We recently looked at character transformations via costumes in operas. Yet the same theme can be explored on the big screen, in films such as 1942 American drama "Now, Voyager", directed by Irving Rapper and starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains.
The film, based on the eponymous 1941 novel by Olive Higgins Prouty, takes its title from the Walt Whitman poem "The Untold Want", that states "The untold want by life and land ne'er granted / Now, voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find."
In the film Bette Davis is Charlotte Vale an unattractive spinster living in Boston with her tyrannical mother.
Born to her late in life, Charlotte was an unwanted child: her mother has been verbally and emotionally abusing her throughout her life, almost taking her own revenge upon Charlotte for having been obliged by social conventions to have a late child.
Charlotte lives like a silent recluse, hiding in her room to carve intricate ivory boxes, a hobby that proves she is highly skilled, yet she lacks self-confidence and self-esteem.
Fearing she may be having a nervous breakdown, her sister-in-law Lisa introduces her to psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains), who arranges for her a period of time in his sanitarium. After a few months away from her mother, Charlotte is completely transformed and, rather than returning home she goes on a long cruise.
On the ship she meets Jeremiah Duvaux Durrance (Paul Henreid), a married man travelling with his friends Deb and Frank. Jerry's marriage is in crisis: his wife is jealous and doesn't want him to be an architect, a profession that makes him genuinely happy, besides, she does not love their daughter Christine, affectionately called by his father simply Tina.
Charlotte and Jerry fall in love, but they decide not to see each other at the end of the cruise. Once back home Charlotte resists her mother's attempts at destroying her again, also thanks to Jerry's memory.
Time passes and she gets engaged, but a fortuitous encounter with Jerry rekindles the flame. When her mother dies after a quarrel, Charlotte fears she may have another breakdown and goes back to the sanitarium where she meets Jerry's daughter. The young girl reminds Charlotte of herself as a child - unwanted, unloved and lonely - and, forgetting about her own problems, Charlotte decides to help Tina getting better.
The film is about mental health issues, psychotherapy and recovery following a breakdown, a theme dear to Prouty who had spent time in a sanitarium following a mental breakdown in 1925.
But the story also tackles themes such as anxiety, identity, the need for self-assertion, empowerment, emancipation and the strength that love can give to each and everyone of us.
Indeed Charlotte begins to bloom and radiates confidence not just when she breaks her mother's psychological hold over her, but when she receives simple acts of kindness and appreciation. The same happens to Jerry who returns to his passion - architecture - and becomes more empathetic towards his daughter after he meets Charlotte. Christine is also transformed from ugly duckling into swan when she feels loved by Charlotte.
The film is also about independence as, to emancipate herself, Charlotte rejects the attention of her suitor and her lover as well.
The road to empowerment for Charlotte implies an interior, but also a physical and style change: for this film Bette Davis was involved in details such as choosing her wardrobe personally.
Consulting with designer Orry-Kelly, she suggested a drab outfit, including an ugly foulard dress for Charlotte, to contrast with the stylish and timeless creations that mark her later appearance on the cruise ship.
Davis also suggested a more natural look for actor Paul Henreid, who originally had a gigolo-like appearance (Henreid and Davis also devised the "two cigarettes" scenes in the film, in which Jerry places two cigarettes between his lips, lights them both, and hands one to Charlotte).
In the film Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains) first urges Charlotte to make several radical changes in her life, encouraging her to "sail forth to seek and find."
Slowly, Charlotte emerges from her tight hairdos and severe clothing (you could say that the printed motif in the first dress Davis as Charlotte appears in on the big screen, represents the character's confusion and inner turmoil) that characterise the unattractive spinster enslaved by maternal tyranny and adopts a wonderful wardrobe.
The first time she emerges from the ship cabin, Charlotte wears a skirt suit with a hat that partially covers her face that will be evoked later on in the history of cinema by Nicole Kidman's blue and white travelling suit and matching white fedora designed by Catherine Martin for Baz Luhrmann's "Australia".
Charlotte's transformation into an elegant woman continues on the cruise, with functional daywear always characterised by ample shoulders, tiny waist and small bodice, almost to assert a new and more confident silhouette, and with evening gowns at times matched with a cape covered in sequinned motifs.
On her journey back home, Charlotte emerges from the ship in a perfectly tailored jacket with a triple layered vertical detail matched with a wide brimmed black hat and a large clutch in patent leather, marking her final transformation in the eyes of her sister-in-law and her incredulous niece.
Orry-Kelly emphasised the ugly-duckling-into-a-swan metamorphosis in "Now, Voyager", with gowns with low-cut necklines that highlighted and enhanced Davis' neck. We see more evening gowns when she goes back to Boston, and her entire wardrobe is always accessorised with hats, gloves and bags, proving us she has learnt how to master the language of fashion in her favour.
Orry-Kelly often stated that clotheswise this was his best film with Bette Davis, who, not having been a stereotypical Holywood beauty, shared with Charlotte her insecurities, but also her resilience. Maybe the best thing about this film is the fact that Charlotte undergoes a physical transformation but then the focus moves on her inner development.
At the beginning of the film Charlotte depends from her mother and from men as well, since, as a young woman, she tries to please them.
But at the end of this story of breakdown and recovery helped by timeless fashion, Charlotte finds true independence. She has learnt to look glamorous and impeccable, but she has also learnt to reject suitors and accept herself and her life as a single woman, as proved by those last legendary lines. When Jerry asks her, "And will you be happy, Charlotte?" she simply answers "Oh Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars."
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