The first movie was Birth of a Nation.
Costume exists at the intersection between Narrative- tells a story, communicates character, charts decline or rise. Semiotic value. Spectacle- pleasure of looking. Desire. Line, colour, mass, repetition, silhouette, reveal versus conceal, texture. Ideology. Informed by socioeconomic factors of the time. Reflects shifts in social fabric. The role of women in society. Racial shifts. America during the ‘70s. shifting role of women, black/ white movement. More everyday clothes. Social and political messages. What does it mean!!?
Costume may not make sense with the narrative, because the aim is spectacle. Contrast of this is The Birds. One suit the whole movie.
Story of humble shopgirl becoming high fashion icon is so common in Hollywood. Dorothy Lamore in her sarong. Marlene Dietrich, Gwenyth Paltrow. Look at studies. Charlize Theron Monster.
Period films- how the past is imagined through the present. Men!!! Don’t forget them. Rule- once a woman becomes a love interest you don’t have to flesh her out. This technique has been used in recent years, since men have been presented as highly sexualised. and example of this is Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise.
Men- In films like The Hangover, are presented as bogans. This style of film is only a avery recent social commentary. Alternatively, George Clooney- represents Cary Grant style, contrasted to Brad Pitt. Male versus female binaries. Male active, woman passive. Men look, women are looked at. He has brains, she has beauty. Thelma and Louise Is an example of a film that challenges these binaries.
Korean films- stars have to have degrees. Chinese. Australian. Independent film. Reacts against mainstream. Perhaps the future of films is a more diversified and globalised industry. Hollywood may not hold the monopoly over film entertainment, as the economies of countries such as China continue to grow.
Pirates of the Caribbean. Challenges masculine binary. Spin off of pirate looks.
Before the borth of the internet, film was the only way to see into others’ houses, apart from magazines. This meant that novel interiors, in films, were emulated.
In the mood for love. Fashion deigners designing films, Gaultier. Tom Ford.
“It” with Clara Bow. Can be viewed on You Tube. "It" refers to sex appeal. The first "It" girl. Set in a department store. The Ladies Paradise. Place women could roam without chaperones.
Gone with the Wind. One of the most successful films of all time. Why?? It was watched during WWII. Scarlett fashions her own outfit when reduced to poverty. Connects to wartime austerity. Music is very important to the way the film works. Set before the US civil war. Why did people living during a world war want to watch a film about another war safely in the past, presented in a very different way? Clothes designed by Walter Plunkett. Links between that, and the popularity of the New Look a few years after. Idealisation of the past. How the past is always visioned through the contemporary aesthetic e.g. Scarlett’s cleavage would not have been appropriate in the setting of the film. Period films tell us as much about the period they were made, as the period they were representing.
Look at how her ballgown is more spectacular than the others. Wayne’s World parodies Gone with the wind.
The old south. Rhett + Scarlett. At Tara, the old plantation in Georgia. That civilisation will soon be ‘Gone with the wind.’ slaves and masters.
