America 1987

Chapter 56 Hair Dyeing

He was washing the other person's hair.

In fact, ordinary hotels generally do not have such special shampoo beds. The most common configuration is a fixed shower head or a hand shower head, and bathtubs are rarely seen.

David didn't know why such equipment would appear in his room. Could this place have been a spa area before?

But something is better than nothing.

He didn't need it himself, so it was perfect for women.

He and Nicole had just finished fighting, and this was a nice way to spend their post-fight tenderness.

Nicole lay naked on the shampoo bed, her breasts naturally spreading out to the sides due to her position. They weren't as high as usual, but they looked larger. David had recently experienced that suffocating feeling of being submerged.

"Your hair is very nice," he said, his hand moving down the wet hair to the other's taut, smooth neck. "The hair color suits you very well too. As for the hairstyle, just keep the big waves like this."

Nicole Kidman, who is praised as a "blonde beauty," actually has red hair, which she has also shown on the big screen.

In "Moulin Rouge!", the film that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, she sported flowing, wavy red hair parted to one side, exuding a strong sense of volume and retro charm. Moreover, because it was her natural hair color, the shine of her hair was far greater than the blonde hair she had in "Batman Forever".

Because of the battle just now, Nicole, who was lying there enjoying her partner's head massage, was very tired and had a sharp pain in her lower abdomen, but she felt very satisfied and fulfilled.

In the dimly lit and damp bathroom, she could feel the masculine scent emanating from David, who was also completely naked, though one was lying there and the other was standing beside him.

In return for the service, she raised her right hand, saying, "Isn't Hollywood supposed to prefer blonde actresses?"

David raised his hands and massaged the other person's temples. The skin there was thinner, and he could vaguely feel the pulse of the other person's blood vessels.

Nicole was lying on her back, her eyes covered by water droplets and a towel. When a person can't see, other parts of their body become extra sensitive, such as their scalp.

"Yes, I definitely prefer blonde hair."

As David spoke, he slightly increased the pressure, which would give the other person a pleasant, tingling sensation, similar to acupressure massage, releasing tension.

Hollywood certainly has a particular fondness for blonde beauties.

Since the 50s, blondes have defined Hollywood's standards of sexiness and elegance. Marilyn Monroe's platinum blonde hair and Grace Kelly's cool and noble blonde image established the template of "blonde hair = sexy bombshell/noble goddess".

This standard persisted into the 90s. Even in the era before his time travel, the casting criteria based on hair color didn't change much, with blonde hair still being the most popular.

As he spoke, he lightly scratched the other person's scalp with his fingernail. This was quite irritating and could cause itching or stinging, depending on the individual.

Anyway, David felt more of a stinging pain, but thankfully it was still within his tolerance range.

However, the damage to hair quality caused by excessive dyeing may not be within the acceptable range for the other person.

Many of the "blonde actresses" who later became famous actually dyed their hair blonde. Scarlett Janssen, who was later called "the Marilyn Monroe of this era and a typical representative of blonde beauties," was actually "born with brown hair and dyed it blonde later."

Nicole from the original timeline followed the same path as her.

However, frequent hair dyeing can severely damage hair quality. The oxidants, alkaline components, and heavy metals in hair dyes can disrupt the natural structure of hair, leading to protein loss and keratin denaturation.

After the 10s, Nicole often needed to use wigs to keep her hairstyle in place when she appeared in public.

At the 25th Cannes Film Festival, her wig shifted and the color difference between her real and wig was magnified into a "wig accident." Netizens repeatedly asked, "What's wrong with her hair?" "Is she bald?" In 18, when asked about wigs, she abruptly ended the interview. In 23, she hung up the phone when asked to "rank roles by wigs" on a podcast.

This shows that hair was a topic that Nicole couldn't even touch at that time.

Besides the demands of her profession, Nicole herself does indeed prefer blonde hair.

In an interview, she stated clearly, "I am not red-haired, I am blonde." She explained, "When I was a child, my hair was red, but when I was 13, my hair became lighter and the red color completely disappeared."

It's strange, but it's true. Later, they made me wear bright red clothes for the movie, so everyone assumed I was redheaded. That's not true at all; I'm blonde.

This is what it means to deceive yourself.

It's clear that Nicole had a strong attachment to blonde hair back then, and she almost always kept her hair platinum blonde after the 2000s.

However, Nicole didn't have that many thoughts at the moment. Since the other party had already said that he liked her red hair, how could she possibly dye it blonde again?

David held her head and turned on the shower to rinse her off. The sound of the water spraying into Nicole's ears created a white noise effect.

Just in time, she also put her right hand under the showerhead and washed it.

"Sex, Lies, and Videotape" was filmed very quickly.

Although the filming time was shorter than that of "Ghost", David attached no less importance to it than he did to the latter.

Because this is a landmark American independent film, it is even considered a watershed work in the history of American independent film development in the original timeline.

The definition of "independent film" is rather complex.

The core criteria are economic and production independence—that is, production funding and distribution channels do not depend on large film studios, and the budget is lower, giving creators greater control and less pressure from producers.

David chose to make an independent film mainly to downplay his image as a commercial film director.

Film critics (especially the Cahiers du Cinéma tradition) have long championed the idea of ​​"the director as the sole author," so directors who make independent films are often more likely to gain their favor and praise.

Who's better, Quentin Tarantino or Christopher Nolan?

There are different opinions, but if we only look at the awards, Quentin is clearly stronger than Nolan.

The former has won two Academy Awards (Best Original Screenplay for Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained), one Palme d'Or at Cannes (Pulp Fiction), and numerous Golden Globe Awards, BAFTA Awards, and screenwriting awards.

Before Oppenheimer, the latter had only won one Oscar (Best Visual Effects for Interstellar), which was of relatively low prestige, and he had also won significantly fewer awards at European film festivals than Quentin Tarantino.

As for the reason?

It's definitely not because of a difference in ability; in terms of storytelling ability alone, Nolan is in no way inferior to Quentin.

The core reason is that the industry views the two individuals differently.

Quentin Tarantino's long-term collaborator is The Weinstein Company's Miramax. Miramax is a mid-sized production company, and films made in collaboration with non-major studios are generally considered independent films by the industry.

Even though Quentin Tarantino's later works, such as Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained, had budgets of tens of millions of dollars, they were already out of touch with the original economic definition of "independent films".