Case Study: Robert Redford

Robert Redford received an Academy Award for directing Ordinary People in 1980, and also a second Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 2002. Redford played a number of classic costume roles. Above, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, 1969, costumes by Diana Wilson, follows classic Western protocol. During 1974, Redford was filming 2 different films with different, equally strong costume styles - The Great Gatsby and 3 Days of the Condor.

The Great Gatsby is Fitzgerald's story of a man driven by wealth and love. It is set in the early 20th century New York area. The film won an academy award for Best Costumes by Theoni Aldredge.

Redford as Gatsby in one of the many suits featured in the film. White dominates the color palette, accented by light blue and golden yellow.

Defining accessory - the Fedora.

Below the early 20th century swimsuit defines the aesthetic of the scene.

3 Days of the Condor had costumes designed by Joseph Aulisi. The film was set in the present of 1974 New York. It takes place over 3 days but Redford plays a CIA agent Joseph Turner on the run, so he only has one look for the entire film. He wears a tweed jacket over a blue shit, brown tie and jeans, with an occasional black sweater or black pea coat.

Also known as 3 Days of the Collar

Defining accessory - Ray Ban Aviators

Case Study: Al Pacino

Al Pacino above as police officer Frank Serpico 1973, costumes by Clifford Capone. Pacino is best known for playing gangsters. Below left Michael Corleone of the Godfather series 1972-90 and right Tony Montana of Scarface, 1983.

Godfather I is set between 1945-55 and established Corleone as a military hero by dressing him in uniform in the first part of the film. When the suit wearing follows his character ages. Costumes by Anna Johnstone.

Godfather II costumes by Theodora Van Runkle, follows Corleone expanding the family business. He is shown exclusively in dark colors and black business suits.

By Godfather III, 1990, Pacino is a patriarch and shown again in the dark classic business suit. Costumes by Milena Canonera.

Scarface is a sharp contrast with costume. Pacino portrays Cuban gangster Tony Montana in Miami. Costumes by Patricia Norris emphasize a light and bright color palette with dominate whites and bright reds. All dresses and suits were custom made for the film.

The lightweight linen chosen for both the male and female suit are characteristic of the Miami climate.

The tux is perhaps the only look which would could link to the Godfather series.

Dressing The Part

by Palden MacGamwell

Jean-Paul Belmondo, À bout de souffle, 1960

John Ellis, “Stars as Cinematic Phenomenon”
The text is basically theorizing and contextualizing what exactly “stars” are in cinema and what relation they have with the public with the control of the media. Ellis talks a lot about the paradox of stars in cinema, and how the public views these people as celebrities and how they become super natural people set in exotic settings, doing amazing things that could not be done in real life. Each “star” forms a “genres, recognizable from posters, reviews and gossip, if not named by a specific label”. And how this treatment turned into “one of the staple functions of the film industry to supply ‘appropriate’ material” to other media. This leads to how the “star” is used to lure mass audiences based on mistaken representations of the “star” in different media, like radio, journal reviews and TV. Ellis bring up that these stars are ordinary people when we see them on TV or hear them on the radio but how at the same time they are extraordinary. “Stars” become different kinds of icons for each film that they make pictures for and even products sometimes, all of which is used as bate to show only one part of the final show at a time to increase revenue and further drag out the money making media process. This is how he considers the star image to be incomplete and paradoxical. Then he adds how the relationship of the film performance will be more complete then the “star image” because “we” the viewer witness the cinematic experience which is sight/ light, sound and motion that makes cinema magic. Ellis brings into perspective the fact that these “stars” play a big roll in magazines as a “vehicle for discussion of sexuality, of the domain of the personal and familial”. The media in this way is able to use material that is universal and still personal, making it that much more effective and marketable. Ellis concludes how much buildup of these stars is another paradox because the “star image” has to be shown as a star in the film itself and has to animate the desire, which circulates in it. How because the Star is so built up before even seeing the movie their every move seems perfect and significant. Ellis refers to this as the stars permission to under act compared to the supporting cast. This leads us to understand that the star is behaving instead of acting.

http://www.rhul.ac.uk/media-arts/staff/ellis_pub.shtml


Sybil DelGaudio, “Dressing the part: Sternberg, Dietrich and Costume”
The text starts out with a brief introduction to Sternberg’s tradition of cross-dressing in “Blond Venus”, “The Blue Angle”, “Dishonored” and “The Scarlet Empress”. We then goes into the settings of the film Morocco (1930). The setting is Morocco the country, and the rolls of the movie are explained according to what they wear in the film. We then learn that Sternberg is a fan of German cabaret, and influences his perspective of on costume design. Then DelGaudio explains how in Morocco the film a “Sexual masquerade (i.e., cross-dressing) here becomes a kind of Otherness. Its incongruity is somewhat different from the incongruity of the Otherness of the foreigner suggested by the first two scenes, but similar in its presentation through stylization of something-that-is-what-it-is-not” The costumes of both La Bessiere and Amy Jolly in the film Morocco are vessels for Sternberg to create tension centered around impersonation and display. Amy was to wear slacks in the film to conceal her well-known legs and create a tension intended by Sternberg. The influence of wearing slacks in the film became a trend in women’s fashion and Sternberg was responsible. The text then turns into how cross-dressing was viewed politically. And how women’s identity was changing, Simone de Beauvoir comments “that the definition of woman as female and man as human being forces woman into a position of male-imitation at times when she most want to be viewed as a human being”. This was huge for the time in 19th century allowing women to evolve into a self defined human that can have equal rolls as men, unfortunately, women were still imitating men because men still dominated the move industry... The text turns into a woman’s perspective throughout the beginnings of film and how man exercise fetishistic scopophilie (voyeurism). We then continue to analyze woman’s attire in film and its effect on the film and how sexual ambiguity and reversal are recurring motifs in many of Sternberg’s films.

http://people.hofstra.edu/Sybil_A_DelGaudio/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpHVVyL6Q6c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgnEvT6xYr4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABROXMa1uG0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSt39FY0cZw&ob=av1n
http://philippevert.over-blog.com/article-31310149.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyVrH1OfVjw
http://books.google.fr/books?id=gIj-OMbCv_gC&printsec=frontcover&dq=sybil+delgaudio+%22dressing+the+part%22&hl=fr&ei=KU6iTK_HA5G7jAfpwaSPAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false


Stella Bruzzi “Undressing cinema: clothes and identities in the movies”; Chapter “The instabilities of Franco-American movies”
In her chapter “The Instabilities of Franco-American movies”, Stella Bruzzi is examining the importance of clothes and fashion in the genre of gangster films. By conducting a case study about the most important American and French gangster movies of the last century, the author succeeds to show that masculinity doesn’t deny fashion. Giving examples such as “The Untouchables”, Bruzzi states that even if gangsters are “men of action, they are also men of fashion”. Therefore she breaks with the traditional view of other authors that a real man is neither vain nor narcissistic. Her point of view becomes even more clear when she describes the traditional costume of a gangster which covers an expensive suit, a silk shirt and a tie and most important a hat. This costume is on the one hand a sign of social rise and on the other hand the very costume becomes a warrior dress.
The text is basically theorizing and contextualizing what exactly “stars” are in cinema and what relation they have with the public with the control of the media. Ellis talks a lot about the paradox of stars in cinema, and how the public views the these people as celebrities and how they become super natural people set in exotic settings, doing amazing things that could not be done in real life. Each “star” forms a “genres, recognizable from posters, reviews and gossip, if not named by a specific label”. And how this treatment turned into “one of the staple functions of the film industry to supply ‘appropriate’ material” to other media. This leads to how the “star” is used to lure mass audiences based on mistaken representations of the “star” in different media, like radio, journal reviews and TV. Ellis bring up that these stars are ordinary people when we see them on TV or hear them on the radio but how at the same time they are extraordinary. “Stars” become different kinds of icons for each film that they make pictures for and even products sometimes, all of which is used as bate to show only one part of the final show at a time to increase revenue and further drag out the money making media process. This is how he considers the star image to be incomplete and paradoxical. Then he adds how the relationship of the film performance will be more complete then the “star image” because “we” the viewer witness the cinematic experience which is sight/ light, sound and motion that makes cinema magic. Ellis brings into perspective the fact that these “stars” play a big roll in magazines as a “vehicle for discussion of sexuality, of the domain of the personal and familial”. The media in this way is able to use material that is universal and still personal, making it that much more effective and marketable. Ellis concludes how much buildup of these stars is another paradox because the “star image” has to be shown as a star in the film itself and has to animate the desire, which circulates in it. How because the Star is so built up before even seeing the movie their every move seems perfect and significant. Ellis refers to this as the stars permission to under act compared to the supporting cast. This leads us to understand that the star is behaving instead of acting.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/film/staff/bruzzi/

Characterization & Costume

Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler, 2008 costumes by Amy Westcott. Costume plays a strong role in the film, not only in the masquerade of the wrestling ring but also in defining the character's working class aesthetic in daily life and on the job.

Costumes transform recognizable stars into specific roles, Audrey Hepburn, My Fair Lady, 1964

Batman Begins, 2005 with Christian Bale designed by Lindy Hemming

Classic characterization will overcome the recognizability of a celebrity as in Bale above. However when an actor plays a costume driven character early in his or her career the actor is often type cast, always linked to the particular costume aesthetic.

Orlando Bloom Lord of the Rings, Rob Patterson Twilight and Richard Hamill Star Wars

Costume and characterization is most apparent in comedies. Above Will Ferrell and below Sacha Baron Cohen depend on costume to complete the full picture of their characters.

Future Films

The future is now that to which care clings – not the authentic futural being of the past, but the future that the present cultivates as its own, because the past as the authentic future can never become present.

-Martin Heidegger, The Concept of Time

Vogue Germany, February 2010, inspired by Metropolis, 1926 below

Films about the future use costumes to communicate themes and values. Uniformity tends to dominate these films communicating democratic society and unified power. Future film costume has also infoluenced technology and fashion. Below, the auto lacing Nike's seen in Back to the Future 2, 1985 by Deborah Scott, were patented by Nike for future creation

There are 2 general types of future films

•Utopia: the ideal, control, order

•Dystopia: the grotesque, perversity, anarchy

There are numerous themes of future films

• Space Travel

• Aliens

• Future on Earth

• Biotech

• Computerized World

Planet of the Apes, 1968 designed by Morton Haack, shows a uniformed space travel crew that in time shed uniforms and live with apes in uniforms.

In the alien theme, The Man Who Fell to Earth from 1976, designed by May Routh, shows Bowie, the alien, wearing suits, sunglasses, Fedoras and sporting wear to fit in with complacent life on Earth.

Fahrenheit 451 from 1966 designed by Tony Walton shows a future society on Earth. The modern black uniform is the dominant male look contrasted by the period clothing for women which causes the film to appear dated. Red and black are used as dominant set direction and costume colors.

In the biotech theme, Gattaca from 1997 by Coleen Atwood, emphasizes classic dark suits for males and limited diversity in female clothing, mostly full coverage suits and dresses.

The Matrix, 1999 by Kym Barrett is an example of a computer themed film. 23 different versions of the same cape were used in filming. The film strategically reverses associations by uses black as a force of good.

Dressing the Future by Magali Boehrer

Blade Runner and the Terminal Genre, William Fisher.

William Fisher introduces a new genre, which he calls the Terminal Genre. It defines films that are multinational, commercial, dystopian, big budget and avant-garde. Such films use technology and manipulated worked matter, for instance the Replicants from Blade Runner, into ambiguous use. Using the image of a future that cannot be controlled or altered due to capitalist and commercial society. This genre makes no claim to surpass cultural or social crisis. He considers Blade Runner to be the highest achievement of the genre. Among other films falling under this category are Mad Max, The Road Runner, Pink Floyd: The wall, Kamakazi’89, Streets of Fire, The Hunger, Subway, Highlander, and The Terminator.

He He also mentions that this new genre changes the original view of Utopia consisting of “diversion” and “escapism” (basically freedom) into “engagement” and “respite”. In terms of the Terminal genre, this utopian image is changed by the culture industry controlling mass culture, thus ‘the utopian dimension takes on a terrifying character’. This genre however, although it is the conclusion and fulfillment of generic experience, is a genre among many.

Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars, Patt Diroll.

Patt Diroll’s article is written for the book of the same name, about the costume exhibition at the fashion institute of Design and Merchandising museum in Los Angeles.

The author explains in awe the creations of Trisha Biggar’s costume of the Star Wars Episodes. The producer Rick McCallum said about her ‘her ability to manage, move, design, build, locate and scrouge was a rare find.’ She spent three months before the shoot preparing at Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch in Northern California, planning the design concepts and then flying around the world to scout fairs and markets to find the most exotic materials. She to introduce some twelve hundred-costume ideas for every film for almost every creature. She had to create costumes, which seemed real enough to be in an imaginary world. The set had up to 120 craftspeople working on each costume. Director George Lucas said ‘It is very hard to pick the right fabric, to modify the design in such a way that it looks like it fits into a real world. She is a very positive work force and the best I’ve ever worked with or seen.’

Trisha Biggar systematically studied each character in order to find it’s perfect garmements. For instance, for Palpatine’s character she used dark colors and heavier textures as the episode progressed to foreshadow the descent of the caring Senator to a callous emperor. Furthermore, for Princess Amilda’s character, she had to create a persona who could slip out of her clothes without anyone noticing. Thus Geishas, Mongolians and Elizabeth I of England inspired her.

2001: A Space Oddity, James Keeran

Space Oddity is a mock on Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A space Odyssey. The film is in fact nothing close to how the world really came out to be in 2001. There were no spaceships where one could rest his legs, or telephone cabins where one could call home and see the face of their beloveds, much less was there ever any planned space cruise to Jupiter. However, the article does state some interesting information about the stewardesses wearing Velcro shoes in order to maintain their feet on the ground. The jumpsuits were also an original idea.

Space Looks, Stella Bruzzi.

In Stella Bruzzi’s Space looks, she analyzes two terms: Space Age and Space Look. The Space age consists of the time after the first moon landing in 1969 and the sixth one in 1974. During that time space was an empty map, waiting to be filled. It consisted of the fantasy of space not being harmed by reality yet and films and shows such as Forbidden Planet, 2001 and Star Trek came into being which are considered to be the best sci-fi film and show until today. After several moon hoax videos, the fantasy of space was bashed by reality, and movies such as Silent Running and Capricorn One exploited the distance between realty and myth. The second term she mentions is the Space Look, which consists of namely the color grey, with militarist looks inspired by the US military itself, skin-tight jump suits inspired by Robin Hood and even cowboys.

Case Study: A River Runs Through It (1992)

This case study provides an example format for analyzing the role of costume in film. The emphasis is on costume and its relationship to fashion. Filmic aspects, such as directing and plot development are not addressed unless they connect to costume.

1. Screen the film.

Consider also viewing the original promotional poster in the country of origin.

2. Provide basic information about the costume designer.

•Kathy O’Rear, Quiz Show (1994), Cannonball Run (1981), Police Academy 2 (1985)

•Bernie Pollack worked with Redford on Ordinary People (1980) known for suits like Rain Man (1988) and Indecent Proposal (1999) with Redford

3. Identify the context - the historic moment for the film (when and where it was made) and the era and location the film tries to represent. Filmic context includes the original when and where the book or script was written, the when and where the film takes place and the when and where the film was shot. All 3 factors influence costume.

The film is set in a rural location but the main narrator attends an ivy league school and speaks to the carefree times just before the war in the awakening of modernity.

4. Provide a short summary of the film. Providing the trailer is helpful.

Autobiographical story narrated in first person, based on the book of Norman Maclaen. The film focuses on his Scotch Irish family and Presbyterian upbringing in Missoula Montana. The area emphasizes fly fishing. Norman leaves Montana for college in the east but his brother Paul stays behind to write for the paper and succumbs to alcohol and gambling with Native Americans.

5. Give an overview of the main characters (no more than 5).

Because this film is uniquely centered on a family, the Macleans play the most important roles. Above Norman, Paul and their father who is a reverend. Below is Jesse Burns the main love interest of Normal the narrator.

6. Describe the color palette.

There is likely a dominate or primary color set, supported by a secondary set of colors. It is not possible to calibrate most screens for viewing films and images so the color swatches are a best estimation. You should look at the costume but can consider how costume colors relate to the set as well.

Color is very clear in the film. The father consistently wears black and white even when not preaching. The two boys are distinguished with Paul in earth tones and Norman in steel blues, greys and deep reds.

Above an obvious separation of the brothers while below the fine red line on the suspenders is key to Norman's look.

7. Provide a characterization study.

Focus on the looks of one main character and how the clothing supports the narrative.Polyvoreis a helpful site for building example looks. When possible original illustrations help with explanation.

Jesse Burns' main accessory if the car. To be a female who can drive was seen as progressive.

Her key colors early in the film are cornflower blue and cream.

Later in the film she takes earth tones like Paul and some grey of Norman.

On a date, jesse wears a light blue seen nowhere else in the film. See the scene here.

8. Depending on your film, you should also identify any ways in which the film may have influenced fashion at large.

Redford began his Sundance clothing and accessory catalog in 1989, before the film but the catalog began to carry items inspired by the film.

Karl Lagerfeld was inspired by the film and decided to make a Chanel fly fishing set, 2009.