The Prada/Schiap exhibition at the Met will be opening soon, but, as promised in other posts, rather than ranting and raving about it (there are already too many people doing it so well…), I will look every now and then at forgotten films in which Schiaparelli's costumes appeared.
Today it's the turn of French film Topaze (1932) by Louis J. Gasnier, based on the eponymous play by Marcel Pagnol (with many thanks as usual to Kutmusic for digging for me from its archives a VHS tape of the film).
The plot of this film is actually rather interesting: Topaze (Louis Jouvet ) is a honest school teacher at a boys’ school. Fired from his job after refusing to lie about a student's conduct to please the boy's mother, La Baronne Pitart-Vergnolles, he goes to privately tutor the son of a widow, Suzy Courtois (Edwige Feuillère).
At her house he ends up meeting her lover, corrupted businessman and politician Régis Castel-Bénac (Paul Pauley). Together with Suzy, the man is planning to sell trash-trucks to the city at inflated prices, but they need a director to sign documents and deal with the more bureaucratic aspects of the job. Their choice soon falls on naïve Topaze who actually takes up his role very seriously.
Soon, though, poor Topaze discovers the truth and accuses Suzy of having been dishonest with him. Suzy’s sweetly seductive manners convince him that, as a widow, she was forced to plan up the scheme with Régis. Topaze seems to believe her, but, after hearing Suzy talking to Régis and calling him a ninny, he decides to confront Suzy and confesses he only stayed in the business because he loves her.
In the meantime, newspapers discover Régis’s corrupt practices and while his career and his plans draw to and end, Topaze the innocent and honest school teacher decides to try his hand as a businessman and, after restyling himself, shaving his beard and acquiring new empowering looks, he fires Régis and tells Suzy they will use their money to set up a farm in Morocco.
There are actually quite a few versions of this French film: there is an American version (directed by Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, 1933), but also an Egyptian play (Naguib el-Rihani, 1931), a Chinese film inspired by it (Li Pingqian, 1939), a British version (directed by and starring Peter Sellers, 1961) and a second French version (1951).
The latter was directed by Pagnol, and featured Fernandel as Topaze and the costumes were once again by Schiaparelli.
The main reason why the story was quite successful even when adapted in different languages is very simple: Topaze’s transformation from benign and maybe socially inadequate school teacher into dishonest businessman is fascinating. While there is nothing attractive in a bad character becoming good, the corruption of an honest character always fascinates audiences.
Elsa Schiaparelli dressed the bad girl in the film, Suzy Courtois (Edwige Feuillère - who then became one of France's most versatile and honoured actresses) to great effect (consider also the Art Deco sets surrounding her).
Suzy is a dichotomic character: she’s essentially as crooked as her lover, but she is also angelically beautiful; she mainly wears elegant gowns and dresses, but all of them are characterised by some kind of peculiar detail or accompanied by a striking accessory.
When she first appears in the film she’s wearing a low-cut gown, sleeveless on one side while on the other it features a short sleeve trimmed with vaporous ostrich feathers.
This character never changes throughout the film, maintaining her duplicity and that’s why the last gown she wears is half black, half shining with sparkling sequins and crystals (and worn with matching gloves).
Schiaparelli had already experimented with the theme of the double, creating in 1930 a beach dress made of half-dresses, each with one armhole that tied at the side like an apron.
Every time Suzy opts for something more practical in the film, there is always that sort of Schiaparelli twist in it: a white dress with a gentle set-in sleeve with fullness at the hem is matched with a dramatic hat with a dot tulle veil (note: the dots are arranged in different sizes, from smaller to bigger); a dark ensemble with a Schiap trademark white collar and bow (think about Schiaparelli's trompe l'oeil sweater and you get the idea) is instead accessorised with a white crown of feathers.
Unfortunately, since the film is in black and white we do miss a lot about the colours of the Schiaparelli gowns featured, yet it’s interesting to note how the emphasis in this film seems to be on the sleeves.
There may be no trademark leg of mutton sleeves in sight, but Schiaparelli achieved some beautiful effects by adding gathers, tucks and multiple pleats, decorating the sleeves with little pom-pons or trimming them with soft black fur that contributes to make Suzy's movements even more sensual and therefore absolutely irresistible for poor Topaze.
While Schiaparelli’s gowns helped shaping Suzy’s character, fashion-wise the most important contribution in the film is actually offered by menswear: when Topaze turns into a shrewd businessman, he adopts an entirely new look, supposed to give him more self-confidence.
He shaves his beard, gets a manicure, changes his hairstyle, abandons his old-fashioned glasses for a more dramatic monocle, switches from roll-ups to ready-made cigarettes in a sleek Art Deco box or cigars and changes his ordinary button-down boots with a pair of elegant and shiny shoes.
Topaze’s swift gestures make us realise that, to adapt to the evil ways of a world in which only the hard-hearted survive, inner changes are usually accompanied by a purposeful transformation in one’s outward appearance.
The changed outward appearance alerts society to Topaze's new status, separating him from his former honest existence and admitting him to a definitely more luxurious - yet more dishonest - life.
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