The Hunger Games-Effie Trinket Inspiration

Film Inspiration: The Hunger Games

My concept for the visual product is of a headpiece that is inspired from the Victorian era and Steampunk. When I saw the first film from the trilogy of The Hunger Games I fell in love with the edgy and eccentric costumes especially of Effie Trinket's character who she wear outrageous outfits at all times. I chose these to two styles of Victorian and Steampunk because steampunk is inspired from Victorian and the film portrays steampunk a lot especially when it comes to fashion and technology.

Victorian Era Fashion 

Crinoline skirt flatted
from front. Winterhalter
painting, 1865

When Queen Victoria reigned in England she was still  very young just 18 years old so she was adventurous,creative, innovative and fearless to try out new things. During the period she reigned, fashion was launched that would be an inspiration and phenomenon till present. Basically the Victorian era was split up into two periods early period ( 1837-1860 ) and the mid-to-late period ( 1860-1901 ).

  Before the Victorian era dresses were much elaborate and huge, in fact they used to wear a crinolines under the skirt to make it look fuller, these were like cages . The sleeves were puffed and created broad shoulders. When the Victorian era developed, dresses by time started to become much more practical and narrower sleeves, tight-fitting boned bodice, narrower skirts with ruffles and frills. In the mid-Victorian era (1860-1880) the sewing machine was invented, fashion became more couture design, synthetic dyes were available for intense colours and the crinoline skirt was flattened in the front but showed the garment from the back. 

Soft polonaise bustle.

In 1875, they were in vogue the soft polonaise bustle this was a draped and frilled train at the back of a dress.With the invention of the sewing machine it made easier to add frills, pleats, ruffles braids and fringing and made it heavily ornamented until later were replaced by the Princess sheath garment. By 1880 the silhouette was getting longer ans slimmer even more by the train. These lasted for three years only though. Followed by in 1883 the hard bustle which made the women's silhouette look like the hind legs of a horse. 

Tailored made suits
of the 1890's 

Tailored made garments were introduced in 1874 that led to fashionable tailor made suits in the 1890's . Fashion now became more plain, simpler and tailored yet still elegant and neat.Sharp tailored jackets were popular and embraced by the late Victorian women, it made more confident and a different posture. Women were showing their strength as a gender in their workplace with Power Dressing, which was similar in 1985, through women wearing masculine tailored and shoulder padded jackets.

The gowns of the 1880's were made from two colours and one material, colours usually were vivid such purple, royal blue, deep red, peacock blue, bright green and many more sometimes the combinations were rather strange. In contrary to day dresses the night gowns were made in softer hues and contrasting fabrics.

Modern Fashion Inspired from Victorian Era

Although its been over a 100 years since Victorian era fashion was developed, it remained a phenomenon and an influence with modern fashion designers and society. Famously worldwide fashion designer used Victorian styles in their haute couture collection,ready-to-wear collections,editorials even for wedding gowns. Making a good observation one can notice the influence of Victorian fashion in fairy tale themed shoots, Gothic editorials and in movies such as The Hunger Games, Marie Antoinette, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd amongst many others. Detailed pieces such as lace, ruffles, frills, tulle and many more add that beautiful and elegant touch to modern collection. 

Atelier Versace Spring 2011,

Bridal Collection, Yolan Cris Spring 2013

The incorporation of details such lace, tulle, corsets, slim-fitted gowns and extravagant headpieces will attract the youth generation.  Its a way of keeping  the historical  Victorian era fashion alive by combining the traditional of the nineteenth century with modern fashion. 

Effie Trinket- The Hunger Games

As I mentioned in the beginning my main inspirations for the visual concept the headpiece is Effie Trinket, one of the main character in the Th Hunger Games trilogy who she has the role of an escort in district 12. I fell in love with the costumes that Trish Summerville created for the cast especially for Trinket. Trish Summerville is the costume designer for this trilogy, she confessed that her main inspiration for Effie Trinket's outfits were Marie Antoinette and Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli.Summerville wanted to create something silly and fun for Effie.  Trinket's was considered as a style icon in the Capitol city, she is an eccentric with a unique and flamboyant outfits and always changing stylized wigs and make-up.Her character is one of a perfectionist and always prim and proper and hate bad manners, this qualities reflect in her outrageous outfits that are always matching, sophisticated, and neat. The Victorian influence can be seen in her outfits very clearly such as the tailored suit with puffed sleeves, ruffles, extravagant headpieces, tulle, wide skirts or dresses, vivid or pastel colours, flower patterns, collars and even permed  coloured hair. 

The poster for Catching Fire 

Effie Trinket 

Wearing a tailored made suit. 

Thomas.,P, 2001-2013. Early Victorian Costume and Fashion History 1837-1860. [online] Available at: <http://www.fashion-era.com/early_victorian_fashion.htm > 

[Accessed 18 December 2013]  

Thomas.,P, 2001-2013. Mid-late Victorian Fashion and Costume History 1860-1901. [online] Available at: < http://www.fashion-era.com/mid-late_victorian_fashion.htm > 

[Accessed 18 December 2013]

Trend Hunter Inc,n.d. 100 Victorian Inspired Styles.[online] Available at: < http://www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/victorianinspired-styles >
[Accessed 19 December 2013] 

Art in Vctorian Age-Inspiration

Victorian Age Inspiration

The Victorian Age was a period were changes occurred due to inventions of technology started to take place followed by a change in society too. Queen Victoria reigned for 64 years in the nineteenth century and Britain went to an  expansion in art, fashion and high prosperity which led to the use of bright and vivid colours in paintings representing all this. In art they returned to classic realism which was popular with Roman and Greek societies. Due to the changes, the public, artists and scientist portrayed art and aesthetics in a different manner due to the technological advance which were made during that era. 

An example of Victorian paintings
portraying the countryside: 'On the Avon near Bath"

 Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 till 1901 and Britain was one of the most powerful. The Victorian art saw different movements and these were all produced during the Victorian era, they consist of  Classicism, Neo-Classicism,  Realism, Impressionism followed by Post-Impressionism, Symbolism and Victorian. Classicism was influenced by many movements along the time and from realistic it changed to vivid colours and emotional strokes and replaced the realistic form and shadow.Post-Impressionism ended the era of Queen Victoria's reign. 

The growth and prosperity during the era in Britain, inspired many artists to focus  on high fashion and modern elegance. The Victorian artwork which was produced was very elegant and popular and made Britain popular for their finery, modernity and elegant etiquette in the world and as a result Victorian art portrayed high-class events in bold colours showing how wealthy and happy people were.They also depicted scenes from the English countryside, this was a point of view for many people

High-class society

During the 64 years Queen Victoria reigned,many advances in photographic and architectural technology affected changes in art styles  that occurred in Victorian art. Changes happened in form and decorum due to technologies that were getting invented.

High-class events

Contemporary Art Inspired from Victorian Era

As time went by, Victorian art always remained popular and inspiring to design or art. Many art movements got inspired and developed from it such Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. The Arts and Crafts movement (1860-1910)  which was set-up by William Morris was inspired from the Victorian era and created many patterns and designs. Contemporary artists such as photographers, fashion designers, graphic designers as well as product designers produced collections with  Victorian art but with a contemporary twist.

Victorian art made a boom in history since the changes took place and people woke up on their feet to work and produce art and coming up with new, innovative concepts. Along the time  photographers did reapplications of paintings in their photography, fashion designers produced haute couture collections inspired from Victorian clothing or paintings.As seen in many of the paintings, women wore bright or pastel colours combined with flowers on their head or the painting scene set in the English countryside. Later in the twentieth century  modern Victorian was invented and this was the Steampunk. Although steampunk is much more based in design we can find some contemporary paintings with this new theme. 

Helen Warner, 2012, inspired from Millais. 

An example of reapplication of a photo. 

'Opehlia', John Everett Millais, 1851-1852

Victorian Art Inspiration 
in my Visual Product

My idea for the visual product is a headpiece that is inspired from steampunk and victorian art. These two movements although they a different from each other still there is a link between them because both of them are a revolution in art and design. Headpieces were very popular with the high society class in Victorian era, they used to be adorned with flowers, lace and comes in different shapes and sizes. They used to wear hats and headpieces for particular occasions yet some used to always wear. 

Lady in a Rose Hat by Sue Halstenberg (n.d )

This painting above is a modern painting although no date was given. What I liked in this painting is the lace on the decolte up till her neck, it inspired me to add lace in the design of the headpiece and have a combination of an edgy and fashionable headpiece combined with classical and soft look that make it very femminine. Lace is one of my favourite materials because it's very classic and makes any clothing looks timless, on the other hand steampunk is very edgy and modern. 

avictorian.com,2009.The Victorian Artists.[online] Available at : < http://www.avictorian.com/victorianart.html > 

[Accessed 17 December 2013]

Visual Product-Steampunk Design

             Steampunk Design Inspiration 

After thinking and coming up with different ideas for the visual product I chose to do a women's headpiece as a finalized concept. My aim is to create something original,edgy but fun at the same time.I am also thinking of doing an outfit that matches the headpiece.The theme I chose for this unit is TIME. I found steampunk as a good source of  inspiration for the theme and concept and inspired me for the headpiece. 

                 The Origins of Steampunk 

Steampunk nowadays is a popular sub-culture, as we can find clothing, shoes, literature and many more related to steampunk which is ispired mostly from the 19th century, the  Victorian era to sum it up it's Victorian science fiction . It all started in the 1870's as a science-fiction sub-genre with fundamental inspirations from authors Jules Verne ( 20,000 Legueas Under the Sea) and H.G Wells ( The Time Machine), these inspired the following century due to steamed power objects and Victorian era settings in their tales and made history with Victorian technology reigns over the modern technology. The development of modern technology and machines started during the Victorian era. 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.

During the 19th century, cheap novels called Dime Novels were really popular as their stories were full of melodromatic roamance,adventure. In these novels there were elements of steampunk known as "Edisonades" these were steam creatures. There are a lot of things related with steampunk but there is no evidance from were they got inspired the first sub-genres authors apart from the fact that it is inspired from the Victorian Age ( 1837-1901) . Steampunk predicted that the people and inventors of that time  would be like nowadays controlled by modern technology.

 The term steampunk is a compound word of steam and punk, the steam is a reference to technology and the steam engines that were vital in this industry. It revolutionized every aspect of life because people had work and afforded to consume goods, increase in production, and forming a modern society class of workers and professions and these changes of society are all associated with the Victorian age. The term punk is a reference to the equivalent of the twentieth century punk and the street cultures of both centuries. 

Steampunk Fashion 

Fashion for Men 

Fashion for Women

Steampunk is very vast, some love it for the Victorian period others  for the technology aspect and even other like the aspect. People who love steampunk and follow that type of fashion, they combine clothes accessories inspired from the nineteenth century.It is like a neo-vintage movement because it has that vintage elements yet it appeal to everybody style.People can get fashion ideas from characters or scenes or photographs from the nineteenth century and adapting  according to their taste and style.Mainly to adopt a  steampunk look it  consists of corsets, long ruffled skirts, shirts worn under corsets, big collarss, military jackets, leather, goggles, waist jackets,  and accessories with clocks or engines symbols

Clocks and engine

that can be seen on necklaces, brooches, top-hats, bracelets, gloves and many more.

Goggles 

Contempory Steampunk 

Nowadays we find many books, art, films and many more related to steampunk, some popular films such as The Hunger Games, Sweeney Todd,Sherlock Holmes, Hugo. Also many artists produced paintings with steampunk theme and inspired many for product

Why it Inspires Me  

This style always fascinated me because it has that vintage element plus it is very unique and original to wear but can be modified in many ways. My visual product is going to be a headpiece inspired from this perios, and the theme Time. Mainly I chose steampunk because it matches perfectly with the theme of time since many of the accessories have the clock symbol or the engine symbol. Apart from the symbols, it was during the Victorian era when the revolution took place and The Machine Age started.People had work, factories were built, many inventions of technology happened such as the telephone, camera and many more. By time everything was changing to a modern and fast life, mass production reached it's peak and people started to produce and buy. For my headpiece I am thinking of adding the steampunk symbols or clocks and engines to represent time and change combined with ruffles and style worn in the Victorian Era

Google Sites,2013.Steampunk History/Origins.[online] Available at: < https://sites.google.com/a/depauw.edu/airships-and-corsets/history-origins >
[Accessed 16 December 2013]

G.D Falksen,2009.Steampunk 101.[online] Available at:< http://www.tor.com/blogs/2009/10/steampunk-101 >
[Accessed 16 December 2013]

The Persistance Of Memory by Salvador Dali ( Time)

Surrealism 

An example of Surrealism art

 Between World War I and II, another art movement developed in Europe, which  is the Surrealism. The principles and roots of the Surrealism  grew from the Dada movement, an anti-art movement that formed before World War I but expressed in a positive way. In 1924, Andre Breton a major spokesman of the Surrealism published "The Surrealist Manifesto". Surrealism art is a link between the unconscious an concious mind where dreams and fantasy meet the everyday's reality however Breton believes  the unconscious mind as the key to imagination. Famous painters such as Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Max Ernst amongst others emphasised on the content of free form and gave a new alternative to contemporary art.

Salvador Dali 

Salvador Dali

One of the most famous artists in Surrealism is Salvador Dali, born on the 11th of May 1904 in Figueras,Spain. Dali was not just a painter, but a sculptor, graphic artist and designer.His mature artistic style was developed mostly when Sigmund Freud erotic writings had subconscious imagery with a significant and when he joined the Surrealists movement after going through the phases of Cubism, Futurism and Metaphysical paintings. In 1929, Dali joined the Surrealists movement, between those years (1929-1937) he produced extraordinary surrealist paintings. Dali followed a process which he himself called it the paranoiac critical, were brought up his hallucinatory states to bring up the images for his  paintings. The paintings Dali drew, described them as "hand-painted dream photographs" and depicted strangely hallucinatory characters. His visit to Italy in 1937 was influenced by the Renaissance, mainly by the painter Raphael. Dali adapted that style for his paintings and due to that, Andre Breton expelled him from the Surrealists movement. During 1940 till 1955, Dali moved to the USA and there he spent his time designing fashionable shops, jewellery, theatre sets, interiors and exhibited his eccentricity that made him famous in this movement. Between the 1950 and 1970, his paintings had religious themes, erotic subjects representing his childhood memories and other themes using his wife, Gala.Apart from painting he produced two films, Un Chien Andalou (1929) and L'Age D'Or ( 1930) , with Spanish director Luis Buuel, they featured grostesque but suggestive images. Salvador Dali was one of the most famous artist of the 20th century. 

The Persistance of Memory-Time

                     

The Persistence of Memory, 1931, oil on canvas

One of the most famous paintings in art history and in the Surrealist movement is 'The Persistence of Memory' by Salvador Dali which was produced in 1931 and  it was exhibited first at Julien Levy Gallery in 1932 until 1934, were afterwards was moved at the Museum of Modern Art in New York till present. This painting may have different interpretations, but the main theme is time and dreams. The clocks are representing the passing of time as we experience the dreams in our sleep. When we are sleeping or in our subconscious mind, time is irrelevant but we hold on to memories. When asked about the significance of the melting clocks, Dali replied that it was a Surrealist perception of Camembert cheese melting in the sun and represents an unconscious symbol of space and time.Only one clock isn't melted which is the orange clock with ants at a centre point representing the anxiety time brings on us. We humans are always anxious about time some examples are  that we are late for work, not accomplish a task or goal in our lives before we die, deadlines given at work or school and many more.The ants thoug

h are found in many of Dali's paintings and they symbolise decay, due to time everything decays and dies and we are always against time. In the middle of the composition there is a creature, which is an abstract self-portrait of Dali and it appeared in other paintings. The creature has one-eye opened and suggests that it is dreaming or decaying after a long time gasping the air. The objects are placed within a sunlit landscape inspired from his homeland Catalonia. To sum it up this painting is a representation of time, death, birth, reality and sexual desires

 Nicolas Pioch,2002.WebMuseum:Surrealism.[online] Available at:<http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/surrealism/> 
[Accessed 27 October 2013]

VirtualDali,2013.VirtualDali:Biography.[online] Available at: <http://www.virtualdali.com/ >
[Accessed 27 Ovtober 2013]

WebMuseum,1997.Salvador Dali Biography.[online] Available at: <https://web.duke.edu/lit132/dalibio.html>
[Accessed 27 October 2013]

Authentic Society,2006-2011. The Persistance of Memory (Meaning) by Salvador Dali.[online] Available at: < http://www.authenticsociety.com/about/ThePersistenceOfMemory_Dali>
[Accessed 27 October 2013]

Pan's Labyrinth (Time)

Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth poster 

The film Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro, released in 2006 is another film that has a relation with the theme of time and a drama-fantasy genre film.The story goes back to 1966 in Spain under the Facist Regime, the civil war has ended. Captain Vidal ( Sergi Lpez) is a harsh ruler but hidden men, armed coming from the hills and secret places are willing to fight him. The opening of this movie, the narrator tells a story of a Princess who lived in an underworld kingdom with her father were she dreamt of a place where there is no suffering and pain but calmness and peace. Once she escapes from the kingdom but her body suffers from sickness and coldness, until she slowly dies. Her father the king believes that his daughter would return back in one form or another. Carmen ( Adriana Gili) and her daughter Ofelia ( Ivana Baquero) are on their way to the Captain's house in the countryside since Carmen marries the sadistic and harsh captain Vidal,also she is pregnant with his own child. Ofelia is very imaginative and believes in fairies that they do exist. The very first night at the Captain's house, a creature visits Ofelia while sleeping and indicates her to follow it which leads her to a place underground, and there she meets a creature named Pan ( Prince of Fauna).

Pan and Ofelia

He tells her that she is the lost Princess Moanna and assigns Ofelia with three life-threatening tasks in order to go back to the kingdom. He gives her a blank book, and has to be opened when she will be alone, to guide her for the tasks. The tasks given are to be done before the full moon and the three of them will be in danger of loosing her life. Captain Vidal cruel and harsh character is shown when he kills two men brutally after they fall into suspicion that they are rebels.The first task for Ofelia was to get the key from a giant toad. As time passes her mother's health will get worse, in order to this Pan the faun gives Ofelia a mandrake plant to hide it under her mother's bed and cures her illness and pain. For the second task three creatures will accompany her, she has to acquire the dagger from Pale Man, a monster who eats young children. Ofelia  disobeys the order not to eat or drink anything but she does the opposite and in result this Pale Man awakens and tries to eat her, but manages to save herself.

Pale Man

 Meanwhile Mercedes ( Maribel Verd) the housekeeper and the doctor ( Alex Angulo) are part of the anti-franco rebels and they spy on the captain. Vidal captures one of the rebels and tortures him and he dies, later Vidal suspects in the doctor and shots him.  Ofelia and her step-father the Captain don't have a good relationship, and when he discovers the mandrake root under the bed he throws it and her mother burns it. As soon as it burns, Carmen gives birth to a boy but had to suffer from painful contractions and eventually she dies. Later Vidal discovers that Mercedes is one of the rebel and keeps her a hostage while Ofelia locks her up in the bedroom.Mercedes manages to free herself and injures the captain. The rebels come and rescue her in the woods. Ofelia is given her last chance, so Pan gives her the last task to complete and orders her to take her baby brother to the labyrinth. Vidal follows her to the labyrinth while the rebels surround the mill. In order for the kingdom's portal to open Ofelia has to give a drop of blood from her brother but she refuses to hurt him.Vidal see her and thinks she's alone because Pan is not visible. He shoots her and kill her, take the baby and when goes outside he find the rebels all waiting for him and kill him. Now Ofelia reunites with her father in the kingdom.

Setting

The setting of Pan's Labyrinth portrays the darkness, sorrow and brutality that the rebels and Ofelia went through. The underground kingdom was dark, lifeless and everything still as only Ofelia could give her life back to the kingdom.When Ofelia meets Pan in the labyrinth we can see beautiful, detailed sculptures such as the representation of the King, Pan and the Princess. The location of the film is somewhere in the countryside and surrounded with a forest. In this film we see a lot of nature since they are living in the countryside but also two of Ofelia's task's have to do with nature. It is when she enters the hole in the forest to fight the toad and get the key and the mandrake root under Carmen's bed. In the last part of the film the setting is more peaceful, nature at it's best and everything glows because Ofelia was now the queen. 

Time  

How time is related with the film? To begin with Ofelia in the story is the reincarnation of Princess Moanna. The film is set in 1944 after the Spanish Civil War. Captain Vidal is very concerned about time example when Ofelia and Carmen arrives he was disappointed that they arrived 15 minutes late, even he was always waiting for the rebels to come and fight them.Tasks given to Ofelia all of them had to be done before the first full moon of the month. Also in two of her tasks nature played an important part. Such as the mandrake root under the bed...the energy and health that gives to Carmen is due to time because it starts to grow and develop more by time. When it's thrown away Carmen suffers and dies, the mandrake was keeping her alive. When she encounter Pale Man to get the dagger, she has to get it before the last grain falls of in the hourglass.Captain Vidal managed to catch her just in time before the labyrinth closes and kills her. Sometime we see Ofelia very anxious or panicked especially when she opens the book or doing the task. Every time she carries out something she has a very limited time to complete it.The reasons were she fears that she get caught in doing them or the full moon occurs.Her death makes her soul reunite with her father the king and her beloved mother. Ofelia reigns for many centuries in the kingdom and loved by the people, and as result she leaves the traces of her time on Earth. 

Personal Reflections

This movie I really enjoyed watching it, I saw it two times and not for a minute I got bored. Guillermo Del Toro ideas of characters are brilliant and very original.Although the story is a mix of fantasy and drama, it's not a children's film, since certain scenes are very brutal and harsh. I was impressed with the kind of story Del Toro wrote, because it is a mixture of reality and fasntasy, rebels fighting against the regime and Ofelia completing the tasks to return to the kingdom. 

Hugo (Time)

Hugo 

Hugo's Poster

One of the films that I saw recently and really enjoyed it was Hugo,directed by Martin Scorsese that was released in December 2011.The genre of this film is drama and adventure but also a lot of history about the film industry is involved. The story is set in Paris,1930's during the winter time,a young boy named Hugo Cabret ends up an orphan after his father who was a watchmaker dies in a fire and ends up living at the train station walls winding the clocks of the station. Hiding in the walls, Hugo have an automaton a robot like that can dance,sing,write and more but functions only with a clock and heart-shaped key is inserted. . Before his father dies they were already working to fix the automaton, now he was willing to do anything to make it work because it was the only thing he had of his late father.In order to do this he steals little parts and tools  from a model shop that is located at the station to fix the automaton. The owner once catches the boy and takes anything found in the boy's pocket including a notebook with sketches and annotations about the automaton,the owner tells Hugo that he was going to burn the notebook.Hugo meets a young girl Isabelle, who is the god-daughter of the same shop owner,they became friends.They start an adventure together, Hugo takes her to watch a movie, something that she never saw, and Isabelle takes him to the library.Hugo mentions to her once his father saw a movie were a rocket hits the moon's eye.

Hugo

Automaton 

The story begins when Hugo discovers that the heart-shaped key wears it Isabelle as necklace.He unlocks the secret of the automaton and when they enter the key, the automaton works and starts drawing and signs it with the name Georges Melies. Now they have a mystery to solve that Hugo's father left. They realise that the drawing is the same image that Hugo mentions before and that  Georges Melies is the owner of the same shop and Isabelle's god-father. From now on there are scenes regarding history of the film industry. They learn that Georges Melies was a great film-maker, and one of the first to produce,write,direct and act in a movie.Once during their research in the library Hugo and Isabelle met professor Tabad, who wrote the same book that they are reading as part of their research, Tabad  was a great fan of Melies movies. Tabad believes that Melies died during World War I, until Isabelle and Hugo arrange to come and meet Melies. The professor has a room with a collection dedicated to Georges Melies including an original film that was the only one left and a masterpiece with the name :"A Trip to the Moon" ( Le Voyage dans la Lune,1902). When professor Tabad together with Isabelle and Hugo go to her house, Tabad shows them the movie, Melies soon discovers that his films aren't all destroyed but some of them survived even after the war, he later tells them how it all started in working in films.Hugo's uncle dies and the inspectors clears out the station wall, even the automaton, Hugo's wills to do anything to save the automaton including the possibility of getting hit by a train. In the end everything goes well, and the automaton is saved. Now the people can ejoy again the films of the great film-maker Georges Melies. 

Setting

This film has that magical, fantasy, mystery and adventure element. It's setting is in Paris, during the 1930's, snow is falling, winter's  cold, people are dressed very elegant and chic. A magical atmosphere is created due to the lights setting, and a cold colour temperature picture style. Some black and white scenes are included, these scenes features original films of Georges Melies. Some scenes from ariel view of Paris were shot which made Paris look magical and beautiful. The story is part fiction and the rest is based on a true story /history.

Scenes of Paris 

The classic image of the moon

Theme: Time

The theme of time is shown throughout the whole movie, since  it has history in it. It is during the early 20th century and the machine industry was in its boom. People could afford to buy the necessaries and even had the money to spend on clothes, furniture and more. At the train station one could find shops and markets, it was sign that there was commerce. As I mentioned before this movie is about the history of film making, in 1895 one of the first movie was shown, it was called "A Train Arrives at the Station" by the Lumiere Brothers who thought that film making wasn't going to be of great importance in the future. Georges Melies believed that films can capture dreams. Originally he started out as a magician until he saw a film by the Lumiere Brothers on the 28th of December 1895, he was impressed and asked the brothers to buy the camera but the offer was refused.The movies had live music but no speech. It was until he built a film set which was made out from glass to have direct sunlight.Due to the sunlight, the only time for films to be produced was during the day only. Unfortunately war  hasn't been kind with the old movies, but destroyed them. World War I began, men had to fight during war, poverty, suffering and death took over  in reality. The war ended the beauty of youth and hope, the soldiers that made it back home were bored of movies, they have seen the harsh reality. Melies had an order to send all the tapes to melt them into chemicals and make shoe heels from them.He got so upset that he destroyed everything including the set and props, and ended up working in a model shop that he opened himself. Back to the film, Hugo's perfect timing managed to save the automaton from being trashed, even he was saved from the police inspector from being ran over by a train. The events that happened to the characters in the story  affected their behaviour such as Georges Melies was no longer a happy man like before but suffered from depressions when flashbacks occurred in his mind. Hugo was quite inquisitive and persistent since he had a target to solve his father mystery. The war was a time of change and ended the peaceful life they were living. War time changed the perspective of films and were seen as boring, waste and useless. By time though people got back on their feet and film industry was taking a new form, new concepts were developing and the stories were no longer simple.

Reflections  

I personally really enjoyed watching it also I learned a lot from it. Now I know how the film industry started and by whom. "A Trip to the Moon" is the first science fiction movie which is 10 minutes long, it is incredible. I was impressed by the imagination people had during those years and managed to do a good product for that time. The setting reminded me of winter and Christmas, even since I love vintage clothing I enjoyed seeing those beautiful clothes. At first I thought that it was going to be a boring and childish film, but from the first scene realised that it is an excellent movie. I loved every minute of the story as I learned a lot from it too. There are some steampunk elements too in  it especially the automaton robot and the clocks which were a significant to steampunk and inspired from Victorian era.  

The Starry Night by Van Gogh (Time)

 Post-Impressionism 

 Georges Seurat
"Sunday afternoon on theIsland of Grand Jatte"
1884-1885

The post-impressionism movement was founded by a group of young artists such as Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Guaguin and Georges Seurat that took Impressionism style to a new direction.It started in the mid 1880's till around the early 1900's. The term indicates the link there is with Impressionism, the artists still drew objects and scenes that were in front of them and using short brush  strokes but made it more expressive and developed their own style. An artist and critic, Roger Fry organised an exhibition in Grafton Galleries London, 1910 with the name 'Manet and the Post-Impressionists', it was Fry that came up with the term Post-Impressionists.The same movement  inspired other movements such as Cubism, Expressionism and Pointillism.Each artist took an aspect from Impressionism and exaggerated it and created their own style and focused on the emotional, spiritual, symbolic and structural elements. Georges Seurat developed the brush to a million dot and founded the Pointillism movement while Van Gogh used more vibrant colours and painted thickly on the canvas using the impasto technique.Van Gogh used energetic brush strokes forcefully and expressed his emotions more, he later founded the Expressionism movement. By time they went to a modern journey from the past to the future. They pushed the Impressionists ideas more and built a solid foundation for modern art of the 20th century.

Vincent Van Gogh 

Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch artist from Groot-Zundert, Netherlands born in 1853. Van Gogh was part of the group that formed the Post-Impressionism, until he started to get interested more in Expressionism.The idea of careful analysis of the scene or objects and effects of colour and light, Van Gogh wanted to destroy it and used more vivid colour and short expressive brush strokes. The spiritual and emotional side of his art led him to Expressionism were emotions and moods are more expressed. In 1886, Van Gogh moved to Paris were he met other artists such as Degas, Pissaro, Gauguin, Seurat and Toulouse-Lautrec. During that time his main influences were Impressionism and Japanese woodcuts, it was during his stay at Paris that got obsessed with bright, symbolic and expressive colours. All of his works were produced in 10 years, the most famous are 'The Starry Night", "The Potato Eaters" and many more.Gauguin and Van Gogh were about to establish a school but it failed after Van Gogh attempted to kill Gauguin. During his life Van Gogh suffered from metal illnesses such as hallucinations and depression and in July 1890 he shot himself. From all the paintings he had painted in his lifetime only one got sold,  it was "Red Vineyard at Arles"; (Puskin Museum Moscow). 

The Starry Night -Time

The Starry Night, 1889, Museum of Modern Arts New York

Van Gogh had the desire to paint the night sky 'en plein air' like an Impressionist although he had his doubts if he can achieve his aim. This painting was done in June 1889, on the window of his room at Saint-Remy de Provence during the time when he was suffering from mental illnesses.Although he wanted to paint it from nature, it was done in daylight and drew it from his memory. In the center it shows the village of Saint Remy and added a cypress tree. This drawing can be compared with the one one that Van Gogh painted a year before, "The Starry Night Over the Rhone". It was painted in September 1888 at the hospital in Arles.Unlike "Starry Night" this one was done directly from nature during the night using a gas lamp to work. The Ursa Major was repositioned from north to south. Time in this two paintings is an important factor. Both of them were painted in a different month, season and year, although the two shows a clear, starry night, the atmosphere around may have varied a bit. In Starry Night over Rhone, Van Gogh captured a moment in time while the other depended on his memory and good observational skills.In Starry Night there is movement, the stars are in a swirl while the other is more still. Night time is usually associated with still and calm atmosphere, but for the latter we see the opposite.

The Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888

About.com,2013.Post-Impressionism-Art History 101 Basics.[online] Available at:<  http://arthistory.about.com/od/modernarthistory/a/Post-Impressionism-Art-History-101-Basics.htm>

[Accessed 26 October 2013]

 

Van Gogh Gallery,2002-2013.Vincent van Gogh Biography.[online] Available at: < http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/biography.html >

[Accessed 26 October 2013] 

Nicolas Pioch,2002. Gogh,Vincent van.[online] Available at: < http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/ >
[Accessed 26 October 2013] 

ArtFactory,2013.Post Impressionism -The Roots of Modern Art.[online] Available at: <  http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/post_impressionism.htm >
[Accessed 26 October 2013] 

Fortunato Depero -Futurism ( Time)

Futurism 

An example of futurism painting by Carlo Carra

Futurism was founded in Italy in 1909 by the Italian poet and editor Filippo Marinetti. On the 20th of February of the same year, Marinetti published the manifesto of this new modern art on the newspaper 'Le Figaro'. Marinetti in the manifesto expressed the words "time and space died yesterday",his aim was to discard anything static, and irrelevant art, but celebrate the change that was brought by the industrial revolution. Although Futurism is an expression of movement and speed it was also a destruction of time. During the early 20th century there was the industrial revolution, machines, factories, cities expanding all of these made the life easier and consuming less time. Futurists loved the speed, noise, pollution, machines, technology, speed and movement and the industrial age started to take over to a new modern life which brought innovative and original art but also in society. Most of the paintings and sculptors expressed movement and dynamics of the natural and man-made forms. Futurism influenced other movements such as Art Deco, Surrealism and Dada amongst other. The French artist Marcel Duchamp adapted the use of modern materials and techniques. 

Fortunato Depero

Fortunati Depero

Vanity Fair Cover

One of the major futurist Italian artists was Fortunato Depero who was born in 1892, Italy. In 1915 joined the Futurist movement but before from social realism, symbolism till this movement. His inspirations came from Boccioni's sculptures and exhibited a series of drawings. Depero was the first and last Italian Futurist who moved to New York, and during his stay he designed many front covers for glossy magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, although years passed they are still popular magazines nowadays.His works mostly consisted of paintings and advertisement posters like the Campari advert. In Roverto, Italy there is  an institution dedicated to Futurists works of other artists which contains over 3000 paintings and 7500 manuscripts about Futurism. 

New Futurist Theatre CompanyPoster, 1924 

This poster was designed to advertise the opening of the New Futurist Theatre.Although Futurism is about movement and speed, time is an important factor because this movement originated during the industrial revolution and the machine age. Time brought change and revolution. Regarding the poster I assume that it is a robot figure made up from factory chimneys with smoke coming out. It is a diagonal composition with repetitive angular forms that represent the kinetic energy and repetition of movement following a rythm. The number on the body may have different interpretations if it's meaning, it could be the year 2310 or the date and month of the event, maybe Depero was imagining how the futurist world will look like, robots talking, technology at it's best, and us human will become dependent on technology. 

Campari advertisement

Blanchard,D.,2009.'Time and Space Died Yesterday," Futurism at 100. Conterlight's Peculiars, [blog] 30 July. Available at: < http://counterlightsrantsandblather1.blogspot.com/2009/07/beautiful-ideas-that-kill-futurism-at.html > [Accessed 27 October 2013] 

Nicolas Pioch, 2002. Futurism [online ] Available at:< http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/futurism/ >
[Accessed 27 October 2013] 

Fortunato Depero: Bali Plastici ,date unknown, Deparo, Futurism and More [online] Available at: <  http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/balli-plastici/learn/ > 

[Accessed 27 October 2013] 

The Introduction of Harem Pants in Western Fashion by Paul Poiret (Theme: Time)

Art Nouveau  

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau (New Art) is a decorative style in art found in architecture, art and decorative art,  which started in the 1880's until the 1910's. This style is inspired from  organic motif such as flowers, leaves and nature in general by using curved and flowing lines.It originated in Belgium and France.Art Nouveau can be found even in graphic design, interior design, fashion and textiles, jewellery, furniture and many more. William Morris a British artist and reformer who  is very popular with the Art Nouveau. Morris was the founder of the Art and Craft Movement which is linked with Art Nouveau. 

         Art and Crafts Movement by William Morris 

William Morris Design 

The Art and Crafts Movement started in the 19th century in England which challenged the  Victorian era when a social reform started. Thinkers and social reformers such as John Ruskin together with designer and reformer William Morris founded this movement. During that period there was a rise in consuming manufactured goods and these were produced in mass production which led to poor designs and quality, not showing the skills of the craftsmanship. Morris and Ruskin proposed that the craftsmanship will be revived so beautiful  objects will be produced showing off the skills of these craftsmanship in contrary to the mass production objects. Their aim was to come up with a design that was pleasing and beautiful to all the people and the craftsmanship would have a decent job. 

  

Paul Poiret Fashion Designer

Poiret Design

Paul Poiret a.k.a The King of Fashion in America was a French fashion designer born in 1879 in Paris. Poiret was very modern and came up with innovative designs for women who wanted to feel comfortable and liberated in their clothing. From strict silhouettes and pale colours, Poiret introduced designs exotic designs  inspired form the oriental styles and colours, dramatic and untied dresses.He is  the creator of bohemian-chic and many of the garments seen on the runway nowadays are inspired from him. Apart from clothes, Poiret was the first that had his brand name on cosmetics, perfumes and ornaments. Many of his designs were influenced from art nouveau,  eastern countries and Sergei Diagilhev exotic Ballet Russe. In 1906 he eliminated the corset for women and in 1910 introduced the untied dress similar to a chemise. From 1910-1913 he introduced tunics, harem pants and turban to Western fashion. The materials were  light and flowy,creating a curved silhouette just like art nouveau.

Harem Pants - Time 

Modern Harem pants

The introduction of the harem pants in western fashion was controversial and seen as an attack political and social norms. It was believed that it was an attack on Western values from the Oriental but Poiret designed the harem for chic woman who wanted freedom. In relation with the theme of time, the harem pants is still popular nowadays after several years. Originally these pants  can be worn by both genders especially in the eastern side were always popular and have existed for over 2000 years. Although the harem failed, even in Poiret era, it was still used for women's sportswear. It wasn't until the late 1980's and 90's that were introduced back to the main stream by pop hip-hop singer  MC Hammer who dressed in quirky styles, this time the harem were worn mostly by teenagers. Nowadays harem pants are very in fashion, in 2009 there was the comeback and remained popular till today. By time many fashion designers included them in their collections with various styles and patterns.They can be worn, any time, any season with almost anything for day and night and even in special events.From time to time harem pants will be in vogue. We saw change in colours, patterns and even varied a bit the styles of the harem pants during the years.It was during the Art Nouveau period when designers started to introduce different culture styles in their collections.

Sequined Harem

About.com,2013.Art Glossary:Art Nouveau. [online] Available at: < http://painting.about.com/od/artglossarya/g/defartnouveau.htm >
[Accessed 25 October 2013]

Charlotte Jirouesk,1995.The Arts and Craft Movement.[online] Available at: < http://char.txa.cornell.edu/art/decart/artcraft/artcraft.htm >
[Accessed 25 October 2013] 

Tara,.2009,Paul Poiret: The King of Modern Fashion, nothing-elegant.blogspot. com [blog] 29 January.Available at : < http://nothing-elegant.blogspot.com/2009/01/paul-poiret-king-of-modern-fashion.html > 

[Accessed 25 October 2013]

 Eximner.com, 2006-2013. Paul Poiret: The Master of Haute Couture. [online] Available at: < http://www.examiner.com/article/paul-poiret-the-master-of-haute-couture >
[Accessed 25 October 2013]

Yahoo Shine and Lifestyle Network, 2013. The History of Harem Pants.[online] Available at: < http://voices.yahoo.com/the-history-harem-pants-5544233.html >
[Accessed 25 October 2013]