Subjects:
In reference to Richard Dyer and his book ‘Stars’ I am going to analyse the different ideologies at work in the fifties with Marilyn Monroe, to contemporary stardom with Sharon Stone. To do this I will be discussing the progress of the film industry and its ‘stars’ in relation to societies difference in ideologies. I am going to argue that in reference to the emergence of the ‘Star system,’ the film industry and its stars have evolved from the original ‘pin up’ to sexual exploitation where sex, ideologically, sells.
Richard de Cordova acknowledged three transformations in the development of the ‘Star System.’ These were the ‘discourse on acting’ the ‘Picture Personality’ and ‘The Star’. Before 1907 the film industry was focussed on the apparatus and technology of producing the ‘real’ on screen. The actors were not recognised for their acting. Hollywood’s mode of production can be looked at in terms of a factory system much like that used by the Ford plant. Janet Steiger states in ‘The Classical Hollywood Cinema’ that Hollywood often praised its own work structure for its
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? States that the sexual revolution started following World War II as the capitalist society abandoned conservative attitudes to sexual behaviour and identity and became more open-minded. I would argue that Monroe and her famous ‘millimetres of cleavage’ in the fifties is as sexually explicit as Sharon Stones notorious flash scene in ‘Basic Instinct. ’
‘We may generalise (following Dyer) that British, like other, stars exhibit a ‘structured polysemy’, have meaning in regard to dominant and subordinate ideologies, reinforce ruling values, sometimes articulate oppositional meanings as they play out the cultures conceptions of individuality, masculinity and femininity’
(Babbington, 2001:19 – found in ‘Contemporary Hollywood Stardom, Thomas Austin & Martin Barker’)
As the quote states, I believe that Dyers theory still amounts for issues in Contemporary society. With Sharon Stone, Hollywood looked up her skirt and then put her on a pedestal’
www. These conventions ass to the notions involved in the quote above, however can a star whose first image is portrayed through sex, be anything different? I would argue that it couldn’t. ’ She conformed to the conventions described by Thomas B. ’
(Magazine reference found in Austin: (2003)
Obviously, to the reader or viewer, the only way we can see the ‘real’ self of Stone is through the media. Sexuality became a commodity and considerate within the rules of the capitalist market place and ‘with the spread of the contraceptive pill women’s magazines changed to reflect the needs of a generation of newly educated, conically independent, sexually liberated and active woman’ (website date)
This last quote clearly presents what would come to mind if I thought of ‘Sharon Stone’, but is this quote descriptive of her personal self, the characters she plays in ‘Basic Instinct’ (Trammel) or both? Having taken lineage with Monroe for her attractiveness, she has not taken on the stereotypical notion of the ‘dumb blonde’ instead, having starred in the film, Basic Instinct; she is more represented as the sexually attractive but dangerous femme fatale. Sharon Stone is the fascinating yet repelling femme fatale of the erotic thriller. I would definitely argue that these images are the marketing tool in which to promote the effect of the entertaining market. However to contradict myself, we have to take into account that she is an actress, and actors manipulate so how can the audience ever be sure of an actors personal life?
From Monroe to Stone we have to acknowledge the fact that sex since the fifties sells and this reflects not only the film in which the star as a vehicle of press sells the product in question, it also sells them.
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