Lifestyle, Aspiration and Fashion:

• Critiques in France were the first to take film seriously, and they viewed it as an art form
• There are different ways of trying to understand how film works: firstly by taking the director and what all of their films have in common eg. Theatrically, in terms of cinematography. Secondly by stage and thirdly through fashion and the ‘stars’
• “Fight Club” –manipulations of consumption
• “Some like it Hot” with Marilyn Monroe in 1959. Director wrote the lines of dialogue for Marilyn herself as she was such a big star at the time. The dialogue for her character was constructed around her as a star of Hollywood.

Marilyn Monroe in "Some like it Hot"

Conceptual Dualities:

• Consumption-manipulation/agency
• Film Studies-text/audience
• passive/active
• Stardom-Stars as manufactured commodities and social models/ stars as producers and communicators of meanings, ideologies, desires and pleasures. Conflicting ideas around stardom.
• "Human body on screen ignites the desires of moviegoers. The actor’s performance provides an essential pleasure in the film-viewing experience. The star’s image dominates movie posters and appears on dozens of magazine covers; it is clearly on of the principle commodities that is used to market a film to an audience." (Butler, J. 1998 'Hollywood and the Star System')

The Star System:

• Stars as icons, transcending their roles as actors
• The importance of an actors/actresses off-screen persona grew more and more important with societies growing admiration for stars
• Off-duty pictures during the Classic Hollywood pictures were controlled by the studio, i.e actors/ actresses would not be found in photos of their personal life. Images of these icons were extremely controlled.
• The stars were owned by the studio. For example gay men were not allowed to be openly gay including Roc Hudson who only famously came out just before he died
• Mae West-a later example of the 'vamp'
• Louise Brooks-European elegance that was sheike, however was not appealing to the Hollywood market. Her look did not conform to the star look
• “Through an intricate inter-working relationship between star and designer, the hat becomes a stage in itself where the star, so sublimely dressed, also acts out a more intense, more culturally defined drama.” (Stutesman, D. 2005)

Audrey Hepburn:

• Probably the most influential actress in terms of fashion
• Why is there a continuing appeal of Audrey Hepburn, and how does she remain such a force in fashion even today?
• Embodying chic
• It is her seemingly in the film’s where she controls the transformation
• She resisted the push of the Hollywood transformation. Eg. She refused to wear padded bra’s when she was taken to Hollywood
• “Roman Holiday” Princess Anne-She is transforming herself on screen.
• “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” Puts New York on the map as a fashion capital

Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's"