"Desk Set" and "Working Girl"
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2014 Working Women: Contemporary Cinematic Costumes in "Desk Set" and "Working Girl" Karen Hummel Kinsley Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/143 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] WORKING WOMEN: Contemporary Cinematic Costumes in Desk Set and Working Girl BY KAREN HUMMEL KINSLEY A master's thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, The City University of New York 2014 ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies in satisfaction of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts. Thesis Adviser Date Shifra Sharlin January 10, 2014 Approved Executive Officer Date Matthew Gold January 13, 2014 THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract WORKING WOMEN: CONEMPORARY CINEMATIC COSTUMES IN DESK SET AND WORKING GIRL By Karen Hummel Kinsley Advisor: Professor Shifra Sharlin The contemporary cinematic costume designer is a visual storyteller. Through the dressing, or undressing of the actor’s body, the costume designer narrates the cinematic character’s physical and psychological journey from the first frame to the final credits. The costume designer creates the character’s image by selecting specific garments and accessories that will inform the audience about the character’s relationship with his cinematic environment. The focus of this thesis is to examine how the contemporary cinematic costume designer unifies contemporary clothing with the actor’s body to narrate a cinematic character’s story. In order to understand how the costume designer creates a visual narrative, I will examine two films, Desk Set (1957) with costumes designed by Charles le Maire and Working Girl (1988) with costumes designed by Ann Roth that offer an entrée into two different time periods; however, both films were released as contemporary films. iv Table of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………………...……..…..1 Desk Set (1957)………………………………………………………...…………………..….…9 Working Girl (1988)……………..……………………………………………………..…….…..31 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….………….….45 References………………………………………………………………………………….…..48 1 Introduction Getting dressed, even casually, fixing our hair, putting on makeup, etc., is a language that always ‘recounts’ something. Even more so in cinema, where every sign on the body of a character has a precise meaning, linked to social characterization, historical identity, grotesque emphasis, transformation in terms of personality or feeling, and so on. Thus in the great sense-making machine of cinema, costume represents yet another signifying system, the signs of which become distinctive feature, functioning as linguistic units that are often more important than script or sound track.1 The contemporary cinematic costume designer is a visual storyteller.2 Through the dressing, or undressing of the actor’s body, the costume designer narrates the cinematic character’s physical and psychological journey from the first frame to the final credits. The costume designer creates the character’s image by selecting specific garments and accessories that will inform the audience about the character’s relationship with his cinematic environment. Although the central characters are the focus of film’s visual narrative, the costume designer uses the costumes of the supporting cast as a point or counterpoint to the image of the central characters.3 1 Patrizia Calefato, The Clothed Body, (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2004) http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/9780857854049. (accessed November 1, 2013), 91. 2 The term “contemporary” refers to the correlation between the style of fashion and the release date of the film. The term “cinematic costume” is used to distinguish the difference between theatrical and cinematic costumes. Although many of the skills and techniques employed by both theatrical and cinematic costume designers are similar, the costumes are realized as two separate and unique garments. The theatrical costume is designed so that the effect, narrative and comprehension of the garment can be understood by viewers who are seated adjacent to the playing area, as well as the viewer standing behind the furthest row in the theatre. The cinematic costume is designed to create an image that is always viewed and received through the technical demands of the filmic process. 3The author has been a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 that is a professional association of Designers, Artists and Craftspeople since 1983. Kinsley, Karen Hummel. "Karen Hummel Kinsley." Last modified March 03, 2013. Accessed January 01, 2014. www.KarenHummelKinsley. 2 The costume designer’s narrative mission is consistent regardless of the film genre. The work of the costume designer is to illustrate the character’s journey whether his story begins clothed in metal armor or a white t-shirt; however, there is a perception that there is a difference between the costume designer’s process in designing costumes for historic or fantasy genre films, rather than contemporary films. Costume designers who work in the contemporary genre do not garner the artistic accolades that are bestowed on their fellow designers whose work is viewed as more creative and “better” than costume design that is evidenced in contemporary film. Despite the fact that since 1967, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences combined the Black and White and Color Costume Design Categories into a single award, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) with costume design by Lizzy Gardiner4 and Tim Chappel,5 is the only film to receive the costume design Oscar that showcased a limited number of contemporary costumes.6 In recent years, the Academy has awarded the Oscar to Mark Bridges’ homage to the 1930’s black and white era musical, The Artist (2011) and Jacqueline Durran’s work in Anna Karenina (2012).7 These costume designs are considered historical or period costume films, while, for example, Gary Jones’ costumes for Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), are viewed as fantasy costumes.8 Both historic and fantasy genre films 4 Lizzy Gardiner was born in 1966 in Australia. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0306773/. 5 Tim Chappel was born in 1967 in New South Wales, Australia. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0152579/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1. 6 The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ website at hhtp://www.oscars.org/awards/index offers an indexed list of all nominees and award recipients from 1948 to the present. 7 Ibid. 3 feature exotic and unique clothing elements that bring the narrative work of the costume designer to the forefront of both the theatrical experience and the Academy ballots. The elements of clothing in these types of films are viewed on the screen as unfamiliar and removed from the viewers’ frame of clothing reference. A characters clothes, accessories or hairstyle in a costume drama may appear verisimilar to the viewer if the latter’s encyclopaedia [sic] contains prior knowledge of the apparel in vogue during the historical period in which the film is set and, moreover, if the images manage to make the costume credible at a textual and intertextual level, if they manage to stimulate the viewers’ imagination (as a semiotic activity productive of other worlds). 9 The cinematic costume designer’s work is created within the parameters of visual constraint that is set up by Production Designer, who coordinates and oversees the visual cinematic departments. The unification and consistency of design elements is used to reinforce the audience’s perception that the cinematic environment on the screen is “real.” In order to convince the audience of this paradigm, the viewer’s gaze is drawn through a rigidly defined visual portal into a cinematic space that has been imagined, drawn, constructed and controlled by the Production Designer. The costume designer is asked to filter the negotiated historical or fantastical cinematic elements through an additional prism of costume elements that may be referenced through historical garments, or the imagination of the designer, or a combination of both. Because the costume design in historical or fantasy films falls under the umbrella of the tightly controlled production design, the costume can stand outside the audience’s common frame of reference; therefore, there is a willingness, cooperation and participation of the 8 The Costume Designers Guild Local 892 is a professional organization for costume designers working in film that is affiliated with the International Alliance of Theatrical State Employees (IATSE). The Costume Designers Guild Awards have three categories for costumes created for film: Contemporary, Period and Fantasy. 9 Patrizia Calefato, The Clothed Body, (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2004) http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/9780857854049. (accessed November 1, 2013), 92. 4 audience, as well as the actor wearing the costume, in the “suspension of disbelief,” or “poetic faith” that transcends realism.10 The actor is often willing to relinquish control over his sartorial self-image on screen because his cinematic, costumed persona will be confined to an image that is separate and distinct from the red-carpet image, which is more directly linked to his off-screen persona and fashion acumen. The unfamiliarity with the clothing allows the actor to make a more straightforward visual transformation into a character that stands outside of a pre-conceived self- image. This straightforward visual transformation from actor “into” a character is not the same for the actor in contemporary films because the actor too easily and readily sees his own person, rather than the character, standing in front of the mirror. The blurred lines between actor and character can be blurred for the cinematic costume designer, as well as the actor.