Miss Shane Lewis
English, Media Studies and Art History
University of Queensland
Shane Lewis is a journalist who worked in Australia and Britain before returning
to study with a Grad Dip Arts (Film and TV Production) at Queensland University
of Technology. Her interest in Australia's Orry-Kelly's costumes for Bette Davis
provided the topic for her research MA thesis at QUT. Shane's PhD thesis at
UQ involves costumes for modern Hollywood movies, in the under-researched areas
of sequels, remakes, the growing number of 'Las Vegas' movies, and men's costume.
Costume and the Remake
As with film adaptations of novels, Hollywood sequels and remakes often provoke
discussion of fidelity to an original. But remakes are supposed to be "better"
than their originals, as well as the "same". I focus on Ocean's
Eleven (Steven Soderbergh, 2001), the remake of Ocean's Eleven (Lewis
Milestone, 1960), in outlining the ways remakes recall the aura of their originals.
Considering the remake as a type of interpretation or translation stresses the
original's power to stimulate various versions, and broadens the sense of "fidelity".
Consequently the remake can be true to a mood, an impact, or an impression of
the original's style. Jeffrey Kurland's costumes for Ocean's Eleven (2001)
seek to recall the individual look of Rat Pack members by delineating characters
as instantly recognisable, distinct types. By also showing a "heightened"
Las Vegas, Kurland seeks to recreate the impact of the feeling of high style
given off by the assembled Rat Pack in Ocean's Eleven (1960). Combined
with narrative and visual allusions to the original film and Rat Pack legend,
costume translates the style of the Rat Pack in their utopia into a whole film
world where everything is perfected.
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