Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette Review Series vs Reality Episode 2

Hey guys, thank you so much for joining me in another video. So today we're going to be reviewing episode two. So we're going to talk a little bit more about the Calvin Klein universe, the media machine around John, and I think the very deliberate contrast portrayed in this film between, at this point, the two women in his life, at least that's what they're portraying here. I do have some thoughts. Of course, we're seeing the relationship between John Jr. and Carolyn, but we'll also talk about the aesthetics and the politics of it all. Here we have this opening scene, Carolyn in an elevator going to her office at Calvin Klein. Immediately we're reminded this is a woman at work. She is not waiting by the phone. She's in an office in motion, operating at one of the most influential fashion houses in New York City in the 90s. She receives these fresh roses from John. He's asking for forgiveness. Then we cut to John making his pitch for George Magazine to investors. They're unconvinced. We see him in a locker room here. He's talking about how he feels like he's not being taken seriously, and underneath that we see a man who's very insecure. He's comparing himself in this episode to his father who was 33, a war hero, a congressman, an author, a husband, father. John wants to at least have something to call his own. This extraordinary magazine, George, which is a hoot of a magazine. I thought you were a lawyer. I was. What happened? Well, we decided, I mean, actually taking a cue from folks like yourself and you around the 1992 election, that there was an opportunity here to change the definition of a political magazine. Certainly the way Americans were accessing information about politics and politicians was changing. Candidates were appearing on late night talk shows, on talk radio, on sitcoms, and there was a kind of a leveling process. And while the rest of media clearly had caught up with that, we felt that political magazines per se hadn't. And I had come from my family. We had always been sort of grew up around politics, that it was a fascinating way to spend one's career. And I had been always kind of interested in how you could get that idea out to more people, because as I grew older, it became clear that not that many people share that view. It was also a family that liked the press generally, commiserated with the press. Yeah, I think the generation before me more so. People had always said that you can't do a fun magazine about politics that combines the serious as well as the playful, which is about personalities because that's what public life is about. Now let's go back to Calvin Klein. We see Carolyn in her element. Her co-workers are Narciso Rodriguez and Gordon Henderson. Let's not forget this was the 90s. The brand was stacked with amazing talent. They worked with some of the most cutting-edge photographers, models, designers. This was a very hot spot to want to work. One sort of side note, I have really enjoyed with seeing this interest in the show, interest in this era. I love seeing former Calvin Klein employees post about their experiences working at the brand, share their experiences. It was just the it spot to work. And I think we're also seeing Kelly Klein here. I did a whole video on her and looking at her style. And even to this day, I love following her on social media. And she just looks as divine as ever. And again, when we think about this look that we're seeing, that Carolyn, she famously wore in the 90s. If we actually go back further, she embodied that quintessential Calvin Klein woman before the 90s, before Carolyn. And it's very interesting seeing her style today. And I just also love seeing all of the people posting about their experiences from back in the day. I also want to talk about the portrayal of Calvin Klein here. I think there are some moments that feel very believable to me, but then there are some moments where in the show, it shows Calvin Klein as someone who maybe doesn't have as strong as a fashion instinct. And Town & Country actually wrote about this saying, the show's early episodes portray him as without a fashion thought in his head that Carolyn didn't put there. They're referring to the scenes with Annette Bening and then the Kate Moss moment continuing. Carolyn may have weighed in on both points. If so, Calvin likely would have paid attention. Male designers, at least great ones, always try to infiltrate the feminine psyche. They seek out women whose viewpoints and judgments they value. Kelly Klein, the gifted photographer when Calvin married in 1986, remained a trusted confidant after their marriage ended. She was a close friend of Carolyn's as well. All designers strive to tap into the mindset of the young and cool. Surely, Calvin would have been interested in Carolyn's opinions. After all, she had landed on his awareness scale after a company executive, quote, discovered her working retail at the brand store in Chestnut Hill outside of Boston. On the strength of her style and presentation, she was offered a corporate post in New York. But Love Story goes overboard, portraying Calvin as nearly lovestruck around Carolyn, agog and accepting her every suggestion when a stronger reverse influence is far more plausible. Not talked about this to anyone and I had no idea that you would even ask me. Carolyn was someone I found in Boston, actually, in one of our Boston stores and offered her a job in New York to work with people that needed some special attention. Yeah, maybe because we were doing clothes for a film. It was really personal. She had that quality then. Oh, she was just a wonderful young woman and beautiful and quite an inspiration to all of us and a good friend of my family at the time, too. Next, we have the scene where they're talking about replacing Mark Wahlberg after there was this Madonna entourage brawl. Show talks about how he had said these homophobic slurs. And when she found out that he was at the party, she decided to express her views on the subject. As the night wore on, the sexually explicit insults from both the Madonna and Marky Mark camps continued, resulting in the rapper punching one of Madonna's people. Of course, the business side is downplaying it and then Carolyn is pushing back. In the scene, it's showing that she has her PR instincts, but of course, she has her own moral compass as well. And she also understands the optics of this. She understands the timing, the brand longevity, and of course, we'll see later on, there's also an opportunity. Then we get to Daryl Hannah. I have to be honest, like I said in my last video of her, this portrayal really casts her in a negative light. Dree Hemingway, by the way, she's very beautiful. Daryl Hannah, a very stunning woman, but the lighting, the styling, the script. Here we have her wearing this tan suede coat with this gold filigree dress. The cat eye sunglasses clearly referencing these real world looks that she wore, a combination of them. But yeah, I think even just like the angles, the lighting, she appears quite hunched over, very awkward and ditzy. And I think that's very intentional. She's being positioned as this foil to Carolyn, who's very ambitious, intelligent, and witty, and Daryl as this bohemian who's very chaotic. The contrast, it's very glaring. And I think there's probably a better way they could have done this, in my opinion, that didn't make Daryl look so bad. And also just a side thing, I don't know if it's supposed to be flirty or like this like nervous tick thing. Both of them constantly biting their lip. Personally, I found it very awkward when I saw Carolyn do it, but we're also seeing Daryl do this. Next, we have Kelly Cline's pool party. This was the launch of her book that was this curated collection of images of pools throughout history. And then we saw images alongside with modern pools. I was building a pool in East Hampton, or thinking about building a pool in East Hampton. And I went to a bookstore to buy a book for inspiration. And I found out that there's never been a book on swimming pools. And so I decided to do one. Kelly spent a year and a half doing research for her $100 book. Her profits will go to AIDS research As the project soared in size, she began to realize that good material was tough to find. You know, pools have not been around that long. I mean, they became sort of a status symbol in the 50s. I mean, if you could afford a pool, that was really something growing up. And before that, only the very wealthy people in the 20s and 30s at these huge mansions had swimming pools. 90% of the book features existing shots. Some of the pictures are original, contributed by a wide assortment of photographers. The text has been kept to a bare minimum. There's something very serene and very peaceful about this book. Somebody said it was almost like taking a vacation without leaving your office because the colors and the photographs are so vibrant and they're up photographs. There are a lot of trends there. You know, when exercise became a huge thing in the 70s, the lap pool was the thing to build then. So you could just swim back and forth in these long, skinny pools. And the kidney-shaped pool, of course, in the 50s was when the pool began to change its shape from your basic rectangular shape. And now it seems to be these pools that are built out onto the cliffs and they seem to have an edgeless side to them and the water spills over. And that seems to be the kind of pool to have in the 90s if you have that kind of land to build one. Usually you need a beautiful view for those kind of pools. So there are trends. And the pool is becoming as important architecturally as your house is because it's located so near the house. To celebrate the launch of Kelly's book, Calvin Klein and Vogue editor Anna Wintour hosted this swishy party complete with swimsuits and synchronized swimmers. It was yet another show of support by Vogue for Kelly. The magazine featured her in its September issue photographed by Stephen Mizell as never before. I think that the pool sort of gives you this feeling of taking your clothes off. You don't wear a lot of clothes. You wear bathing suits. It's very minimal. And I think they just wanted me to look different. And I think the pictures are great. Where's the indoor pool? Indoor pool's here. And this is a detail of it. Despite all her peering at pools, Kelly and Calvin still aren't sold on an ultimate design. I don't have a pool. Not yet, right? You still don't have a pool. That's funny because that's how the whole thing came about. I know. Now I'm totally confused. I have so many ideas. You know, I can't decide what kind of pool to build. But I think eventually we'll put a pool in. Now, if I want to be really fashion specific, I would have loved to see Kelly Klein here wearing this fall 1992 Calvin Klein dress. This sheer black dress. She was someone that loved to wear and still does love to wear sheer fabrics. Even if we look at later on for the release of this book, they had the poolside cocktail party, this time in Los Angeles. And here she is wearing the spring 1993 dress. And a lot of celebrities went to this event, including Bianca Jagger. I just love this look. So elegant, so sensual. Sometimes when I look at these looks from the 90s, and even the way I'm seeing it presented on the show, which I think speaks to the way this show has done the costume design. To me, this style, it looks more modern and fresh than I think some of the contemporary fashion that we are seeing on the runway. Even some of the looks that we're seeing on the runway today, like they're aiming to go back to this era. I also love seeing how on social media, seeing the 90s Calvin Klein employees share their stories, share their style online. And I think the way the show is speaking to the culture right now, it's really fascinating to see. Again, I love seeing all of these fashion moments. I love seeing when the show really does portray these moments. I love seeing the world of Calvin Klein. And I understand the central story of the show is of course, John and Carolyn. But yeah, I just love seeing these Calvin Klein little fashion history moments. And I think there's just something about this brand that really encapsulated the energy, the sensuality, and I think what the show was aiming to convey. Again, I did an entire video looking at Kelly Klein style. I really think she's someone that deserves more credit. Visually, personally, I wish the show leaned into that world more. Initially, the book launch was at the New York Athletic Club. I would have loved to see the tiles, the minimal geometry of the pool. Instead, we're seeing the scene, you know, it feels like a warm banquet hall. It feels very aesthetically Ryan Murphy. There is this warm glow. I would have loved to see some of the like cool tones, the sharper shadows, even like the song they use, Blue Light by Mazzy Star playing in the background, I think captures the mood. I would have loved to see in terms of the way they portrayed this on screen, that minimal serenity that I think comes from Kelly Klein's perspective. Again, this is me being very picky in terms of what I would like. But overall, I get the style they're going for. They're going for like a signature Ryan Murphy style. Another point we need to make here is Carolyn, of course, had another love interest in her life, Michael Bergen. It was well known that they had a relationship. The show depicts this, of course. There are various recollections, including he wrote a book titled The Other Man about their relationship. But what we're seeing here in this episode, Carolyn using her connections to get him to be the new face of Calvin Klein underwear, starring alongside Kate Moss. After the pool party the morning after, we also see them go shopping together, raid the Calvin Klein showroom. We see her wearing this outfit. It's presumably an outfit that looks along the lines of something like this. Another scene that was very interesting to me was there's this mother-daughter conversation between Jackie and Caroline Kennedy. So this is John's sister. They're talking about their marriages and Caroline critiques her relationship with Aristotle Onassis. She talks about how she felt he was parading them around as children on the Greek islands like trophies in this conversation. And Caroline asks whether her mother would do things differently, but Jackie insists she never wanted a normal life. She talks about how all relationships have their disappointments and it's a matter of how you're let down. And then in contrast, her daughter, Caroline, with her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, she pushes back so she doesn't have kind of drawbacks Jackie experienced. And then Jackie responds that she went with the stable choice. And she also points out that she didn't have any ulterior motive, which I thought was an interesting choice of words. But we see the contrast in terms of these choices these women made in terms of who they ended up with. And then Jackie says this, my mother wanted me to become the most beautiful accessory to the most coveted man. I think I exceeded those expectations. That line, I think, is a theme that we are seeing in this episode. The lives of these powerful men, be it Jackie and JFK, Kelly and Calvin, foreshadowing Caroline and John. And what kind of road is Caroline gonna take? And then finally, Daryl and John seem to go through another breakup. She leaves her dog with him. He is going for a walk with her dog. And then he lets the dog loose. And then he gets the dog cremated. Of course, Daryl is upset. So he flies to LA. And as he's leaving, Jackie leaves a voicemail. And of course, we see her right after she falls. And of course, she's going through this battling cancer right now. Is that towards the end of her life? So yes, that's episode two. I do think it is, again, very interesting looking at the fashion, looking at the casting, looking at the acting in terms of telling the story. And again, there are different perspectives to the story, right? And we're seeing one perspective here that revolves around this love story between Carolyn and John. I'd love to know your thoughts. What did you guys think about the styling, the acting? Again, some moments, I'm enjoying. Other moments, I feel I would have liked to see something different maybe. And then other moments, the scripting feels awkward to me. But I would love to know your overall thoughts on the show. Please let me know down below. That is my video for today. Thank you so much for joining me. And I hope to see you in the next one. Bye.