The Colour of Nothingness: costumes of invisibility and transformation in early detective films and literature

An illustrated lecture by Guest Curator Tom Gunning, Professor in the Art Department and the Cinema and Media Committee at the University of Chicago.

With live musical accompaniment.

Saturday 24 May 15:50
BFI Southbank NFT2

The modern detective genre deals with the problem of identification in a society where identity is no longer emblazoned in outward appearances. The arrest of a criminal depends not only upon capture, but also, and even more fundamentally, on identification. The ability to disguise oneself becomes an essential strategy for criminal behaviour, at least in the imagination of crime fiction. The influential film scholar Tom Gunning will trace early film criminals’ visual identity, focusing on their acts of disappearance and transformation that owe much to the realms of magic and early trick film. Under special scrutiny will be the black costume, the body suit and masks worn by such nemeses of the law as Fantômas and Irma Vep of the Vampire gang in popular French crime serials of the 1910s.

for more criminal disguise in silent film, also see:
Silent Film’s Thieves, Jewel Robberies and Cases of the Lost Glove
The Kidnapping of Fux Banker (Únos bankére Fuxe)

Follow Me Quietly
USA 1949. Dir. Richard Fleischer.
With William Lundigan, Dorothy Patrick. 60 min. 35mm.

Wednesday 21 May, 18.20
BFI Southbank NFT2

Introduced by Roger Sabin, cultural historian and author of several books on popular culture.

Saturday 31 May, 20.30
BFI Southbank NFT3  

A faceless dummy of a serial killer haunts a police department in this atmospheric noir thriller directed by Richard Fleischer. The dummy is created to represent an elusive strangler who calls himself “The Judge” and whom the frustrated detective Harry Grant attempts to reconstruct from a handful of clues, such as body size and suit fabric. Sure enough, as the dummy becomes more real, so logic, reason and sound judgement encounter the uncanny. Fleisher's film is a forgotten gem, and can be interpreted in retrospect as the forerunner of “empathetic serial killer” movies such as the Hannibal Lecter series.

Blood and Black Lace (Sei donne per l'assassino)
Italy/Monaco/France/Germany 1964. Dir Mario Bava.
With Mary Arden, Cameron Mitchell, Eva Bartok. 88 min. DVD.

Thursday 29 May, 20.00
The Horse Hospital

Camp as its title may sound, this creation from the Italian horror maverick Mario Bava is considered a quintessential giallo thriller and a masterpiece, and has a cult following among the likes of Quentin Tarantino. Filmed under the working title “The Fashion House of Death”, it revolves around dubious secrets involving a group of nerve-wracked fashion models, and a certain red diary. Like the sumptuously baroque fashion salon, the murder scenes are meticulously staged, with bodies often re-arranged for yet more breathtakingly spectacular effect. Son of Eugenio Bava, an accomplished cinematographer in Italian silent cinema, Mario himself was a brilliant and innovative technician, highly regarded for his use of colour and lighting. All fans of “cinematic” fashion photography, watch this space!

see also: Mannequin in Red

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo)
Italy 1970 . Dir Dario Argento.
With Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall. 97 min. 35mm.

With his sharp directorial debut The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, the ex-film critic Dario Argento paid homage to director Mario Bava, reviving interest in Italian horror internationally. Here he fashions a mysterious figure clad in a shiny black PVC raincoat and black leather gloves who slashes beautiful young women. Argento’s highly stylised pursuit of the killer is accompanied by a haunting score by Ennio Morricone.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, dir. Dario Argento, 1970. Courtesy The Cinema Museum.

The Tenth Victim (La decima vittima)
Italy 1965. Dir Elio Petri.
With Ursula Andres, Marcello Mastroianni. 92 min. Digi-beta.

Wednesday 28 May, 20.45
ICA Cinema 1

Introduced by Dylan Jones, award-winning journalist and Editor of GQ magazine ( UK).

In a distant 21 st century where the world lusts for violence, an international organisation called “The Big Hunt” has legalised murder. Things get heated when the game’s top players become Victim and Hunter. Marcello Mastroianni stars as a blond-haired, sun-glassed impassive Victim and Ursula Andress as his beautiful Amazonian Hunter in what can only be described as an über-cool Italian '60s pop art sci-fi comedy extravaganza, complete with an exciting electronic musical score and comic book architecture. In the midst of the action, the film is also a fashion show of ultra-modern geometric garments à la André Courrèges .

with thanks to Surf Film

click here to see Anna Battista's talk on the Tenth Victim