Uncle Scoopy's world-weary musings about naked celebrities, sports, humor and other important, manly things.
UPDATE: added 4K clip
There was also nudity in episode 2. In addition to the images and videos, that link also contains additional info about the series, and has also been upgraded with a 4K clip.
Defoe’s 1080p film clip is here.
Defoe’s 2160p film clip is here.
UPDATE: added 4K clip
New French historical drama.
In 1831, a woman flees her abusive marriage, moves to Paris under a male pseudonym, and challenges gender norms by wearing men’s clothing, pursuing affairs, and advocating for women’s rights through writing.
George Sand was an important author and feminist. (Birth name: Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil). Wikipedia gives a good summary of her importance:
George Sand was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. Being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balzac in England in the 1830s and 1840s, Sand is recognized as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era. She has more than 50 volumes of various works to her credit, including tales, plays and political texts, alongside her 70 novels.
Seventy novels? I didn’t know that. Righteous output!
She was well known to be Chopin’s lover, but her sexuality seemed fluid (as represented in a lesbian scene below), and she wore men’s clothing in public, which she considered a necessity. In 1800, the police chief of Paris issued an order requiring women to apply for a permit in order to wear trousers. Although many women chose to wear pants without receiving a permit, Sand did obtain a permit to wear men’s clothing in 1831, justifying it as being less expensive and far sturdier than typical noblewomen’s attire. It was not just a matter of comfort and economy, nor was it merely a political statement. It was essential for an author who wanted to travel freely in Paris society and to write about the experience. Posing as a man gave her increased access to venues and events that barred women, even those with powerful fathers or husbands. The male persona also allowed her to smoke in public, which was illegal for women.
Anouchka Kregar
Elsa Segalen
Defoe’s 1080hd film clip is here
Defoe’s 2160hd film clip is here
Everyone lost their minds in the 70s, even me.
The article reports many things I already knew, but I got a kick out of it, because it reminded me of a cultural treasure I had forgotten: The Ethel Merman Disco Album, which somehow managed to combine the two worst things of 1979 pop culture. Her disco version of There’s No Business Like Show Business is even worse than the original, which seems theoretically impossible, but it’s her same old singing style, with the same phrasing of her same old signature song, except with a corny disco beat in the background.
There is no conclusive evidence among the ruins of Babylon that such a garden ever existed, nor the irrigation system needed to maintain it amid the desert landscape. Also, the breathtaking accounts of the foliage were all composed well after the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE; there are no contemporary descriptions of the Hanging Gardens, even though other achievements of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign were recorded at the time.
The current theory is that there was such a hanging garden in Nineveh, and the correct info got lost, and possibly exaggerated, in the historical shuffle.
German series exploring “what if” scenarios.
Everyone asks themselves the question at least once in their life: What if…? The question of what life would be like with a different decision has inspired numerous creative minds – be it on a small scale (à la Groundhog Day ) or on a large scale (the multiverse as in the Marvel comic adaptations). Now the German series “Parallel Me” , which premieres on April 26th on Paramount+, is also trying its hand at the concept. The series explores the possible alternative lives of the protagonist, Toni Falk ( Malaya Stern Takeda ).
Dozens of Chicagoans grab $300K cash that fell off back of Brinks truck
Johnny’s notes:
Not a great amount of nudity in the final update for 2019 but there’s a decent scene from Thomasin McKenzie in True History of the Kelly Gang (see below). There are some brief scenes of nudity in the drama Spring Interlude; two comedies, Standing Up for Sunny and The Taverna; and two thrillers, Tainted Getaway and Turbines.
Sydne had an unusual career path for a kid from Upper Sandusky, Ohio. Early in her acting career, she flew to Rome to audition for the title role in Candy, and essentially never returned. She told an Akron newspaper that she fell in love and decided to stay in Europe. She eventually became an Italian citizen, converted from Judaism to Catholicism, and worked her entire life in European cinema.
Somewhere along the line she decided to shave five years off her age. IMDb lists her birth year as 1951, but Wikipedia has the correct date of 1946. We know 1946 is right because there is plenty of information available about her at ancestry.com, including census data and many yearbook pictures from every year of her high school days. Those pictures demonstrate that she entered high school in September of 1960 with short dark hair that had a bit of a wave to it. Her hair got longer, straighter and lighter every year.
Somehow the dark-haired Jewish girl, an American born in 1946, had miraculously become a blonde Italian Catholic born in 1951! Fortunately for us, neither of her religions seemed to discourage her from doing nude scenes. Roman Polanski’s What?, pictured below, featured her best nude performance, but she turned in many others between 1969 and 1977.
In 2009, she was in a terrible auto accident that disfigured her face and robbed her of her great beauty, but she continued to act, and is still acting to this day, although she is approaching 80. In a perfect bit of symmetry, her most recent film was also directed by Roman Polanski (The Palace, 2023), more than 50 years after he had directed her in the scenes below.
Dramedy series from Spain
Berta Prieto and Belén Barenys write, together with Miguel Ángel Blanca (Magaluf Ghost Town) this series about the vital moment of a generation, of which five episodes will be screened. Autodefensa is about two friends who have a great time together without having to ask anyone’s permission. The film is about being in your twenties, living in Barcelona and wanting to step over every possible emotional red line to discover who you really are. It’s about the adventures of two cheeky lunatics who don’t want anyone to tell them how to do things, creating their own world in order to be queens. Actually, Autodefensa is about two girls who are really scared and having fun in self-defence. They say they’re sorry, it was all ‘self-defence’, they were just too scared.
To my knowledge, there were no more seasons.
Acclaimed French drama, the second part of a story begun in Jean de Florette (also 1986). The two-part saga is ranked among the greatest film achievements of all time.
A beautiful but shy shepherdess plots vengeance on the men whose greedy conspiracy to acquire her father’s land caused his death years earlier (as pictured in another film, Jean de Florette).
Warning: My review (linked below) contains spoilers of some dramatic, ironic plot twists.
I would love Claude Berri’s masterpieces, Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring (my review), even if Emmanuelle Beart had not gotten naked in the second part of the story. The beautiful nudity represents wonderfully sweet icing on a perfect cake. Both parts of the saga are rated at least 8 at IMDb, as well they should be.
