So, in a nutshell... you don't like the new look and are nostalgic for the old one?
To me, they look like a pretty decent pictures, though, admittedly, I don't have the slightest idea how the old Pirelli looked like. Not all are to my liking, but that is the point, i guess, to cover a broader audience.
As I am getting older, I also get progressively annoyed (no, repelled) by Netflix' usual, in-your-face mix of politically correct casting and stories, and returning to older films for their story, plot, and acting, rather than quotas or pc points.
The Pirelli audience, unless they have changed the calendar’s purpose, was never the general public. You couldn’t just go out and buy one in the shops: as with all company calendars, they were sent to “special” people who could, one way or another, help trade along. That being so, I’d be surprised if they were seeking a different target audience with the latest - the later few, in fact.
I think Keith had it closer on target: the calendar has become old hat. People no longer feel surprised or excited to see really beautiful models showing off. In fact, I believe that there is a general loss of interest in that kind of thing. Pornography has apparently become so widely available that tastes have been blunted, beauty no longer holds sway. Depravity might well be the new glamour. One has to put the calendar into context: it arrived along with the cultural explosion that saw fashion become available to all, and with far greater accompanying excitement than haute couture could ever cobble together.
The first Pirelli arrived for the year 1964, was shot in Mallorca by Robert Freeman, and was very tame indeed. In other words, it appeared along with the shorter skirts (again!), the youth culture and the collapse of the entire concept of Mummy and Daddy know best.
To my knowledge, because I bought them both, there have been two Pirelli Calendar Collections published. It would be interesting to buy one, if only to trace how something so iconic came to arrive, become famous, stop production for years, only to start up again and, in my view, never find the magic again. The reason they lost it, in my opinion, is that it became too heavily controlled and directed, with the dreaded “ theme” used to sell the idea to the company, and once that had been done the fear of deviating from it, even when it became obvious that the very idea itself was bullshit, a load of crap designed simply to get the go ahead, and to worry about later. That’s my opinion, anyway.
Everything has it end.
