Following the process of transformation in the movie “Limitless” and analysing the aspects using fashion theory reference and texts.

Following the process of transformation in the movie “Limitless” and analysing the aspects using fashion theory reference and texts.

I will be analysing the transformation process of the character as described by the changes in his costume. The clothing design blend, between the beginning and the end of his transformation, will be discussed with reference to fashion theory as used in similar genres and the film industry worldwide. In the movie ‘Limitless’ the protagonist undergoes the stark transformation from a homeless writer to a senator. The movie takes place in current times, where the specific qualities of fashion items (such as colour, fabric, design and etc.) is of secondary importance, compared to the fact that it is simply on the market. Signifying both body and garment – the main character is followed on his path of complete class and personality metamorphosis. Every step of the process is described through a different costume design, which corresponds to his current level in materialistic modern society in which the branded goods act as a method of distinction and classification. The final version of the character emulates for the many people who see him as an ideal that brings together beauty, self-transformational skills, wealth, business sense and success.

In the Tractatus logico-philosophicus, Wittgenstein proposes a clothing

metaphor for language: [4:5]

“Language disguises the thought, so that from the external form of the clothes one

cannot infer the form of the thought they clothe, because the external form of

the clothes is constructed with quite another object than to let the form of the

body be recognized (Wittgenstein, 1922: Proposition 4.002).”

Language, thought and dress are associated in the text. It describes clothing as a form of bodily disguise, just like language is a disguise for thought. Wittgenstein explains how language and dress are sign systems which “speak” without revealing the true inner mind of the source. It can be verbal language or a different dress style. But there is something that Wittgenstein could not take into account at the time. Nowadays people have various ways of signifying information to the spectator, that has become common everywhere and is “speaking” to us in the same way that the other forms of language would. Therefore, like any other language in this sense, clothing functions like syntax to a set of more or less constant rules. These rules allow body covering to signify meaning, weather that is an important social significance in a logo carried through history, or just following the criteria set by the fashion industry.

As I mentioned earlier, meaning and a sociable valuation can be carried in any form. The pictorial dimension is one of the most important languages, because of its capacity to hold a fact or a previous memory, through system of images. So for example if the clothed body is put on a sequence, at any given frame of that sequence, it will hold the information that can be used to signify an unconscious meaning.

In the first stage of the transformation process, the protagonist is introduced with a homeless person looking costume (fig. 1).

(Fig 1)

His jacket is full of stiches, wearing more layers of clothes than needed, grey unsaturated colours. The colour grey tells us that the person tend to be neutral about life, someone who likes to protect himself from the world in a blanket of non-commitment, preferring a secure, safe, balanced existence. Grey can also signify psychologically gloominess or sadness. The messy hairstyle gives away untidiness and lack of maintenance in his life. His beard is not groomed, suggesting an unsociable person, jobless, alcoholic. The wound he has is sterilized using masking tape, which speaks of a person with low income and the lack of responsibility points out that he might be living alone, without a person to care for him (wife, mother or girlfriend). Analysing the outfit using Wittgenstein’s metaphor, helps us notice that this is his bodily disguise, hiding the potential self-transforming inner him.

The environment in which he is introduced is an area full of smog, mixed low-life society. The terms “fashionable” and “unfashionable” define whether someone is accepted with the current popular mode of expression. The term “fashion” is used in a positive way meaning glamor, beauty or style. Overall, fashions are in a way a communal art, through which a culture valuates and examines its perception of beauty and goodness. The French psychologist Pierre Bourdieu first used the term cultural capital. It refers to non-financial social qualities, such as intellectual or experienceable, which might promote one beyond economic ability. Bourdieu extends it with [2]

“to all the goods material and symbolic, without distinction, that present themselves as rare and worthy of being sought after in a particular social formation (cited in Harker, 1990:13) and cultural capital acts as a social relation within a system of exchange that includes the accumulated cultural knowledge that confers power and status.”

Cultural taste corresponds with person’s educational and social class. Furthermore, Roland Barthes [5:68] attributed to the cover-girls, or mannequins, the role of representing a

synthesis of dress and costume, that is, both an individual phenomenon and a socially regulated value system. With all that said, the social class of the people with who the character is seen at first, can be categorized as the generic, common life struggling modernist class (fig. 2).

(Fig. 2)

His clothing matches the dress style of the environment he is in, but his social behaviour and cultural capital is in higher state than the people surrounding him. This statement is later inversed with the comparison between him and the upper class, where he does not fit. It is a different environment of successful people where he wants to be. A point which motivates the character’s transforming intentions.

 

(Fig. 3.1)                                                                                     (Fig. 3.2)

The starting point of the transformation process of the character is further described with the followed accidental meeting with an old friend of his.

(Fig. 4)

The last memory that the protagonist has of this person’s situation is as a drug dealer. From Al Capone and Lucky Luciano to John Gotti and Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, organized crime characters have built their reputations as rebellious, dangerous, and "well-dressed" business men.

The following second step of the transformation is invoked by a pill that his old friend (Fig. 4) gave him. After taking it, the process takes 30 seconds to kick in. The colours in every shot become more saturated and thus when the effects are out, everything desaturates again. Following the process further, he manages to write his book, so when he comes off the pharmaceutical drug he promotes his book for publishing. The character was blind before and now he sees, according to the narration. A change in his costume is seen respectively (Fig. 5)

(Fig. 5)

His transformation process is seen directly on his dress style, changing the grey dull clothing with a white shirt and t-shirt. The colour white [6] stands for purity, chastity and innocence. White reflects light and keeps cool so in general, it creates a cool and refreshing feeling. People who prefer white tend to be neat and immaculate in their clothing and homes. White lovers are inclined to be cautious buyers and shrewd business people, but are critical and fussy. White can signify a self-sufficient person and occasionally the innocence and recall of youth and simplistic way of life. We see a complete juxtaposition with the protagonist’s previous beginning step.

The third step of the transformation is seen shortly after. He is seen in locations surrounded by people considered to be the high class in society. Both his financial and intellectual level had become abundant. This drastic change is shown through an intense gaze by the main character’s book agent (Fig. 6).

(Fig. 6)

The veil, the covering, is textile and garment, but first and foremost it is cultural textile-text, if we look for cultural meaning to all the material that goes to make up human thought, language and behaviour. Fashion intervenes to mark ideologically this cultural material, without which fashion itself could not exist. It shows the certain boost in his social class.

(Fig. 7)

In the screenshot above (Fig. 7), according to Patrizia Calefato [4:109] the man’s black suit makes explicit an obliteration of meaning, a kind of physical absorption of all light rays that transforms the body dressed in black into a transparent, or invisible, entity and, like camouflage, gives it an absolute anonymity in the crowd, whether the body is of a low-class, banker or a criminal. Black for film or theatrical costumes has become a distinguishing feature and makes a character metonymic with respect to his clothes. Furthermore black absorbs the light, obliterates all other colours, and evokes darkness and night as zones in which the unforeseen, the unexpected and the unheard become the norm. Let’s look deeper into the social significance of the colour. [4:9]

Black, associated with mourning in the traditional costume of certain societies, has the ritual function (Bogatyrëv 1937) of associating the nothingness into which the body of the defunct has passed with the meaningless state in which the bereaved person finds him/herself.

Overall, the black style and the black palette of his costume design from this step forward, is connected with the history of use in film, modern society approval as glamour and exotic and the socio-semiotic meaning carried unconsciously. Explained simpler would sound like this [7:89]

Tarantino has said, “You can’t put a guy in a black suit without him looking a little cooler than he already looks” (Tarantino 1993:53).

(Fig. 8)

The last step of the transformation has been completed (Fig. 8). The social assets in the clothing are the black suit, the American flag badge and the red tie. The black suit in this concept represents a figure of great power and possibilities. The black colour absorbs light, creating a more contrast silhouette. The American flag badge is signifying that he is an important governmental party, which later on is explained that he is running for a senator.

The red tie is washed out of detail, speaking straight to us via colour. Red symbolizes heat, fire, blood, passion, love, warmth, power, excitement and aggression. Dark or dull red signifies sophisticated, rich or wealth, antiqued, respected. Red is an attention grabber, therefore objects in red get people's attention immediately. In decorating and design, red items should be perfect since it will attract attention. Red clothing can be uplifting and convey power and energy but may invite confrontation. The colour reflects energy and can motivate an individual to take action. Used as an accent colour, it can stimulate people to make quick decisions and increase expectations creating a high arousal threshold. The preference for red is linked to economically secure and stable people who are achievers in society.

“Limitless” is one of the many examples, which demonstrate the master use of society assets and bodily cover. Using a complex fabric which a mixture of physical highly valuated textile and strings of semiotic history dating since early 90s, creating the perfect material for signifying the unconscious. The good fashion designer’s work, just like any artisan element, should speak directly to us in a language we learn from experiencing social valuation systems. The dress and garment gives us detail about the character through every step of the transformation process, making it easily understandable in any given culture at any given time.

Bibliography

[1] Color, Value and Hue, Available at: http://char.txa.cornell.edu/language/element/color/color.htm [Accessed 03/12/2012]

[2] Culture capital, Wikipedia, Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_capital [Accessed 28/11/2012]

[3] Harker, R., (1990) “Education and Cultural Capital” in Harker, R., Mahar, C., & Wilkes, C., (eds) (1990) An Introduction to the Work of Pierre Bourdieu: the practice of theory, Macmillan Press, London

[4] Calefato, Patrizia (Jun 01, 2004) The Clothed Body

Berg Publishers, Oxford, ISBN: 978184520575

[5] Barthes, Roland (1998), Scritti. Società, testo, comunicazione,

ed. G. Marrone,Torino: Einaud

[6] KMB Designs, Available at: http://www.kmb-designs.com/colors/ [Accessed 28/11/2012]

[7] Bruzzi, Stella (Dec 12, 1997) Undressing cinema: clothing and identity in the movies

Taylor & Francis, ISBN: 0415139570, 9780415139571

All figures from 1-8:

[8] “Limitless” (2011) Produced by Relativity Media (as Relativity) (presents), Virgin Produced (in association with), Rogue, Many Rivers Productions (as Many Rivers)