The first full length academic study of Hepburn's star persona and films featuring reseach into the experience of British women who have admired her in the 1950s, 1960s and the 1990s. Examines the historical specificity of discourses of feminity circulating around Hepburn and her female fans, suggesting that the flexibility of Hepburn's image has contributed to her enduring appeal. Makes a significant contribution to the growing field of star studies. Argues that class and gender are siginifcant factors in the relatonship between stars and audiences.
Rachel Moseley is Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at University of Warwick
List of figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. On the subject of Film Studies: Class, gender and the female spectator
Class, gender and 'resistance'
Discourse and subjectivity
2. Audrey Hepburn: A woman's star
'She's a phoney, but she's a real phoney': Construction, transparency and authenticity
'Once upon a time...': Fairy-tales, fashion and femininity
Fashion: A gendered attractionist aesthetic
'Can't do it without make-up' : Natural, democratic beauty
Clever, not sexy: Hepburn and 'the Mammary Woman'
3. Dress and subjectivity: Remembering Audrey
Dress and desire: The articulation of self through style
Growing up with Audrey: Dress and subjectivity
Style, 'the look' and 'being a girl' in the 1950s and 1960s
Talking about Audrey
'Oh please God - let it happen to me!'
Text and audience: Resonance and address
4. Doing the Hepburn look
Difference
Being a girl
Classy, not sexy
Negotiating the social: Growing up, looking 'nice', wearing black
'She was everything. And it was all within reach, if you like'
5. Audrey's Cinderellas: Dress and status in the 1950s and 1960s
'You shall go to the ball...'
Love, marriage and the domestic
'I admit I came to Paris to escape American Provincial, but that doesn't mean I'm ready for French Traditional!'
'I'm a respectable girl, so I am...'
6. Audrey Hepburn, nostalgia and post-feminism in the 1990s
Mothers and daughters
'She's a real phoney' (Part Two)
Nostalgia and escape from the post-modern
Dressing up
Having it all
Conclusion
Appendix I - The main interviews
Glossary of symbols
The interviewees
Interview questions
Appendix II - Extended interview extracts (Chapter 4)
References and further reading
Filmography