DOCSLIB.ORG

Vidal Sassoon

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Vidal Sassoon ONE-ON-ONE by Shelley Moench-Kelly by Mike Nave What Becomes a Legend Most? Two legends create lightning in a bottle. Michael Gordon, founder of Bumble and bumble, pays homage to the master, Vidal Sassoon. FROM HUMBLE, DIFFICULT BEGINNINGS IN A brilliant hairdressers. So from that, we got to know London orphanage to soaring heights of success as each other, and I went on book tours for the book and hairdressing royalty and a Commander of the British then decided I’d do a film for him. Empire designation from Her Majesty the Queen, as well as most recently receiving the Hair Icon Award You started Bumble and bumble in the 1970s at America’s Beauty Show in Chicago last March, when pop culture, music, politics and more were Vidal Sassoon continues to create, innovate and changing drastically from one minute to the next. inspire with no stopping in sight. He apprenticed How do you think that influence affected how you do with Adolph Cohen and later studied under, among business and how you approached this film? others, the flamboyantly dashing Raymond “Teasie Well, I think the world’s always changing. The benefit Weasie” Bessone. He was contemporaries with Har- when you’re younger is that you don’t realize how old Leighton, Leslie Green and Gerard London. hard it is so you just go ahead and do it anyway. My In the 1950s and 1960s in his Bond Street, London logic with Bumble was that I thought I could do a salon, he shot to the stratosphere of fame with his product business and nobody talked me out of it! edgy, geometric styles, including his revolutionary And it worked. At the time it didn’t intimidate me five-point asymmetrical cut. In the 1970s, he debuted too much. And so the point of the film is that Vidal to huge success in the United States with salons on and I feel that it’s good for younger people to see this Madison Avenue in New York City and later in Los film so that they can see what really is possible. When Angeles. Sassoon then launched his namesake line I was a 15-year-old apprentice, I imagined that being of haircare products with the declaration that, “If 40 was like being 100. I didn’t think that anyone could you don’t look good, we don’t look good,” and in even walk around at 40 or even do anything. I think the 1980s debuted on TV with his own show that Vidal Sassoon with managing editor Shelley Moench-Kelly too, as we were tinkering around with the film, that focused on health and beauty, and opened teaching at the Los Angeles premiere of Vidal Sassoon The Movie we’ve been through such a terrible financial crisis and academies that are now international. His clients ran that the film would be good for kids—I think of kids the gamut from the everyday woman to Mia Farrow, BSB: Michael, Vidal Sassoon is like the Lennon and being between 15 and 30 years old—that it would be Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Coddington—a former Sassoon McCartney of the beauty industry. What was it like very encouraging, that it might give them some inspi- model and currently the creative director of Ameri- when you began your collaboration? How did you ration. It seems that many people are emerging from can Vogue—as well as fashion designer Mary Quant, overcome any nervousness or fear? viewing the film really inspired. Nancy Kwan and model Peggy Moffitt, to name a GORDON: The first time I met Vidal was in the late few. In more recent decades, his influence revealed 1980s. I attended this big haircolor event in Miami; I How have you seen the industry change a deeply philanthropic side, including outreach think it was called Haircolor USA. I knew he was going since you first started? Is it better? Is it worse? to Hurricane Katrina victims with Hairdressers to be there along with other well-known hairdressers, I’ve not seen much change. I’m not impressed that it’s Unlocking Hope—an initiative to help Habitat for and I wanted to take portraits—their photo- changed in a good way. I would’ve thought it would Humanity build homes in partnership with low- graphs—to raise money for a charity called Hair have improved over the years. We were not against income families displaced by the tragedy—and the Cares for people who were suffering from AIDS. So having industry sponsors for the film, and there were Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of that’s when I met him. I took his photograph and two major hair companies we thought would sponsor Anti-Semitism and Related Bigotries at the Hebrew chatted a bit, and eventually, the pictures were well the film. And they didn’t. You can draw your own University in Jerusalem. So who better to produce received and that gave me the idea for Hair Heroes. conclusions. So you wonder what the industry is really a film about the legend than an industry leader in I used to talk about the book at the school we had doing for hairdressers ... what they’re really thinking. his own right, Bumble and bumble founder Michael at Bumble and bumble. People would always ask me Gordon? Beauty Store Business had the rare opportu- who my favorite hero was. And my answer was Vidal Was this movie your first foray into filmmaking? nity to chat with Sassoon and Gordon and attend the because he’s just in a different league from everyone Well, we used to make films at Bumble. We had a sold-out Los Angeles premiere of the movie. else, which is not to say that the others weren’t also tiny film department and we’d done a version of RELATIONS PUBLIC WEST 42 OF COURTESY IMAGES 14 May 2011 Beauty Store Business One-On-One Hair Heroes on film, but this was the places we’d like the movie to go because first serious film, absolutely. there’s practically no hairdressing salon in Japan that wasn’t taught or influ- And how did you find the experience? enced by Sassoon. Culturally speaking, Was it terrifying or something that Japan is amazing because they have felt natural? incredible skills and a need for perfec- It was both. It was a natural thing to do tion. For years and years, they would because I thought, essentially, [that] literally fill jumbo jets with hairdressers what I do is produce. Bumble was a pro- who wanted to study at Sassoon Acad- duction in certain aspects, so I wasn’t emy. It was huge. I think every hair- that intimidated until we got into it and dresser should see and own it and watch I realized how hard it is to make a good it twice a year. And their families should film and how important it is to get it watch, and they should feel proud. right. Because if it’s wrong, it’s terrible. So there were tough moments. It was In your opinion, is it harder to make really like four years of running a new a movie with a living subject or business that you don’t have much of an one who is unable to collaborate idea how to do. or provide input? It would be really difficult if the There’s an adage: It’s completely differ- subject was not around to collabo- ent to be friends with someone than to rate with. You have to do so much work with or for him. What was it like research [and it’s all second and third to work with Vidal? hand]. So I do try and catch them He was just a pleasure. He was just while they’re still alive (laughs). fantastic. He never criticized, never really interfered and was always sup- Sassoon’s client list ran the gamut from every woman to stars of the stage and screen, including portive. Only afterward when we’d Broadway maven Carol Channing. improve things would he say, ‘Yes, that’s much better now,’ you know? And as a dous company called Bumble and you’re going to need one heck of an performer, he was just brilliant because bumble, really superb. In fact, Estée editor.” It truly taught me how to he’s just very giving. And he’s used to Lauder got involved and eventually it write a book because everything I’d it so he knows how to go on camera. bought the whole thing out. I knew done before was with a ghost. And It helped a lot. And I’m probably his history, and we’d been friends for I just wanted to get my own voice tougher on myself than even Vidal some years. Once I knew that about down; to get the feeling of the way was; so working with him was easy. him, I figured we couldn’t go wrong. I felt at the time—as a child, young You know what it’s like? It’s like Tom age, middle age and now ... super This project began as a personal Ford (the designer mastermind who age! I think this film is one of the tribute to Vidal. How did it turn into turned Gucci from a $230-million best things we’ve ever done because a full-fledged film? company to a $3-billion enterprise in it can go to young hairdressers—in Yes, it was an 80th birthday present about 10 years).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Hollywood Chinese by Erica Marcus Published: April 10, 2008
    Hollywood Chinese By Erica Marcus Published: April 10, 2008 Hollywood Chinese: A Very Queer Story An Interview with Filmmaker Arthur Dong Filmmaker Arthur Dong, who created Coming Out Under Fire, Licensed to Kill, Family Fundamentals and other LGBT films, has finished a new film Hollywood Chinese, a vivid and entertaining journey tracking the experience of Chinese Americans in America’s film industry. The film opens in the Bay Area on April 11 at San Francisco’s Sundance Kabuki Cinemas and at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater. A San Francisco native, Arthur Dong Whowould have thought that it would be a heterosexual Chinese recently spoke to Bay Times about the director (Ang Lee) to bring the a great gay love story (Brokeback film. Mountain) to the silver screen. (Bay Times) So, you’re going to be at the screening in San Francisco on Friday and in Oakland on Saturday. You’ve assembled one hell of a cast - Ang Lee, Wayne Wang, Joan Chen, David Henry Huang, B.D. Wong, Nancy Kwan, Amy Tan and Fu Man Chu. But I gotta ask - is it a queer film? (Arthur Dong) Am I queer? No, I mean is the film, Hollywood Chinese, queer? That’s the answer. Am I queer? Ah ha! So there. Okay, identity politics is so passé. You got me, but now I’m curious. Do you believe that a queer sensibility is embedded in one’s vision? I believe that my films are embedded with my vision and I happen to be a gay man. I’m not saying all gay people produce gay products, but I do.
    [Show full text]
  • February 2, 1962 Let's Pay "Unpaid Debts" Coats and Ties for the Boys
    Madison CriXe??. ! •' •-•■ E«:' WE BREEZE t^C All The News That Fits We Print Vol. XXXVIII Madison College, Harrisonburg, Virginia, Friday, February 2,1962 No. 13 Sound of Whistle NO EXCUSES GIVEN Means Trouble Professional excuses will not Frankel Dance Drama Company be given to students for the To "Jack" Derrer purpose of holding an interview •by Nancy Kersey concerning summer employment. To Be At Madison February 5 The smell of smoke filled the Students who need to have air in Converse Dorm. Where conferences with prospective The Frankel Dance Drama Com- there is smoke there must be fire! employers should arrange to pany will be presented in the third Girls rushed to the telephone to have such conferences during Madison College Lyceum Program call the fire department. At the week ends at home or during at Wilson Hall Monday, February 5 at 8:00 P. M. sight of the fire trucks a well- the Easter vacation period. known Madison figure hurried to Class cuts should be used for The Dance Drama Company, Converse. this purpose. which has recently completed a Mr. Franklin Pierce Derrer, bet- six weeks repertory session in ter known to his friends as Jack, New York, has appeared in more was once again at the scene of AAUW To Help than 600 American cities. trouble as he has been for eighteen Graduate Students The Madison College program years. Mr. Derrer in the capacity by the Company will include "Al- A program of graduate study as night watchman has answered ways Pierrot," a play within a many a whistle blown by a dorm through which mature college play, about the people in a travel- Hostess.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT Stereotypes of Asians and Asian Americans in the U.S. Media
    ABSTRACT Stereotypes of Asians and Asian Americans in the U.S. Media: Appearance, Disappearance, and Assimilation Yueqin Yang, M.A. Mentor: Douglas R. Ferdon, Jr., Ph.D. This thesis commits to highlighting major stereotypes concerning Asians and Asian Americans found in the U.S. media, the “Yellow Peril,” the perpetual foreigner, the model minority, and problematic representations of gender and sexuality. In the U.S. media, Asians and Asian Americans are greatly underrepresented. Acting roles that are granted to them in television series, films, and shows usually consist of stereotyped characters. It is unacceptable to socialize such stereotypes, for the media play a significant role of education and social networking which help people understand themselves and their relation with others. Within the limited pages of the thesis, I devote to exploring such labels as the “Yellow Peril,” perpetual foreigner, the model minority, the emasculated Asian male and the hyper-sexualized Asian female in the U.S. media. In doing so I hope to promote awareness of such typecasts by white dominant culture and society to ethnic minorities in the U.S. Stereotypes of Asians and Asian Americans in the U.S. Media: Appearance, Disappearance, and Assimilation by Yueqin Yang, B.A. A Thesis Approved by the Department of American Studies ___________________________________ Douglas R. Ferdon, Jr., Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Approved by the Thesis Committee ___________________________________ Douglas R. Ferdon, Jr., Ph.D., Chairperson ___________________________________ James M. SoRelle, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Xin Wang, Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Historical Studies Journal Historical Studies
    Historical Studies University of Colorado Denver University of Journal Spring 2017 . Volume 34 Historical StudiesHistorical Journal OCCUPATION BABIES COME OF AGE Japanese War Brides and their Children Post-World War II A Gender History HISTORIC PRESERVATION Spring 2017 Spring IN AMERICA A Brief Overview . AMERICA’S FRONTIERS 34 Volume AND BORDERLANDS A Look into Manifest Destiny and Native American Sustainability and Religion DECONSTRUCTING INTERPRETATION An Exploration of Historical Methodology and Primary Sources THE TIVOLI A Historic Preservation Marvel Historical Studies Journal Spring 2017 . Volume 34 EDITOR: Erica Fontenot, Graduate Student ASSISTANT EDITORS: Glendon Butterfield, Graduate Student Laura Hogg, Graduate Student Brittany Huner, Graduate Student Emma Lane, Graduate Student Thomas James Trump, Graduate Student Evan West, Graduate Student Thomas J. Noel, Faculty Advisor DESIGNERS: Shannon Fluckey and Kristen Morrison Integrated Marketing & Communications Auraria Higher Education Center Department of History University of Colorado Denver Kariann Yokota, Ph.D., Brandon Mills, PH.D. Department Chair 19th Century U.S. History, The United Colonial and Early U.S., Pacific Rim States and the World, Imperialism, Racial Identity Christopher Agee, Ph.D. 20th Century U.S., Urban History, Thomas J. Noel, Ph.D. Social Movements, Crime and Policing American West, Art & Architecture, Public History & Preservation, Colorado Ryan Crewe, Ph.D. Latin America, Colonial Mexico, Kelly Palmer, Ph.D. Transpacific History Modern Europe and France James E. Fell, Jr., Ph.D. Stacey Pendleton, M.A. American West, Civil War, Cold War/US, Modern Britain Environmental, Film History Carl Pletsch, Ph.D. Gabriel Finkelstein, Ph.D. Intellectual History (European and Modern Europe, Germany, American), Modern Europe History of Science, Exploration Myra Rich, Ph.D., Emerita Mark Foster, Ph.D., Emeritus U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • For a Faggot Anti-Fascism!
    ...for a faggot anti-fascism! June 2011. The squares are crowded. The people? The people left their couches and took to the streets. Debate. Fermentation. Direct democracy. The people got to acquaint themselves with the real, human face of anarchy rather than with that portrayed in the 8 o'clock news. Those days were a rupture. From there onwards we would “storm into the sky”. The cops spoiled the party. The repressive pigs. With the Israeli tear gas.1 At that point, then, a bit before storming the skies, an awkward moment was due. It was the first and only time – it is true – that we set foot in Syntagma square. It was when on the 4th June 2011, the gay pride parade run into the 'indignados'. Given that it was summer, the coldness of the encounter had something beautiful. A celebration of homosexual pride was encountering a circus of national moaning and it was logical to expect some discontent on the part of the latter. But this text won't talk about such easy to prove point: the widespread racism of Greek society against non-heteronormatives. We want, instead, to address the field of homophobia within anti-fascism, an immediate concern for us. Not to argue why it is not in our interest to maintain it. Besides, who is 'us'? We would just like to elucidate it and put different foundations in the whole debate, our foundations. No one would be surprised were we to reiterate the view that many stereotypes, prejudices and hate ideas have survived from the middle ages, and even prior to that, to the late 19th century and down to the 21st century.
    [Show full text]
  • Under Postcolonial Eyes
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln University of Nebraska Press -- Sample Books and Chapters University of Nebraska Press 2013 Under Postcolonial Eyes Efraim Sicher Linda Weinhouse Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/unpresssamples Sicher, Efraim and Weinhouse, Linda, "Under Postcolonial Eyes" (2013). University of Nebraska Press -- Sample Books and Chapters. 138. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/unpresssamples/138 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Nebraska Press at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Nebraska Press -- Sample Books and Chapters by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Under Postcolonial Eyes: Figuring the “jew” in Contemporary British Writing Buy the Book STUDIES IN ANTISEMITISM Vadim Rossman, Russian Intellectual Antisemitism in the Post-Communist Era Anthony D. Kauders, Democratization and the Jews, Munich 1945–1965 Cesare G. DeMichelis, The Non-Existent Manuscript: A Study of the Protocols of the Sages of Zion Robert S. Wistrich, Laboratory for World Destruction: Germans and Jews in Central Europe Graciela Ben-Dror, The Catholic Church and the Jews, Argentina, 1933– 1945 Andrei Oi܈teanu, Inventing the Jew: Antisemitic Stereotypes in Romanian and Other Central-East European Cultures Olaf Blaschke, Offenders or Victims? German Jews and the Causes of Modern Catholic Antisemitism Robert S. Wistrich,
    [Show full text]
  • Vidal Sassoon INSPECTION REPORT
    INSPECTION REPORT Vidal Sassoon 04 November 2002 VIDAL SASSOON Grading Inspectors use a seven-point scale to summarise their judgements about the quality of learning sessions. The descriptors for the seven grades are: • grade 1 - excellent • grade 2 - very good • grade 3 - good • grade 4 - satisfactory • grade 5 - unsatisfactory • grade 6 - poor • grade 7 - very poor. Inspectors use a five-point scale to summarise their judgements about the quality of provision in occupational/curriculum areas and Jobcentre Plus programmes. The same scale is used to describe the quality of leadership and management, which includes quality assurance and equality of opportunity. The descriptors for the five grades are: • grade 1 - outstanding • grade 2 - good • grade 3 - satisfactory • grade 4 - unsatisfactory • grade 5 - very weak. The two grading scales relate to each other as follows: SEVEN-POINT SCALE FIVE-POINT SCALE grade 1 grade 1 grade 2 grade 3 grade 2 grade 4 grade 3 grade 5 grade 4 grade 6 grade 5 grade 7 VIDAL SASSOON Adult Learning Inspectorate The Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI) was established under the provisions of the Learning and Skills Act 2000 to bring the inspection of all aspects of adult learning and work-based training within the remit of a single inspectorate. The ALI is responsible for inspecting a wide range of government-funded learning, including: • work-based training for all people over 16 • provision in further education colleges for people aged 19 and over • learndirect provision • Adult and Community Learning • training funded by Jobcentre Plus • education and training in prisons, at the invitation of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons.
    [Show full text]
  • Destination Hong Kong: Negotiating Locality in Hong Kong Novels 1945-1966 Xianmin Shen University of South Carolina - Columbia
    University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 2015 Destination Hong Kong: Negotiating Locality in Hong Kong Novels 1945-1966 Xianmin Shen University of South Carolina - Columbia Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons Recommended Citation Shen, X.(2015). Destination Hong Kong: Negotiating Locality in Hong Kong Novels 1945-1966. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/3190 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DESTINATION HONG KONG: NEGOTIATING LOCALITY IN HONG KONG NOVELS 1945-1966 by Xianmin Shen Bachelor of Arts Tsinghua University, 2007 Master of Philosophy of Arts Hong Kong Baptist University, 2010 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2015 Accepted by: Jie Guo, Major Professor Michael Gibbs Hill, Committee Member Krista Van Fleit Hang, Committee Member Katherine Adams, Committee Member Lacy Ford, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies © Copyright by Xianmin Shen, 2015 All Rights Reserved. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Several institutes and individuals have provided financial, physical, and academic supports that contributed to the completion of this dissertation. First the Department of Literatures, Languages, and Cultures at the University of South Carolina have supported this study by providing graduate assistantship. The Carroll T. and Edward B. Cantey, Jr. Bicentennial Fellowship in Liberal Arts and the Ceny Fellowship have also provided financial support for my research in Hong Kong in July 2013.
    [Show full text]
  • Hates Student
    Bates College SCARAB The aB tes Student Archives and Special Collections 2-26-1964 The aB tes Student - volume 90 number 17 - February 26, 1964 Bates College Follow this and additional works at: http://scarab.bates.edu/bates_student Recommended Citation Bates College, "The aB tes Student - volume 90 number 17 - February 26, 1964" (1964). The Bates Student. 1451. http://scarab.bates.edu/bates_student/1451 This Newspaper is brought to you for free and open access by the Archives and Special Collections at SCARAB. It has been accepted for inclusion in The aB tes Student by an authorized administrator of SCARAB. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ''i Hates Student Vol. XC, No. 17 BATES COLLEGE, LEWISTON, MAINE, FEBRUARY 26, 1964 By Subscription Anti-Playboy Attorney Rights Committee To jAhern, Hall Win To Discuss Gov't Role Visit Negro School: SeeksUnderstanding Two-Man Debate Controlling Obscenity On Feb. 29, a group of modern day carpetbaggers will leave Competition, NIT sunny Lewiston for the deep Tomorrow Night The varsity debate team took South to integrate Florida Mem- | first place in two-man competi- The county attorney who stop- orial College in old St. Augus- tion and second place overall in ped the sale of Playboy Maga- tine. This expedition, led by Dr. the MIT debate tourney last zine in Lewiston will address the weekend. The negative team of Political Union tomorrow evening Goorge Goldat and made up ol six student members of the Bates Tom Hall '64 and Bob Ahern '64 at 7:30 p.m. in the Filene Room.
    [Show full text]
  • Polanskimay Soon Be Permitted Back Into the U.S., but He's Made Some of His Most Compelling Films While in Exile from the Holl
    RomanMAY SOON BE PERMITTED POLANSKI BACK INTO THE U.S., BUT HE’S MADE SOME OF HIS MOST COMPELLING FILMS WHILE IN EXILE FROM THE HOLLYWOOD MACHINE. AS HE COLLABORATES WITH ARTIST FRANCESCO VEZZOLI ON A COMMERCIAL FOR A FICTIONAL PERFUME STARRING NATALIE PORTMAN AND MICHELLE WILLIAMS, THE DIRECTOR TALKS ABOUT THE PERILS OF THE MOVIE WORLD AND THE PLEASURES OF SKIING DRUNK AT NIGHT By FRANCESCO VEZZOLI and CHRISTOPHER BOLLEN Portrait PAOLO ROVERSI OPPOSITE: ROMAN POLANSKI, PHOTOGRAPHED IN PARIS ON NOVEMBER 25, 2008. YOU KNOW WHAT I like TO SEE AGAIN and AGAIN? SNOW WHITE. I DON’T THINK they MAKE ABOVE AND OPPOSITE: PHOTOS FROM THE SET OF GREED, THE NEW FRAGRANCE BY FRANCESCO VEZZOLI (2008), DIRECTED BY ROMAN POLANSKI ANYTHING better. IT’S so NAÏVELY BEAUTIFUL. AND STARRING MICHELLE WILLIAMS AND NATALIE PORTMAN. COSTUMES DESIGNED BY MIUCCIA PRADA. “ ” When Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli went look- Not like in America. [pauses] You know, I did an in- RP: No, I didn’t. But you have to take it into consid- ing for a director to help him make his latest art- terview for Interview with Andy back in 1973. eration, nevertheless. work, he went straight for the biggest. Vezzoli’s CB: I think, in fact, you did two with him. Do you FV: I’m sure you know the movie by [François] productions have always served up larger-than-life remember the questions he asked you? Truffaut called The Man Who Loved Women [1977]. spectacles studded with Hollywood mythos and RP: Not at all. He didn’t care.
    [Show full text]
  • Asian American Romantic Comedies and Sociopolitical Influences
    FROM PRINT TO SCREEN: ASIAN AMERICAN ROMANTIC COMEDIES AND SOCIOPOLITICAL INFLUENCES Karena S. Yu TC 660H Plan II Honors Program The University of Texas at Austin May 2019 ______________________________ Madhavi Mallapragada, Ph.D. Department of Radio-Television-Film Supervising Professor ______________________________ Chiu-Mi Lai, Ph.D. Department of Asian Studies Second Reader Abstract Author: Karena S. Yu Title: From Print to Screen: Asian American Romantic Comedies and Sociopolitical Influences Supervisor: Madhavi Mallapragada, Ph.D. In this thesis, I examine how sociopolitical contexts and production cultures have affected how original Asian American narrative texts have been adapted into mainstream romantic comedies. I begin by defining several terms used throughout my thesis: race, ethnicity, Asian American, and humor/comedy. Then, I give a history of Asian American media portrayals, as these earlier images have profoundly affected the ways in which Asian Americans are seen in media today. Finally, I compare the adaptation of humor in two case studies, Flower Drum Song (1961) which was created by Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Crazy Rich Asians (2018) which was directed by Jon M. Chu. From this analysis, I argue that both seek to undercut the perpetual foreigner myth, but the difference in sociocultural incentives and control of production have resulted in more nuanced portrayals of some Asian Americans in the latter case. However, its tendency to push towards the mainstream has limited its ability to challenge stereotyped representations, and it continues to privilege an Americentric perspective. 2 Acknowledgements I owe this thesis to the support and love of many people. To Dr. Mallapragada, thank you for helping me shape my topic through both your class and our meetings.
    [Show full text]
  • Oisteanu, Andrei, Inventing the Jews. Antisemitic Stereotypes in Romania and Other Central European Cultures
    Oisteanu, Andrei, Inventing the Jews. Antisemitic Stereotypes in Romania and Other Central European Cultures. Studies in Antisemitism. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, London for the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism. Andrea Petö To cite this version: Andrea Petö. Oisteanu, Andrei, Inventing the Jews. Antisemitic Stereotypes in Romania and Other Central European Cultures. Studies in Antisemitism. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, London for the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism.. 2010. hal-03232940 HAL Id: hal-03232940 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03232940 Submitted on 22 May 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Oisteanu, Andrei, Inventing the Jews. Antisemitic Stereotypes in Romania and Other Central European Cultures. Studies in Antisemitism. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, London for the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 2009. ISBN 978-0-8032-2098-0, x+468p. Moshe Idel, the most prominent kabala scholar of our time sets a tone of the volume as the first sentence of his introduction labels Oisteanu as „an expert in Romanian folklore and an active Jewish intellectual in Romania”.
    [Show full text]