Deirdre Childress Hopkins explores the world, entertainment and sports

Archive for February, 2013

A Fashion Countdown to the Oscars

Here is a link to one of my fave Oscar stories.

It’s all about the gowns.

Here is a link to the 50 Best Oscar Dresses as selected by the Hollywood Reporter – http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/gallery/50-best-oscar-dresses-422169#51

I think they blew it a bit because even if folks don’t like Cher’s style sense – she is on my best list because she is MEMORABLE. They threw her in the worst list of course, but for me, you can’t beat a full black headdress: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fsb/0804/gallery.feathers.fsb/3.html

 

And here is their gallery of the worst – http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/gallery/worst-oscar-dresses-ever-421781

I commend the judges for the selection of Paltrow’s pink, the cups are not filled dress, as well as the love they gave her on the Best Dressed side when she was Brad Pitt’s arm candy.

And of course there was Jennifer Hudson in that hideous brown. I think that helped her seriously do the Weight Watchers campaign.

And dare I say it? I often question Meryl Streep’s fashion sense, but never her acting.

 

 

 

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Django Unchained – Part 2

Deirdre C. Hopkins, Dr. Ahati Toure, Dr. Candice Love Jackson, Dr. Jerry Ward Jr. and actress Tiffany.

Deirdre C. Hopkins, Dr. Ahati Toure, Dr. Candice Love Jackson, Dr. Jerry Ward Jr. and actress Tiffany.

Whether Quentin Tarantino’s film, Django Unchained, should be viewed as a realistic or mythological portrayal of slavery in the U.S. dominated a panel discussion Thursday at Delaware State University.

Dr. Jerry Ward, known for his study of the work of Richard Wright, described the film as a very American film, a richly satiric cartoon. He said the filmmaker created a collage to shock the audience, offered moments to glorify in revenge and in some ways added to the romance of slavery.

Dr. Candice Love Jackson described the character of Kerry Washington as Broomhilda von Shaft as connected to the blaxploitation film legend John Shaft andshe  looked at the film in the context of Tarantino’s handling of other heroines played by Uma Thurman and Pam Grier in such films as Pulp Fiction.

Several actresses, one on the panel and others in the audience of more than 100 people, debated their conflicts about roles that are offered but fall outside of the acceptable characters that might uplift or improve perceptions of African Americans. I was able to tie this point back to The Help and the difficulties Viola Davis faced first in accepting the role and finally in the Academy of Motion Pictures inability to reward her for that performance.

My presentation focused on the history of film as studied by Tarantino, his focus on spaghetti Westerns, blood, gore and language. The N-word is inescapable in this film. I distributed a quiz on African American film quotes and again, language is part of our relationship to film.

Dr. Marshall Stevenson of Del State set the tone for the discussion along the themes of sex and violence and how they are intertwined with American history. To them, I would add RACE.

Written

on February 10, 2013

Django Unchained Panel Discussion at Delaware State University

This Thursday, the Delaware State University College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences will offer a panel discussion on the controversial film, Django Unchained, by Quentin Tarantino and starring Jamie Foxx.Jamie

The event – entitled “Django Unchained: Myths and Realities of Slavery in the Old South” — is free and open to the public at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7 in the Education & Humanities Theatre on campus.

This is a topic that I hope provokes a lot of discussion. As a film editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer for five years, I grew to not only understand why it is so important to support African Americans in cinema, but to embrace opportunities to discuss how our culture is often held to the standard of one speaker, one view – the monolith. This discussion, just before the Oscars, will give us the opportunity to consider how the story is told and by whom.

Join us if you can!

More info: http://www.desu.edu/news/dsu-host-feb-7-panel-discussion-film-django

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