at the movies

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Started 1 year ago by bandicoot
Latest reply from djk
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bandicoot
Member

last night, i watched the 2nd sex and the city movie.
a friend loaned it to me and i settled in after a long day of work, to watch it on my laptop in bed, while the rest of the house read and slumbered.
i know the show is total fluff, but i enjoy looking at the clothes, and pondering the zeitgeist, and i've been a longtime fan.

in the opening part, carrie walks through her marital apartment, in a way that is clearly a tour of the apartment, with lots of lovely product placement.....all done in a way to give us a pretty clear 30 second snapshot of how affluent the characters are and how well they are living.

well.....
i actually felt anxiety watching the tour.....that apartment was completely overstuffed with stuff!
BEAUTIFUL and EXPENSIVE stuff.... but far far far far too much of it.
there wasn't a breathing space anywhere to be seen.....it was horrible!
it made me realise how far i have come, and how deeply ingrained the changes are in my mindset.
i wanted to get in there and hold a garage sale immediately, and get rid of 75% of the stuff.

later in the movie, the four girls are evicted from their hotel suite and they have an hour to pack and get out.
there is a MASS PANIC because they are all toting about a million suitcases each and there are miles and miles and miles of toiletries, hats, clothes, shoes, bags, blah blah blah to pack.
it made me feel STRONGLY, that while it is all very fabulous to have beautiful things and a different outfit for every meal of the day....there is also a lot of fabulousness and real beauty and serenity in being able to calmly stuff 10 garments into a bag and walk out with it over your shoulder.

the whole thing was an eye opener for me.
and i couldn't help but wonder.....are the writers of this show quite as cutting-edge and on the pulse as they used to be?

Posted 1 year ago #
NeatFreak
Member

The Media is all about selling STUFF, baby!

Posted 1 year ago #
Rosa
Member

Bandicoot, I haven't seen the movies, but in at least a few episodes of the show Carrie's problems with shopping caused her issues - I think the good boyfriend (the one from Northern Exposure) was really dismayed when he found her trying to stuff things into her closet, and there were a few episodes where she was late/frustrated trying to find clothing or shoes. Her financial woes from overshopping were mentioned pretty often too (since she's the only one of the 4 without a ton of money).

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

o yes, carrie's overshopping was a frequent theme in the series and often referenced.
but NOW she has a wealthy husband and it seems that she has gone completely over the top!
i am telling you, the apartment had me reeling; it was so over-decorated!

o and there was one more thing.
they are all driven out to the middle of the desert.
in four cars (don't get me started on the pointless waste right there).
surprise! they are going camel-riding!
o no! they don't have the right clothes for camel-riding!
but yes, thank god!
one of them has organised camel-riding outfits from the hotel boutique!
the clothes are all in beautiful shopping bags. bags and bags and bags are lifted out of the cars.
and they get changed in the bedouin tent.

and all i could think was OMG, why wouldn't you launder the clothes first?
that isn't luxurious and fabulous!
that is itchy and horrid!

Posted 1 year ago #
needtocleanhouse
Member

I forget what the official term is, but movies and the like now also sell products and they get paid to put products in the movies. I'll have to keep an eye out in the next Harry Potter (opening Nov 17!!!:)) to see if there's any of that subliminal sales thing going on.

Isn't it amazing how your/our view of things change as we declutter. Congratulations.

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

it's called product placement or embedded marketing.

o, i just remembered another thing!!!!
at one point, carrie is given a huge black diamond solitaire ring.
because" she isn't like other women".
there is a bit of a scene worked around it.

if you read a history of how diamonds have been marketed to us via the movies, you'll figure out that obviously it's now not enough to just have an engagement ring.
o no, now it has to be a BLACK diamond to be REALLY special!

Posted 1 year ago #
needtocleanhouse
Member

I'll be looking for product placement or embedded marketing in "Harry Potter" (tho I can't imagine how they could do that in this type of movie) and any other movies I watch soon.

Oh, black diamonds now? Really? I'll take a look see on the net for the history of how diamonds are marketed via movies. I knew a woman who hung out with the DeBeer's (sp?) diamond heiress and Oscar. Makes this story even more interesting to me. Thanks for the interesting information bandicoot! Life is so interesting.

Posted 1 year ago #
Amy
Member

Have you ever watched the movie "Blood Diamond"? It was about the dark side of the diamond trade.
When we got married we went to a pawn shop and bought our rings. I got a beautiful antique set that lookes like one my grandmother had for a fraction of what a new set would have cost.

I don't watch too many movies anymore. Most of them are geared to teenagers and involve lots of fangs and blood, and usually include a negative political reference.

Posted 1 year ago #
trillie
Member

@needtocleanhouse, well, even if there aren't any cars or watches in the new Harry Potter, there will be a LOT of fan stuff available. Just yesterday I had to laugh out loud as a new catalog came in the mail and there were four (!) pages devoted to all the different kinds of Harry Potter wands you could buy, along with decorative wand racks so you could display them all! ;o)

On Sex and the City: I never really 'got' that series and haven't watched it much, but I always figured that the main target group was WOMEN, and so every character has to incorporate some traits so that WOMEN can identify with them. So having a full closet and standing in front of it yelling "I have nothing to wear!" is a big stereotype, as is clothes shopping to make you feel better, as is owning a lot of pairs of pointy high-heels even though you can't walk more than ten steps in them, as is decorating your home until it is 'perfect', as is wanting a 'special' engagement ring... I guess we have all been there at some point, but when you see it all at once in one character it can seem a bit much. And yes, it probably doesn't help that the majority of viewers is not like bandicoot and will probably think "Well, if I had those glitterly high-heels/flowered curtains/insert placed product here, MY life would certainly be more glamorous!" ;o)

Edit: I was curious about the apartment and googled it, and I have to say... Hey bandicoot, while you hold the garage sale with all the tiny decorative objects, can I repaint the whole apartment and make it look less busy and patterned? ;o) For the record, here are the pictures I found: SATC 2 apartment (design happens) and SATC 2 set design (apartmenttherapy)

Posted 1 year ago #
camellia tree
Member

I was a huge fan of the series, and liked the first movie, but not so much this one. My problem with Carrie's apartment was that it looked like a movie set, not like a place that people actually lived in. Her old apartment actually looked like somebody lived there, and that gave it its charm.

And I have to say, I think the producers totally missed the boat on this movie. While the world was downsizing and in a recession, they were promoting stuff that was just totally over the top. To me it just seemed sad, like these people were just trying to convince themselves that they were happy because look, they have lots of stuff!

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

camellia tree....i totally agree.
the movie felt grotesquely anachronistic.
we are all "here"....but the characters seemed very stuck back "there".
and more and more people seem to heading "here"....from what i read on the internet.

trillie, the comments on the links you listed made my jaw drop......seems i wasn't the only one to howl and kick when i saw that apartment!
how many vases can one couple possibly have on display?
seeing the still shots brought all the horror flooding back.

i think the best moment in the movie was when carrie is at her old apartment and she throws on a dress to wear out to dinner.
and that dress was my absolute favourite of all her dresses in the series.
so, at least she wore it a couple of times....lololol.

yes, i loved her old apartment and the renovation of it was beautiful.
it was still hitting my clutter-meter limit, but at least the walls were plain.....

Posted 1 year ago #
trillie
Member

@bandicoot, on the comments on the Apartment Therapy entry, they may not necessarily be an objective representation of people's opinions, as the AT readers are generally a very tough crowd to please design-wise ;o) And also: Wait, they live in the new apartment and Carrie still has her old apartment, including having clothes there? *scratches head* Is that what people mean when they say "outsourcing"? ;o)

Posted 1 year ago #
djk
Member

I didn't find it OTT cluttery because there was a lot of "white space" around the objets d'art, and the place is huge. I would have found it cluttered if there were stacks of leaning papers, things on the floor, countertops full.

However, I found the design awful. Dark and oppressive.

Posted 1 year ago #

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