A cultural catalogue * Contact: friends of dick whitman at gmail dot com
December 26, 2009
One of the things that grabs Ladies of a Certain Age about Mad Men is the authenticity of the seriously fraught gender dynamic of the era.
Take Peggy for instance, through each season we watch her get squeezed between her two desires to be liked by men and respected by them. Given the setting, it seems she can only pick one.
Well, here’s a fantastic post by art critic Carol Diehl about the sexuality of the era, featuring appearances by Brigitte Bardot, Ann Margret and Mad Men:
“Last night, after the turkey, we watched two films from 1963-64 back-to-back: Brigitte Bardot in Jean Luc Godard’s “Contempt,” and “VivaLas Vegas” with Elvis and Ann-Margret. To my male friends it was high camp, but for me, watching them produced flashbacks of what it was like to grow up in that era: wanting men, wanting them to like you, wanting them to want you, but at the same time having to fend them off on a daily basis, the frustration of having your strengths ignored while being valued for your sexual potential…”
Ah, Rome. A perfect place for Betty and Don to rekindle the romance — who needs Paris, anyway? Betty, in complete control of herself and Don for once, effortlessly breezes through the place and captures the hearts of several men, including her husband’s. For that purpose, she gets dressed up at the Hilton’s beauty parlor, in an outfit aesthetically similar to one of the greatest Italian films of all time, Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita.
In the film, Anita Ekberg plays a Swedish (but basically an American representation) movie star, Sylvia, who sweeps into Rome and carries away several men. Her most famous scene? The one of her jumping into the Trevi Fountain. Framing Betty against a fountain calls the image to mind immediately. Both outfits both play with black and white and involve similar makeup; the difference is that while Sylvia is unadorned and effortlessly beautiful, Betty’s creation is one of direct manipulation, with many baroque effects (the hair bow, the necklace). While Sylvia is unaware of the effect she has on her own strong-jawed man (Marcello Mastroianni), Betty couldn’t be more conscious of Don’s reaction to her flirtations.
The character of Sylvia is intended by Fellini to represent a modern American intrusion into the ancient city of Rome, which is trying desperately to play catch up. Whereas she has more of an effect on Rome than it does on her, we see by the end of “Souvenir” that the opposite is true for Betty.
RESOLVED: Betty’s Euro look was based on Brigette Bardot: the 26 year old ‘sex siren’ of France. Here’s my favorite work from the Bardot cannon. The movie — by Godard, set in Italy, released in 1963 — is not only super slick but it also spawned, I believe, the greatest trailer of all time. I’ve been aching to link to this.
Coincidentally, perhaps not, it could also read like the shot list from last night’s episode.
You simply must hit play then say it all day: EE-TAL-EE!
