September 20, 2014

MARGARET NOLAN: GOLDEN GIRL

Goldfinger was released 50 years ago this week. The movie's perfect cocktail of girls, guns, and gadgets established the winning formula that launched a spy craze around the world. Some of the most indelible memories from Goldfinger come from the film's title sequence and promotional imagery (posters, LPs, etc), which featured actress Margaret Nolan painted in gold. She also appeared as Dink in the opening Miami sequence. Nolan has a website that features signed photos and really cool photomontage pieces inspired by her career. Her style of collaging is beautifully rooted in a 1960s aesthetic you would find in work by other artists from the era. She prefaces her work with an excellent quote by John Berger (Ways of Seeing), which I've included in my review below. My sister site, Illustrated 007, recently chatted with her about shooting the Bond title sequence with Robert Brownjohn. Congrats to Nolan and the Goldfinger team on their anniversary! Fans can meet Margaret Nolan today at the London Film Convention, Classic British Film & Television Day (Sept 20th).



Margaret Nolan shares the distinction with actress Shirley Eaton as an iconic Bond girl, remembered as a partially nude figure covered in gold. The image is stunning (and stirring), but also speaks to the complex nature of female roles in society. Isn't it odd that would should love this image of woman-as-statue, a kind of kinky cybernaut, frozen forever in the state of distant allure. Nolan's own artwork reflects this dichotomy of beauty and self-appraisal. She quotes John Berger (Ways of Seeing/1972) in the introduction to her gallery page: "To be born a woman has been to be born, within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men… this has been at the cost of a woman's self being split into two… she must continuously watch herself… and so she comes to consider the surveyor and the surveyed within her as the two constituent yet always distinct elements of her identity as a woman. Men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at… her own sense of being in herself is supplanted by a sense of being appreciated as herself by another… thus she turns herself into an object- and most particularly an object of vision; a 'sight'." Her method of cutting reminds me slightly of self-image drawings I've seen made by women in therapy, which often depict two selves: the sparkly partner ready to please and the private inner-self watching from within. Below: "Stars in Her Eyes" by Margaret Nolan.


Selected Spy Vibe posts: No 6 FestivalBarbarella Returns007 Audio Books ReturnHarry Palmer BluOne Million PrizesDesigner: Gene WinfieldAvengers Blu-RayAvengers Interview: Michael RichardsonIan Fleming: Wicked GrinJane Bond Hong Kong RecordsRyan Heshka Interview, Comics Week: Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.Comics Week: ArchieComics Week: Robots, Comics Week: Cold War Atomic, Comics Week: SPYMANComics Week: Jimmy OlsenDiana Rigg at 76Gerry Anderson DocMr. Hulot's Box SetRare Avengers ScriptsMan From Uncle UK ComicsMattel X-15Thunderbirds ComicsShakespeare Spies: Diana RiggShakespeare Spies IBatman NewsMonty Python Fathom SpiesRodney Marshall Avengers InterviewAvengers Book: Bowler Hats & Kinky BootsGeorge Lois Design & Mad MenRichard Sala: Super-EnigmatixBig Fun ToysDanger Diabolik SoundtrackMod Fashion DollsCold War Archie, Playboy Bunny InterviewThe 10th Victim Japanese and KindleU.N.C.L.E. Japanese BooksThe 10th Victim German EditionThe Saint books returnTrina Robbins InterviewCatsuits, Batman '66 Green Hornet Interview: Ralph Garman Ty Templeton.