The Birth of a Hollywood Spectacle: Visual Expression and Narrative Functions of Costumes in Cecil B. DeMille’s Silent Films

The article explores the functions of film costumes in the works of Cecil B. DeMille, the American film director, whose pictures of the late 1910s and early 1920s are notable for their artistic achievements in the field of set and costume design. On the material of certain films from his “matrimonial cycle”, the author analyses the narrative and spectacular functions of costumes, while making an emphasis on the director’s role in the development of the artistic uniqueness and visual extravagance of Hollywood films of this period. The films of this cycle display some key strategies in film costume function- ing and design methods that would be adopted by the Hollywood film industry to become the new production standard in this field.