Silver Screen Sunday {The Hairy Bird}

I was going to do this week’s Siver Screen Sunday on Hairspray (2007) but that would involve a lot of messing about with screencaps and what-not so when I noticed I had already screencapped another film set in the early ‘60s but never posted about it, I decided this week I’d look at that one instead.

The Hairy Bird aka All I Wanna Do aka Strike!, which is the only feature length directorial effort by Sarah Kernochan. The story takes place at Miss Godard’s School for Girls, which is run by Miss McVane, played by Lynn Redgrave, who sadly passed away earlier this year.

The girls find out that Miss Godard's is under the threat of amalgamating with an all-boys' school - some of them think this is a good thing but others see it as devastating, so they devise a plan in the hopes of throwing a spanner into the works.

This is one of my favourite films - I’m always fond of a storyline that focuses on friendship, rather than romance (possibly because I can relate to those films far easier) and I also love films that show just how awesome girls are. That, in my opinion, is never a bad thing. Actually, this film is almost like St Trinian's meets Dead Poets Society (or something else set in a boarding school) - the girls get up to a fair bit of mischief but it also touches on self-discovery and is, I suppose, a coming-of-age story in a way, too.

Some of the mischief - making moonshine in the attic.

There is also a bizarre group of boys who take photos of road-kill - they call themselves the 'Flat Critters'. Vincent Kartheiser is the 'leader' of the group and he takes a shine to Tinka Parker, one of the girls at Miss Godard's.

Pastels! Spring colours! And Tinka's amazing red+black dress.

This is one of my favourite dresses from the film.

One of my favourite parts of the film is a montage showing the girls getting ready for a dance - I think it's very visually interesting and there's something about the ritual of getting ready that I find very appealing.

It also has an amazing soundtrack - here is just one of my favourite songs (Easier Said than Done by The Essex):

The 'getting ready' sequence inspired me to find some powder puffs on etsy...

Found here.

Found here.

And a couple of record players to spin some tunes on:

This is for children but it's so cute! Found here.

Found here.

So, anyone else out there a fan of this film? As I said, it's one of my all-time favourites. And, as usual, there are more screencaps up on flickr.

Love,

Andi B. Goode

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