Cinema of Splendour - Fashion in Film

Introducing our retrospective for this year!

The retrospective of the 71st edition of the International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg (IFFMH) is complete. The core of the IFFMH is the discovery of new directorial talent from all over the world. Since 2020, however, we have also dared to take an annually changing look at the history of cinema with a regular retrospective. Because the rediscovery or even rediscovery of historical films also allows us to explore the possibilities of the medium. The predecessors put the works of the present into context. For this year's festival from 17 to 27 November, curator Hannes Brühwiler and festival director Dr. Sascha Keilholz have now chosen a supposedly everyday theme: fashion. "Cinema of Splendour - Fashion in Film" is the title of the 2022 IFFMH retrospective.

Fashion in Film

Fashion has shaped film history and led to some of its finest moments. For its part, cinema has served as a showcase since its beginnings, presenting clothing not only as a mass commodity but also as an art form to an audience of millions. In general, film and fashion have some things in common. Last but not least, they are the two most popular commercial industries that emerged in the second half of the 19th century. To this day, they are an expression of modern life par excellence. With regard to the oldest selected films and their US origin, it is remarkable that the early studio bosses of Hollywood not infrequently came from the clothing industry themselves and had earned their fortunes there. So it is not surprising that they attached great importance to fashion in their films.

Film overview in chronological order:

  • Salomé (Charles Bryant and Alla Nazimova, USA 1922)
  • The Women (George Cukor, USA 1939)
  • Paris Frills (Jacques Becker, France 1945)
  • Puzzle of a Downfall Child (Jerry Schatzberg, USA 1970)
  • Pink Narcissus (James Bidgood, USA 1971)
  • The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, FRG 1972)
  • Ludwig (Luchino Visconti, Italy/Germany/France 1973)
  • Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, Australia 1975)
  • Orlando (Sally Potter, United Kingdom 1992)
  • The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola, USA 1999)
  • Bande de filles (Céline Sciamma, France 2014)
  • The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, South Korea 2016)

The entire festival programme of the IFFMH 2022 will be published at the end of October.