ABSTRACT

This chapter centers on the role of the sitting room in the inter-filmic and intra-filmic construction of the star image of Kim Novak in her films between 1954 and 1958, particularly her first three for Columbia Pictures: Pushove, Phffft and Picnic. It considers the differences between the various sitting rooms in which Novak performs in these films and the manner in which these spaces and the furniture and objects within them interact with her performance. The key narrative function of the sitting room set is to collude in a deferral of core plot information: the concealment of one fictional character's identity not just from that of another fictional character but also from the audience. The mirror-lit shots of Kim Novak in Flannery's sitting room set for Picnic can be seen as symptomatic of a broader historical process of redefinition of Hollywood cinematographic conventions for star-focused cinematography in the middle decade of the twentieth century.