Nothing is as good as a costume when it comes to represent distinctive characteristics of an era, which includes cultures, customs, and even ideologies of a specific society. Likewise, a costume in a movie represents information about the characters and it also expresses each character`s characteristics. Furthermore, a costume makes it easier to understand special features of time, space, and culture by expressing phenomena and cultures of a society as a sitting in the movie. The purpose of this research paper is to understand late-19th century French costumes in a society and in a culture, by studying the costumes in the movie, "Moulin Rouge", which uses Mon Marte in 1898 as a setting. This research paper is organized as the following. Firstly before examining costumes, to help understanding elements of conditions and characteristics of that time this paper will begin with the characteristics and contents of the movie by examinig historical, societal, cultural, and fashionable features of the 19th century, the setting of "Moulin Rouge". Secondly, to analyze cinema costumes, five phenomena in the societal background are grouped as materialism, hedonism, nihilism, aestheticism, and Bohemianism and inner characteristics are examined by looking at the expressing techniques shown in the costumes. Lastly, outer characteristics are analyzed as colors, figures, and materials through the expressing techniques which reflects the characteristics of the characters who represents various social classes. The results gained from analyzing inner and outer characteristics are the following: First of all, late 19th century`s social phenomena appear to have two very opposite forms throughout social strata and ideologies as a result of analyzing inner characteristics. Secondly, when analyzing outer characteristics, each character`s characteristics reflect largely duplicated social phenomena in the movie. These characteristics are also expressed through different elements of colors, figures, and materials. In conclusion, the duplication of the late-19th century French society is expressed through the expressing technique and characteristics of the characters in the movie, which include distinct features of the social phenomena. However, there is a limit in accuracy to categorize the costumes in the movie as a costume of all classes in late-19th century because the costumes only represented certain classes and a new viewpoint of designers with historical evidences was added n the background of the movie. It is meaningful in a plural dimension in understandin French costumes because this paper could be preceding data of research since it dealt with academically untouched material, limited class`s costumes, in studying the late-19th century French costumes and it also approached to analyze Bohemian costumes. |