Screen Stars

Forest by Zoe Ouvrier

* DIVIDE*ACCENTUATE* CONCEAL* PROTECT - but do it in style.

Just as a mask conceals the identity of its wearer while revealing something important about him at the same time, his true preferences, inner nature, or real aspirations, so a screen may accomplish all this for your home.

Here are some contemporary stars.

 Esse by Vittorio Livi for Fiam

My interest in screens is just as keen as when I wrote to you about them the first times pondering their use in our homes in Screenery and Screen Story .

photo Bruno Jarret pour Maison Francaise

embroidered by Lesage especially for the magazine's numéro spécial  "Paris"

Jean-Michel Salvador

Traditional work today

Jean-Michel Salvador

Jean Boggio for Franz

Jardin Extraordinaire

sumptuous

Atelier des Chevau-Légers

by Sylvie du Paty de Clam of Versailles

Mats Thésélius for Kallemo Sweden acid-patinated aluminum

The screen as persona. I've often noticed that some of the most timid people dare the most outlandish styles of dress and some of the most self assured keep to the purest forms... well enough of that. This is far from being a rule and so I don't want to draw any conclusions.  But surely we can interpret personality from interiors settings. I think a screen is a little like a sun sign - so important - but not to be interpreted alone !!

Preferences?

Monomaniac

On the silver screen

The other day I had the pleasure of discovering Mankiewicz' A Letter to Three Wives. The story was intriguing, the dialogues sharply chiseled, the filming original. It's the story of three women who are leaving for an outing when they receive a letter from their mutual friend, Addie Ross. The letter announces that she is about to leave and never return - with one of their husbands. Addie is a sort of Rebeca we never see but whose voice narrates the story, a powerful seductress as much envied by each of the women as she is admired by each of their husbands. The fact that each couple is living through some difficulties increases the women's feelings of insecurity. Whose husband is it?

We see the house that each woman lives in. Deborah lives with Brad in a big house with a colonnaded porch. Addie tells us that Brad, who gave her her first black eye and her first kiss, bought the house before going off to war.



Deborah on her way to pick up Rita for a picnic with the other wives, while the men...?


Rita Phipps ( Ann Sothern) has been waiting for Deborah in front of her home in a neighborhood shared by those on their way up and those on their way down. "Rita is on her way up and wouldn't have it any other way," says the voice of Addie. She rushes back in to say goodbye to the twins, oblivious of her husband, George (Kirk Douglas).

The beautiful Lora Mae (Linda Darnell) is from a shack on the wrong side of the tracks. It shakes and rattles when the train passes by but Lora Mae stays cool and steady for she knows what she wants...

and gets it.

Lora Mae guesses the identity of the beautiful woman in the portrait. We only see the back of the frame.

Rita Phipps is the working woman of the three. An ambitious soap opera writer for the radio, she invites her over-bearing employer for dinner trying to win her favor. Her attempts to put her best face forward naturally include sprucing up home and husband. They purchase expensive Scotch for the occasion, though "Bourbon is a better drink," because it's in fashion with "those showbiz types." Husband is expected to wear his tuxedo and the housekeeper has a new uniform complete with a saucy cap that she detests - all this is designed to impress. George, a school teacher, is indulgent but fairly put off by his wife's attempt at pretence.

Rita: People in the show business, you know what I mean, those kind of

people always drink scotch.

George: Well, I know what you mean, but I wish you wouldn't say it in radio English. "That kind", not "those kind".

Rita: There are men who say "those kind" who earn $100,000 dollars a year.

George: There are men who say "stick 'em up" who earn more.

I don't expect to do either.

There is tension in the air with such a cocktail of personalities. The guests bicker and the oafish boss and her submissive husband won't touch the Scotch though the others find it very necessary to partake. There is a clatter...

when it comes time to dine. Sadie (Thelma Ritter) unveils the dining area by removing a screen Betty had apparently thought a more elegant way to proceed. Ah ha! The ultimate sign of

Rita's pretense!

The cumbersome folding screen practically comes tumbling through the viewing screen,

a struggle ensues,

the cap goes askew.

As Sadie wrestles to put it aside, she sighs wisely saying,
"I tol' ya the screen was a crummy idea. Soup's on!"

Of course, this was a great screen moment for me ! Clever Mankiewicz.
I leave you to you to find out about the rest of the story.

Yesterday

If you are in love with the worn and faded souvenirs of yesterday and sometimes feel your most at one with humanity when it reaches out to you from the bygone days ... you might enjoy my views of one of my favorite fairs on the Ile des Impressionists. Now that I can't get my mind off Screens, it is naturally their direction I pointed my camera.

It must be difficult to restore some of these.

This double screen with views of Paris and Versailles dates from the 50s

and is in perfect shape.

Is it worth it to get an old screen or would a new frame be better for this sort of fabric model?

screen story - la suite

Screens have divided and conquered Eastern and Western living spaces through the ages. With their distant origins in China dating to the 300B.C., their use became more widespread in the 7th century China. First heavy, lacquered, relatively stationary objects, they became truly mobile when made of beautiful papers and cloths later in 8th century Japan. Their easy transport made them ideal for tea ceremonies or as backdrops for religious ceremonies, dance and theatrical productions. The wild enthusiasm for all Oriental articles of luxury and refinement of the late 17th early 18th century naturally included not only porcelains, lacquer furniture and silks, but also screens. It seems to me their introduction into Western living spaces altered our relation to those spaces.
( European illustration for a fan, 1700,Victoria & Albert Museum)

This very simple screen made from a frame with dark green fabric nailed through a ribbon on to it seems to show that the utility of screens had been known for some time already; a screen wasn't only a highly ornamental piece from the Orient. Homemade would do. (Gérhard ter Borch 1665)

Mme de Rambouillet (1588-1665) is thought to have first brought screens into fashion in France. Their introduction into living quarters coincides with the start of a new desire for privacy in a world where personal isolation was yet unheard of. Interiors were teaming with humanity. Aristocratic circles were surrounded by servants and constant social movement and in simpler home settings, one room served for everything and everybody; living was a collective venture. Folding screens could designate a more intimate space. Behind the protection of its shielding presence, one could listen and dream unseen. (Francois Boucher 1743)

Vast rooms would begin to be marked off with areas for particular domestic functions. The notion of comfort had started to make headway. Daybeds and low slung fauteuils encouraged a different kind of posture and less self-conscious behavior. One could set off precious chosen company as jewels in front of its richly decorated folds, the better to appreciate glittering banter or stylish readings. Luxury had met with a new sense of douceur de vivre, stiff etiquette could be relaxed here.

(Jean Francois de Troy 1679-1752)

With the progression of the home to a personal sanctuary, privacy became more and more natural to the point of being taken for granted. The 19th and 20th centuries saw homes become increasingly the expression of their owner's personalities and this as a prerogative for many.

The use of screens on the stage has long been known as a simple way to change scenery. To those who approach life as an art form, screens seem an especially fitting accessory for the home. You have only to provide the theatrics before the backdrop of your choice. Here's quite an example to follow with Dame Edith Sitwell in this famous photograph by Cecil Beaton.

Anna de Noailles, poetess with a flair for exotic costume. Many photographs show her with this screen positioned behind her daybed or her bed.

It's so much more effective to strike a pose against the vibrant color of a Chinese screen - a method tried and true for us in Western interiors for 400 years. Women's magazines throughout the 19th and beginning of the 20th century were filled with projects for homemade screens using postage stamps, wallpaper, or prints - just as today we may see similar projects using stencils, photographs or storage pockets.

André Arbus proves the utility of screens even in a very streamlined setting. There are no paintings on the walls but a screen of the same cream tones as the walls sets the accent on the sofa, giving it importance and a level of comfort that it would lack without it.

Click for more information on screens

Screenery

It came on innocently enough. A simple idea of moving the furniture around. Soon after, the obsession set in. And then came the need.

The living room was too heavy with two sofas. Project: open up the living room so it flows once again into the dining room by removing one of the two sofas. Easy enough, but this also means changing the television from its nice unobtrusive corner position to throne in the middle of the room facing the entrance. That's right, a cocky rectangular presence is going to be the first thing you see on walking into the living room. How's that for a decorating dilemma? And out with the grandfather clock given by Grandmère. But where is the piano going to go now that it can't be backed up to old big and bulky?

So I thought of using a folding screen in the middle of the room to nestle its leaves against one wall then to project out providing a backdrop for the telly's wide screen on one side and for the piano on the other. Its folds don't have to hide the TV but they should help to work it into the room more gracefully. Ideally it wouldn't go higher than 30 cm past the top of the television so the windows on the living room side and the dining room side would still be visible. An extra half wall, but better. The search began and I soon realized they were everywhere.

Mine would be a very utilitarian use of a screen. Come to think of it, how are screens usually used? In fact, they may be one of the most curious articles of furniture we have because they are constantly pirouetting between their useful role and that of objects of art. Any piece of furniture can be appreciated for its pure decorative qualities, but a desk is for writing, a chair for sitting, a table for eating. Whereas a screen . . . is all about limiting, hiding, revealing, showing off . . .
a screen . . .

*Dedicates a space to a particular purpose faster than any other means. This screen and bed were designed by Hubert Le Gall in the tradition of fine lacquer work.

photo: Jerome Galland, AD

*Hides what we don't want to be seen. A work area/office space, pipes, a sink or some unsightly but necessary element is tucked away from the general view. This Suttecliffe print work screen hides a stereo ...

photo: Huntley Hedworth

*Provides an additional wall and protection from drafts. The French name for screen is paravent, indicating a shield from dreaded courrants d'air. This one also serves as extra
gallery space.
photo:Jacques Dirand

* Stands on its own as an artwork.

*Replaces shutters as mobile window dressing for windows that don't cry out for curtains.
photo: Franck Bel

*Gives a bit of privacy to a dressing area. Think of all those titillating backstage moments in old films where an actress changes behind a screen, flinging one piece of clothing after another across the top all the while talking to her visitor. Nothing could illustrate better how a screen hides from and beckons to our attention at the same time.

Sometimes we aren't sure why they show up in an interior. They just happen to be
kicking around.
photo: Guillaume de Laubier

A screen...

*Creates a special place, a backdrop and a focal point. Cezanne used this one that he made with Zola when they were young in his Atelier des Lauves in Aix-en-Provence.

photo: Christine Soler, Maison Francaise

*It furnishes lonely corners and balances out a decorative theme.
Jean Michel Frank's straw marquetry screen illustrates one of his master stokes in the transformation of simple materials into precious surfaces. The first ever exhibit of his work in France opens today at the Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent.

photo: Jacques Dirand

My explorations don't stop here, but in the meantime I have bought a simple folding screen frame and pinned fabric to it.The game of permutation has begun whether the ideal solution has been found or not and the room feels better already, but I'm fully hooked on screens now.

To be continued...

top photos: Serge Korniloff, Décoration Internationale 17TH century Japanese;

Jerome Galland, AD