Manchester University Press
5 Courtesan
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the courtesan as the form of prostitution most usually associated with the figure of la Parisienne. Parisiennes Marie St Clair (Edna Purviance), Lucile (Catherine Deneuve) and Satine (Nicole Kidman) are all cinematic incarnations of the courtesan. In Charles Chaplin's A Woman of Paris, Marie leaves her unnamed provincial town to reinvent herself in Paris and becomes the kept woman of wealthy man-about-town Pierre Revel. In Alain Cavalier's La Chamade, based on Francoise Sagan's novel of the same name, Lucile, a hedonistic young woman, is kept by the generosity of the older affluent bachelor, Charles (Michel Piccol). Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge draws both directly and indirectly on the diverse iconography of la Parisienne as courtesan, derived from nineteenth-century art, literature and mass culture, and on this iconography as it has been reworked in cinema.
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the courtesan as the form of prostitution most usually associated with the figure of la Parisienne. Parisiennes Marie St Clair (Edna Purviance), Lucile (Catherine Deneuve) and Satine (Nicole Kidman) are all cinematic incarnations of the courtesan. In Charles Chaplin's A Woman of Paris, Marie leaves her unnamed provincial town to reinvent herself in Paris and becomes the kept woman of wealthy man-about-town Pierre Revel. In Alain Cavalier's La Chamade, based on Francoise Sagan's novel of the same name, Lucile, a hedonistic young woman, is kept by the generosity of the older affluent bachelor, Charles (Michel Piccol). Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge draws both directly and indirectly on the diverse iconography of la Parisienne as courtesan, derived from nineteenth-century art, literature and mass culture, and on this iconography as it has been reworked in cinema.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Introduction 1
- 1 Muse 18
- 2 Cosmopolite 47
- 3 Icon of fashion 71
- 4 Femme fatale 95
- 5 Courtesan 120
- 6 Star 150
- Conclusion 180
- Films cited 185
- References 190
- Index 203
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Introduction 1
- 1 Muse 18
- 2 Cosmopolite 47
- 3 Icon of fashion 71
- 4 Femme fatale 95
- 5 Courtesan 120
- 6 Star 150
- Conclusion 180
- Films cited 185
- References 190
- Index 203
