This project, Goodbye to Berlin, is based around 1920s and 1930s Berlin, when the city was under the rule of the Weimar Republic. During the Weimar era, Berlin was a dynamic city, struggling to survive off of the back of World War One, yet full of debauchery, sex, art, theatre, culture and transformation. For this project, I will be looking at, and taking influence from, the book Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood and the 1970 film Cabaret, which is based on Isherwood's semi autobiographical novel about his time spent in Berlin.
Over the course of this project, I will be exploring the history of the Weimar culture and what it was like to live in Berlin at that time, as well as various hair and make-up styles that were typical of the 1930s for both men and women. I am looking forward to learning more about this era, as it is one of high contrast, with desperation, poverty, freedom and condor occurring all at once. I am excited to learn more about these aspects of Weimar Berlin, and how they were reflected in the hair and make-up trends of the time, and whether Hitler and the Nazi Party's rise to power affected these. Alongside this, I am intrigued to learn about the Berliners of the time; how they reacted to the changes that were going on in Berlin, and how they adapted to this with their behaviour and looks. I would also like to look at icons from the time that are similar to the characters in the book, i.e. comparing the character of Sally Bowles to the German dancer Anita Berber.
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| Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles in Cabaret Available: http://dougandgene.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/brother- beats-cabarethappy-birthday.html. Last accessed: 29th Sept 2014. |
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| Anita Berber, the 1920s German show girl Available: http://www.johansvenson.com/2010/05/ anita-berber/. Last accessed: 29th Sept 2014. |
Over the summer, I had to look at the use of colour and it's symbolism within films, primarily colour symbolism in Chinese films. I will keep what I learnt throughout my summer project in mind for this project, as I feel that it is important to take colours, and what they could mean, into consideration when producing character designs. It is important that decisions made when designing are deliberate and concise when making designs, as a persons looks can show a lot about a character.
Within this new project, I am nervous about the recreation of well known characters. This is because the characters that we will be looking at have been portrayed in many different versions of Cabaret, whether it be on stage or in a film and I am worried that I will not be able to do the characters justice. However, I am looking forward to the research and this will hopefully help me to gain a clearer understanding of the individual characters and what they would have been dealing with in Weimar Berlin, which will then help me with my future designs.
Here is the link to my summer project blog; http://elliesimonsfindandseek.blogspot.co.uk.
References:
- Anon. (2014). Weimar Culture. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_culture. Last accessed 29th Sept 2014.
- Anon. (2014). Goodbye to Berlin. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye_to_Berlin. Last accessed 29th Sept 2014.
