The Art of Seduction (26 page)

gnawing resentment of him—he was
so
virtuous,
so
superior, it was oppressive. Some of these men had plotted against him, and were waiting for the slightest sign of weakness—which appeared on that fateful day when he gave his last speech. In refusing to name his enemies, he had shown either a desire to end the bloodshed or a fear that they would strike at him before he could have them killed. Fed by the conspirators, this one spark turned into fire. Within two days, first a governing body and then a nation turned against a Charismatic who two months before had been revered.

Charisma is as volatile as the emotions it stirs. Most often it stirs sentiments of love. But such feelings are hard to maintain. Psychologists talk of

"erotic fatigue"—the moments after love in which you feel tired of it, resentful. Reality creeps in, love turns to hate. Erotic fatigue is a threat to all Charismatics. The Charismatic often wins love by acting the savior, rescuing people from some difficult circumstance, but once they feel secure, charisma is less seductive to them. Charismatics need danger and risk. They are not plodding bureaucrats; some of them deliberately keep danger going, as de Gaulle and Kennedy were wont to do, or as Robespierre did through the Reign of Terror. But people tire of this, and at your first sign of weakness they turn on you. The love they showed before will be

matched by their hatred now.

The only defense is to master your charisma. Your passion, your anger, your confidence make you charismatic, but too much charisma for too long creates fatigue, and a desire for calmness and order. The better kind of
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charisma is created consciously and is kept under control. When you need to you can glow with confidence and fervor, inspiring the masses. But when the adventure is over, you can settle into a routine, turning the heat, not out, but down. (Robespierre may have been planning that move, but it came a day too late.) People will admire your self-control and adaptability. Their love affair with you will move closer to the habitual affection of a man and wife. You will even have the leeway to look a little boring, a little simple—a role that can also seem charismatic, if played correctly. Remember: charisma depends on success, and the best way to maintain success, after the initial charismatic rush, is to be practical and even cautious. Mao Zedong was a distant, enigmatic man who for many had an awe-inspiring charisma. He suffered many setbacks that would have spelled the end of a less clever man, but after each reversal he retreated, becoming practical, tolerant, flexible; at least for a while. This protected him from the dangers of a counterreaction.

There is another alternative: to play the armed prophet. According to Machiavelli, although a prophet may acquire power through his charismatic personality, he cannot long survive without the strength to back it up. He needs an army. The masses will tire of him; they will need to be forced. Being an armed prophet may not literally involve arms, but it demands a forceful side to your character, which you can back up with action. Unfortunately this means being merciless with your enemies for as long as you retain power. And no one creates more bitter enemies than the Charismatic. Finally, there is nothing more dangerous than succeeding a Charismatic. These characters are unconventional, and their rule is personal in style, being stamped with the wildness of their personalities. They often leave chaos in their wake. The one who follows after a Charismatic is left with a mess, which the people, however, do not see. They miss their inspirer and blame the successor. Avoid this situation at all costs. If it is unavoidable, do not try to continue what the Charismatic started; go in a new direction. By being practical, trustworthy, and plain-speaking, you can often generate a strange kind of charisma through contrast. That was how Harry Truman not only survived the legacy of Roosevelt but established his own type of charisma.

Daily life is harsh, and most of us

constantly seek escape from it in fantasies and

dreams. Stars feed on this weakness; standing

out from others through a distinctive and appeal-

ing style, they make us want to watch them. At

the same time, they are vague and ethereal,

keeping their distance, and letting us imagine

more than is there. Their dreamlike quality

works on our unconscious; we are not even

aware how much we imitate them. Learn to be-

come an object of fascination by projecting the

glittering but elusive presence of the Star.

The Fetishistic Star

One day in 1922, in Berlin, Germany, a casting call went out for the part of a voluptuous young woman in a film called
Tragedy of Love.
Of the hundreds of struggling young actresses who showed up, most would do anything to get the casting director's attention, including exposing themselves. There was one young woman in the line, however, who was simply dressed, and performed none of the other girls' desperate antics. Yet she stood out anyway.

The cool, bright face which

didn't ask for anything,

The girl carried a puppy on a leash, and had draped an elegant necklace
which simply existed,
around the puppy's neck. The casting director noticed her immediately. He
waiting
—i
t was an empty
watched her as she stood in line, calmly holding the dog in her arms and
face, he thought; a face that
could change with any

keeping to herself. When she smoked a cigarette, her gestures were slow
wind of expression. One
and suggestive. He was fascinated by her legs and face, the sinuous way she
could dream into it
moved, the hint of coldness in her eyes. By the time she had come to the
anything. It was like a
beautiful empty house

front, he had already cast her. Her name was Marlene Dietrich.

waiting for carpets and

By 1929, when the Austrian-American director Josef von Sternberg ar-
pictures. It had all
rived in Berlin to begin work on the film
The Blue Angel,
the twenty-
possibilities
—
it could
become a palace or a

seven-year-old Dietrich was well known in the Berlin film and theater
brothel. It depended on the
world.
The Blue Angel
was to be about a woman called Lola-Lola who preys
one who filled it. How
sadistically on men, and all of Berlin's best actresses wanted the part—except,
limited by comparison was
apparently, Dietrich, who made it known that she thought the role demean-
all that was already
completed and labeled.

ing; von Sternberg should choose from the other actresses he had in mind.

— E R I C H M A R I A REMARQUE,

Shortly after arriving in Berlin, however, von Sternberg attended a perfor-ON MARLENE DIETRICH, mance of a musical to watch a male actor he was considering for
The Blue ARCH OF TRIUMPH

Angel
The star of the musical was Dietrich, and as soon as she came onstage, von Sternberg found that he could not take his eyes off her. She stared at him directly, insolently, like a man; and then there were those legs,
Marlene Dietrich is not an
and the way she leaned provocatively against the wall. Von Sternberg forgot
actress, like Sarah
Bernhardt; she is a myth,

about the actor he had come to see. He had found his Lola-Lola.

like Phryne.

Von Sternberg managed to convince Dietrich to take the part, and im-—ANDRÉ: MALRAUX, QUOTED IN

mediately he went to work, molding her into the Lola of his imagination. EDGAR MORIN,
THE STARS,
He changed her hair, drew a silver line down her nose to make it seem TRANSLATED BY RICHARD

thinner, taught her to look at the camera with the insolence he had seen onstage. When filming began, he created a lighting system just for her—a light that tracked her wherever she went, and was strategically heightened
When Pygmalion saw
by gauze and smoke. Obsessed with his "creation," he followed her every-
these women, living such
where. No one else could go near her.

wicked lives, he was

121

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The Art of Seduction

revolted by the many faults

The Blue Angel
was a huge success in Germany. Audiences were fasci
which nature has
nated with Dietrich: that cold, brutal stare as she spread her legs over a
implanted in the female
stool, baring her underwear; her effortless way of commanding attention
sex, and long lived a

bachelor existence, without

on screen. Others besides von Sternberg became obsessed with her. A man
any wife to share his home.

dying of cancer, Count Sascha Kolowrat, had one last wish: to see Mar
But meanwhile, with
lene's legs in person. Dietrich obliged, visiting him in the hospital and lift
marvelous artistry, he
ing up her skirt; he sighed and said "Thank you. Now I can die happy."
skillfully carved a snowy

ivory statue. He made it

Soon Paramount Studios brought Dietrich to Hollywood, where everyone
lovelier than any woman
was quickly talking about her. At a party, all eyes would turn toward her
born, and fell in love with
when she came into the room. She would be escorted by the most hand
his own creation. The
statue had all the
some men in Hollywood, and would be wearing an outfit both beautiful
appearance of a real girl, so

and unusual—gold-lame pajamas, a sailor suit with a yachting cap. The
that it seemed to be alive,

next day the look would be copied by women all over town; next it would
to want to move, did not

modesty forbid. So cleverly

spread to magazines, and a whole new trend would start.

did his art conceal its art.

The real object of fascination, however, was unquestionably Dietrich's
Pygmalion gazed in
face. What had enthralled von Sternberg was her blankness—with a simple
wonder, and in his heart
lighting trick he could make that face do whatever he wanted. Dietrich
there rose a passionate love

for this image of a human

eventually stopped working with von Sternberg, but never forgot what he
form. Often he ran his
had taught her. One night in 1951, the director Fritz Lang, who was about
hands over the work,

to direct her in the film
Rancho Notorious,
was driving past his office when
feeling it to see whether it

was flesh or ivory, and

he saw a light flash in the window. Fearing a burglary, he got out of his car,
would not yet admit that

crept up the stairs, and peeked through the crack in the door: it was Diet
ivory was all it was. He
rich taking pictures of herself in the mirror, studying her face from every
kissed the statue, and

imagined that it kissed him

angle.

back, spoke to it and

embraced it, and thought
Marlene Dietrich had a distance from her own self: she could study her
he felt his fingers sink into

the limbs he touched, so
face, her legs, her body, as if she were someone else. This gave her the
that he was afraid lest a

ability to mold her look, transforming her appearance for effect. She could
bruise appear where he had

pose in just the way that would most excite a man, her blankness letting
pressed the flesh.

him see her according to his fantasy, whether of sadism, voluptuousness, or
Sometimes he addressed it

in flattering speeches,

danger. And every man who met her, or who watched her on screen, fan
sometimes brought the kind
tasized endlessly about her. The effect worked on women as well; in the
of presents that girls
words of one writer, she projected "sex without gender." But this self
enjoy. . . . He dressed the
limbs of his statue in

distance gave her a certain coldness, whether on film or in person. She was
woman's robes, and put
like a beautiful object, something to fetishize and admire the way we ad
rings on its fingers, long
mire a work of art.
necklaces round its

neck. . . . All this finery

The fetish is an object that commands an emotional response and that
became the image well, but
makes us breathe life into it. Because it is an object we can imagine what
it was no less lovely
ever we want to about it. Most people are too moody, complex, and reac
unadorned. Pygmalion
then placed the statue on a

tive to let us see them as objects that we can fetishize. The power of the
couch that was covered with

Fetishistic Star comes from an ability to become an object, and not just any
cloths of Tynan purple,

object but an object we fetishize, one that stimulates a variety of fantasies.
laid its head to rest on soft

Fetishistic Stars are perfect, like the statue of a Greek god or goddess. The
down pillows, as if it could

appreciate them, and called

effect is startling, and seductive. Its principal requirement is self-distance. If
it his bedfellow.
•
The
you see yourself as an object, then others will too. An ethereal, dreamlike
festival of Venus, which is

air will heighten the effect.

celebrated with the greatest

The Star
•
123

You are a blank screen. Float through life noncommittally and people
pomp all through Cyprus,
will want to seize you and consume you. Of all the parts of your body that
was now in progress, and
heifers, their crooked horns

draw this fetishistic attention, the strongest is the face; so learn to tune your
gilded for the occasion, had
face like an instrument, making it radiate a fascinating vagueness for effect.
fallen at the altar as the
And since you will have to stand out from other Stars in the sky, you will
axe struck their snowy
need to develop an attention-getting style. Dietrich was the great practi-
necks. Smoke was rising
from the incense, when

tioner of this art; her style was chic enough to dazzle, weird enough to en-
Pygmalion, having made
thrall. Remember, your own image and presence are materials you can
his offering, stood by the
control. The sense that you are engaged in this kind of play will make peo-
altar and timidly prayed,
saying: "If you gods can

ple see you as superior and worthy of imitation.

give all things, may I have

as my wife, I pray
—"
he

She had such natural poise .
.
. such an economy of ges-
did not dare to say: "the

ture, that she became as absorbing as a Modigliani. . . .

ivory maiden," but

finished: "one like the

She had the one essential star quality: she could be mag-

ivory maid." However,

nificent doing nothing.

golden Venus, present at

her festival in person,

— B E R L I N A C T R E S S L I L I DARVAS O N M A R L E N E D I E T R I C H

understood what his

prayers meant, and as a

sign that the gods were

The Mythic Star

kindly disposed, the flames

burned up three times,

shooting a tongue of fire

On July 2, 1960, a few weeks before that year's Democratic National
into the air. When
Convention, former President Harry Truman publicly stated that
Pygmalion returned home,
he made straight for the

John F. Kennedy—who had won enough delegates to be chosen his party's
statue of the girl he loved,
candidate for the presidency—was too young and inexperienced for the
leaned over the couch, and
job. Kennedy's response was startling: he called a press conference, to be
kissed her. She seemed
warm: he laid his lips on

televised live, and nationwide, on July 4. The conference's drama was
hers again, and touched her
heightened by the fact that he was away on vacation, so that no one saw or
breast with his hands
—
at
heard from him until the event itself. Then, at the appointed hour,
his touch the ivory lost its
Kennedy strode into the conference room like a sheriff entering Dodge
hardness, and grew soft.
City. He began by stating that he had run in all of the state primaries, at —OVID,
METAMORPHOSES,
T R A N S L A T E D B Y M A R Y M . I N N E S

considerable expense of money and effort, and had beaten his opponents fairly and squarely. Who was Truman to circumvent the democratic

process? "This is a young country," Kennedy went on, his voice getting louder, "founded by young men . . . and still young in heart. . . . The [
John F.
]
Kennedy
world is changing, the old ways will not do, . . . It is time for a new genera-
brought to television news
and photojournalism the

tion of leadership to cope with new problems and new opportunities."
components most prevalent
Even Kennedy's enemies agreed that his speech that day was stirring. He
in the world of film: star
turned Truman's challenge around: the issue was not his inexperience but
quality and mythic story.
With his telegenic looks,

the older generation's monopoly on power. His style was as eloquent as
skills at self presentation,
his words, for his performance evoked films of the time—Alan Ladd in
heroic fantasies, and
Shane
confronting the corrupt older ranchers, or James Dean in
Rebel With-creative intelligence,
Kennedy was brilliantly

out a Cause.
Kennedy even resembled Dean, particularly in his air of cool
prepared to project a major
detachment.

screen persona. He

A few months later, now approved as the Democrats' presidential can-
appropriated the discourses
of mass culture, especially

didate, Kennedy squared off against his Republican opponent, Richard
of Hollywood, and
Nixon, in their first nationally televised debate. Nixon was sharp; he knew
transferred them to the
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The Art of Seduction

news. By this strategy he
the answers to the questions and debated with aplomb, quoting statistics on
made the news like dreams
the accomplishments of the Eisenhower administration, in which he had
and like the movies
—
a

served as vice-president. But beneath the glare of the cameras, on black and
realm in which images

played out scenarios that
white television, he was a ghastly figure—his five o'clock shadow covered
accorded with the viewer's
up with powder, streaks of sweat on his brow and cheeks, his face drooping
deepest yearnings. . . .
with fatigue, his eyes shifting and blinking, his body rigid. What was he so
Never appearing in an

actual film, but rather
worried about? The contrast with Kennedy was startling. If Nixon looked
turning the television

only at his opponent, Kennedy looked out at the audience, making eye
apparatus into his screen,
contact with his viewers, addressing them in their living rooms as no politi
he became the greatest
cian had ever done before. If Nixon talked data and niggling points of de
movie star of the twentieth
century.

bate, Kennedy spoke of freedom, of building a new society, of recapturing

— J O H N HELLMANN,
T H E

America's pioneer spirit. His manner was sincere and emphatic. His words
KENNEDY OBSESSION: THE

were not specific, but he made his listeners imagine a wonderful future.
AMERICAN MYTH OF JFK

The day after the debate, Kennedy's poll numbers soared miraculously, and wherever he went he was greeted by crowds of young girls, screaming and jumping. His beautiful wife Jackie by his side, he was a kind of demo
But we have seen that,
cratic prince. Now his television appearances were events. He was in due
considered as a total
course elected president, and his inaugural address, also broadcast on televi
phenomenon, the history of
sion, was stirring. It was a cold and wintry day. In the background, Eisen
the stars repeats, in its own
proportions, the history of

hower sat huddled in coat and scarf, looking old and beaten. But Kennedy
the gods. Before the gods
stood hatless and coatless to address the nation: "I do not believe that any of
(before the stars) the
us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation.
mythical universe (the

screen) was peopled with
The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will
specters or phantoms
light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can
endowed with the glamour
truly light the world."

and magic of the double.
•

Several of these presences

Over the months to come Kennedy gave innumerable live press confer
have progressively assumed
ences before the TV cameras, something no previous president had dared.
body and substance, have
Facing the firing squad of lenses and questions, he was unafraid, speaking
taken form, amplified, and