How did the standard of female appearance change in Hollywood
Cinema is not only art and entertainment, but also the most powerful conductor of ideology, be it the standards of family values or the relationship of man with the cosmos. The visual nature of cinema has made human appearance one of the most important artistic tools, and the popularity of this art has turned beauty into a fetish and an effective weapon of propaganda. Female beauty, as it appears on the screen, remains the subject of serious discussions: the images created by the “dream factory” not only changed over time, but also changed it. We understand how (and why) the film characters of different eras looked like and how we came to a relative variety of female appearance on the screen.
The first silent film actresses got into it, first of all, thanks to their appearance, corresponding to very clear requirements. This affected men little: initially there were more diverse roles for them, which means that a variety of types was welcomed. It turned out to be easier with actresses, the most cinematic type of appearance was quickly determined. This is a young woman with big eyes, thin, underlined dark lipstick lips, expressive outlines of the face and lush hair.
The birth of such an ideal was promoted by both fashion and the specificity of the film image, which required bright and precise, but not theatrical facial expressions from the performer. Women in the cinema were needed, of course, to interact with men - they are characterized by lonely helplessness, the fragile beauty of the face and body. At that time, both dramatic and comic actresses appear to be such: everyone, from Mabel Normand, partner of Fatty Arbuckle, to DU Griffith's muse, Lillian Gish, approaches the type described above. This is quite consistent with the spectator's request: men look at the innocent and touching heroine, women want to be like her.
Before the appearance of the first movie stars, the audience did not bother themselves with the knowledge of the names of the actors, and they were not attracted by the characteristics of individual performers, but by the standard characters that they embodied on the screen. In addition, from literature and theater cinema inherited not too wide range of subjects and stories in which women participated. The territory on which women settled steadily, became melodramas. This genre, using stories of fairytale love and revealing the secret of female happiness, was popular among the spectators. The first film star, role models appeared in the melodramas. Cinema helped to dream.
Women actresses, especially those who managed to build a successful career, somehow became hostages of images that did not go beyond a strictly defined framework. The most striking example is Mary Pickford, who for a long time remained an eternal "girl with golden curls." Behind the scenes, actress Pickford was the most powerful woman: she grew up in a poor family, got to Biograph Studios, where she starred without interruption, did not hesitate to demand higher fees, was actively involved in the studio business, and at the height of her fame found herself a role and picked up a film crew.
Nevertheless, in the names of her pictures the word "little" flashes almost every other time: the audience coolly greeted those films in which the actress appeared in age roles. Then one day, Mary cut her famous curls as a sign of farewell to a childish image, and the news of this incident spread all over the gossip. The ending of this story can, alas, be called predictable: the public refused to accept an adult lady who does not cause either affection or the desire to protect her. In 1933, after several apparent failures, America’s beloved ceased to be completely removed. And this is not the tragedy of a single legend, but quite an end to a career for Hollywood. Until the 1970s, the way of the woman who decided to link her life with the screen will look like this.
One way or another, images of bold, resolute and strong women appeared. But the most important driving force of the film, in which the main character is a woman, was her beauty. In one of the brightest achievements of the heroine Vivien Leigh in "Gone With the Wind" imputed gorgeous dress, made from curtains. Marlene Dietrich was perceived primarily as an unearthly erotic object, and to psychologically saturated roles that do not require sexual coloration, she had risen at a very mature age. To the end of her short life, Marilyn Monroe played the same seductive beauty. In the penultimate of her film, cool and sad cowboy drama John Houston "Restless", she is mainly engaged in the fact that excites the viewer's eye. Is that not dancing and not singing, as usual.
The studios still believed that women were needed for them to be loved by men: almost any female plot is based on the story of Cinderella, languishing in anticipation of the prince. To create slightly more active characters, women were assigned historical films, but under the same conditions. Catherine II, incarnate Marlene Dietrich, mainly worries about her relationship with Count Razumovsky. In the final, however, he is completely disappointed in people in general and men in particular, which is difficult to interpret as a victory over patriarchal views. Viewers will understand that excessive love of freedom makes a woman miserable and lonely. Under the same sauce served Mary Stuart in "Mary of Scotland" by John Ford. Katherine Hepburn in each scene walks amazing costumes, and the love line in the film is much more weighty than the historical one.
Up until the end of the 60s, the film industry, in collaboration with advertising and the emerging beauty industry, is shaping the image of an ideal woman. The very style of the Hollywood image with its abundance of artificial light makes the human appearance of a statuary, unrealistically improved. The appearance of a young, beautiful, smiling movie star should be supported in a life in which newspapers and television are increasingly obsessive. Some, like Elizabeth Taylor and Marlene Dietrich, have more luck and they have been in demand for quite some time.
At the same time, the cult of youth and beauty locked the aging Greta Garbo in the house and took part in the occurrence of depression in Marilyn Monroe. Among successful Hollywood actresses it is very difficult to find a woman with a look that is clearly receding from the canon. If from today you look at Billy Wilder's classic comedy "Only Girls are in Jazz", then the situation seems ambiguous: Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon have enough makeup, wigs and generalized feminine antics to fully transform into creatures of the other sex. But in the circumstances of a world in which the appearance of women is unified to the limit, the travesty-plot looks organic and raises no questions.
At the time of the development of an independent film, the attitude towards a person in the frame begins to change. The first interest in the individual human face was shown by John Cassavetes. In the debut film "Shadows", an abundance of close-ups, unusual for American cinema, brought the characters of the film closer to those who look at them. Cassavethis is closely watching the emotions, trying to fix their reflections. The film “Faces”, released in 1968, if you look at it over the plot, is about how what happens to its owner is manifested on a person’s face. The story of lonely people who have decided to stay overnight together and have been disappointed is only support for these detailed film portraits.
This is a small revolution: wrinkles, not disguised with make-up, loose hair, carcass leaks, and non-theatrical views were not well combined with the sterility of Hollywood cinema. Actress Gina Rowlands, the wife and actually co-author of Cassavetes, never played the classic beauties. Her heroines in Faces and Minnie and Moskovitts were exhausted and tired, in Woman Under the Influence and Premiere - frankly broken. Cassavetis, by the way, did not deserve the love of the masses at home. The development of similar ideas continued figures of New Hollywood. They basically abandoned the exploitation of beauty - or interpreted it in a completely new way.
There are not very many women in the history of New Hollywood - it was the world of boys rebelling against the industry - but they are all remarkable. In 1967, "Bonnie and Clyde" by Arthur Penn was released. The film became a hit, and it was really a big blow to the Hollywood gloss. In Golden Hollywood, there was always a lady hiding in every simpleton, who by the finale had to appear in all her glory. The authors of "Bonnie and Clyde" do not write out to their heroes any of the awards they put on the grounds of youth and beauty. Their courage and energy translate into criminal activity - of course, this is romanticization, but not transcendental. The story is traditionally led by a man, but Bonnie in her iconic beret is one of the first American film heroines who have been given the right not to strive for integrity and have their hands. And most importantly - her beauty has no direct influence on the development of its history. And does not stop the bullets.
The sexual revolution has allowed to end the search for the incomprehensible ideal of femininity. Sam Peckinpah deliberately makes Amy, the heroine of the "Straw Dogs," extremely uninhibited. So much the worse: yesterday, before this classic blonde was bowed, today she is being raped. Beauty is no longer a defense and an advantage, and in the radical case of this film it becomes a curse that awakens animals in the abnormal neighbors of the couple.
Immediately there were the first attempts to understand the life of an ordinary woman in the cinema, "Rachel, Rachel" by Paul Newman, "Alice does not live here anymore" by Martin Scorsese and "Woman Under the Influence" of all the same Cassabethis. The actresses are removed almost without makeup, their costumes do not perform a decorative function, all the heroines look exactly at their average age. Ellen Burstyn ("Alice Does Not Live Here Anymore") and Joanne Woodward ("Rachel, Rachel") are already very large dramatic actresses at that time, their names were a weighty recommendation to watch. Burstyn herself initiated the shooting of "Alice" and as a result received her only Oscar for the best female role.
These films are dramatically emphasized, everyday difficulties in them merge with the existential, and the heroines in modest dresses look unusual. Not surprisingly, before such characters - that is, similar to real women - in Hollywood films simply did not exist. The request for a detailed study of women's issues was thus opened. Moreover, in the 70s, feminist critics intensified, not without reason accusing Hollywood cinema of using patriarchal optics. Hollywood, which not so long ago did not count at all on a female audience, breaks bad habits. But a start was made.
In the 60s experiencing a rebirth of the musical, the most successful samples of the genre are traditionally ekraniziruyut. From there, Barbra Streisand and Liza Minelli, who do not have a sophisticated or seductive look for Hollywood, end up in the cinema. On Broadway, artists breathed freer - professional proficiency in their own body and voice was valued above sensual lips. Films of musicals almost always brought commercial success, and the filmmakers tried, invited the original performers of the roles. It is unlikely that the audience would want to see in the "Funny Girl" and "Cabaret" of other actresses.
The popularity of Barbra and Lisa only grew, but it is significant that after the next crop failure in the field of musical films in the late 70s both began to be shot less and less. Streisand managed to work with Peter Bogdanovich and Sidney Pollack, won two Oscars and earned the recognition of critics as a director. Still, on the comedy genre it was not allowed. Producers and studio owners still kept faith in the fact that actresses with attractive looks bring more money to the cashier.
From the end of the 70s, the march of emancipation began, the peak of which fell on the 90s. In dramas, melodramas and comedies, which have never been forbidden to women genres, raised issues of family and marriage, before that supposedly did not require discussion. More precisely, marriage has always been a happy ending to any women's history, a guarantee of eternal happiness, received as a reward for beauty and prudence. The movie "Unmarried Woman" by Paula Mazursky begins with a nightmare: the heroine's husband finds a younger love and leaves his wife. She grieves a little, until she realizes that she no longer lives in a world where the end of marriage means the end of life. And in Kramer v. Kramer, for the first time, they showed a woman who was sick of being the keeper of the hearth; her line in the film is a farewell to the illusions of family life.
In the faces of Jill Kleiberg and Meryl Streep, an ordinary white American woman finally emerges to the masses. It took Hollywood almost 80 years to take this step. In the appearance of these heroines, the authors are trying to guess the representatives of the audience: neat, well-groomed, memorable, not claiming the status of a sex bomb. What they look like is determined by what they do. Gradually, the eternal evening make-up adhering to them at the dawn of cinema art is coming off women's faces, obliged to emphasize all the best at once and to fit any face a little closer to the canonical mask.
At the same time, the filmmakers, who sensed where the wind was blowing, began to break the last bastions of resistance. Female protagonists appeared in genres that were considered masculine by default. The first surrendered fiction. This genre was fertile for the open exploitation of sexual images: women appeared in the images of alien Amazons or princesses, wore tight futuristic outfits and make-up, which was declared fashionable only on 2013 in planet Earth. And without exception, they dream of sex.
All the crazy (and best) features of these films gathered in the French-Italian "Barbarella", where the main role was played by American Jane Fonda. The Americans themselves suddenly showed up problems with the comic book adaptation with female heroines. Since 1967, there have been three attempts to remove the story of the Wonder Woman, each of which has failed due to complete unconvincing. This type of heroine was simply not in the cinema: to combine the exaggerated femininity with superhuman strength in one character, and then also to make the living person of this character portray, turned out to be a difficult task.
And in 1979, the first "Alien" Ridley Scott was released. Ellen Ripley was significantly different from all women who have ever appeared in films on the space theme. First, she wore a form - really a form, not an erotic parody of her. Secondly, almost nothing is known about her personal life, while the majority of female characters were revealed in search of love. Thirdly, the image of the character Sigourney Weaver did not disagree with the circumstances of the film. Athletic, focused expression of the face, the absence of obvious attributes of femininity; in the third part, she will completely lose her hair, which makes her almost androgynous. Initially, according to the screenwriters of the film, any hints on the characters' sex were excluded to focus on their professional relationships. Ridley Scott still section Ripley before the last meeting with the alien, for which he was repeatedly criticized. But the fans thank from the bottom of my heart.
In the 90s, this type of heroine is common: Jordan O'Neill in “Soldier Jane”, Sarah Connor in “The Terminator”. In an era when even Disney princesses were inclined to feminism, it turned out that no collapse would happen if the woman was given character traits and tasks that were previously attributed only to men. However, the problem was in the most pronounced sexual separation of roles, genres and characters. The sexless experiment of “The Alien” was not picked up, but the athletic and courageous heroines quickly moved into the category of new sexy.
In addition, in the 1990s, there was another upswing in independent cinema, and major studios were more willing to accept risky projects. The cinematographers of the new generation were very different from their older colleagues; They came to the cinema with new themes, and, accordingly, with new heroes. An avalanche of female characters who have become iconic has descended on the screens - Hollywood has never seen such a diversity.
A woman with a "non-female" profession is in the order of things: Clarissa Starling and Agent Scully. They could well be met in real life, both wear square and decent suits. Both work in the FBI and regularly face things that require strength from the psyche. Very many of the heroines of this decade look as if they entered the frame, not preparing. In the film Harmony Corina and Larry Clark "Kids" debuts Chloe Sevigny, eventually becoming an actress in an independent film. Chloe's appearance does not fit any type (or fits any of them), so it’s difficult to treat her heroine with emotion, pity, or disgust.
It can be considered surprisingly beautiful or completely unattractive. But, due to the absence of the obligatory features of a movie star, her immersion into dreary teenage life does not look like a game. She is too much like a person, and everything that happens to her concerns us directly. This actuality is distinguished by many actresses whose career began in the 90s: Uma Thurman, Kirsten Dunst, Christina Ricci. Лица в стиле ретро действительно понадобились разве что Дэвиду Линчу в "Твин Пиксе" для контраста с окружающим хаосом.
Самым экстремальным образом была переосмысленная по требованию времени femme fatale. Где-то на пересечении героинового шика и старого Голливуда появились Марла Сингер, Лиса из "Прерванной жизни", Эми из "Поколения DOOM". Бледная кожа, чувственные губы, тяжёлый макияж, общий утомлённый вид . Красота за секунду до смерти. Эти женщины заняты разрушением себя и всех вокруг: наркотики, насилие, безумие. Красота, какой её видел Бодлер.
In the 2000s, the gates of hell slammed shut, and Hollywood, who waited for a brief rebellion, began to return to proven schemes. The development of technology has provoked the rejection of the dirty and uneven visual style of the 90s. Historical films, costumed biopics, conveyor production of films by comic books - all this required the actors to best fit the ideal form. All "non-hollow-correct" again go to independent films, series and comedies. Not a trace remains from recent achievements.
At this time, all the work with the women's issue led "Sex and the City". The legendary series was the brainchild of the 90s and still relaxed, allowed us to be ourselves. In 2004, the "Monster" debutant Patty Jenkins came out with the blonde beauty Charlize Theron, tired of her role, the one in which she disfigured herself as best she could by the efforts of eclairs and makeup artists. Theron received her first weighty Oscar, and, more importantly, this experience simply allowed her not to become an actress of one role. In the opposite direction, pressure standards also work.
By the end of the zero, something happened. In 2010, the list of nominees for the Oscar appeared the film "Treasure" - a low-budget drama about the life of a black ghetto schoolgirl who dreams of a normal life. Presses has an almost normal girlish life inside with fantasies about the stage and falling in love with a teacher. But she is waiting for the second child from her own father and is making every effort to get out of the pit. The picture became an event, but not only because of the issues raised in it. The main role was played by Gaburi Sidibe, then still unknown and very complete. The film was discussed for a long time, a lot and in different ways. He certainly has one great achievement - he showed that the performer’s appearance cannot be directly related to his dramatic potential.
While there are discussions about whether to execute or pardon plus-size, new names appear in films and on television. All these women are involved in shaping the principles of approach to themselves. All the roles of Greta Gerwig, invented and written by her in collaboration with Noah Baumbach, are stupid charming girls who do not understand what and who are waiting for what is not clear. Her heroines are not burdened with the severity of success or even any particular life position, but this does not lose their main advantages. Amy Schumer shows that a woman can do and say everything she wants, and that only makes her better. Lena Dunham is not afraid to make mistakes and sincerely shares her experience. The most promising young actress in the United States, Jennifer Lawrence, constantly reminds us that the person on the screen is also a person. Beauty is harmony with oneself, everything else is not so important.
Hollywood is unlikely to ever completely get rid of discrimination on external grounds - after all, this is the easiest kind of casting. But we no longer need “ideal heroines” to follow: the art that inspires us is created by living people. And we are more like them than it seems.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Groundswell Productions, Columbia Pictures, Faces International Films
