Still from Funny Face, directed by Stanley Donen, 1957. © Paramount Pictures / Verdensteatret-Cinemateket i Tromsø.

An Introduction to Funny Face

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​During the opening of the film series Fransk mote på film (French Fashion in Films) at Verdensteatret-Cinemateket i Tromsø, I gave a talk on Funny Face (1957, dir. Stanley Donen). I showed how fashion and film were intertwined in this film whose plot was loosely based on the life of fashion photographer Richard Avedon and his wife, Doe. Richard Avedon himself was involved in the making of the film as a visual consultant. The film used techniques inspired from fashion photography like the freeze frames. The film also offered insights into the transatlantic fashion trade, especially the competition between Paris and New York as fashion capitals. A satire of high-end fashion on first view, the film ends up giving a more complex – and more interesting – account of fashion, upstaging the traditional hierarchy between philosophy and fashion.

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Talk given at Verdensteatret-Cinemateket i Tromsø.​

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November 27, 2020.

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Read more on the film series. 

See the press article in iTromsø.