Now, Voyager sneaks elements of attraction into its Narrative (Core)

Watching Now, Voyager I was struck by how--despite being a distinctly narrative film--there are definite moments of attraction slipped in. The most blatant of these being the entrance into Rio Harbor. The film basically stops the narrative to show the audience the famous sites.

The bigger element of attraction was more subtle, however. The fashion, which we were told to look out for, is definitely displayed and used as attraction above and beyond the narrative of the film. I can easily see these gowns being sold in Macys as mentioned in our reading, and I even found some staged photographs of Bette Davis in her gowns which are not stills from the film Perhaps they were advertisements for the gowns themselves?

According to our reading, using fashion as attraction not only exists beyond the narrative, it could also be detrimental to a narrative: "the aesthetic consequence of woman as spectacle in film is a tension in films centered on glamorous women stars between the narrative (we want to know what happens next) and the spectacle (we want to stop and look at the woman" (Stars, 51). It seems that in this case, Now, Voyager seeks to solve the problem by making the fashion escalate in time with the character's growth into glamour. Even if we are paused from wanting to "know what happens next," perhaps we make up for that by wanting to know what's WORN next.

And the fashion as attraction worked on me. I was enthralled with the clothing, especially the big shoulders and décolletage.

I was so much invested, in fact, that like the recurring example of buying a star's lipstick, I had to try this look for myself.

So thanks, Now, Voyager, for giving me a taste of attraction with the narrative main course, and thank you for helping me decide what to wear on Saturday night.