The character of the femme fatale and the visual style of film noir are vital elements in our understanding of that genre. Film costumes worn by the femme fatale are crucial, and are defining elements in genre recognition precisely because of their explicit cinematic visualization, rather than functioning as unequivocal signs. This article proposes a methodology for film costume researchers to conduct a pictorial analysis, without necessarily analysing film costume in terms of a meaning-making repertoire adhering to our understanding of film as a ‘language’. In the proposition of a framework for the close textual analysis of film costumes, the methodology is based on the triangulation of a shot-by-shot description, a wardrobe breakdown and an examination of production stills. This triangulation is crucial to understand the complexity of film costumes, which are defined by a wide-ranging set of factors such as: the film industry’s mode of production, the film costume’s relation to the fashion of its time, the body and star image of the actor, the work of the costume designer and his/her department, and the film-specificity. The ways in which a film costume functions in a specific shot will prove to be an important tool to analyse the pictorial characteristics of film noir and the femme fatale. To exemplify to methodology, this article proposes a close reading of an iconic film costume designed for one of the best-known performances of such a character, i.e. the white jumpsuit designed by Edith Head for Barbara Stanwyck in the closing scene of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944).
{"title":"Costume on film: How the femme fatale’s wardrobe scripted the pictorial style of 1940s film noir","authors":"Lisa Colpaert","doi":"10.1386/SCP.4.1.65_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/SCP.4.1.65_1","url":null,"abstract":"The character of the femme fatale and the visual style of film noir are vital elements in our understanding of that genre. Film costumes worn by the femme fatale are crucial, and are defining elements in genre recognition precisely because of their explicit cinematic visualization, rather than functioning as unequivocal signs. This article proposes a methodology for film costume researchers to conduct a pictorial analysis, without necessarily analysing film costume in terms of a meaning-making repertoire adhering to our understanding of film as a ‘language’. In the proposition of a framework for the close textual analysis of film costumes, the methodology is based on the triangulation of a shot-by-shot description, a wardrobe breakdown and an examination of production stills. This triangulation is crucial to understand the complexity of film costumes, which are defined by a wide-ranging set of factors such as: the film industry’s mode of production, the film costume’s relation to the fashion of its time, the body and star image of the actor, the work of the costume designer and his/her department, and the film-specificity. The ways in which a film costume functions in a specific shot will prove to be an important tool to analyse the pictorial characteristics of film noir and the femme fatale. To exemplify to methodology, this article proposes a close reading of an iconic film costume designed for one of the best-known performances of such a character, i.e. the white jumpsuit designed by Edith Head for Barbara Stanwyck in the closing scene of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944).","PeriodicalId":273630,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Costume & Performance","volume":"65 1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133935030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Theatrical design is an under-researched area of Surrealist visual culture. This article examines two examples of Surrealist set and costume design, created by Salvador Dalí and Leonor Fini, respectively, through the concept of the monstrous body. Here, ‘monstrous’ refers to the ambiguous body that defies conventional categories. By using the monstrous body to interpret their designs, this article will yield a deeper insight into these artists engagement with the Surrealist challenge to rational conventions of individualism. It will also evidence their own interests in fluid, metamorphic bodies that blur boundaries of the normative human and the ‘Other’.
{"title":"Monstrous bodies: Theatrical designs by Salvador Dalí and Leonor Fini","authors":"Rachael Grew","doi":"10.1386/SCP.4.1.9_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/SCP.4.1.9_1","url":null,"abstract":"Theatrical design is an under-researched area of Surrealist visual culture. This article examines two examples of Surrealist set and costume design, created by Salvador Dalí and Leonor Fini, respectively, through the concept of the monstrous body. Here, ‘monstrous’ refers to the ambiguous body that defies conventional categories. By using the monstrous body to interpret their designs, this article will yield a deeper insight into these artists engagement with the Surrealist challenge to rational conventions of individualism. It will also evidence their own interests in fluid, metamorphic bodies that blur boundaries of the normative human and the ‘Other’.","PeriodicalId":273630,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Costume & Performance","volume":"75 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133080485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"RuPaul’s Drag Race: A study in the commodification of white ruling-class femininity and the etiolation of drag","authors":"Caroline Hodes, Jorge Sandoval","doi":"10.1386/SCP.3.2.149_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/SCP.3.2.149_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":273630,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Costume & Performance","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125581700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Commedia dell’Arte masks today: Old forms and new commedia","authors":"Olly Crick","doi":"10.1386/SCP.3.2.197_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/SCP.3.2.197_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":273630,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Costume & Performance","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126371522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Costuming the body politic","authors":"S. Osmond","doi":"10.1386/SCP.3.2.145_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/SCP.3.2.145_2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":273630,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Costume & Performance","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128831517","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Objectify me: Thing theory, Deborah Voigt and the Little Black Dress","authors":"A. Holt","doi":"10.1386/SCP.3.2.167_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/SCP.3.2.167_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":273630,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Costume & Performance","volume":"119 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121505206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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