To coincide with the ‘Valentino, Retrospective: Past/ Present/ Future’ exhibition, the Australian Cinémathèque presents three programs of feature films, documentaries and videos exploring fashion and its relationship to cinema. The program profiles costume design by high profile designers, explorations of masquerade in contemporary cinema and documentaries on the world of contemporary fashion.
| THIS FASHION LIFE |
This Fashion Life presents films on fashion designers and personalities, runway models, and behind-the-scene documentaries on the creation of haute couture collections. The program includes weekly screenings of Valentino: The Last Emperor 2008, an intimate documentary about the closing act of Valentino’s celebrated career; a focus on fashion documentarist Loïc Prigent; and films on the life and work of designers Gabrielle Chanel, Christian Dior, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent, Isaac Mizrahi, Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough for Proenza Schouler, Sonia Rykiel and Vogue magazine editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Dramatisations of the fashion industry in film and television will accompany this selection, including Robert Altman’s satirical account of Parisian Fashion Week, Prêt-à-Porter 1994
| GLAMOUR: ADRIAN & THE GOLDEN AGE OF HOLLYWOOD |
Credited for creating the ‘look’ of screen legends Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer, couturier and costume designer Gilbert Adrian, known simply as Adrian, became synonymous with the lavish spectacle films of MGM film studios during the 1930s and 1940s. His pioneering mix of Parisian couture and North American sensibilities also influenced the ready-to-wear industry in the United States at the time. Adrian’s ability to bring together character and star quality through texture, line and silhouette epitomised the mystique of Hollywood. Glamour: Adrian and the Golden Age of Hollywood features his most celebrated work, from the outré excess of Madam Satan 1930 (Cecil B DeMille) The Merry Widow 1934 (Ernst Lubitsch) The Great Ziegfeld 1936 (Robert Z Leonard) and Marie Antoinette 1938 (W.S. Van Dyke) to the haunting restraint of A Woman of Affairs 1928 (Clarence Brown), The Thirteenth Chair 1929 (Tod Browning), Queen Christiana 1933 (Rouben Mamoulian) and Rope 1948 (Alfred Hitchock).
| MASQUERAGE |
Masquerade explores the transformative use of clothing and disguise in cinema. The program brings together films in which costume design plays an integral role in the exploration of hidden identities and malleable personalities. The narrative device of choosing and shaping a persona through dress, makeup and accessories features in film and literature in multifarious ways, from deceptive façade through to the reclaiming or remaking of identity. Highlights include The Face of Another by acclaimed Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara juxtaposed with John Woo’s Face Off, and The Talented Mr Ripley 1999 alongside René Clément’s Plein Soleil (Purple Noon) 1960.
| FOR MORE DETAILS | http://qag.qld.gov.au/cinematheque/coming_soon/Fashion_and_Film
| CALENDAR | http://qag.qld.gov.au/cinematheque/calendar2
| IMAGE | Production still from Dancing Lady 1933 | Director: Robert Z Leonard | Image courtesy: Warner Bros, George Eastman House