Movies where women aren't playing mannequins but look like them

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Corey Fantoccini
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Movies where women aren't playing mannequins but look like them

Post by Corey Fantoccini »

I remember long ago rewatching Brian DePalm's SCARFACE during a big theatrical reissue, and I was struck by how Michelle Pfeiffer's character suggests a mannequin come to life - very made up, skin perfect, severe haircut that almost never seen in disarray, and a perpetual blank demeanor on her face. I know that it's likely a stylistic choice in order to get across the notion of a totally young, aimless, and vapid girl content to be another piece of furniture in Tony Montana's world in exchange for getting all the drugs she wants to use to forget how empty her life is. But somehow I wouldn't be surprised if during production someone had brought up the idea that looking like a mannequin would be the analogy for the character.

Just the other night meanwhile, I finally saw Rainer Werner Fassbinder's THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT, and it's rather ingenious in that it's protagonist is a fashion designer who has three mannequins in her apartment for styling, and in most of the scenes they are strategically arranged by the director to suggest the sort of divides and manipulations and power dynamics taking place among the female characters in that scene. Moreover, since it's made in the early '70s, where women were using lots of makeup and wigs in general, there are many occasions where two women will be staged together in a shot, and look for all the world like a window display. And the secondary character is a submissive personal assistant who has an almost clown-white face and never speaks a word.

This is an article about the film that, while the verbiage may be too art film schooly for many, has many screenshots from the film that illustrate my idea:

http://www.actingoutpolitics.com/r-w-fa ... omination/


So my question for the panel today is are there other films you can think of where you've seen women who are not doing any of the stuff we normally look for - time stops, freeze posing, statue play, etc - but there's something about the way they're dressed or made up or standing in a room that gives off a mannequin vibe?
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