Senso and Their Power of Divulgation As Historiophoty
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Translating History of Fashion on Screen A study of Piero Tosi’s costumes in Senso and their power of divulgation as historiophoty Flora Ferrara Department of Media Studies 30 hp Fashion Studies Master’s Thesis Spring semester 2020 Supervisor: Paula Von Wachenfeldt Translating History of Fashion on Screen: A study of Piero Tosi’s costumes in Senso and their power of divulgation as historiophoty The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that historical costumes can be a valid tool to crystallize and disseminate visual knowledge about fashion and dress history. In the specific, this thesis argues that the screen representation of dress and fashion of the 1860s in the adaptation Senso (1954) provides an evocative contextualization of their past use and meaning for modern viewers. It also discusses the historical accuracy attained by one of the film’s costume designers, Piero Tosi, and his mediation between on-page story and reality. To do this, it visually and textually compares the film costumes, diverse historical documentation and the original novel the film is based on. This analysis is supported by an interdisciplinary theoretical framework: by postmodern history with the concept of historiophoty; by literature and adaptation studies with Genette’s palimpsests and Eco’s reflections on intersemiotic translation; and by costume studies and practitioners with the idea of historical accuracy as a progressive scale and costume as supporting the narrative and balancing the frame. Keywords: History of fashion; costume; film; adaptation; historiophoty; Piero Tosi; historical accuracy; 1860s; literature; intersemiotic translation. A big thank you to my family and friends whose support throughout this peculiar period of writing and isolating was crucial to see the light at the end of the tunnel List of contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 1 Research aims and questions ................................................................................................................... 2 Materials ................................................................................................................................................... 3 A note on terminology .............................................................................................................................. 5 Literature Review ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Costumes, historical accuracy and bodily practice ................................................................. 6 Italian cinema and literature: Piero Tosi, Tirelli, Visconti and Senso .................................... 7 Nineteenth-century culture: fashion, art, opera, politics ......................................................... 9 Theoretical framework ........................................................................................................................... 11 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................... 12 Outline .................................................................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 1. On Theory ................................................................................................................................... 12 Costumes and Historical Accuracy ....................................................................................................... 12 Literature and Adaptation: Genette’s hypertextuality and intersemiotic translation .......................... 19 Historiophoty: history on film ............................................................................................................... 25 Chapter 2. ‘Magical’ realism: Piero Tosi’s approach and the adaptation of Senso ................................ 33 Piero Tosi and Sartoria Tirelli .............................................................................................................. 34 Piero Tosi’s method ............................................................................................................... 37 Senso on page and on screen ................................................................................................................. 41 Chapter 3. The costumes of Senso: Forgery of 19th century fashion ......................................................... 46 The crinoline and state of undress ........................................................................................................ 47 Revolution at the opera and practical wear .......................................................................................... 49 The Garibaldi shirt................................................................................................................. 50 Dressing for the opera and ‘variations’ on the theme of the mantle ..................................... 58 What then? ............................................................................................................................................. 75 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................... 79 Appendixes ..................................................................................................................................................... 81 List of Illustrations ........................................................................................................................................ 90 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................... 92 “A costume designer should be completely culturally literate…Painting, architecture, dress making. They should understand fabric, literature…Because we’re interpreters” Deborah Nadoolman Landis Introduction This thesis deals with the representation of historical fashion on screen, that is how costume design for film translates and mediates historical dress for modern viewers. The aim is to demonstrate how historical costumes can influence the public divulgation of history of dress and fashion, also considering their historical accuracy or inaccuracy. This aspect is quite divisive as practitioners have different views: some costume designers would rather capture the spirit of the times with a more expressionist tone or anachronistic elements, like Milena Canonero in Marie Antoinette (2006) or Alexandra Byrne in Mary Queen of Scots (2018), while others would strive for philological detail by using authentic pieces of clothing or by creating almost perfect forgeries/copies, like Italian costume designer Piero Tosi. Besides these thought-provoking stances, this study is motivated also by the far- reaching and popular nature of the moving image which makes it important to comprehend how it can affect the knowledge and the heritage of dress history. In fact, considering that historical films and adaptations are an influential medium for knowing about past events and times and that in general the release of a movie always creates some buzz around it - attracting both popular and critical attention - then one could expect an increased focus on historical dress as well. Regardless of their previous knowledge about history of fashion, viewers most likely would at least think about the images seen on the screen, which also comprehend costumes. Otherwise, an absorption of visual portrayals of the past through cinema could also determine a historical consciousness of fashion based on costumes. In other words, historical costumes could initiate and cultivate the audience’s “visual literacy and familiarity” with fashion and dress history.1 Depending on how designers fashion the costumes, the visualization of the costumes by modern viewers could mean mentally linking them to a certain period in time, becoming more aware of history of fashion, but also, possibly, distorting it. Historical films and adaptation have always attracted my attention since an early age and I think that this was nurtured by my love for reading, narratives and the art of story-telling. This enthusiasm for this genre of films awakened an interest in historical dress at first and more generally in fashion later. Only when starting to research for this thesis I became aware that my increasing approach to Fashion Studies had actually been filtered by costume. I believe that this early curiosity and awareness have thus influenced me greatly in my academic career both at undergraduate (I graduated with a thesis about analysing fashion in fiction) and graduate levels.2 Besides my personal responsiveness, the topic really deserves general attention. Costumes can be considered a hybrid field 1 J. Petrov, “Tableaux vivants: Influence of Theatre” in Fashion, History, Museums: Inventing the display of dress, Bloomsbury Visual Arts, London, 2019, p. 115, referring to Stephen Bann, The Clothing of Clio: A Study of the Representation of History in Nineteenth-Century Britain and France, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1984, p. 58. 2 F. Ferrara, “The Profitable Reading of Clothes: Functions of Dress in three novels”, Bachelor’s thesis, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, 2016/2017, Academia. 1 of study. They sit