Frances McDormand Lives it Up

 

In Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, the charming, sophisticated new film by Bharat Narulli we are asked if you can get a life and discover love all in one day.  It’s London in 1939 and Miss Guinevere Pettigrew, played by Academy Award-winner McDormand, is a middle-aged governess unfairly dismissed from her job.  For the first time in decades, Pettigrew seizes the day, finding employment as a ‘social secretary’ and getting swept away in the glamorous and dizzying world of an American actress played by Amy Adams.  In the process, she helps Delysia (Adams) navigate through her paramours and finds love herself.

 

“This is a stylish and entertaining story about making choices and living with the consequences – and right away I could clearly see myself playing the title role,” says McDormand. “At the start of the story Miss Pettigrew is dowdy, with particularly uncontrollable hair. But when the mirror turns to reveal her new look, she is still the same person, just in different clothes. She discovers that it’s not about getting rid of what she was before, but about fully inhabiting who she was before – and taking control of her life over the course of a day like no other in her life.”

 

McDormand, who is perhaps known best for her award winning role as Marge Gunderson in the dark Coen Brothers film Fargo and recently in Nicole Holofcener’s Friends With Money, felt strongly about the timeliness of this film. “I found this part of the story so important, especially now, what with all the reality television makeover shows that are on. For Miss Pettigrew, everything she’s been through up until this one-day is an element of who she is. It’s not about getting rid of what she was before; it’s about fully inhabiting herself.”

 

McDormand clarifies, “Bharat saw to it that Amy and I were in the same frame for the scenes with physical comedy. In a way, we were emulating Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance; two women moving through spaces together and dealing with situations.”

 

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day (PG-13) Focus Features. Starring Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace.

Photos: Kerry Brown

 

 

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KEEPING SCORE Christopher Gunning

 

Four-time BAFTA-winning composer Christopher Gunning was “making up” pieces as early as 4 years old.  Since then, the composer of such remarkable scores as “La Vie En Rose” and “Firelight” has taken his obsession with music and his taste for classical composers like Debussy and Ravel and given films their very soul.

 

“It was clear throughout my school years that I was never going to be anything other than a musician,” admits Gunning charmingly.  “For one thing I was pretty hopeless at everything else.  It was also apparent that I was going to be a composer because I had no special gifts as a performer and my only real interests were in the nuts and bolts of how music could be put together.”

 

The British composer with innumerable film and television scores, and concertos under his belt is probably best known to US audiences for his Bafta-winning score of “La Vie En Rose”, the Academy-Award winning biopic on legendary French singer, Edith Piaf.  When asked how he approached the undertaking, he said, “I was introduced to the director, Olivier Dahan, who said right from the start that he wanted the film to have its own musical theme, but that the soundtrack would also naturally involve a lot of Piaf’s songs. I didn’t write any of my own music for the film until some six months later, when all shooting was complete and editing had started. The first sequence I composed was for the ABC theatre, where Piaf suffers from stage fright but little by little pulls herself together and then woos the audience. Rather bravely, Olivier shot the whole sequence with none of Piaf’s music – it fell to me to provide the entire soundtrack, which had to express the emotional gradient from fear to triumph in approximately two minutes.”

 

The passionate soundtrack for “La Vie En Rose”, like much of Gunning’s work, is accomplished enough to be enjoyed even without the film.  So evocative is his score, that Gunning is equivalent to Piaf on the soundtrack, a master in his own right.  This is no coincidence since he likes to write pieces that “sound reasonably complete when divorced from the picture.”  Gunning, who can go without sleep for days on end when a composition he’s working on doesn’t feel right, will find some gratification in knowing that his perfectionism has resulted in the kind of music that becomes an obsession with the listener too.

 

http://www.christopher-gunning.co.uk

 

Ghalib Dhalla

 

 

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KETTLEBELLS whip you into shape.

 

It’s hard to imagine that there is one exercise out there that can meet both the needs of the members of the National Football League as well as the New York City Ballet but there is.  So efficient is this exercise at burning calories, developing strong core muscles, and generating overall body conditioning that the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Matthew McConaughey, Penelope Cruz and Sylvester Stallone have been spotted using this old school workout with decidedly modern benefits. 

 

Originated by Russian power-lifters, the Kettlebells exercise synergizes the benefits of cardio, strength, endurance, flexibility, and balance.  Best of all, this exercise takes as little as 30 minutes, 3-5 times a week to improve muscle strength, power, coordination, and calorie burning.

 

Kettlebells are cast-iron, cannonball-like devices with large handles ranging anywhere from 8 pound to 105 pound sizes.  What makes Kettlebell exercise unique is its reliance of natural momentum and dynamic balance.  Focusing on muscle integration versus muscle isolation, the kettlebell offers a unique range of motion that allows you to target many muscles simultaneously.  The kettlebell iron weight is snatched, pressed and swung in a series of exercises.  Once the basic movements are learned, they can be integrated to create a more challenging workout regimen and can be one of the most successful means for changing your body from a fat-storing to a fat burning system.  

 

To maximize its benefits and minimize any risk of injuries, it is advisable when you first start to seek the professional assistance of a certified trainer.  Aside from teaching you how to use the kettlebells correctly (including maintaining the right stance, posture, muscle tension and breathing technique), he can also customize the right weightlifting exercises to help you achieve your fitness goals.

 

 

www.mindmusclefitness.com To receive a complimentary kettlebell class (space limited), contact Griffin White, Fitness Trainer & Kettlebell Instructor and mention IndulgeMagazine.com (310) 487-7886 or griffin@mindmusclefitness.com

 

-- Heather Ho

 

 

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