Customer Reviews

Hollywood and History: Costume Design in Film

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This is a beautiful exhibition catalogue that shows how movies depict historical and SF costume. It is full of beatiful illustrations from the movies being discussed and also has examples of the actual costume worn in that movie.

What is very interesting is in the historical sections. You can clearly see how *wrong* these costumes are. Superfically they look right - but that's about it. Even 'gone with the wind' has it's problems.

There is also a section on SF movies and how the costuming in those are affected by what people are wearing at the time they are made. Out of this section the movies that seem to have stood the test of time the best are 'bladerunner' and 'flash gordon 1980'.

This is a very interesting book for people who are interested in the movies and costume.

As you will gather from the title, "Hollywood and History" is essentially a review of the costumes worn in the great (and not-so-great) historical epics produced in Hollywood's salad days, with a side trip to look at the costumes of science-fiction films. Lots of interesting stuff here (such as a chart showing how men's and women's "looks" in hairstyling, makeup, and the like changed decade by decade), and the photos and illustrations, both color and in B&W, are first-rate. My only real quibble - and this is something that's basically out of the control of the authors, as this book was published to accompany a museum exhibit from some years ago - is that the book doesn't cover more modern movies. As I said, though, that's not really something the authors can go back and fix at this point, and if you keep that in mind, you'll enjoy this book. Recommended for any film costume student's library.