All the best film characters wear glasses. Don’t believe us? Here are five of our favourite icons of eyewear.
Whether you’re after a new pair of frames or just looking for something decent to watch now the nights are drawing in, this should have something for you…
Trainspotting
First up? Ewen Bremner as Spud in Trainspotting. This film doesn’t need much of an introduction, so we’ll cut to the chase—Spud is definitely the coolest of the bunch. Anyone who disagrees just needs to check those shades he wears. To be fair he only wears them for a grand total of around three minutes, but such is the power of those massive, yellow-lensed beauties that the image of him wearing these with that big collared shirt is scorched into the mind of anyone watching.
Can’t wait until then? Get your hands on the Sunna from 3D printing pioneers You Mawo.
Rocky
Another overlooked spectacle-wearer is Adrian from Rocky. A lot of people downplay the Rocky films, and whilst the later ones might have got a bit carried away, the 1976 original is up there with Taxi Driver as a prime example of East Coast grit. Along with the classic training sequences and that Philadelphia backdrop, one of the main reasons it’s so good is Adrian, played by Talia Shire (Francis Ford Coppola’s sister… and Nicholas Cage’s aunty, in case you wondered).
Whilst Sylvester Stallone is running around chasing chickens, she’s trying to make ends meet cleaning out cages in a pet shop. Film icons are traditionally characters of glitz and glamour, but Adrian proves that you don’t have to be living it up on a yacht off the coast of Monte Carlo to look cool.
For that down-trodden love-interest look, we’d go for the Garrett Leight Vista.
The Ipcress File
Michael Caine is often cited by eye-wear critics as perhaps the most distinguished glasses-wearer on screen — and you only need to watch 1965 espionage thriller The Ipcress File to see why. At a time when schoolchildren would do anything in their powers to avoid wearing NHS specs, Caine’s character Harry Palmer wears them proudly whilst snooping around trying to uncover a plot to brainwash spies. Quite an inspiration. Great film too.
If we were spies knocking around 1960s London, we’d probably wear the Molino by Jacques Marie Mage
Easy Rider
When it was released in 1969, Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider was like nothing that had gone before, and was heralded as a landmark of the hippy generation. These days, it seems a little bit dated and daft. It’s still a top film though, and if you ignore the fairly wooden acting and dodgy camera effects, there’s a lot to like.
The soundtrack is ace, Jack Nicholson plays a brilliant boozed-up lawyer, and Peter Fonda wears some particularly good sunnies whilst razzing around on his custom Harley.
If Peter were easy riding in 2020, he'd probably be rocking the Taos from Jacques Marie Mage.
Capote
To round off this voyage into the popcorn-flavoured world of film, we’ve got the late, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the late, great Truman Capote in the aptly-titled 2005 biopic, Capote.
The film tells the story of the writer’s long struggle to pen his ground-breaking non-fiction crime book, In Cold Blood. As you can imagine, a film about a quadruple murder case is hardly a laugh a minute, but it’s still most definitely worth a watch, especially if you’ve read the book.
Truman is a pretty sharp dresser too, and we’re big fans of those classic frames he wears.
For a similar look, we’d go for the Coopers C from Mr. Leight.
So there you have it — five amazing films, five cracking pairs of glasses. Now, where did you put that Blockbuster card?
