To build on our Screen Seductresses theme that is making this festival the sexiest yet, and taking spirit of our Sex on Screen debate happening this Wednesday, we are giving away copies of In Bed With - “a unique, sometimes humorous, often wicked and totally sizzling collection of unashamedly sexy bedtime stories by bestselling, award-winning and well-known novelists” (Fay Weldon, Joanne Harris, Ali Smith et al).
We invited the co-authors, Maggie Alderson and Jessica Adams, onto our blog. Maggie answered our questions, and Jessica wrote a few words about her sexiest moment in cinema and why they have created In Bed With.
To have a chance of winning a book, you need to tell us what YOUR favourite erotic moment in cinema is, by commenting on this blog, in which the team at BEV HQ revealed our choices…
“Real World is a pioneering documentary scheme to create and distribute positive images of women in the developing world. Filmmakers collaborated with academics to find stories in their chosen region.
They received training to develop their skills, and £20k to make a series of innovative short documentaries. 2 sets of films have been produced so far. They are 12 mins long each, about Brazil and Palestine, by Kat Mansoor (Animal Monday) and Paulino Tervo.
This little rehearsal video just came through from The Monroe Transfer who are performing live to Pandora’s Box on Wed 11 March 6pm at the BFI Southbank.
This is just a very small glimpse of the amazing musical talent that will be accompanying the classic silent film starring iconic Louise Brooks.
There a just a few tickets left now so hurry if you want to see this unique event!
Mary Harron, the wonderful director behind American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page and I Shot Andy Warhol, touched down in the UK last night to attend her Masterclass and Retrospective at the festival this year. She is very very cool, and we just couldn’t resist asking her a few little questions before you can do the same at her events this weekend…
Rachel Millward: We are so excited that you are coming to the festival! We know that you will bring huge amounts of inspiration and learning to our audiences and aspiring filmmakers. But, from your side - what single thing would you like to leave behind / give to our London audience?
Mary Harron: A sense of determination.
All your films grapple with the implications of gender. Has this affected your audience?
It sometimes seems that women don’t get ‘American Psycho’ and men don’t get Bettie Page. That’s not always true, of course. But the films do divide people.
Immodesty Blaize, dubbed the “undisputed queen of British burlesque” by the Sunday Times, will be introducing the Vamp film Salome this weekend on Saturday 7th March 5.30pm at the BFI Southbank. We realised that she would probably be a dab-hand at writing after hearing she has a couple of novels out soon, so we invited her to write a little piece about what inspires her gorgeously cinematic, burlesque performances.
“When I first performed burlesque, research from books was easy; but actual footage of the old burlesque legends was scarce and hard to source. Since one of the things I loved about them was their strong and unique stage personae, it was only natural for me to find inspiration in female icons of the screen too.
Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita
My most enduring image of what a woman should be was statuesque ‘dream woman’ Anita Ekberg cavorting in the Trevi fountain. From there I obsessed over characters that had me spellbound over the years; Jayne Mansfield’s bombshell, Raquel Welch’s irreverent and aggressive transsexual, Kim Novak’s ice queen, and Ava Gardner’s definitive poisonous femme fatale. It wasn’t just their physicality and beauty that resonated, but the attitude. There was something otherworldly and untouchable about their characters on screen, and in a similar vein, the role of the showgirl is to be that very thing up there on stage; a fantasy - alluring, enigmatic, and out of the reach of mere mortals.
Now, have we got some ultra lush pictures for you! We are completely in love with these beautiful photos of Bishi, shot by very cool, very talented photography duo Mishkin.
Bishi will be performing live with Neil Kaczor at the Vamp film screening of Salome on Saturday 7th March 5.30pm. Immodesty Blaize will be there to introduce. This event is going to sizzle!
To see the photos in their gorgeous entirety, click to read the full story!
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To build on our Screen Seductresses theme that is making this festival the sexiest yet, and taking spirit of our Sex on Screen debate happening this Wednesday, we are giving away copies of In Bed With - “a unique, sometimes humorous, often wicked and totally sizzling collection of unashamedly sexy bedtime stories by bestselling, award-winning and well-known novelists” (Fay Weldon, Joanne Harris, Ali Smith et al).
Mary Harron, the wonderful director behind American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page and I Shot Andy Warhol, touched down in the UK last night to attend her
Immodesty Blaize, dubbed the “undisputed queen of British burlesque” by the Sunday Times, will be introducing the Vamp film 
