这部电影有着典型的美国模式,富家公子和灰姑娘,加上音乐和纪梵西设计的服装,没有什么高深的意义,没有人性和残忍,每个人都是好人,结局很开心。这种电影有什么不好?起码你在看的时候,不觉得时间流逝,这可是很多所谓艺术电影最难崴故的。
而且还有她。只要站在那笑着,就好了。对,现实很残酷,这我们都知道,导演们就不用再加大笔墨渲染了吧,难道非要提醒我们“别忘记人性的丑恶啊,别忘记生活的不公啊”才是真正的艺术?鲍嘉和赫本年龄上似乎不太登队,但他们的火花,却很出人意料的可爱。生活很无奈,所以我想看电影。
我不需要教导。因为我们每天的生活,比电影残忍的多。我不需要你们告诉我。我想忘记。所以,我选择在她的微笑中,继续我可怜的没梦。
见鬼的艺术电影。
很小的时候就看过sabrina这部片,当然是harrison ford和julia ormond的翻拍版本。和天性浪漫的妈妈一起在电影院看的。只记得从巴黎回来摇身一变成妙女郎的女主角,英俊花心风流可是够义气的弟弟,还有不知道哪里好,木头木脑,女主角还委身于他的老哥哥。
很久以后,我才知道原来我小时候看到的这部片是翻拍自奥黛丽 赫本的同名电影sabrina。又是很久之后,我最终看了在硬盘里呆了老长时间的sabrina。黑白电影,自然比不上新版的绚丽多彩。旧版里的sabrina是去法国学厨艺,她的司机老爸还夸张的说着,u r so lucky, it's the besting cooking school in the world.听着就让人倒胃口。新版里的sabrina就不同了,是去法国时尚杂志做助手的,这高下一下子就分出来了吧。新版本中花了大量胶卷在巴黎实地拍摄,美轮美奂,旧版本中。。。大概就搭了一个小破摄影棚吧。
可是,千不该,万不该,找任何人来代替奥黛丽。
同情julia ormond,不是她不好,人家在legend of fall里面可也是把brad pitt三兄弟搞得人仰马翻的。可是挑战经典,尤其是已逝去的经典,这败下阵来的结局简直是一定的。
天哪,奥黛丽 赫本和她的givenchy礼服,givenchy黑色小套装,givenchy little black dress,和她的givenchy黑色7分裤。原谅我小小的失态,但是奥黛丽和givenchy的搭配实在是太完美了。她在舞会上亮相那一幕戏所穿的givenchy无肩带印花礼服,背后看起来似乎是一件印花蓬裙,可正面竟是旗袍式收身裙,美得好似天使。
如果一个女人从来都不知道什么是适合她穿的,那真是灾难。同样的衣服,如果换了娇艳欲滴的伊丽莎白 泰勒,或是丰韵性感的玛丽莲 梦露,甚至是坚强倔强的凯瑟琳 赫本,千人千面,也穿不出奥黛丽带着一股随意劲的优雅,而优雅本来就是随意的。它是随意流露的品味,而不是矫枉过正的做作。作为一个银行家和男爵夫人的女儿,这些气质大概真是与生俱来。她是一个真正的贵族。
研究生课程论文,引用请注明作者Yayi Mo
Film as a showcase, character as a mannequin: a Givenchy/Hepburn case study examining the interconnections of fashion and film
It is difficult to define fashion, for it often has a fascinating yet perplexing aura. Fashion is “intriguing and compulsive” (Craik, 1993, p1), but also is “arbitrary, transient, cyclical” (Baudrillard, 1998, p101), like Pandora’s box, filled with colours, fabrics and adornments, entangled with dress, clothing and style (Edwards, 2011, p1). As a category of discourse, fashion has social, psychological as well as filmic significance.
From the early twentieth century through the present day, film has been used as a vehicle to sell fashion and its connotations: elite ideologies, consumerist habits and lifestyles. Begins from 1910s, fashion film has developed from the primitive non-narrative catwalk show film to the storylines-based feature film (Bruzzi, 1997, p4). Ever since then, more and more haute couture designers started to enter the Hollywood film industry, such as Coco Chanel’s design for Palmy Days (1931), which has enriched and also complicated the interconnections between fashion and films (Bruzzi, 2010, p333) and has raised the questions about the differences between costume and haute couture design, and the relation between clothing and narrative in fashion films.
Stars and fashion icons effect is another widespread phenomenon of fashion film emerged during 1930s-50s. From the silent era to classic sound era, films especially Hollywood never stopped creating stars and icons to attract the audience. With the rise of fashion films, stars become more magical and powerful. “With stars, the fashion form shines in all its glory” (Kawamura, 2004, p57). The fashion stars were donning the most fashionable clothing designed by couturiers, and the icons-designers partnerships lead the fashion trend, they tell the audiences what to wear and what to desire. In addition to the significant collaborations between Adrian with Greta Garbo (Bruzzi, 2010, p334), and Grace Kelly’s association with Dior’s New Look (Andersson, 2012), in 1950s, there was the successful and distinguishing partnership between Paris couturier Hubert de Givenchy and Hollywood fashion icon Audrey Hepburn, which has “changed everything” (Bruzzi, 2010, p334). From the flawless Parisian wardrobe in both Sabrina (1954) and Funny Face (1957), to the little black dress (which created a fever of bateau necklines LBDs and even has its own Wikipedia page) in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Givenchy’s design for Hepburn in fashion films created a globe fashion trend, which demonstrates that fashion designers and icons has used films as a means to showcase their design and influence the in- and off-screen world.
The Givenchy and Hepburn collaborations not only play a distinguishing role in the historical development of fashion film but also have the sociological significance. In The Fashion System and The Language of Fashion, Roland Barthes dissects the semiology of clothing and fashion, he points out not only the linguistic nature of clothing but also social and cultural forms, which has been extended and developed by Baudrillard in The Consumer Society. According to Baudrillard, the logic of consumption is ‘a manipulation of signs’ (p115) and ‘the finest object’ in the consumer package is the body (p130). Baudrillard’s assertion can be exemplified by the film works of Givenchy and Hepburn. That is to say, these Givenchy style dresses are, in essence, the commodity signs and the body of Hepburn is used to establish and reinforce the ideologies and values of fashion.
This essay uses Givenchy and Hepburn collaboration as case study, in section one, I anaylse in detail Givenchy and Hepburn collaborations, namely Sabrina, Funny face and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, in the context of the historical development of fashion films during 20th century, and raise the following questions: what are the differences between costume and couture design? And what is the relation between clothing and narrative in fashion films? In section two, I explore the relationships between costume and characters, and also the interconnections between fashion stars and female spectators through the examination of Givenchy and Hepburn collaborations. Ultimately this essay will focus specifically on the interaction between fashion and films, to demonstrate that during the course of the 20th century fashion films have become a showcase, with characters (especially female characters) as mannequins, to display adornments, dress and brands and sell to the spectators the most valuable commodity sign: fashion.
Section one: Film as a showcase
Clothing and narrative
The first met between Givenchy and Hepburn is quite interesting. Back in 1953, the twenty-six-year-old Paris couturier Hubert de Givenchy received a phone call that ‘Miss Hepburn’ would come to meet him about costumes for a Hollywood film Sabrina. When Audrey Hepburn showed up in his workshop dressing a knotted T-shirt and wearing flat sandals, Givenchy did not know this Hollywood actress would become his lifelong muse. As he recalls, he was busy preparing his new collection therefore had no time design clothing for her, but Hepburn had ‘impeccable sense of style’ and picked the perfect dresses for herself from his collection (Beyfus, 2015). This romantic encounter between a girl and a Paris wardrobe recalls the fairytale narrative of sartorial transformation in Sabrina as well as Funny Face – both are famous Givenchy and Hepburn collaborations.
There are striking narrative similarities between Sabrina and Funny Face. Firstly, they both depict a Cinderella-esque woman’s sartorial transition. Sabrina is about the title character (Audrey Hepburn) starts as a frumpy, plain chauffeur’s daughter, after two years sojourn in Paris, transforms into a soignée sophisticate, and similarly, Funny Face is about an ‘ugly duckling’, pedantic bookstore assistant Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn) transformed by a fashion magazine into a glamorous, elegant Parisian mannequin. Secondly, in both films, the Cinderella-like characters find their Princess Charming after the sartorial makeover. Lastly, the city Paris, the sacred land of fashion, functions as an important contributor to their sartorial transformation in both two films.
Though some film scholars might argue that the motif of such Cinderella tale is ‘the potential for upward mobility through work, education and/or marriage’ (Moseley, 2002), in Sabrina and Funny Face, the glorious transformation of Sabrina and Jo is achieved not through hardships but rather a whole Paris wardrobe. The evident irony within film narrative in Sabrina is that, the reason why Sabrina goes to Paris is to attend the cooking school, and yet she has no chance to show her cooking skill in the entire film. We can only see her physical transformation and ascent but not have a clue about her improvement of the inner abilities. In other words, her distinguishing quality is not ‘the self’ but the stunning clothing she wears. “What she wears” makes “what she is”.
There is always a main function of film costume: characterization. Jane Gaines (1990, p180) examines, dress can tell characters’ stories, especially woman’s story. For example, the Hollywood costume designer Edith Head is famous for her “storytelling wardrobes” which is based on the traditional cinema costumer’s formula. According to the Hollywood conventional costume design, costume is always seen as a subordinate element of mise-en-scene in the film narrative. Although encourage attention to costume, filmic analyses always associate costumes with mise-en-scene, characters and narrative, but not the dress or clothing per se (Gibson, p36). Costumes, as well as other significant formal elements of mise-en-scene, serve the higher purpose of narrative and characters (Gaines, p181). The classic Hollywood cinema sticks to the costume design code, as Alice Evans Field once said, “clothes must be harmonized to be the mood, add subtly to the grace of the wearer, …must enhance the rhythmic flow of the story. Never must they call undue attention to themselves”. That is to say, costume should remains secondary to character and narrative; otherwise it may constitute a threat to the narrative. Similarly, the Hollywood director George Cukor contended that the ideal costume was the one that most “perfectly suited the scene” and if the costume “knocked your eye out”, it would “interrupt the scene or even the entire film” (ibid: p195). In a word, in traditional Hollywood costumer’s formula, costume should functions as a servant of narrative and character.
However, in cinema history, costume is not always subordinated to narrative. According to Gaines (p203), costume designers devoted their “wildest visions and most outrageous whims” into clothes design of the melodramas produced by the major studio, during the particular periods, namely the 1920s to the1950s. Due to the distinguishing genre traits of melodrama, the costume can exceed the strict boundaries of period clothes and social class. Additionally, there was also an increasingly complex phenomenon related to traditional costume design in this period. With the development of fashion films, more and more haute couture designers were involved in Hollywood narrative fashion cinema, such as Coco Chanel’s design for Palmy Days, and Givenchy’s collaboration with Hepburn, which has complicated the interconnections between traditional costume design and haute couture design.
Sabrina, one of Givenchy and Hepburn collaborations, won the Academy Award for best costume design, and Edith Head, the costume designer of this film, took all the credit. There is an issue of authorship of the clothes worn by Hepburn in in this woman’s sartorial transition film. While Edith Head was responsible for the pre-transition costume design, couturier Givenchy was given the stunning Parisian wardrobe for Sabrina (Bruzzi, 2004, p6). Unlike Edith Head’s traditional “storytelling wardrobes”, Givenchy’s haute couture design has a distracting, disruptive potential to film narrative. In the case of Sabrina, there is nothing more surreal than the personal Parisian wardrobes of a chauffeur’s daughter. That is to say, traditional costume designers like Edith Head tend to choose a “safer style” to suit the characters and narrative, whereas couture designer like Givenchy might prioritises costume over the narrative, though it could distract the spectators from the film story. The divergence between Edith Head and Givenchy became a symbol of the differentiation of traditional costume designer and haute couture designer (Bruzzi, 2004, p5). Unlike the former, whose clothes designs are “in middle of the road in terms of the current fashion trends” (Head, 1983, p97 quoted from Bruzzi), couturiers are seen as agents of fashion, and make contributions in creating a style and defining the items as fashionable.
The couturiers label is the most distinguishing feature of Givenchy and Hepburn collaborations, while compares to other ‘makeover chick flicks’ such as Pretty Woman (1990). The haute couture designer label is equivalent to the artist’s signature, which can be distinguished from other couture and non-couture design. The studio-designed dresses in Pretty Woman “are homogenized” (ibid: p15). However, in Sabrina, the stunning embroidered organza evening gown is an embodiment of the Givenchy style, the fashion trend and Paris. It shows up in the ball scene, interrupting the film narrative and to solicit an attentive gaze. In case of Funny Face, similarly, Givenchy’s flawless haute couture design for Hepburn has the inherently spectacular quality in the rags-to-riches narrative. It does not aim to “suit” the protagonist (who initially is a bookish store assistant) but rather functions as an attraction and a visual spectacle in its own right. Apart from these two films, clothing functions even more independently of narrative and character in Breakfast at Tiffany. The publicity for this film was that “Miss Hepburn is a fashion show herself” (Moseley, 2002, p41). In a word, the couture costume is not longer subservient to film narrative and characters, but plays a more intrusive role in fashion films, pausing the flow of narrative.
Male gaze and female gaze
Sabrina begins with a ball scene takes place in the Larrabee estate. Sabrina, a British chauffeur’s daughter, is hiding outside and longing for the world she does not belong. When David Larrabee, the man she desires for, is going out from the ball to meet a nameless young girl at a secret rendezvous, Sabrina jumps down and attracts his attention. He stops, quickly and simply says, “it’s you Sabrina, I thought I heard somebody” and immediately goes away. Sabrina mumbles to herself, “no, it’s nobody.” Indeed, to this wealthy libertine, the frumpy, plain chauffeur’s daughter is invisible. In contrast, there is the second Larrabee ball scene when Sabrina returns back from Paris smartly dressed the Parisian wardrobe designed by Givenchy. Dressing in the embroidered organza evening gown, Sabrina becomes the centre of attention. And most importantly, she gains the attentive gaze of her Princess Charming. The two contrasting attitude toward Sabrina demonstrate that the sartorial transition is associated with the acquisition of certain kinds of femininity and hence the acquisition of the Prince’s gaze. From a pubescent chauffeur’s daughter to an adult with femininity, Sabrina’s transformation takes place chiefly through a variation of clothes.
The iconic clothes are significant means of the acquisition of femininity as well as the transition of social status. In Sabrina’s pre-transformation period, there is a clear social distinction between Sabrina and David Larrabee, which has indicated by the initial scene in which she is upset about David’s disregard, but her father talks to her that, “I want you to marry a chauffeur like me”, and “don’t reach for the moon”, which demonstrates their social distinction. However, in the latter part of the film, the iconic dress designed by Givenchy has blurred the social distinction between Sabrina and the Larrabees –the upper social groups. In The Language of Fashion, Roland Barthes (2006, p22) points out the social psychology of clothing and asserts that clothing function as a signifier of social distinctions. In the case of Sabrina, the flawless dress (or rather “fashion” per se) provides possibilities for the protagonist to change her social identity and also enhances her social position. From Cinderella to Cinderella with a beautiful dress, her social class has not changed, she is still the chauffeur’s daughter, yet she can attend the upper-class ball which she can only stay outside when she was wearing the frumpy clothing or rather “without a beautiful dress”, and she also succeeds in wooing the young master of the prominent Larrabee that used to be “the moon” she can never reach for.
From invisibility to the acquisition of the Prince’s gaze, Sabrina’s change of physical appearance raises a question of “looking”. Unlike Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory, Sabrina is not depicted as an erotic object for the male characters to view. Instead, she is represented as a feminine ideal of fashion for female spectators to look at. She is a woman’s star, “classy, not sexy” (Moseley, 2002, p48). Moseley (2002, p40) argues that Sabrina as well as Hepburn’s other fashion films are, in essence, a complex statement of fashion and beauty, which produces “a gendered attractionist aesthetic” and also provides an intimate space for female spectator. In this space, the film shows the details of clothes and fashionable style to attract female gaze. A striking example is the moment when she arrives at Long Island from Paris that the film reveals her as “the most sophisticated woman at Glen Cove Station”. This is a visual glorification of Sabrina’s transformation: the camera details her sophisticated figure, including her elegant pose, the Parisian suit, ornaments. This revealing scene therefore creates a space for female gaze, as Moseley argues, this space allows and encourages the female spectators to read the details of the dress (2002, p42). Another example of female gaze is the opening sequence in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Accompanied by the theme music, this moment portrays Hepburn’s elegant image, not necessarily for the gaze of male characters or male spectators, but rather to encourage the female gaze. Especially when the camera captures the cutaway, crescent-shaped details on the back of her dress, as if to invite the female spectators to detail reading the dress and to admire the fashion and style. In a word, the Hepburn and Givenchy collaborations are in essence a discourse of fashion and feminine culture, and they provide a space or rather open up a fashion showcase for female spectators to look at.
City and fashion
Paris is not only the capital city of France but also the undisputed capital of high fashion. As Gertrude Stein wrote in Paris, France (1940), “Paris was where the twentieth century was. It was important too that Paris was where fashions were made” (quoted from Joannou, 2012, p473). This fashion capital of the world is powerfully associated with haute couture, which can be traced back to the nineteenth century (Steele, 1998). Haute couture has enjoyed the status and prestige commensurate with high art (Joannou, 2012) and also signifying the Western sophistication.
Hollywood invents a formula for representing France in the Cinderella makeover films. In both Funny Face and Sabrina, as the sacred land of fashion, Paris functions as an important contributor to the female protagonists’ sartorial transformation. In Sabrina, Paris has powerfully associated with fashion and specifically denoting the European sophistication (Moseley, 2002, p40). Similarly, Funny Face also takes place within a Parisian fashion setting. However, unlike Sabrina, this film has an ambivalent attitude to the city. On the one hand, it satirizes the hyper-feminine Parisian ‘New Look’ fashion (Cantu, 2015, p23) especially in the ending sequences when the Quality Magazine fashion show is destroyed by Jo and thus in a complete mess. The film also mocks the other cultural aspect of Paris –Existentialist philosophy, which spoofed as “Empathicalism” in film (Cantu, 2015). On the other hand, Funny Face worships the Parisian style as well as the haute couture fashion, and admires the cultural landscape of Paris. A musical number performed by Jo (Hepburn), the fashion photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire), and the editor of a leading fashion magazine Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) shows their respective desire and admiration of Paris.
Section two: character as a mannequin
Clothing and body
In addition to the interactions between clothing and narrative, Hepburn and Givenchy collaboration also raises a question about the relation between clothing and body. In The Body and Society, Turner (1985, p1) notes that human beings “have bodies and they are bodies”. Entwistle (2000, p323) adds a prominent point to the relation between bodies and dresses that “human bodies are dressed bodies”. Indeed, body and clothing are constantly and intimately connected: while the body gives life to the clothing, the clothing works on the body with social identity and meanings (Twigg, 2013, p6). Barthes prioritises human body over the clothing, in his words, “It is not possible to conceive a garment without the body… the empty garment, without head and without limbs (a schizophrenic fantasy), is death” (1973, p107 quoted from Bruzzi, 2004, p31). However, fashion has complicated and enriched the relation between clothing and body. In The Consumer Society, Jean Baudrillard (1998, p196) asserts the finest object in the consumer society is the body:
its omnipresence (specifically the omnipresence of the female body, a fact we shall have to try to explain) in advertising, fashion and mass culture; the hygienic, dietetic, therapeutic cult which surrounds it, the obsession with youth, elegance, virility/femininity, treatments and regimes, and the sacrificial practices attaching to it all bear witness to the fact that the body has today become an object of salvation. It has literally taken over that moral and ideological function from the soul.
(Baudrillard 1998, p196)
As Bruzzi (2004, p30) has argues, the interconnection and interaction between clothes and body are essential to fashion. Hepburn’s sartorial transition films, for example, do not prioritise body over clothes but rather emphasise the value of clothes themselves. In these Cinderella fantasies, Sabrina, Funny Face as well as Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Hepburn’s slim body suggests the mannequin in department stores, which is perfect for looking at and consuming. In the case of Sabrina, the protagonist remains invisible when she was wearing the plain, regular clothes but only after she has dressed the couture costume can she receive the male characters’ looking-at-ness. Likewise, Jo’s body remains “absent” when she was wearing the bookish outfits, she is noticed only because her “funny face”. That is to say, only after donning the clothing, Sabrina and Jo acquire femininity as well as the male and female gaze. In other words, the clothing makes their bodies alive. More specifically, In Funny Face, Jo is modeling the special collection designed for her in Paris, and the fashion magazine photographer captures her in freeze frames, pausing the flow of narrative and making these moments purely iconic. This display has clearly engaged the spectators’ attention in the dresses and Paris attractions, but not in Hepburn’s body. The body of Hepburn is rather used as a mannequin to display the dress and thus establishes and reinforces the ideologies and values of fashion.
Stars and self image
As is stated above, with the rise of fashion films, the icons-designers partnership becomes more magical and powerful. As fashion agents, stars and fashion designers lead the fashion trend, and tell the audiences what to wear and what to desire. They not only play a significant role in fashion film history but also influence the on- and off-screen world. Before the discussion, let us first take a look at the above-mentioned story about Hepburn’s first met with Givenchy, that she knew exactly what she want and picked the perfect dresses for herself from a whole new Paris wardrobe. This story can be read as a symbol of the establishment of Hepburn’s iconic fashion figure. Ernest Lehman, the screenwriter of Sabrina, has pointed out the significance of the “Sabrina’s look”:
The way Audrey looked in Sabrina had an effect on the roles she later played. It’s fair to say that if she had never gone to Paris she wouldn’t have had that role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The Sabrina clothes fixed her image forever.
(quoted from Collins, 1995)
The close association between fashion designer and star not only has defined the sartorial image of Sabrina, Jo or Holly Golightly in fashion cinemas, but more importantly, it blurs the distinction between fairytale narrative of transformation and reality per se and thus establishes Audrey Hepburn’s on- and off-screen persona.
Both in the big screen and the reality life, Hepburn is established as the embodiment of fashion, and thus becomes a perfect figure to be commodified. The most appealing part of this ‘Hepburn met Givenchy’ story to the reader (especially the female) is “she got the clothes right”. As is stated above in section one, fashion is powerfully associated with the attainment of feminine ideals and spectatorial gaze, that is to say, once you got your clothing right you establish your femininity and build your image. The on- and off-screen image of Hepburn strongly affects the female spectators. According to Moseley’s audience studies on Hepburn's ongoing appeal for young British women from the 1950s to the l990s (2002, p48), a female interviewee remembers specially the Hepburn’s style in My Fair Lady and expresses an admiration of her gloves, bags and shoes displayed in the film. In Stardom and Celebrity, Stacey (2007, p315) examines that the female spectators are closely connected with Hollywood film stars in 1940s and 1950s through the commodity consumption:
Female spectators remember Hollywood stars through their connection with particular commodities and the ways in which they were worn or displayed. Typically, this association is made in relation to clothes, hairstyle, make-up and cosmetics, and other fashion accessories. It is the commodities associated with physical attractiveness and appearance that are especially remembered in connection with female stars.
(Stacey 2007, p317)
Therefore, designers and stars function as diffusion agents of the fashion and showcase their commodity images and design labels and brands through fashion films. The musical number “Think Pink” in Funny Face offers a striking example of the fashion diffusion. Maggie, the fashion Godmother of a leading fashion magazine, announces “pink” has become the new fashion gospel. The “think pink” slogan pushes pink as a woman’s colour and thus convinces the female spectators to embrace their femininity. As Maggie sings, “I wouldn’t presume to tell a woman what a woman ought to think, but tell her if she’s gotta think, think pink”, the fashion magazine functions as persuasive agent to tell female readers (also consumers) what to think and what to purchase. Additionally, the protagonist Jo, who is initially an anti-fashion “empathicalist”, then turns into a fashion model by the magazine, and “finally becoming fully commodified” (Cantu, 2015, p25), which implicitly demonstrates the power and the danger of fashion agents’ manipulation of female consumers.
Like this satiric musical marketing slogan, fashion also uses films as a means to implicitly sell its connotations to the spectators (largely female): fashion can transform you into a new self with social status and prestige; and after become the one you desire to be, you can find your own princess charming. The consumption of fashion raises another question about the subjectivity of the female spectator. In The Consumer Society, by examining stars or rather the ‘heroes of consumption’ and ourselves (consumers) in detail, Jean Baudrillard asserts that stars mimicry is in essence self-copying:
the celebrity is usually nothing greater than a more publicized version of us. In imitating him, in trying to dress like him, talk like him, look like him, think like him, we are simply imitating ourselves... We look for models, and we see our own image.
(Baudrillard 1998, p196)
Following this line of discussion, it can be argued that female spectators are in a paradoxical position: they are both the objects and subjects of commodity. As Doane asserts that
the cinematic image for the woman is both shop window and mirror, the one simply a means of access to the other. The mirror/ window, then, takes on the aspect of the trap whereby her subjectivity becomes synonymous with her objectification.
(Doane, 1989, p31)
That is to say, in the process of consuming the commodities (fashion icons and stars), the female spectator prepares to be “consumed” herself. According to Stacey (2007, p314), the female spectator play the combining role of a spectator as well a consumer; they tend to the fashion image in the big screen and consume the stars and ultimately produce the self as an object of the male gaze.
Conclusion
To conclude, from the early catwalk show to narrative-based, fashion film has been use as a vehicle to showcase the fashion and consumer imagery. By using the Givenchy and Hepburn collaborations as a case study, this essay explore the differences between traditional costume design and haute couture design and also examines the relation between narrative and clothes in fashion cinemas. The essay also examines the importance of the Givenchy and Hepburn collaborations within the historical development of fashion films and argues that Givenchy’s designs for Hepburn not only play a distinguishing role in filmic history but also have the sociological significance. By establishing Hepburn’s on- and off- screen images, they have influenced the female spectators.
To examine how has film been used as a showcase for fashion and consumer imagery, I conduct a detailed analysis research method of the Givenchy and Hepburn case study, and bring together materials and scholarship including fashion theories and consumption studies. The text-focused method is useful with regard to the limited investigation of Givenchy and Hepburn collaborations, however, if future research will be undertaken I would seek to use a broader range of approach such as audience studies. It is worth exploring how the audiences (especially female) view and interpret the fashion films in their own ways in relation to their own social and political agendas.
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三十年前的上海,一个有月亮的晚上……我们也许没赶上看见三十年前的月亮。年轻的人想着三十年前的月亮该是铜钱大的一个红黄的湿晕,像朵云轩信笺上落了一滴泪珠,陈旧而迷糊。老年人回忆中的三十年前的月亮是欢愉的,比眼前的月亮大,圆,白;然而隔着三十年的辛苦路往回看,再好的月色也不免带点凄凉。
而在一口气看了赫本的两部电影,《蒂凡尼早餐》和《龙凤配》,不由开始神往五六十年前的好莱坞。
那应该是一个有很纯真美好童话的年代。漂亮的女孩子会顺着防火梯爬到楼上房客的窗外,敲敲窗子,和落魄的作家聊天。然后爬到他旁边,问他:我们是朋友吗?得到肯定的回答后就在他怀中睡着。Tiffany的店员会满足顾客所有合理的愿望,包括在非Tiffany的产品上刻上字;学烹饪的丑小鸭女孩子会遇到善良的老男爵,把她培养成淑女,教会她爱情需要勇敢的去追求,而两年后,变成天鹅的丑小鸭回到家乡,她爱的那个人看她的第一眼就爱上了她;在那个年代,成功的商人认为钱是副产品,而他创业的理由只是可以让更多的人有工作,更多的孩子有鞋子穿;而最终,当那个商人下定决心的时候,他的弟弟会为他准备好汽船,让他来得及赶上那女孩子坐的开往巴黎的游轮。
真的,那是很老的片子。《蒂凡尼早餐》1961年,而《龙凤配》则是1954年。拍龙凤配的时候,鲍嘉55岁,赫本25岁。拍蒂凡尼早餐时,赫本32岁。现在,这些片子里的演员,导演,职员,都已经不在世上,去年,也许是去年吧,长寿的格利高里派克也终于呼出了他在人间的最后一点气息,到天堂去见他的老朋友赫本了。那个时代,终于隆重的画上一个句号。完整的,毫无遗憾的收了尾。所留下的,只是一部部流传许久并将永远流传的电影。
五六十年前,那是一个美女如云的时代,赫本,泰勒,琼.芳登,海华斯,褒曼,嘉宝,费雯丽。她们轻轻的在屏幕上出现,粉白的脸暗示着他们的温柔。即使饰演的是交际花,赫本依然像个公主。而那些即使是风情万种的性感明星,骨子里仍有她们的高贵和与众不同。
总结起来就是50年代美国版减掉穿越的《步步惊心》……全程看鲍嘉,花痴他每个定格的镜头和吐字的发音,不过明显没有和褒曼北非时般配,和赫本配各种显腿短年差大,霸道总裁的气场还是得看腿长… 赫本里面的造型也是忒牛逼,一身黑加黑平底鞋放现在也是时尚
不提字字珠璣的對白,不提配角爐火純青演出(比如兩位老爹法國大廚優雅男爵-出場一次搶戲),不提赫本只在聖羅蘭拿了三件美服,不提節奏明快調度得宜無邂剪接,不提深情輕快配樂玫瑰人生, 只須看女孩的眼神和鮑嘉先生的眼神, 如不是鮑嘉夫人在旁盯住, 公主眼神要把大哥融掉, 大哥那雙能令褒曼小姐心碎的更不必多說, 冰冷的臺詞掩不住眼神的灼熱, 無怪說威廉迷戀赫本小姐卻一場空, 戲內戲外他注定會敗下陣來, 你看多場從容不迫安排多種事干的冷靜干練, 什麼是大佬, 什麼是男人, 才更反襯再強的男人也會在愛情面前敗下陣來.......絕代浪漫不在華衣美服, 而在那個感覺. 早在電視看過, 昨晚看大銀幕, 更多細節更感動......
惊叹于赫本的美貌和气质
。在相处中,莱纳斯和萨宾娜之间产生了异样的感情,戴维得知此事同莱纳斯大打出手,而萨宾娜也误以为莱纳斯的感情只是一个阴谋。伤心的她逃亡巴黎,不久之后,莱纳斯也踏上了追随她的路途
能把这么俗气的故事拍的这么好看!!!我们鲍嘉绝对就是那种言情片里让人招架不住的大叔啊!这样的高富帅才叫高富帅啊!哎呀好好看啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊!!!
啊啊,赫本的每一个镜头都想打五星,但在怀德的作品中,这部只能算中游。
怀尔德这人的心理真挺阴暗的,或者还是咱太保守了。我真不太懂怀尔德对赫本是一种什么情愫,黄昏之恋和龙凤配都是描述这个清纯的小姑娘找干爹的故事,看来巴黎的干爹特别多。然后鲍嘉那个角色,一个大资本家,说得自己要去拯救第三世界国家似的。总之这片各种毁三观啊,跟人家发达国家的观念还是比不了
依然迷人的黑白色调 依然牛B的台词功夫 《玫瑰人生》牛B 鲍嘉牛B 赫本可就有点傻B了。。话说赫本公主是天底下最接近女神的人 亦是最著名的花瓶啊 看她演戏真累。。而在总体上 本片也稍嫌浅薄 完全不能代表怀尔德的水平
"云想衣裳,花想容" ;Audrey Hepburn跟某人好像啊;Sabrina.1954.720p.BluRay.X264-AMIABLE;
重看发现了不少梗 除了玫瑰人生和“情伤的女人做舒芙蕾忘开烤箱” 还有那个露屁屁塑料吊床和赫本玩转椅 remind me of 猫和老鼠 | 女主老爹的阶级意识真的很“本分”| 亨弗莱鲍嘉老了还是男神额(。
算爱情喜剧片,冲着赫本的颜看的,剧情还行,就是两位男主颜值不过关
啊,赫本的细腰啊,赫本的口音啊,赫本的la vie en rose啊,赫本的锁骨啊,赫本的下颌线啊,赫本的Givenchy啊,赫本的soufflé啊,赫本的爬树啊......头一次见双商如此之高的霸道总裁,为了塑料业,把自己玩进去了。如果你去了巴黎,不要带伞,不要带公文包,要压低帽檐,哈哈哈。【哔哩哔哩】(B.W.的片子开头的那一长段背景旁白真迷人)
不得不再次赞叹赫本女神的美貌,但剧情是败笔,不如她其他的经典作品。
女主性格傻傻呆呆女主光环。但男主性格竟然是心机攻先河,显得弟弟傻傻好可爱。最喜欢老爹的每一场戏哈哈哈。富人的幸福喜剧啊看完心里也好放松。
这片子最喜感之处在于,一个孤独多年的钻石级老单身汉,以为可以凭借年轻时的泡妞技艺,一举拿下时尚俏丽的妙龄可人,并相信对方会更饥渴、更先一步坠入情网,自己却能坚如磐石,做到不动心不用情,挥一挥衣袖让云彩自己飘走。到底是谁更天真一点?鲍嘉拍这片子时55了,赫本芳龄25,各种气场不合。
鲍嘉说他拍这部片拍得难受极了。他认为赫本一点也不会演戏。
怀尔德+赫本+鲍嘉+霍尔登的组合,黄金耀眼。赏心悦目的爱情喜剧,春节看这种有滋有味的电影真的是太对了。
当一个女人老了,睡思昏沉,并没有人爱她的心灵,她一切亲密的人都离她而去,陪伴她的也许只有三件东西,镜子,珠宝盒,回忆。
偶有Billy Wilder式的金句,但这种只会爱来爱去的片整体就是boring。
不去讨论赫本的美貌与服装问题,影片整体颇为舒服,笑点掐得很精准,鲍嘉的硬汉气质与冷面幽默也搭调;身份、语言的倒置,细节处的呼应,都很有意思。