Interesting what little facial expressions were considered appealing back then. The woman who takes up the second half of the video is not very attractive to me....reminds me too much of Heath Ledger's Joker. The looks she gives that are supposed to be alluring (at I assume they are) are laughable to me.
The women are also somewhat Rubenesque compared to the skinny ladies of today, and the clothes much looser and nowhere near as skin-tight as today's. The first woman was very, shall we say, zaftig in the face. The third woman (1:13) was the first one I myself found attractive. The flapper (1:38) was very "period" in my mind. Flappers exist today only through vintage footage and photographs like this (and any centenarians we have from that era, which are likely almost died out).
(As a side note regarding the color, this video reminds me of what I once read about the 1936 film Beck Sharp. It was one of the first to use the Technicolor three-strip process, and one critic commented that the actors' skin looked like "boiled salmon dipped in mayonnaise." I think this applies here. :-P)
I find the lady at 1:50 to resemble Dracula’s wife. Her expression conveys more pain than allure.
I also wanted to note the use of the hands. In almost every lady's segment you can see how "delicately" she holds her hands. This may reflect the times and the belief that the wife stayed at home while the men worked and gained the calloused hands.
Interesting what little facial expressions were considered appealing back then. The woman who takes up the second half of the video is not very attractive to me....reminds me too much of Heath Ledger's Joker. The looks she gives that are supposed to be alluring (at I assume they are) are laughable to me.
ReplyDeleteThe women are also somewhat Rubenesque compared to the skinny ladies of today, and the clothes much looser and nowhere near as skin-tight as today's. The first woman was very, shall we say, zaftig in the face. The third woman (1:13) was the first one I myself found attractive. The flapper (1:38) was very "period" in my mind. Flappers exist today only through vintage footage and photographs like this (and any centenarians we have from that era, which are likely almost died out).
(As a side note regarding the color, this video reminds me of what I once read about the 1936 film Beck Sharp. It was one of the first to use the Technicolor three-strip process, and one critic commented that the actors' skin looked like "boiled salmon dipped in mayonnaise." I think this applies here. :-P)
*Becky Sharp, my bad. It was based off of Vanity Fair.
ReplyDeleteI find the lady at 1:50 to resemble Dracula’s wife. Her expression conveys more pain than allure.
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to note the use of the hands. In almost every lady's segment you can see how "delicately" she holds her hands. This may reflect the times and the belief that the wife stayed at home while the men worked and gained the calloused hands.