55Garbo’slingeringclose-upscontrastswiththeeventfulposesandfreezesof
Hepburn.TenyearsonfromFunny Face,intheotherwell-knownfashionfilm
Blow-up(MichelangeloAntonioni, 1966 ),thefacewasneitheridea nor event
but had become a non-event. The film dwells on the sourness of commer-
cialized glamour and the defining image is of the model Veruschka who
hauntsthefilmwiththevacantdemeanourofasomnambulist,barelyable
torise above her lack of interest in the world. (AmongotherthingsBlow-up
signals the beginning of fashion’s cultivated boredom.) At one point
someone says to her: ‘I thought you were in Paris.’Sherepliesindifferently:
‘IaminParis.’Antonioni’slongtakeshighlightVeruschka’sapparentindif-
ferencetotimeitself,athemewewillcometolater.
Cinema tends to freeze the idealized instant – the pinnacle of the
action, the clearest facial expression or the perfect composition. In other
words, it is drawn to the moments that photographers tend to prefer.
Think of the car in the concluding freeze frame ofThelma & Louise(Ridley
Scott, 1991 ), held at the peak of its arc so we are saved from seeing the
heroines plunge into the ravine; or the runner/soldier in Peter Weir’s
Gallipoli( 1981 ) frozen at the moment he is shot. Chest out and head
41 Menschen am Sontag[People on
Sunday] (Robert Siodmak and Edward
Ulmer, 1928), frames.