One of the most interesting films that i’ve ever watched is Jojo Rabbit. This film follows a young boy being raised during World War Two being heavily indoctrinated with Nazi beliefs. He meets a young Jewish girl named Elsa who his mother has hidden in their house, to protect her from the corrupt world outside. There is so much to unpack with this movie and I thought I would focus on unpacking the unique costuming aspect.
The first aspect I thought was really intriguing while watching this film was the symbolism in the main character Jojos costuming. Especially in the beginning of the film Jojo was being fed an incredible amount of hatred and propaganda towards Jews which made his allegiance to the Nazi ideology very strong. He clearly had a strong desire to fit in and belong within this community and their beliefs. You can see this reflected by his costume, which was a hitler youth uniform that he proudly wears.
Later in the film Jojo is introduced to the character Elsa. Her being a jew, he is confused on why she isn’t the hateful persona the Nazis have put into his head. He starts realizing that there is something untrue about what he’s been taught and steers away from wanting to be involved as much in their beliefs. You can see his costuming outwardly showing his internal thoughts as his uniform becomes more disheveled, showing his collapsing support to the Nazis:
By the end of the film Jojo is completely stripped down of nazi clothing shows his return to humanity.
Another thing thats intruiging is Jojos mom, Rosies outfits. Rosies character is interesting as she’s Jojos own mother but has completely opposite beliefs to him. She is part of the rebellion against the Nazis and Hitler. There is kind of a grim color scheme going on in this film as it is a heavy and serious subject. Although Rosies wardrobe is extremely bight, colorful, and elegant. This shows Rosies personality through her clothing as in a way it shows her bravery, putting herself out there in a world thats grim dark and corrupt, and trying to go against that and spread hope, color, brightness. She often wears colors like red, especially on her lips as she’s usually shown with bright red lipstick.
Unfortunately Rosie gets hung for her defiance in the film. This shot is lingers on Rosies bright red shoes as Jojo frantically tries to tie them for her. Her shoes contrasted against the neutral colors in the back of the shot and emphasize again who she was as a person. This is also a turning point in the film as Jojo what darkness the beliefs he was so strongly rooting for can bring.
Opposite to Rosies wardrobe Elsas wardrobe remains very neutral. This is clearly costuming simply for survival. If the world is grim and neutral, dark, then thats what Elsa is going to be. She doesn’t have the luxury of doing anything else as she’s trying to remained unnoticed and blend in as much as possible with the anxiety of being caught and killed. At the end of the film, along with her freedom her costuming changes as now she’s shown in a bright green coat finally leaving the house she had been stuck in for so long.
