Lecture Two: The Star System

Today we looked at the star system and under the topic of conceptual dualities, stardom was revealed as being two things:

1. Manufactured commodities 

2. Communicators of meaning

I was shocked to learn that classic Hollywood stars were owned by the studio system that dictated their private lives as much as their on-screen characters, ultimately constructing consumer capitalism within film. Hollywood synthesised these two competing aspects through developing specific 'types' of roles the stars possessed, giving consumers the personification of their desires. One classic example is Marilyn Monroe who could only play loveable blonde characters while Greta Garbo (below) represents the exotic type. 


http://www.doctormacro.com/movie%20star%20pages/Garbo,%20Greta.htm

Drawing back to the idea as stars as commodity, Brigitte Bardot's attendance at the Cannes Film Festival (1956) not only sent her to stardom but simultaneously popularised the bikini and "ensured the success of her new film, 'And God Created Woman'" (Gibson) through beach photocalls. However it challenged conventional ideas surrounding Hollywood glamour and shifted the focus on her more rebellious and youthful self. 

She became literally known as 'The Girl in the Bikini' as demonstrated in the film 'Manina, the girl without a veil' as shown below. 

Bardot's sexual display of her midriff and naval undermined the Hays code of the time and similarly reject the glamour of Hollywood film and bourgeois life in favour of a more rebellious, youthful style.