Birds of Paradise: Costume as Cinematic Spectacle

From the films of the silent era to the opulent experimental productions of the 1950s American underground, costume has often played a vital role as a cinematic vehicle of sensuous pleasure and visual enchantment. Birds of Paradise: Costume as Cinematic Spectacle explores cinema´s fascinating propensity for animating dress, jewelry and adornment, also considering the relationship between cinema and related time-based forms, such as dance and theatre, in regard to costume. Lavishly illustrated with stills and archival material, the book examines those episodes in European and American cinema history in which costume was effectively foregrounded as the star attraction: early dance and fantasy films of the 1890s and 1900s; popular silent cinema of the 1910s and 20s, especially music hall and orientalist spectaculars; and experimental films of the 1940s-1970s, by film-makers such as Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith and James.