Born Killers in both acclaim and popularity. Made for eight million dollars, the film eventually grossed over 100 million dollars and topped many critics' top ten lists. Pulp Fiction earned seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay (Tarantino and Avary), Best Actor (John Travolta), Best Supporting Actor (Samuel L. Jackson), and Best Supporting Actress (Uma Thurman). It won one, for Tarantino and Avery's writing. After the film's success, Tarantino was everywhere, from talk shows to a cameo in the low-budget Sleep With Me. He directed a segment of the anthology film Four Rooms (1995) and acted in Robert Rodriguez's sequel to El Mariachi, Desperado, and the comedy Destiny Turns on the Radio, in which he had a starring role. Tarantino also kept busy with television, directing an episode of the NBC TV hit ER and appearing in Margaret Cho's sitcom All-American Girl. The latter half of the 1990s saw Tarantino continue his multifaceted role as an actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. In 1996, he served as the screenwriter and executive producer for the George Clooney schlock-fest From Dusk Till Dawn, and the following year renewed some of his earlier acclaim as the director and screenwriter of Jackie Brown (1997), an homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s. The film was an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel 'Rum Punch'. It won him the raves that had been missing for much of his post-Fiction career. In 1999, he was back behind the camera as the producer for From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money.

Quentin Tarantino laid relatively low in the early years of the new millennium. In late 2002, the hype started to build around his fourth feature, Kill Bill (2003). Though originally envisioned to be a single release, Kill Bill was eventually separated into two films entitled Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 when it became obvious that the story was simply too far-reaching to be contained in a single film. A kinetic homage to revenge movies of the 1970s, Kill Bill Vol. 1 featured Uma Thurman as a former assassin known as 'The Bride'. While the first film in the pair was an eye-popping homage to Asian cinema and all things extreme, the outrageous violence of Kill Bill Vol. 1 stood in stark contrast to the dialogue-driven second installment that concluded the epic tale of revenge and betrayal. The gambit of separate releases paid off, as both earned a combined sum of more than 130 million dollars domestically. In the wake of the Kill Bill films, rumors abounded concerning Tarantino's next feature. In 2005, Tarantino did step back into the director's chair to helm a segment of Robert Rodriguez's eagerly anticipated comic book adaptation Sin City. A longtime friend of Rodriguez, Tarantino agreed to take part in the filming of Sin City, not only to repay the versatile filmmaker for providing soundtrack music for the Kill Bill films but also to try his hand at digital filmmaking. Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMovie: "After this, the two directors joined forces again, for one of the most ballyhooed and hotly anticipated pictures of 2007: Grindhouse. A no-holds-barred elegy to the sleazy, seedy, often half-dilapidated inner-city theaters of the 1970s that would churn out similarly sleazy movies, Tarantino and Rodriguez divided Grindhouse into two portions: the first half, Death Proof, directed by Tarantino, starred Kurt Russell in homage to the high-octane auto thrillers of the '70s. Merging low-brow thrills with blunt, existential dialogue, the Tarantino segment garnered the lion's share of the film's considerable critical praise, although the three-hour-plus Grindhouse ultimately failed to connect with audiences, much to the dismay of The Weinstein Company, who released it." Separate versions of Death Proof and Rodriguez's Planet Terror were then prepped for European release, with Tarantino's effort screened in competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2009 Quentin Tarantino issued Inglorious Basterds, a sprawling World War II epic about a band of Jewish American soldiers fighting an Apache resistance behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France. The film, starring Brad Pitt, was a hit around the world and garnered Tarantino nominations from the Writers Guild, the Directors Guild, the Hollywood Foreign Press, and the Academy for his screenplay and his direction. He took three years to craft his follow-up, the revisionist Western Django Unchained (2012), a film about the revenge of a former slave (Jamie Foxx) in the U.S. South in 1858. The slave teams up with a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) to get his wife away from a sadistic plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio). Django Unchained was another international box office hit, grossing over $425 million worldwide against its $100 million budget, becoming Tarantino's highest-grossing movie to date. It also earned a number of year-end awards including a second Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Tarantino. Quentin Tarantino's eighth film was the Western The Hateful Eight (2015), starring Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern, as eight strangers who seek refuge from a blizzard in a stagecoach stopover sometime after the American Civil War. The original score was Italian composer Ennio Morricone's first and only for a Tarantino film, his first complete Western score in thirty-four years. Daniel Gelb at AllMovie: "It's a viscerally bloody, chronologically fractured whodunit full of betrayal and biting wit. It's profane, protracted, violent, and yet another achievement in a career full of inspired filmmaking. After teasing what he could do with the Western genre in the good but not great Django Unchained, Tarantino's second consecutive Civil War-era picture is a fully realized epic. (...) Despite its three-hour runtime, its hold on the audience's attention never wavers. Tarantino's trademark dialogue (never known for its brevity) keeps us riveted inside Minnie's Haberdashery, and the stellar cast manages to bring out the deadpan hilarity in the script." Tarantino's ninth film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), turned out one of his best. It recounts an alternate history of events surrounding the Tate–LaBianca murders in 1969, and Leonard DiCaprio and Brad Pitt star as a fading actor and his stuntman. Providing a sense of intrigue during the long 161-minute runtime, the epic weaves in and out of tense moments and comedic relief. Travis Norris at AllMovie: "Hollywood is a great behind-the-scenes look into the end of an era. The film touches on the pursuit of perfection: how it is never obtainable yet always worth striving for. These are words that seem to drive Tarantino, and it is apparent while watching a film like this. A fun and genuine ride, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is a must-see." Since 20018, Quentin Tarantino is married to Israelian singer Daniella Pick.

Sources: Stephen Thomas Erlewine (AllMovie), Daniel Gelb (AllMovie), Travis Norris (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

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www.kandamori.net/2017/04/blog-post_21.html

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