While looking at pictures and footage of crowded beaches on the Internet and on the news that showed how people are spending their summer holidays, my mind went back to some photographs taken on the set of the film Les Aventures du Roi Pausole (The Adventures of King Pausole, 1933).
Shot by Alexis Granowsky and taken from the eponymous novel by Pierre Louÿs, the film follows the adventures of a king reigning over an imaginary Mediterranean country, Tryphème, located between Spain and France. King Pausole is surrounded by 366 queens, one for each day of the year (plus one for a leap year...), but one day he is faced by a new vital problem, his own daughter’s sexual awakening.
I remember analysing Louÿs’ novel a long time ago while researching some materials for an essay about fashion, censorship and erotic novels.
Maybe I should dig that out, but, in the meantime, rather than erotic novels I have on my mind a few pictures taken by photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue on Granowsky’s set .
The pictures show a few "queens" relaxing clad in rather stylish one-shoulder one piece bathing suits, caps and black gloves. I absolutely love the bathing suits with Pausole’s logo, a big "P" with a crown. The costumes for this film were made by high fashion artist Marcel Vertès who became famous for his illustrations for many fashion designers in France during the 30s, among them also Elsa Schiaparelli.
Vertès also worked as set decorator and production designer on John Huston's Moulin Rouges (if you are into cinema and art or would like to know more about Huston's film, check out the book Art & Artists on Screen by John A. Walker). Lartigue’s pictures of the queens make me think about Esther Williams’ films, but there is a picture with the queens relaxing on a boat (taken in Cap d'Antibes in 1932) that could have been taken for a fashion photo shoot.
Who knows, maybe, we will see these bathing suits reappearing in future collections: maybe one day an ironic cinema lover such as Jean Paul Gaultier will rediscover them and change the "P" with his initials, or maybe Jean Charles de Castelbajac could do a pop art/cartoonish version of it.
What I know for sure is that usually Lartigue’s images ooze a sort of irresistible joie de vivre and these ones in particular are perfect for a languid summer day.
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