Goodbye to Berlin

Sally Bowles Hair Designs

After creating this contemporary collage I was immediately inspired to use green glitter on blonde hair in some way for my Sally Bowles look. I purchased a short blonde fringed wig to use for my shoot as well as some hair gel and glitter.

This was my original hair chart idea. It was the design I used as I felt it suited my character the best for my look.

I considered another design when I was sketching, featuring a tightly curled and frizzed base with a wet-look, slicked down top. I still wanted to incorporate the glitter somewhere so I have put it in with the curls. I think this would have been a fun look to try out but as I was using a male model I probably would have had to find a wig which I could style like this, and I didn't want to risk it looking too tacky.

Practicing my Chosen Design

This was my first trial of my Sally Bowles look. I had a play around with possible poses also, but decided that I don't really like the lip colour on me. I will see how this looks on my model when I practice on him.

I practised this look again in the studio to see how it would look under the lights and just to see if I could improve it a little. I didn't contour in this practice, but think I will when I do it in the shoot as the lights often flatten the face.

This was my practice on my model. He hasn't shaven here but will do so for the shoot. I think the look went well, and I tried a redder lip and feel it is more striking than the coral. I think in the shoot however I may go for a darker tone, possibly almost a purple. I found that he has quite thin eyebrows naturally, so I didn't need to cover them and redraw them to get the look I wanted.

Sally Bowles 3 Design Ideas

This design features light contouring, blush and coral lips with a dark black smokey eye and glitter green eyebrows. The brows would just follow a natural pattern to mae them more striking, and the green has been chosen to represent Sally's nails. The lips keep the 1920s pouted shape, but the colour may be changed around depending on the model's complexion.

This design features a fuller lip, not so dark an eye and 1920s thin, rounded brows, still in the green glitter. I have used a red lip to make it stand out against the green, but feel it may look a little christmassy.

This face chart has the classick drawn on black arched brows, with a black smokey eye with purple in the crease and a purple lip with putple glitter in the centre. The idea to use purple came from when I read of the colour significance in If it's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die, and Pat Bellatoni talks of how Sally wears a purple dress in the final scene to echo the changes that are happening. If I was doing that scene I think I would have chosen this look, but I am choosing an earlier scene so I want to stick with the divinely decadent green. for my look.

Club Culture Moodboard

A more general moodboard for my ideas for my Sally Bowles character can be seen here.

Drag, Androgyny and Club Culture

Since we started to look at the contemporary, Club Culture characters, I have been thinking a lot about drag and androgyny as they not only feature in Club Culture, but also featured heavily in Weimar Berlin.
Androgyny is something that has always interested me, I follow countless men on YouTube who are androgynous or perform in drag (Michael James, Sebastian Simon, Petrilude, Androgenetics to name a few), and the transformations they can go through are amazing. I think this androgyny is a really important aspect of the growth of society, and is so interesting to see people challenge the boundaries of gender and really question what defines us as people.
As I intend to create my Sally Bowles as a 'character' whom someone such as Michael Alig or James St James would portray at an event or party, I have really looked into club kids and culture.

Eichner, S, (1994), Michael Alig and Richie Rich attend New Year's eve festivities at Club USA in New York City [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6084718/michael-alig-club-kid-killer-post-prison-job [Accessed 01 December 14].

James st James. 2014. [ONLINE] Available at: http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/_manson_/jst.jpg. [Accessed 01 December 2014].

Michael Alig. 2014.[ONLINE] Available at: http://www.michaelaligclubkids.com/images/lg%20photos/9.jpg. [Accessed 01 December 2014].

Retna Ltd, (1993), Michael Alig at The Tunnel in New York City [ONLINE]. Available at: http://pagesix.com/2014/04/17/club-kid-killer-alig-to-be-released-already-dreaming-up-party-plans/ [Accessed 01 December 14].

Allan, A, (unknown date), Boombox 17th December [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.dirtydirtydancing.com/albums/Boombox%20-17th%20December/DSC_5351.jpg [Accessed 01 December 14].

Allan, A, (unknown date), Boombox 17th December [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.dirtydirtydancing.com/default.aspx?Album=Boombox%20-17th%20December&Image=DSC_5550.jpg [Accessed 01 December 14].

Allan, A, (unknown date), Antisocial 23rd December [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.dirtydirtydancing.com/default.aspx?Album=AntiSocial%20-23%20September&Image=DSC_4034.jpg [Accessed 01 December 14].

When looking at the website Dirtydirtydancing.com, I saw many images of groups that reminded me of Michael Alig and friends. There are many underground club scenes in London and New york that are either still living or bringing back this club culture scene, and it seems that this trend has and will repeat itself; from the 1920's/30's, to the Club Kid era to now.

DirtyDirtyDancing: London Club Photography. 2014. DirtyDirtyDancing: London Club Photography. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dirtydirtydancing.com/. [Accessed 01 December 2014].

AndroGenetics - YouTube. 2014. AndroGenetics - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/user/AndroGenetics. [Accessed 01 December 2014].

petrilude - YouTube. 2014. petrilude - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/user/petrilude. [Accessed 01 December 2014].

Sebastian Simon - YouTube. 2014. Sebastian Simon - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/user/sebastiansimonxo. [Accessed 01 December 2014].

Michael James - YouTube. 2014. Michael James - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/user/xxmichaeljames. [Accessed 01 December 2014].

Theda Bara and Josephine Baker

I have chosen to look at Theda Bara and Josephine Baker to help me develop an idea of Sally Bowles' character.

Theda Bara was an american actress who starred in many silent films between 1914 and 1926. She played Femme fatale characters and has been considered one of films first sex symbols, and although most of her films were lost in a fire she is still remembered and referenced today.

Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, (1918), English: Lolette, the Spanish peasant girl (played by Theda Bara) uses a knife to defend herself (from an unidentified actor) in a scene still for the 1918 silent drama The She-Devil. [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullRecord.asp?id=104573 [Accessed 01 December 14].

Sally would have definitely seen and been inspired by Theda Bara and longed for her lifestyle. She will have looked at her facial expressions, styling and persona while she performed.

Josephine Baker was a French dancer, singer and actress born in America and was the first African-American actress to feature in a major motion picture, and to become a worldwide star. She was very present in civil rights movements and refused to perform for segregated audiences. She moved to Paris in 1925 and began performing on stage- doing erotic dances. She became a muse to many artists, sculptors and writers, and was especially successful in Europe.

Walery, French, (1926), Josephine Baker dancing the Charleston at the Folies-Bergère, Paris [ONLINE]. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Baker_Charleston.jpg [Accessed 01 December 14].

Due to Josephine Baker's success in Europe, Sally would definitely had known of her and she would have influenced Sally's life tremendously. Sally would have aspired to be as big a star, or bigger than Josephine Baker, and would have looked to her to see how she could do it.

Theda Bara - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2014. Theda Bara - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theda_Bara. [Accessed 01 December 2014].

Sally Bowles- Character Breakdown

To begin looking at my character I looked back at the Rehearsal resource file we were given.
I chose not to focus on her appearance, as for my contemporary interpretation I would like to make Sally Bowles a Drag character portrayed by a man, but I did look at a bit about her background to help me develop ideas for her make up and how to direct the model.
Sally was brought up by her English family and rebelled by leaving home at the age of 17 to "learn about life" in Berlin. As we see in the chosen scene, she is singing a song called "Don't Tell Mama" and I think the lyrics in this scene are perfect for showing us her relationship with her family- her parents are protective or perhaps quite conservative and overbearing.
In Goodbye to Berlin, Christopher Isherwood speaks of Sally and says "I noticed that her finger nails were painted emerald green, a colour unfortunately chosen, for it called attention to her hands, which were much stained by cigarette smoking and as dirty as a little girl's." Her nail polish is also picked out in the film, with lots of shots of Sally waving her hands around and putting her fingers to her neck to show them off. When we first meet her in Cabaret, she is at the door and when Brian notices her nails, she shakes her fingers and says "Divinely decadent!" before welcoming him in. I want to bring this green colour into my look without simply painting it on the nails, and have been thinking about putting green glitter through the brows and hair.

Isherwood, C (1939). Goodbye to Berlin. Britain: Hogarth Press.Geigner, M, 2014. Rehersal Resource Packet. Northwestern University.