THE DREAMY EYES OF THE REPLICANTS

From the end of November till the end of the year, the nights are cold and long. It is the beginning of the Christmas season and when you walk down the streets in the centre of London you can see that the shop windows have been exquisitely decorated with human-like mannequins. 

The settings themselves are works of art, the make-up daring and adventurous, and you can see a story behind each human-like doll.

For example, the decoration of the shop windows of a famous clothes department store in Regent Street is inspired in the icy beauty of the divas of the 1930s, with a hint at the African war masks in their make up. Their hairstyle, a Scandinavian version of Queen Nefertiti’s, is also worth noticing. 

But if you go beyond the aura of beauty and glamour that surrounds their perfect bodies, you can perceive the deep sadness in their eyes, and that is disturbing.

If you walk on and reach Kensington, the dystopian replicants created by Ridley Scott in 1981 will look at you from the windows of another famous department store.

 Here a combination of moving lights contributes to create a futuristic atmosphere in which the appearance of the mannequins changes dramatically every few seconds, and you can almost see Joanna Cassidy dancing with the snake. 

Their look is not sad anymore, but dreamy, as if induced by some kind of chemical drug.

Blade Runner has always been one of my favourite films and I have always had the feeling that the night of 2019 LA was as cold and damp as London’s December nights.

Photo: Lorenzo Hernandez                                        www.photolorenzohernandez.com