Girls Who Wear Glasses, Part 2: SUNSHADES

 

News Item

Men seldom make passes 

At girls who wear glasses 

• Dorothy Parker

Pictured top: Sunshades, 2026, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 25.5 cm.

Like the painting Nightshade, the focus of my previous post, the point of origin of Sunshades is a supporting character in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 Film Noir, Strangers on a Train - in this case, Barbara Morton, as played by Patricia Hitchcock, real life daughter of the film’s director.

In contrast to the subject of Nightshade, however, my protagonist has undergone a complete transformation - from a “good girl” and possible victim of strangulation to a fully-fledged Femme Fatale. 

My reimagined portrait draws in part from Pat Hitchcock’s hairstyle in the film and also aims to indicate something of her character’s considerable smarts and feisty personality. 

Despite Barbara Morton’s innate decency, the murky underbelly of society appears to hold a certain fascination for her. As part of her metamorphosis in Sunshades, Barbara’s conservative spectacles have been replaced by a racy pair of heart-shaped sunglasses. Like the spectacles showcased in Nightshade, the ‘Lolita’ glasses are based on a pair in my collection, sourced many years ago in a favourite vintage market, Chapel Street Bazaar. 

For the Femme Fatale, sunglasses are more than a mere fashion accessory or useful means of disguise. Most crucially, they enable her to mask her true feelings from the hapless hero, concealing her diabolical intentions from him.

Sunshades evokes two of cinema’s most infamous temptresses. If anyone wore sunglasses better than Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity (Dir. Billy Wilder, 1944), or Gene Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven (Dir. John M. Stahl, 1945), I’d like to know about it.

Sunshades is from the current series, Flowers of the Femmes Fatales. The white Calla Lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica), in the form of drop earrings, is my protagonist’s floral attribute.

To see developmental views of Sunshades, go HERE and scroll down.

Girls Who Wear Glasses, Part 1: NIGHTSHADE

 

 

Nightshade, 2026, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 25 cm, is one of four paintings I worked on in between attending multiple sessions at the recent 2026 Melbourne International Film Festival. (Blog Post Wednesday, September 2).

The glasses featured in Nightshade are based on a pair of vintage spectacles spotted several years ago in a local thrift shop and acquired with the vague idea of utilising them as a work prop. Happily, they survived my periodic declutterring purges and I finally found a purpose for them. (Also pictured above, third from top: my self-appointed supervisor, the redoubtable Alice B. Cat).

Along with its companion work, Sunshades (the focus of my next post), Nightshade takes its point of departure from the Alfred Hitchcock film, Strangers on Train (1951), which, in turn, was based on the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. 

For decades, I’ve been intrigued by the film’s principal bad girl, the ruthless adulteress, Miriam. She is one of two key supporting characters who wear glasses, an unusual and, as a rule, decidedly non-glamorous accessory not ordinarily associated with the Femme Fatale. As those familiar with Strangers on Train will be aware, however, glasses are a major plot point, and feature in one of its most iconic scenes. 

In the film, Miriam is played by Kasey Rogers (1925-2006). I’ve long been intrigued by her portrayal of a character who is at once sexy and repellent, coquettish and sleazy. It’s a terrifically nuanced, shamefully underrated performance.

I used to wonder why I hadn’t noticed her in anything else. As it later turned out, I had, without realising it. Rogers played the second Louise Tate, wife of Larry Tate, Darrin’s boss, in the hit TV series Bewitched from 1966 to 1972. (See below). 

Kasey Rogers has done much else besides. To learn more about her, go HERE.

As an aside, Marion Lorne, who memorably plays the scatty mother of the film’s chief villain, Bruno (an electrifying performance from the great Robert Walker), would also become a cast regular in Bewitched, as Samantha’s equally scatterbrained Aunt Clara. But I digress.

Nightshade is part of the current series, Flowers of the Femmes Fatales. The flower adorning my protagonist’s raven hair is a devil's trumpet, also known as  jimsonweed or thornapple, a poisonous plant from the Daturae tribe of the nightshade family Solanaceae.

Vale Gloria Steinem

There have been too many losses recently, of people who truly made a difference. And now this…

These are just some of many photos I took at Melbourne Town Hall on 16 May 2016, when Gloria Steinem appeared there in conversation with Australian journalist, Virginia Trioli. The hall was packed to the rafters, but by an extraordinary stroke of luck, I found myself in front row centre, the best seat in the house. It was an evening I will never forget. 

I can’t imagine a world without Gloria Steinem. Our debt to her is incalculable; she made so much possible for so many. May her spirit live on in all of us.

Rest in Power, Gloria Steinem.

My original blog post is here:

https://deborahklein.blogspot.com/2016/12/gloria-steinem.html?m=

2026 Melbourne International Film Festival and MIFF adjacent works

Recently I attended the 2026 Melbourne International Film Festival, which ran from 6-23 August. It was the first time in several years that I’ve been a Festival Passport holder. (If memory serves me correctly, the last time was in 2019)

Pictured 1-3 from top:

The Capitol Theatre, Melbourne 

Kino Cinema, Melbourne 

The Astor Cinema, Prahran 

Seven years and two bouts of breast cancer later, I wasn’t entirely convinced I was up to it anymore, and numerous times in the lead-up to MIFF 2026, nearly downgraded to a mini-pass. By the time I’d finished dithering around, it was too late. At that stage all I could do - aside from flushing $700 down the drain - was to go for it. 

The MIFF Box Office staff at ACMI, where I booked the majority of my sessions, couldn’t have been more helpful and understanding. The neuropathy in my feet (a permanent after-effect of the BC) can sometimes undermine my sense of balance. In every case, they were able to reserve me ideally located seats, so I never once felt in danger of taking an undignified tumble.

My energy levels have risen considerably over the past few months. Nevertheless, I limited my sessions to times that mainly finished in the early evening. By the time I’d added and subtracted a few films along the way, at last count, I saw 41.

The Māori Victorian gothic horror film Mārama was another festival 

favourite. Lead cast member Ariāna Osborne, who gave a 

performance of astonishing power, was a guest of the festival.  

She is pictured here during the post-screening Q&A.

It took a few days to get into the rhythm of MIFF. By the festival’s end, however, I could easily have kept on going. This year’s MIFF was a crucial test and an important learning experience. I was convinced this would be my last MIFF as a Festival Passport holder and was surprised and delighted to have been proven wrong. Not only did I get through it with relative ease, which did wonders for my confidence, but from a personal point of view, it was also the finest MIFF in years - even better than that magical time in 2019, or in 2024, when, as a mini-pass holder, I first saw Flow. 

Knowing that MIFF would present a huge disruption to my work flow, I roughed out four more paintings in the current Flowers of the Femmes Fatales series so I could also maintain that particular rhythm. I knew from experience it would be far easier to pick up where I left off post-MIFF if I wasn’t faced with a proverbial white canvas. 

In the end, I concentrated most of my energies on two out of the four. As of today, they are pretty much done. Above and below are progress views of the provisionally titled works “Girls Who Wear Glasses”.

In the next few weeks (or however long it takes), I’ll work towards resolving the remaining two. 

A few people have asked me if I gleaned inspiration from any of this year’s MIFF films. It will take awhile longer to process all that I saw, but even at this early stage, the answer is yes. The seed of an idea is already sprouting from the documentary Kim Novak’s Vertigo. The seed took further root from the post-screening Q&A with its director, Alexandre O. Philippe (pictured below). I will elaborate on this in a future  post - providing I can move the idea from my head, knock it into some kind of shape and transfer it to canvas.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo was a key reference for several of my earlier works, including this one, so Alexandre O. Philippe‘s superb documentary was of particular interest to me.

Ironically, the “Girls Who Wear Glasses” paintings featured in this post were inspired by two characters in another Hitchcock film, Strangers on a Train,1951. I will expand on this shortly.

I’ve also been asked if I have a favourite MIFF film. There were several, but the one that most deeply touched my heart was the documentary The Cycle of Love. 

Thank you, MIFF and goodbye until next year.