Hello again, my filthy fellow nailphiles.
To any readers who saw the word 'vamp' and began excitedly fantasizing about sparkling boys and their subservient women-folk, I apologize. It's not that this post isn't about vampires, because in a way it is, but more importantly it is about my favourite kind of vamp: The Femme Fatale (for the Twilight-ians still following despite their disappointment - that means the antithesis of Bella).
(As an aside, and so as not to discriminatorily suggest that only Twilight fans are easily confused, Wikipedia tells me that a 'vamp' is also the upper part of a shoe as well as the name of the first autonomous car to drive long distance. So my apologies also go out to any disappointed retifists and autophiles.)
What was I saying? That's right Vamps! First things first - back story (get comfortable)!
As I have mentioned in other blogs, I used to be a Goth.
I say 'used to be a Goth', but I'm not sure one ever stops being a Goth. A passion for the darker things in life never truly leaves you, no matter how many painfully deliberately 'quirky' Minnie Mouse-esque Alannah Hill headbands you jam on your noggin. Deep inside me there is still a murderous little black crystal of anti-matter that causes me to fall into a swoon whenever I see the delicious, sinister morbidity that is Theda Bara aka Theda The Vamp. (For future reference, grandiose swooning is very Gothic and I have been known to fake a swoon for dark, dramatic effect on several occasions.)
Exhibit A - Dramatic swooning |
As is probably evident from the undertones of adolescent psychological trauma featured in most of my posts, my love for Madame Bara, and silent films in general, began when I was a little girl.
One night, while staying up late watching SBS due to an apparent complete lack of parental supervision, I stumbled across a 2am showing of a silent film (stumbling across a late night showing of Betty Blue is a another story for another day). To this day I have no idea what the silent film was called, only that is was a comedy from 1914. In retrospect, the 'gender-bending-magic-bean-leads-to-confusion-and-hilarity' story line was pretty average, but at the time I was completely enraptured by the (unintentionally) horrific imagery, jaunty rag time soundtrack and delightfully outdated dialogue featured on the intertitles. Oh, and there was a fair bit of frivolous black-face going on too.
After this, I fell in love with the horrific spectacle of The Silent Film. Being that I was and still am a huge horror fan, I was already familiar with Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Der Golum, but my desperate search for the title of this particular film lead me to a treasure trove of books and websites and opened my eyes to the brilliant 'Silent Era of Cinema' and to Theda Bara, Patron Saint of Goths.
During the 'teen years, Hollywood was dominated by 'All-American Girls' and wholesome and loyal Civil War wives. Actresses portrayed wives, mothers, sisters and daughters who often had little to say or do. Even Mabel Normand, the famous comedic actress and contemporary of Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, only superficially scratched the surface of women's role in film. Yup, women were considered pretty boring, at least from a narrative point of view. That was until Theda showed up. With her she brought back the fierce, sexually dominant female characters that had begun to emerge in late 19th century literature such as Le Fanu's Carmilla, while at the same time conjuring a feeling of an ancient, biblical female presence such as Lilith or Jezebel.
I like to imagine she just killed this man and boiled his flesh off. But that's just me. |
There is nothing to say - she is truly, outstandingly Gothic perfection |
Unfortunately, of the forty films Theda made, only six have survived. Of her most famous role, 'Cleopatra', only forty seconds of footage was salvageable from the notoriously deteriorative cellulose nitrate film, and is now viewable exclusively as part of a display at the Eastman Kodak Museum.
While one really ought not speak ill of the recently departed, this sh*ts all over Elizabeth Taylor's 'Cleopatra'. |
Of her remaining films, my favourite is 'A Fool There Was' (1915), in which she plays the female lead known only in the credits as 'The Vampire'. Her character in 'A Fool There Was' is not a blood sucker, but a metaphoric vampire determined to drain those around her of life, money, sex and status, leaving them destitute and emotionally destroyed (one poor chap blows his brains out in front of her while she laughs for goodness sake!). She is, as the kids would say, a gold digger. The film caused an uproar when it was released for one reason: the closing scene. In the pre-Bara Hollywood, harlots (skanks, if you will) always got their comeuppance. Sure, they could wreak havoc throughout the film, but come the closing credits the good guys had won and the trollops either saw the error of their ways, or met with an equally debaucherous end.
'A Fool There Was' ends with Theda's character lying over the corpse of her lover, whose life she has utterly destroyed, laughing hysterically while his wife and daughter stand out in the street mourning their perfect life which she so wantonly ruined. And then it fades to black. No comeuppance, no consequences, no ramifications. She just gets away with it, all the while laughing. Slut!
Anyhoo, all this rampant feminism boils down to nothing when you consider the reason that Theda Bara quit acting: she got married. Yup, like any good girl of the 1920's, her career died the minute she said 'I do' and officially agreed to honour and obey. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
But, this is a nail blog after all, so here are my thoughts on Theda inspired nails. I feel that Theda perfectly represents the concepts of femininity and darkness, and a lot of that is reflected in the way I like to present myself, at least as far as fashion and beauty goes. And what is a better symbol for femininity than a rose? So here are my nails:
For these nails, I used a base of OPI Black Onyx with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Celeb City for the roses. The rose pattern is from Konad plate m65.
For this design I used OPI A Oui Bit Of Red for the base with Konad Special Polish in black for the pattern. Again, I used Konad plate m65 for the rose pattern. I used the Konad Special Polish for stamping as it is thicker and works a little better, but if you have a good quality black, such as OPI, it would work fine anyway.
These nails also have OPI Black Onyx for the base with OPI Funny Bunny used for the rose stamps.
And lucky last, here is a little experiment I did using Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Strips. Everyone told me how easy they were to use, but to be honest I messed quite a few up and couldn't really get them smooth. But I think they look OK, and the lacy blackness certainly gives them a Bara-esque quality!
Anyway, all this Vamp talk has piqued my interest, so I'm going to head off and try to find myself an autonomous car.
See ya!