Respond Imaginatively Showing Critical Appreciation of Style and Content [W7]
Costume plays an important role in fi lms. Choose one fi lm you have studied where a character’s costume is important. Explain why you believe it to be important to the story.
Sample Answer (Higher Level)
Costume is very revealing and important in Sing Street. The use of costume throughout the fi lm maps Conor’s journey to fi nd his identity. At the beginning of the fi lm, Conor wears a pompous brown suit jacket to casual events. In school, he wears a fancy wool overcoat while most of the other students don’t wear any jacket at all. His costume shows that he has had money in the past and that he is diff erent from the other students around him. Yet, the brown shoes he wears to school, which he is wearing because he can’t aff ord to buy black shoes, get him into trouble. When Brother Baxter confi scates the shoes, Conor is left to wander around in his socks. This is humiliating for him and is designed to make him feel weak.
Conor embarks on a journey to fi nd his identity and he does it through music. However, the changes are revealed to us through his costume. In the music videos, he wears diff erent styles of over-the-top costumes, such as romantic ruffl es or oversized blazers. Each video and song takes on the style and culture of diff erent genres of 80s bands. Conor takes on the best bits of each genre of music and this process helps Conor fi gure out who he really is.
Conor’s costume and make-up choice is also part of his rebellion against the school. He comes to school one day wearing make-up and blond highlights in his hair. Brother Baxter calls him into his offi ce and orders him to clean the make-up off his face. Conor refuses and is subsequently beaten by Brother Baxter. This moment shows us that make-up and hair play a huge part in costume and identity. For Conor, they were the fi rst stages of his transformation. However, they are also a part of his rebellion against people who are trying to make him conform.
