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Undressing Cinema: Clothing and identity in the movies
Contributor(s): Bruzzi, Stella (Author)
ISBN: 0415139562     ISBN-13: 9780415139564
Publisher: Routledge
OUR PRICE:   $171.00  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: November 1997
Qty:
Annotation: From Audrey Hepburn in Givenchy, to sharp suited gangsters in Tarantino movies, clothing is a key element in the construction of cinematic identities. "Undressing Cinema," an innovative examination of the significance of clothes in film, proposes new and dynamic links between cinema, fashion and costume history, gender, queer theory and psychoanalysis. Exploring new film noir, the gangster movie and New Black Cinema, Stella Bruzzi analyzes assumptions about femininity and masculinity and examines the relationship between gender and dress in recent cinema, discussing such films as "Basic Instinct," "Disclosure," "The Last Seduction," "Goodfellas," "Reservoir Dogs," "La Femme Nikita," "Malcolm X," "Boyz 'N The Hood" and "New Jack City." Bruzzi also considers drag in films, and proposes a radical differentiation between the unerotic cross-dressing of "Mrs Doubtfire" and the eroticized ambiguity of the androgynous "Orlando."
With nearly 50 film stills, this handsome volume is a must for all film and fashion aficionados.
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Performing Arts | Film - History & Criticism
Dewey: 791.436
LCCN: 97007260
Physical Information: 0.83" H x 6.41" W x 9.52" (1.44 lbs) 248 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

From Audrey Hepburn in Givenchy, to sharp-suited gangsters in Tarantino movies, clothing is central to film. In Undressing Cinema, Stella Bruzzi explores how far from being mere accessories, clothes are key elements in the construction of cinematic identities, and she proposes new and dynamic links between cinema, fashion and costume history, gender, queer theory and psychoanalysis.
Bruzzi uses case studies drawn from contemporary popular cinema to reassess established ideas about costume and fashion in cinema, and to challenge conventional interpretations of how masculinity and femininity are constructed through clothing. Her wide-ranging study encompasses:
* haute couture in film and the rise of the movie fashion designer, from Givenchy to Gaultier
* the eroticism of period costume in films such as The Piano and The Age of Innocence
* clothing the modern femme fatale in Single White Female, Disclosure and The Last Seduction
* generic male chic in Goodfellas, Reservoir Dogs, and Leon
* pride, costume and masculinity in Blaxploitation' films, Boyz N The Hood and New Jack City
* drag and gender confusion in cinema, from the unerotic cross-dressing of Mrs Doubtfire to the eroticised ambiguity of Orlando.