B/W Moment: The Unsung Aussie Orry-Kelly

 The Sydney Film Festival is now in full swing and there is one movie that should not be missed. Produced and directed by Academy Award winner Gillian Armstrong, it is the story of one of Hollywood's most celebrated artistes Orry-Kelly who died in 1964.

Gillian Armstrong

The chances are you have watched a movie where Orry George Kelly-his birth name, designed unforgettable costumes for the most famous legends of the day from Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot to Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca.  Kelly is also Australia's most prolific Oscar winner having won three for costume design and nominated numerous times.

  Kelly (left) was born in Kiama NSW in 1897 before he embarked for New York in 1923 where he shared an apartment with Cary Grant and then to LA and a Hollywood career. In many ways he is similar to Aussie legends Sir Robert Helpmann and Peter Allen, both born in rural communities but with fathers who actively encouraged them in their pursuit of the arts.

Armstrong's film is titled Women I've Undressed after an unpublished manuscript Kelly wrote which reputedly detailed his affair with movie legend and his former flat mate Cary Grant. 

Movie Stars at premiers

Toni Collette attended the premier of her new film The Way Way Back at the Sydney Film Festival tonight at the State Theatre.
Collette has been spotted around Darlinghurst and Paddington in the past few days during filming of The Devils Playground, the film that picks up where Fred Schepisi's 1976 film left off.
 From the original book by Tom Keneally, the tale is set 35 years later in the 1980s and also stars Simon Burke who starred as a schoolboy in the original Catholic guilt laden true story based on Keneally's life. Simon was on hand at the premier tonight to support Toni while on the other side of town Collette's co-star Steve Carell attended the premier of Crazy Stupid Love.

                                           

Watch This Film

There is a real buzz in the industry about director Cate Shortland's new film Lore. The flick was premiered at the Sydney Film Festival on Saturday night and it has been picked up by Music Box through French-based international sales agent Memento Films for distribution in the US.

Lore is a joint Australian, German and the UK production by Porchlight Films which had a huge success with the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. 

An adaptation by Cate (left) and Robin Mukherjee of Rachel Seiffert’s The Dark Room it's the story of Lore, a young German girl who must get her four younger siblings to her grandmother on the other side of the country after her Nazi parents are arrested by Allied Forces.

Lore fans Rachel Ward &Matilda Brown

Saskia Rosendahl

     

Underbelly Razor star Jeremy Lindsay Taylor & wife Marnie Pleffer at Lore

Lore is beautifully filmed and newcomer Saskia Rosendahl gives a superb performance as the main character. A name and a movie to watch.










Below: watch Cate talk about Lore on SBS: