In the world of cinema, every detail matters. From the sweeping landscapes to the smallest accessory, directors carefully craft each element to enhance their storytelling. Among these details, jewellery often plays a fascinating role, serving as both a visual element and a powerful symbol that can deepen our understanding of characters and themes. Let’s explore how three distinct film genres utilize jewellery in remarkably different ways to enhance their narratives.
Romance: Cinema Paradiso – The Subtle Art of Pearl Earrings
In Giuseppe Tornatore’s masterpiece “Cinema Paradiso” (1988), the character of Elena Mendola represents the epitome of understated elegance. Her choice of simple pearl earrings speaks volumes about both her character and the film’s approach to romance. In a genre often associated with opulence and grandeur, Elena’s jewellery choices stand as a testament to authentic beauty.
The pearl earrings Elena wears throughout the film are deliberately modest, never competing with her natural radiance. This careful costume design choice reflects the film’s broader themes about pure love and genuine connection. Just as the movie theater in the story serves as a temple of unadorned storytelling, Elena’s pearls represent unembellished beauty. They don’t demand attention; instead, they guide our eyes to her expressive face, allowing us to focus on the emotional depth of her performance.
This subtle approach to jewellery in “Cinema Paradiso” aligns perfectly with the film’s romantic vision. In a story about first love, memory, and nostalgia, the simplicity of Elena’s accessories mirrors the purity of young romance. The pearls become a visual metaphor for the film’s central message: true beauty, like true love, needs no elaborate decoration.
Fantasy: The Princess Bride – When Jewellery Defies Reality
Moving from subtle elegance to theatrical extravagance, “The Princess Bride” (1987) embraces the fantastical elements of its genre through its approach to royal accessories. The crown worn by Buttercup, our beloved princess-to-be, serves as a perfect example of how fantasy films use jewellery and accessories to transport viewers into a world where normal rules don’t apply.
The crown’s exaggerated proportions – famously larger than what any real royal could practically wear – become a visual signal to viewers that we’ve entered a realm where the ordinary rules of fashion and physics don’t apply. This oversized piece of royal jewellery serves multiple purposes in the narrative: it’s simultaneously a symbol of power, a source of visual comedy, and a reminder that we’re in a world where giants, miracle workers, and true love exist without question.
The impracticality of Buttercup’s crown is precisely the point. No one in real life would attempt to balance such a massive piece of headwear, just as no one would typically survive being “mostly dead” or scale the Cliffs of Insanity. The crown becomes part of the film’s larger commentary on fairy tale traditions, simultaneously celebrating and gently mocking the genre’s conventions. It’s a perfect example of how fantasy films use exaggerated elements to create distance from reality while still maintaining emotional truth.
Drama: Schindler’s List – The Weight of a Single Ring
In stark contrast to both the subtle romance of “Cinema Paradiso” and the whimsical fantasy of “The Princess Bride,” Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” (1993) uses jewellery to convey profound historical and moral weight. The ring given to Oskar Schindler by the Jewish workers he saved becomes one of the most powerful symbols in cinema history.
The ring, bearing Hebrew inscriptions, represents far more than a mere token of gratitude. It embodies the moral transformation of Schindler himself and serves as a physical reminder of the lives he managed to save during one of humanity’s darkest periods. The inscription, which translates to “Whoever saves one life saves the world entire,” captures the profound impact of individual moral choices in the face of overwhelming evil.
What makes this piece of jewellery particularly powerful is its historical authenticity. Unlike the fantasy crown or the romantic pearls, this ring represents a real artifact from one of history’s most significant moments. The Jewish workers who crafted it used gold from their own dental work, making it not just a prop but a testament to human resilience and gratitude.
The ring’s appearance in the film’s final scenes, where Schindler breaks down wondering if he could have saved more lives, transforms it from a simple piece of jewellery into a profound symbol of moral responsibility and human conscience. It represents both the lives saved and those lost, becoming a physical manifestation of the film’s central themes about individual responsibility in the face of systemic evil.
The Universal Language of Symbolic Jewellery
Across these three genres, we see how jewellery serves different yet equally powerful narrative functions. In romance, it can be used to highlight natural beauty and emotional authenticity. In fantasy, it can help create a world where the impossible becomes possible. And in drama, it can carry the weight of history and moral truth.
What’s particularly fascinating is how these different approaches to jewellery in film reflect our own relationship with personal adornment. Just as Elena’s pearls remind us that true beauty needs little enhancement, and Buttercup’s crown shows us how jewellery can help us escape reality, Schindler’s ring demonstrates how these objects can carry profound personal and historical significance.
The use of jewellery in these films also reveals how different genres approach symbolism. Romance tends to favor subtlety and understated elegance, allowing emotional connections to take center stage. Fantasy embraces exaggeration and spectacle, using jewellery to help create entirely new worlds. Drama often seeks historical and emotional authenticity, using jewellery as tangible links to real human experiences and moral choices.
Through these three distinct examples, we can see how jewellery in film serves as more than mere decoration. It becomes a powerful tool for storytelling, character development, and thematic exploration. Whether it’s the subtle elegance of pearl earrings, the fantastical proportions of a royal crown, or the profound significance of a gifted ring, jewellery helps create the visual and emotional language of cinema.
These choices in film jewellery also reflect broader truths about human nature and our relationship with personal adornment. From the simplest earring to the most elaborate crown, jewellery in film reminds us of our own desires for beauty, our dreams of fantasy, and our need to create lasting symbols of our most profound experiences and relationships.
In the end, the way these films use jewelelry demonstrates cinema’s unique power to invest ordinary objects with extraordinary meaning. Through the lens of different genres, we see how these small, shining objects can carry the weight of love, imagination, and human history itself.