WEBVTT - Isabella Rossellini 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:07.240 Hey, everybody, it's Bruce. 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:10.880 Thanks for pulling up a chair for another episode of 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:14.760 Table for Two. Today we are not in a restaurant, 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.160 but at a beautiful farm, about to have a delicious 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:22.919 lunch of salmon and fresh vegetables. Oh oh my god, 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:25.759 I'm so happily nervous sitting here with you. 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:27.600 It's okay to chew for your podcast. 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:33.280 My guest today is a model, an actress, an animal behaviorist. 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:38.440 She's immensely beautiful, talented and bright. Her new film, Conclave, 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.680 is a powerful look into the election of a new pope. 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:45.760 My vegetables are amazing. 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:49.800 That's right. 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:54.440 We're having lunch with Isabella Rosolini. We're going to talk 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:58.320 about fashion, film and her legendary family. So pull up 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:02.160 a chair, grab a glass, Rose, and I really hope 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:03.440 you enjoy our conversation. 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:08.559 I'm Bruce Bossi and this is my podcast Table for two. 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.039 So if you've pulled up a chair, we are on 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:23.319 a farm. We are sitting with one of the most 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:28.679 accomplished women who has had an incredible career, who has 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:33.000 a movie that premiered last night called Conclave. A renowned, 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:36.720 incredibly beautiful woman known for your great beauty, which I'm 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:41.200 staring at Nesmas. We are having lunch today with Isabella Rossellini. 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:44.920 Thank II, thank you so much with this incredible introduction. 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:47.920 No, thank you. And you know your name is like 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:49.240 a song, it's beautiful. 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:54.280 Isabella Fiorella Eletra Giovanna Rossellini. 0:01:54.360 --> 0:02:00.400 Yeah. So in Italy the tradition, Catholic tradition conclaves film. 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.160 So I grew up Catholic. So in the Catholic tradition, 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:06.960 it's not your legal name, so it's not in my passport. 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:08.840 In my passport, I don't even have a middle name 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.480 because in Europe the middle names, so it's only Isabella Rossilini. 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:17.160 But the day of your baptism you give names, and 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:19.840 during the baptism, so you give the name of a 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.799 saint that you particularly like. And for me was Joan 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:27.160 Jovanna because Mama played Joan of Arc my mom Thean reversement, 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:31.119 so she wanted Joan. And then Fiorilla is the name 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:35.079 of my godmother, who is my cousin. Mama was very 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:40.120 close to her, Johanna. And Electra. Electra is the name 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.560 of my grandmother. So when when you baptize the child, 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:46.960 which is the kind of introducing it to life. You Also, 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:49.559 there is the tradition of linking them with the ancestor 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:51.920 the name of the indeed, my case, my cousin, but 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.840 it can be your best friend and then the saint. 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:57.600 That's it's a it's a beautiful it's a beautiful face. 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.880 In My family is half Northern Italian and half Southern. 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.720 So I was named Bruce after my father, Bernard after 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:10.320 my grandfather, whose name is Bruno. And I took on 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.760 my father's middle named Edward for my confirmation name. 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:15.160 So there's there's meaning. 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:16.720 But you don't have them in your passport. 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:19.640 No, No, I just have Bruce Bozzi. 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:21.720 You don't even have a middle name. 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:24.760 Well, it's Bernard, but I never really liked Bernard. It 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:27.200 was like it's just for some reason, so I went 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.480 by Bruce b period, I kind of shortened it. So, 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.480 I mean, your mother, obviously ing your father. 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:38.880 Berta Rusina, an incredible film director, did you sort of 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:42.520 have that sense of their who they were in, you know, 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:45.360 in the world and their significance in the world growing up? 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:48.960 Well not really. I mean when you're little, you don't 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:53.000 understand it. You know, you you think you know people 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:56.600 recognize him and recognize them, and I didn't know them 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:01.000 because they're parents. You know, I thought parents were important, 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:03.800 all parents would be recognized. Then little by little I 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:07.520 realized all the parents are recognized. My friends parents, they 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:13.000 didn't recognize. They had to introduce a house, you know, 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.400 so that you come to it slowly. Then I remember 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:18.920 that I would ask my friends when I said about 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:20.839 how famous is my mom? And I would ask my 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:24.520 friends at school, is she famous like John Crawford, like 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.280 Greta Garbo, give me a measure? You know. I was 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:30.800 using because I couldn't really gauge it, and so I 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.480 think it was only when you become a teenager. I 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.960 remember my father. I was very jealous Italian father, so 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.200 I wasn't allowed to go out, and there was a 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.080 retrospective of my parents. You know, because nowadays you can 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:46.560 watch on Netflix or Amazon or Criteria, which is my 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:51.000 absolute favorite too. Criterion you can access and see the 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:54.479 films of Para. I couldn't see my parents' film why 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:56.920 because they were you know, they had to come out 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:01.360 in the movie theater maybe film. They didn't come out 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:03.919 once in a while. You might see them on television, 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:06.360 but not with the frequency that a few years ago, 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.840 or they were retrospectives in museums. So I remember when 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:12.960 I was I think sixteen, there was a retrospective of 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:16.200 my father's film and I went and I was because 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:18.400 mother said, you know, you can't go out, et cetera. 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:20.080 I didn't tell him I was going to see his 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.200 film because I thought maybe he was going to scold 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:25.000 me because I was going out without telling him, And 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:26.760 so I went to see them in secret. And then 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:28.600 my father found out that I wasn't at home as 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:31.800 I told him I was, and he called me and yelled, 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.640 and where have you been? And with great fear, I said, 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:36.760 are you going to see your film? Said all this 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:39.320 week I went to see you film. His tears came 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:41.720 up to his eyes. Oh wow, he was so touched 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:44.280 and I don't know why. And then I just said, 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:46.120 of course he's happy that I want to see him. 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:48.200 But I didn't have the courage to tell him. And 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:50.640 maybe I thought he would say, oh, what do you care? 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.120 You know? Interested you they now you're going to see 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:55.279 because I'm a famous director. But I wanted to see 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:56.000 what he was doing. 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.200 And then you saw how meaningful it was for him 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:00.480 that you Oh, and what did you think when you 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:03.000 saw your father's films when you were young, like when 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:04.920 you walked out of the movie theater that first time. 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.919 Like I was very moved. I mean, he would always 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.479 say to me because his films, the most famous film 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:16.760 of his, were called neorealism because they look so real, 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:22.000 they look like documentaries, and so the critic called them neorealism, 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:24.719 and often they would talk about his style. He worked 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.600 with actor and an actor, he worked outside the studio 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.360 for the first time in real location. But there was 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:32.839 a style that looked completely new, And father said, but 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:34.800 it wasn't a style. I didn't think of his style. 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.479 It was an urgency that I felt to tell how 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.320 the civilian lived the war. It was a kind of 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:46.400 a moral impulse rather than a stylistic impulse. Although he 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:50.520 was often asked about his style. So I appreciated his 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:55.360 film because the spiritual moral dimension of his film is 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:56.479 what makes them so great. 0:06:56.600 --> 0:07:00.359 Yes, And then when you saw when the question was 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:03.560 answered regarding your mother, who you know was one of 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:07.320 the biggest stories ever. When did you realize how you're like? Oh, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:09.160 and the lines of Greta Garbo. 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:12.720 And my mom my mom had also when we were 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:16.240 a teenager, a retrospective of her work on television and 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:21.760 Italian television. So I was able to see Casa Blanca Notorious, 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:23.960 all the films that she did when I was I 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:27.080 wasn't in Betterlive. It was great, but I felt maybe 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:31.200 closer to my father's film because the war. I was 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:34.240 born in nineteen fifty two, so seven years after the war, 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.800 and the war was very present in my bringing, the 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:41.160 desperation of the war, So my father's film moved me 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.040 more than Casa Blanca. You know, Casa Blanca a reference 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.560 to the war. Everybody is so elegant, everybody so rich. 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:51.520 I was a little bit lost because what I'd known 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:54.000 about the war was very different from Casa Blanc Shore. 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:58.320 So I had to acquire the Hollywood culture of the 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:02.720 bigger than life, the dream, quite the entertainment quality, and 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:06.080 I appreciated, but immediately I was confused by ed. I said, 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:08.200 how can how can these be refugees and they go 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:11.680 like dressed like this at the rich cafe. It's impossible. 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.200 Did you have any idea that that would be a journey, 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:17.160 a path that you decided that you would go on 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:19.080 as far as acting. 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.920 And not really I thought I was going to make 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:27.160 films but not acting. When I was eighteen and finished 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:31.040 the school I went to for three years to Academia 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.720 and the Costume and Model which is a school that 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.640 teaches you to become a costume designer in fashion like 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:41.000 Parsons School of Designer in New York. And I graduated 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:43.880 thinking there would become a costume designer, and then instead 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.559 I became involved first as an assistant to a journalist 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.440 and I started to work with Roberto Benini the Life 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.560 is Beautiful, comical skit that for a few years, and 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:56.560 then immediately into fashion as a model. But that was 0:08:56.600 --> 0:09:00.160 okay because it was my way into fashion, which is 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:04.520 something I loved. Fashion is contemporary costume, isn't it. So 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:05.800 it's kind of the word the same. 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:15.120 Yes, okay, So you. 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.360 Brought up coming to New York and fashion and you know, 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:20.240 and I know that you came to New York when 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:23.319 you were around nineteen, you know, period of your life 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:25.559 you started working as a model. 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:26.480 And you've really worked. 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.480 I mean, you are considered and are one of the 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:32.920 most beautiful women in the world, and so you worked 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:34.920 with like incredible photographer. 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.480 Yeah, I worked with the best pographer, may be right, 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:39.839 what wasp. 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:42.880 Yeah, Bruce Webber, Stephen Miselle. 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.600 What was that for you? That growing up? Because that's 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.600 very those are key years of growing up and understanding. 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.280 But they were, you know, they were very formative years 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.960 and made me fall in love with talent and your 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:59.120 originality of each mind of each photographer. Although we mostly 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:03.880 shot for fashion, you know, occasionally portrait for maple Thorp 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:08.079 or pen but otherwise mostly was fashion. But I combined. 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.679 I loved fashion, and so the combination of the two. Though. 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.400 So I came from a family a photographer. My grandfather 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:16.600 from my mother's side, but I never met him. He 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.360 was dead when I was born, was a photographer, and 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.040 my mother took lots of pictures all the time. My 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.320 father was a filmmaker. It didn't take photos, but of 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:29.640 course cinema is photos, you know, it's visual, right, So 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:33.360 there was a culture of a visual culture of an 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:37.520 art that I found out even when modeling, so I 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.320 loved it. I loved every second of modeling. I'd love 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:42.839 to say that sometimes I think I like modeling more 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:46.080 than acting, partially because it was easier to reconcile with 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.280 the family. Because if you're leaving for a photo shoot, 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:51.480 you might be gone for three or four days, then 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:53.640 you come home. You a film, you might leave for 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:57.000 three months, and that's much heavier on the family. So 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:02.280 modeling was easier and and like there was something very 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:04.800 light about it. Also there was light because we were 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:08.520 selling clothes or makeup or whatever it was. And in 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:10.760 films sometimes you have to play a dramatic role. You 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.560 have to go in thoughts that are dark. You recall 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:17.240 feelings that are unpleasant so you can portray them. But 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:19.000 I like acting too. But I have to say a 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:22.440 lot of people think of meddling as a lesser job, 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:24.880 but it isn't. I always thought it was really great. 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.839 Do you have there a photographer of all the grades 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.160 that you've worked with that you feel how captured you, 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:31.640 the essence of you? 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:31.679 No? 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.720 I mean this is the great thing is that when 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:36.760 you are you don't try to have you. I mean, 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:39.520 it's embarrassing when people say, let's do a portrait of you. 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.160 Oh my god, it is so embarrassed. But you don't 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:43.680 know how to pose. You know, I don't know what 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:47.199 you know what take the photo? You know, Instead, when 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:50.920 you do a character it's easier and also what you're 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:53.079 trying to do is to find a common denominator. We 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.199 are all human beings. So whether I play a nun 0:11:55.679 --> 0:12:00.280 or a whore, or an assassin or a mother trying 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:03.520 to find the common denominator. I don't do films or 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:08.000 I don't do photos to show myself or to find myself. 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.880 I do it to look at the commonality that we 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:15.199 have among all of us, so that people can relate 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:16.319 to the character you play. 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:18.280 Yeah, you know, you were the face of line com 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:21.760 for many many years and then of course they released 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:23.800 you from your contractual obligations. 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.920 You got me back ag and then they got you back. 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:29.800 The story with lang Com is a big saga. Yeah, yeah, 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:33.760 so we were and the fact that they got me back. See, 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:37.320 length comb is not a political movement, it's a service. 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:41.680 So they really do what people demand and what they ask. 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:44.960 And I think that in the eighties there was a 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:47.480 real I think I have to say that maybe there 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.800 were many other reasons, but I think that men were 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:54.520 the executive of these cosmetic lines. Men was very much. 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.400 They understood makeup when it was done for them to 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:02.679 seduce them, and so they emphasize the art of seduction 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:07.920 through makeup of clothing. But once because society evolved, women 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:13.000 became the new CEO. They saw that seduction was one 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:18.040 of the reason. But there resultso creativity, self expression, playfulness, 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:21.200 and I think that the advertisement or the way they 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:25.439 present themselves nowadays, it is that way. And so they 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:28.040 call me back. They called me back also because it 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:31.680 was a sense of injustice, because it was extremely successful. Yes, 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:34.760 and at forty two, the executive at the time explained 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:38.520 to me that advertisement is about dreams, and women dream 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:40.680 to be young, and so at forty two I could 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:44.679 not anymore represent that dream. Where I was asked back, 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.160 I said, well, if it's a problem of ages, why 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:49.840 don't you get Ellen Mirron or Merrill Street, because if 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:52.840 you get me, we get the press again to take 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:56.199 that story. And you know, these big companies are very careful. 0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:59.600 It's about not getting into any controversy. But they were 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.320 very ape. They say, no, we want to tell the story. 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.160 We want to tell the story of the evolution of 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:09.240 women in society. So since we did that, then now 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.319 we do this so you can tell and it's magical. 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.480 And I agree, I think it is magical and I'm 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.040 super happy to work. Did you notice my makeup? 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:19.960 I did notice your makeup. 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:22.400 Did you notice that I'm doing it differently? So I 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:25.200 always had very little makeup. I mean sometimes I'm a 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:31.400 makeup because I'm an actress, but yeah, in my everyday life, 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:34.840 generally I had I did very little makeup. Red lipstick, 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:38.280 a little bit of a concealer, sometimes not even mes garret, 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:40.680 just a red lipstick. And then I've noticed that when 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:43.040 I did my makeup to go out at night, I 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:46.840 did the makeup that philosophically was wrong. We did a 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.680 makeup to make me look younger. I would cover my blemishes, 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.320 I would do this, I will do that. And then 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.520 I saw one day a man using makeup, and the 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.280 man wasn't using makeup to look like a woman, to 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.360 look more men, or to look like a woman. He 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:05.240 used to make up as a creative color, as a touch. 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:08.440 And that I thought, oh, I want to do that. 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:11.400 That seems to be more modern. So now I change 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:16.600 my makeup and you know, do colors on top of 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:21.080 my eyelid lipstick. And I mean, I could do something 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.360 more complicated, but I wanted to do also makeup that 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.160 is very fast because I'm at the farm r You know, 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:28.560 every day you want to do something it takes five minutes. 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.080 Sure, yeah, I mean you look some experiment with this 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:40.840 new kilosophy. Philosophy. 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.840 Sometimes I said, the red carpets, you know, if I 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:49.400 had to be from imagine that I'm from Mars and 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:51.440 I come in and I read and I look at 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.920 the red carpet. I can be fascinated. But sometimes I think, 0:15:55.920 --> 0:16:00.080 but you can feel like the principal world that is 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:05.360 conveyed is Thinness. Then a lot of the clothes are 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:09.320 very glued to the body. You're not naked, but you 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.960 could see every curve, or they make you that shape, 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:15.200 like the typical shape of a vase. Yes, well I 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:17.600 don't have that shape, and I'm seventy two. I'm not 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:19.560 going to have that shape. I had a backup eration, 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:21.120 I'm not going to wear a corset. I'm not going 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:23.880 to wear it, you know. So I want to stay 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:26.040 away from that because I can't do it. It's not 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:29.440 that I wouldn't liked it or I condemn it. I 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:31.440 can't do it, and I give it up. So I'm 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:35.440 trying a different version of elegance, and it isn't Thinness. 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:36.920 Look at my body, But. 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:39.440 Isn't that what's so great about now I hope and 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:41.680 I love that you're saying that because it's like lean 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:45.440 into who you are and what you feel comfortable in 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:47.360 and how you want to present because I feel like 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.440 on a given day when I wake up, or like 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:51.160 when you wake up. 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:52.600 And you're saying, like, how am I feeling today? 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:54.920 You say, okay, well, I how do I want to 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.560 express myself through clothes? Because when you put a piece 0:16:57.600 --> 0:16:59.600 of clothing on, you feel a certain thing. When you 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:02.760 do your face, you know your hair, you feel like, 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:04.280 oh okay, yeah. 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:05.960 It's the same way you say hello, how are you? 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:08.600 When you write shake with perhems, you present yourself so 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:11.639 your clothest presentation of yourself or how you want to 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:14.840 be perceived. That's a pleasure of being in Paris. Everybody 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:17.760 is so dressed up, so dressed up, so pretty. I 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.040 mean America, if it was this martian martian that arrived 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:23.840 from another planet, I would say that in America. But 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.520 you really want to spell is comfort? So you use 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:30.640 your gym clothes to walk in the street, which isn't 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:35.960 very appealing, no, but comfort is appealing, so you know, 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.360 and if you think of Calvin Klein, comfort, the simplicity 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:43.000 of his line. It was comfort only that he dressed 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:45.360 it made it dressy. That's what I like so much 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:48.680 about American fashion. I think of American fashion, it's three 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:53.240 big names, Calvin Crime, Rap Lauren and Donna Karen. And Rep. 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:59.680 Lauren was all the historical references the English, but with 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:04.639 an ease, you know, the I mean the gentlemen, farmers. 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:08.320 So but there was these references to to a Europe 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:11.600 that has come to America and made the clothes more comfortable, 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.879 you know, not so stiff. Calvin Klein for me was 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:22.679 really Jim clothes made ellen, but they spelled easiness. And 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:24.520 then Donna Karen. I have to say it was the 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:27.360 first woman that tried to give women, the business woman 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:30.640 a uniform like men have the blazer or the jacket. 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:34.680 And it was very helpful to have her because I remember, 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:36.959 I mean I belonged to the generation that started to 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:40.560 work and have careers. And we worked, or women always worked, 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:44.760 but I mean that was the push in. You know, 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:49.040 my generation always said, well I get married then you know, 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:51.720 sometimes you don't get married. Sometimes the husband needs that 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:55.000 extra So we ended up working. But it wasn't we 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:59.240 weren't recognized as we are nowadays. I think nowadays, my 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:02.760 children never doubt it. I'm going to get married. Nobody 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:04.640 ever said that. I say, we get married, but we work. 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:08.200 It doesn't stop. Like you and Donna. 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:11.719 Really tried to dress so women in a way that 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:17.199 again was comfortable, by elegant, just feminine, and so comfort 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:19.920 is important to American because they're very active. 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:23.000 I also think sort of ARMANI did something that I 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:24.400 thought was very very. 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:27.320 Money did it too because their money. I think we 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:29.800 need it first for men and then for women too. 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.040 But the first thing he did was to relax the 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:36.680 men's suit, the business suits, and all of a sudden 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:38.560 men could go to work but didn't look like. 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:40.760 So uptight exactly. 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:44.080 They felt elegant and at ease. And the fabric and 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:47.840 the colors. Yesterday I just saw an Instagram a photo 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:51.399 of his latest collection and was him quite all the 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:55.520 very very elegant as gentlemen like that is with all 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:58.000 the models, and I was not wasn't looking at the 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:00.840 clothing because it was a group photos, so you couldn't 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:03.480 really see the clothes, but the palette of color. Yeah, 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:07.199 I thought, well, you know how elegant it all goes together, 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:08.760 very well, thought out. 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:31.120 Thanks for joining us on Table for two. 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.440 Our guest is the Bella Russellini has had an amazing 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:37.679 career in print and screen. She has never been afraid 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:40.080 to take risk, and I wanted to know what it 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:42.199 was like to work on two of her most progressive 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:46.520 and controversial projects at the time, Madonna's coffee table book 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:52.880 Sex and David Lynch's film Blue Velvet. I think, Isabella, 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:55.600 you've you've chosen projects, and you've gotten involved in things 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:58.000 that are not always mainstream, but like very creative, very 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.000 you know the way you are able to express your 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:01.760 so and one of the things that you did at 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:06.080 a time that was somewhat controversial was the whole Madonna erotica, 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:08.680 the Sex Book. And I can remember seeing the Sex 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:11.400 Book in the early nineties in a bookstore and buying it. 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:14.080 That sort of blew up in her face, and even 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:17.199 the album and of course in time again sort of 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:20.280 like with langcom in a weird way, that album goes 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:22.320 down as one of her best albums, and the book 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:24.320 goes down as being a pioneer. 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:26.719 What brought you to that? It was really interesting. So 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:31.240 it was Stephen Marzelle, photographer, and Stephen was just getting 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:34.560 to be more and more successful, and they were offered 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:38.240 to him to do books and mostly the retrospective books, 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:40.600 you know, and he didn't want to do retrospective books. 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:42.439 He felt like, I'm still young, what do you mean 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:46.000 retrospective book? But then Madonna wanted to do a book 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:48.920 and I think about sex, and that appealed to him 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:51.640 because it was I show, you know, to do a book, 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:55.040 which is very prestigious, of course with Madonna, but it 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:58.520