The Gilded Age

The beauty of Russia: Fabergé reminds us how the Romanovs lived

Fabergé created this diamond tiara around 1890. The stunning briolette diamondswere a gift from Tsar Alexander I to the Empress Josephine after her divorcefrom Napoleon Bonaparte. This piece is one of only a few tiaras ever made byFabergé.
Tsar Nicholas II and the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna jointly purchased thisenameled clock in 1896 just weeks after they were married. One of the firstfurnishings they selected for their marital home, the clock has a blue enamelfinish signifying true love.
The Nobel Egg, a jeweled, enameled presentation egg, is also referred to as the“Snowflake Egg,” its shell ingeniously enameled and engraved to simulate thetracery of frost against a misted ground. It opens to reveal a “surprise” – arock crystal and diamond pendant watch.

When I think of Russia, I think of snow, communism, vodka and Fabergé.

It's admittedly a vague picture. I've never been to Russia (mostly because of the afore-mentioned snow), and yet its dichotomy fascinates me.

This is a country that held 80 percent of its peasant population as slave-like serfs until 1861. That's over 23 million serfs—to compare, in 1860 the United States had about 4 million slaves. It's the land of the Potemkin village, the Bolsheviks, and currently a healthy mafia culture.

But it was also the land of Fabergé.

It is possible, I think, to both dislike the final tsars for their iron-fisted rule over a poor, increasingly backwards country and to also be enraptured by their personal lives and the absolute opulence that surrounded them.

The story of the last tsar, Nicholas II and his family is interesting by any standard. Nicholas and his wife Alexandra had a rare royal love story. They fell in love when Alexandra (then known as Princess Alix of Hesse) visited Russia in 1889, but both families opposed the marriage and tried to arrange more fortuitous matches. Alexandra refused to marry her cousin Prince Albert Victor, who was heir to the British throne, and Nicholas declared he would rather join a monastery than wed the princesses of his parents' choosing. When Tsar Alexander III died rather suddenly in 1894, Nicholas acceded to the throne and married his sweetheart.

The tradition of the Fabergé egg actually started with Alexander III, who commissioned one for an Easter present (Easter being the major holiday in the Russian Orthodox religion) for his wife Empress Maria Fedorovna in 1885. This first egg, known as the Hen Egg, was made entirely of gold and coated with white enamel to resemble a real egg. It opened to reveal first a matte yellow gold egg yolk, which contained a gold hen, a diamond replica of the Imperial crown and a ruby pendant. Both the Tsar and Tsarina were so thrilled with Fabergé's creation that Alexander named him a 'Goldsmith by Special Appointment to the Imperial Crown.'

The eggs would continue every year with Fabergé having complete creative freedom as long as each contained a hidden surprise. When Nicholas II took he throne, he continued the tradition by gifting one each to his mother and his wife until the revolution in 1917. When the Bolsheviks took power, the eggs along with the other imperial treasures and Fabergé pieces were first stored and later sold off to the four corners of the globe by Stalin in a desperate bid for currency. Only 10 are now in Russia, the rest remain scattered in private collections, fetching seven-figures at auction.

Fabergé might have become famous for his exquisite eggs, but the Houston Museum of Natural Science exhibit "Fabergé: Imperial Jeweler to the Tsars" shows his range, as well as the pure opulence in every detail of Russian royal life. HMNS has some showstopper pieces, to be sure, namely the Empress Josephine Tiara, an incredible showcase of diamonds given to Empress Josephine of France by Tsar Alexander I after her divorce from Napoleon and set into a stunning headpiece by Fabergé around 1890. (Now that's an 'independence party' present even a Real Housewife of Atlanta would be jealous of.)

Though the collection has no Romanov eggs, the one egg that is on display is beautiful and completely unique. Made for Alfred Nobel in 1913-14, it's known as the Nobel Ice Egg or the Snowflake Egg, a pale grey-blue egg etched to mimic a delicate frost in a rare natural theme.

The rest of the pieces are stunning not only for their beauty and craftsmanship but for their number. Imagine a world in which a picture frame is made of ornate gold and enamel, where clocks are examples of Edwardian craftsmanship, where a snuff box would be made of green enamel with a crest of diamonds. They are all here—brooches, cosmetic cases, umbrella handles, cigarette cases (one example even has a few royal cigarettes inside), pendants, miniature eggs, and other small items most people don't even notice. In the house of Romanov, they were each treasures.

'Fabergé: Imperial Jeweler to the Tsars' is on view at the Houston Museum of Natural Science through April 4.

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Movie Review

Michelle Pfeiffer visits Houston in new Christmas movie Oh. What. Fun.

Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

Michelle Pfeiffer in Oh. What. Fun.

Of all the formulaic movie genres, Christmas/holiday movies are among the most predictable. No matter what the problem is that arises between family members, friends, or potential romantic partners, the stories in holiday movies are designed to give viewers a feel-good ending even if the majority of the movie makes you feel pretty bad.

That’s certainly the case in Oh. What. Fun., in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire, an underappreciated mom living in Houston with her inattentive husband, Nick (Denis Leary). As the film begins, her three children are arriving back home for Christmas: The high-strung Channing (Felicity Jones) is married to the milquetoast Doug (Jason Schwartzman); the aloof Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) brings home yet another new girlfriend; and the perpetual child Sammy (Dominic Sessa) has just broken up with his girlfriend.

Each of the family members seems to be oblivious to everything Claire does for them, especially when it comes to what she really wants: For them to nominate her to win a trip to see a talk show in L.A. hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria). When she accidentally gets left behind on a planned outing to see a show, Claire reaches her breaking point and — in a kind of Home Alone in reverse — she decides to drive across the country to get to the show herself.

Written and directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You), and co-written by Chandler Baker (who wrote the short story on which the film is based), the movie never establishes any kind of enjoyable rhythm. Each of the characters, including competitive neighbor Jeanne (Joan Chen), is assigned a character trait that becomes their entire personality, with none of them allowed to evolve into something deeper.

The filmmakers lean hard into the idea that Claire is a person who always puts her family first and receives very little in return, but the evidence presented in the story is sketchy at best. Every situation shown in the film is so superficial that tension barely exists, and the (over)reactions by Claire give her family members few opportunities to make up for their failings.

The most interesting part of the movie comes when Claire actually makes it to the Zazzy Sims show. Even though what happens there is just as unbelievable as anything else presented in the story, Showalter and Baker concoct a scene that allows Claire and others to fully express the central theme of the film, and for a few minutes the movie actually lives up to its title.

Pfeiffer, given her first leading role since 2020’s French Exit, is a somewhat manic presence, and her thick Texas accent and unnecessary voiceover don’t do her any favors. It seems weird to have such a strong supporting cast with almost nothing of substance to do, but almost all of them are wasted, including Danielle Brooks in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. The lone exception is Longoria, who is a blast in the few scenes she gets.

Oh. What. Fun. is far from the first movie to try and fail at becoming a new holiday classic, but the pedigree of Showalter and the cast make this dismal viewing experience extra disappointing. Ironically, overworked and underappreciated moms deserve a much better story than the one this movie delivers.

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Oh. What. Fun. is now streaming on Prime Video.

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