A few days ago The Guardian dedicated a photo gallery to a few films that will be released soon or will be out later on this year that have some connections with the world of fashion.
When the gallery was published the Cannes Film Festival had just started, so Taiwan-based arthouse director Tsai Ming-Liang's Visage (Face) - a film about a director shooting a movie based on the myth of Salomé at the Paris Louvre museum, wasn’t included in the gallery.
Yet this film starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, Fanny Ardant and Laetitia Casta, has two very strong connections with fashion.
First of all, Tsai Ming-Liang could almost be defined as an image-led, visual director. You may think this can be stated about most directors out there, but it’s actually not true. The majority of directors perfectly balance in their movies images and dialogues, but Tsai Ming-Liang conceives images as central elements of his films.
Dialogues are rather sparse in Visage and images become the real protagonists with rich scenes shot among mirrors, snowy forests and in the water, one of the fundamental elements that ties the film together.
Some parts of the film are also shot inside the Louvre, which means the film offers an interesting art/cinema juxtaposition. During the press conference at Cannes Tsai Ming-Liang stated that his filming technique is actually very similar to the work of a painter.
He shot for example Visage as if it were a big painting with no logic, intertwining the world of dreams with that of reality.
Moved and awed by some of the paintings in the Louvre collection, such as Leonardo da Vinci's painting of St. John the Baptist, little by little he started a personal journey of discover of the character of Salomé.
Yet I wonder if other paintings and works of art also inspired the costumes for the film.
The costumes for Visage are the second important "fashion element" in this film as they were made by French designer Christian Lacroix.
I have already dedicated a previous post to Lacroix’s work for the theatre, opera and ballet, but this film marks a new collaboration for a designer who often applied his hand at the difficult job of costumier.
From what I have seen in the trailer, elaborate headdresses and pure white or blood red costumes seem to prevail, but we will have to wait and see the film before commenting further.
What I'd like to discover though is if the figure of Salomé was based on any of the 19th century paintings dedicated to this Biblical figure that portray her as a "dichotomic" femme fatale, a projection of male illicit desire and a woman who seduces and destroys men at the same time.
Some of my favourite paintings about Salomé are those by Gustave Moreau ("The Tatooed Salomé" and "Salomé Dancing Before Herod" for example), works that also inspired many years ago John Galliano’s "Suzie Sphinx" collection (A/W 1997-98).
I guess there will be enough time to develop my notes on what or who inspired Lacroix's costumes since the film will only be released towards the end of the year. In the meantime let's enjoy the trailer (guess also the polka dot dress on Fanny Ardant is by Lacroix...).
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The above editorial of May 27, 2009 is already quite interesting!
I will come back here to read your developed notes.
When Laetitia Casta danced and sang in Chinese
in the gardens of Tuileries
for the movie Face directed by Tsai Ming-Liang,
the costumes came from the Comedie Francaise.
See the note between parenthesis at the end of the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/movies/27face.html
However you may wish to discover the Christian Lacroix-clad Salome:
http://ondine.wsr3.net/index.php/face/14-lacroix-clad-salome.html
Posted by: Nimmzo | October 14, 2009 at 10:34 PM