Clothes on Film

82nd Oscar Results: Sandy Powell Shoots and Scores

Chris Laverty — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:41:31 +0000

Really though, there were no big surprises in the 82nd Annual Academy Awards. Apart from The Hurt Locker winning Best Picture, that was huge.

As this is a movie costume website, however, we shall start with that. It was BAFTA/CDG all over again as Sandy Powell won Best Costume Design for The Young Victoria. Well, we did say there were no big surprises.

Cannot fault Sandy Powell and her team for their incredibly detailed work on a movie that, frankly, demanded it, but when will the Academy reward costume design that isn’t period? Do casual moviegoers even realise that ‘costume’ is whatever a character wears, and that does not have to include breeches or a petticoat?

Sandy Powell understands the situation, so we will let her classy acceptance speech do the explaining:

“Well, I already have two of these, so I’m feeling greedy. I’d like to dedicate this one to the costume designers who don’t do films about monarchs and musicals, the designers who do contemporary films. This is for you – but I’m going to take it home tonight.”

Not to take one iota of praise away from Powell, who can sit at home with a cup of tea and a biccie (she is from England), content that she took all the big three costume gongs and deserved them. However, as the lady herself admitted, exceptional costume design does not have to be period; in fact most times it won’t be. So let’s reward all the other hardworking brothers and sisters some day too, eh?

Okay, if you have gotten this far we shall cover the rest of the winners:

Best Picture then was shock of the night. Although Kathryn Bigelow was widely tipped to win Best Director, James Cameron’s Avatar was always going to be Best Picture. Instead Bigelow scooped both. Fair play. The Hurt Locker is was what producer Robert Evans might describe as a ‘little picture that could’.

Every other major category was a given. Sandra Bullock’s speech for Best Actress was unexpectedly warm and funny (no disrespect to her as the precedent for this award is not great). Jeff Bridges took the not-before-time Best Actor statuette accompanied by zero gasps, same with Mo’Nique for Best Supporting Actress and Christoph Waltz for Best Supporting Actor. Best Animated Feature was Up – a popular choice.

Check out the full list of winners below. Don’t worry though; you guessed them all bar one:

Costume Design – Sandy Powell, The Young Victoria

Best Picture – The Hurt Locker

Directing – Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

Actor In A Leading Role – Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Actor In A Supporting Role – Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds

Actress In A Leading Role – Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Actress In A Supporting Role – Mo’Nique, Precious

Animated Feature Film – Up

Writing (adapted screenplay) – Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire

Writing (original screenplay) – The Hurt Locker

Art Direction – Avatar

Cinematography – Avatar

Documentary Feature – The Cove

Documentary Short – Music by Prudence

Film Editing – The Hurt Locker

Foreign Language Film – The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) Argentina

Makeup – Star Trek

Music (original score) – Up

Music (original song) – The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)

Short Film (animated) – Logorama

Short Film (live action) – The New Tenants

Sound Editing – The Hurt Locker

Sound Mixing – Paul NJ Ottosson and Ray Beckett, The Hurt Locker

Visual Effects – Avatar

If this must be twisted into an international sporting fixture, we should note that the Brits did not do well in all the headline friendly categories. Carey Mulligan and Colin Firth lost out for Acting, as did director Nick Park for Best Animated Short. This is presumably revenge for 2007 when all non-Americans nabbed the main acting awards and upset precisely no one. Or maybe, just maybe, the best people won on the night? You decide. All kudos to Sandy Powell however. She scored the costume hattrick.

Source: Sky News and Empire Live Blog.

Film Review: Alice In Wonderland

Ben McCarthy — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:29:39 +0000

Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Mia Wasikowska
Directed by: Tim Burton

When it was first announced that Tim Burton planned to direct the latest adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, most moviegoers were rejoicing as it seemed to be a match made in heaven. Burton’s gothic outlook would likely be used to great effect, knowing too that he would inevitably bring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter into the mix.

Indeed what we expected with Burton’s version is what we’ve got. Though this is actually the main problem.

The story focuses on 19-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) who is faced with the unhappy prospect of marrying a stuck-up lord of the manor. Then fate intervenes as Alice tumbles down a rabbit hole to find herself in Wonderland, a magical world waged in war between the merciless Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and the peace-loving White Queen (Anne Hathaway).

There is no doubt the film is visually beautiful, from production design, costume and make-up and, of course, the CGI. Whether or not Carroll fans will enjoy the experience as much is debatable. With only cameo appearances from the Caterpillar and White Rabbit, there might be an air of disgruntlement.

Costume Designer Colleen Atwood does a predictably wonderful job with the costumes; they are dazzling; bringing the traditional Disney princess vibe back to life. So many lavish colours are employed, distinctly red = death for Red Queen and white = peace for White Queen. With all the various hues of blue and green, it is just awe-inspiring to look at.

Although a question mark still remains over the effectiveness of the 3D format, in Alice in Wonderland it worked surprisingly well. It was more immersive than Avatar; even some of the slightly gimmicky shots, like Alice disappearing down the rabbit hole. You felt as though you were in Wonderland itself.

Johnny Depp brings his usual weirdness and eccentricity to Mad Hatter. Fun, but there is a hint of Willy Wonka which is slightly distracting. Helena Bonham Carter is brilliant however, both cruel and funny at the same time; her Red Queen is hilariously pompous. The downside here is Anne Hathaway as White Queen. She has quite distracting movements within the character. You might wish you could strap her into a chair for the 110 minutes running time.

However it is Mia Wasikowska who holds Alice in Wonderland together. This is not a showy performance, it’s discreet. Not overreacting to every weird creature her character comes across, Wasikowska has a real calm presence that captivates the screen. Hopefully this is the start of a special career.

Though the film is enjoyable, you may not shake the feeling that this has all been done before by Burton: Imaginatively twisted oak trees, macabre sense of humour, those dark undertones about life-changing decisions – it is all there.

Even more disappointing is that the movie ends on a cliché battle sequence which undermines everything that has gone before. The director is going through his normal routine, yet this lacks the depth and gravity of his previous fantasy fare such as Edward Scissorhands (1990); Alice in Wonderland is all show and no emotion.

Enjoyable and certainly a visual treat (if not for the very young); this is, disappointingly, a missed opportunity for Tim Burton.

Whip It: Roller Derby Vogue

Brenda Hineman — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:25:55 +0000

Much was made of Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut. Barrymore, as a Hollywood veteran, however, used many of her connections to help with the success of Whip It (2009). One of those connections was the well-respected Costume Designer, Catherine Marie Thomas.

Known for her adept diversity, Thomas has been the designer on films as wide-ranging as Kill Bill (Vols. I & II) and The Prairie Home Companion. With Whip it, however, Thomas found herself in a position of freedom, as Roller Derby is traditionally known as having an “anything goes” approach to uniforms; from fishnets to feathers, nothing is off the table.

With team names like The Sirens, The Holy Rollers, and The Hurl Scouts, Thomas was able to work with themes for each team’s uniform. Additionally, because the actual sport of Roller Derby has no real guidelines regarding uniforms (i.e. skirt length, presence of “flair”), Thomas also had the freedom to create variations within the same uniform theme.

The team of protagonist Bliss Cavender / Babe Ruthless (Ellen Page) is called The Hurl Scouts. For their uniforms, Thomas worked with the traditional faded green colours of Girl Scout uniforms. From that point on, however, all bets were off. Some skaters wear shorts, while others don skirts. Ellen Page’s character sports a fitted top, while Drew Barrymore’s character opts for a vest. Eve’s character even goes strapless. This variation, in conjunction with different shades of green and the laissez faire approach to tights, creates what can only loosely be called a uniform. Instead, Thomas’ work is more like a collection in a fashion show tradition.

Thomas extends this approach across other team’s uniforms as well. One of the other spotlighted team in Whip It is called The Holy Rollers. Working with a Catholic school girl theme, Thomas started with three key elements: plaid skirt, sleeveless deep-V white top, and loosely-tied ruby/navy neckties. The variations within The Holy Rollers uniforms, however, is more subtle. Some skirts sport a lace hem while others don’t. Some shirts are tied in the front, while others use buttons. Tights are solid colours, stripes, or even absent. Yet the base design cues make it very clear that, despite all the variation between uniforms, these players are clearly part of the same team.

In effect, Thomas goes beyond the costume design requirements of many movies, and creates a sort of roller derby couture for Whip It. Yet it is this very sense of freedom associated with real roller derby uniforms that allows for a sense of creativity that is often not possible with other movies.

In as much as this is Drew Barrymore’s movie, it is also Catherine Marie Thomas’ runway to showcase a wide range of creativity – that same creativity that has already garnered her two Costume Designers Guild Awards for feature film in her career. That’s just how she rolls.

Whip It was released in the US on 2nd December and will be released in UK on 7th April 2010.

Brenda Hineman is a costume aficionado. She writes about Halloween costumes at the indispensable StarCostumes.com.

It’s The A-Team Teaser Trailer, Fool!

Costume Designers Guild Award for Doctor Parnassus

Chris Laverty — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:33:57 +0000

Award winners from the CDG are in for a celebratory weekend. Monique Prudhomme’s sensational costumes for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus won in the ‘Excellence in Fantasy Film’ category, once again leaving fellow nominee, and all round big hitter, Avatar, out in the cold.

Other recipients at the 12th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards included Doug Hall for Crazy Heart in the ‘Contemporary’ section, eclipsing our prediction Marina Draghici for Precious, which is unfortunately off the Academy’s list on March 7th as well.

In television, Janie Bryant took the prize for her continually exciting work on Mad Men in ‘Period/Fantasy’. While ‘Mini-series’ saw Catherine Marie Thomas get the nod for Grey Gardens, an enthralling TV movie about the kooky aunt and first cousin of Jackie Onassis. Lou Eyrich for Glee received the Contemporary award, which is a real result as the costume character representation on that show is so precise. The rather unfortunate Emma Pillsbury aping a young Bree Van De Kamp is a standout.

However big victor of the ceremony – as hosted by the gorgeous Parker Posey – has to be Sandy Powell. Fresh from her BAFTA success last Sunday, mustard hot Powell again won for The Young Victoria, here in the hotly contested ‘Period’ category. She left behind some real contenders too: Jenny Beavan for Sherlock Holmes, Colleen Atwood for Nine, Ann Roth for Julie and Julia, and Catherine Leterrier for Coco Before Chanel.

Yet, not content with one win at the gala, Powell was also recipient of the Lacoste Career Achievement in Film Award. Moreover her compatriot on The Young Victoria, actress Emily Blunt, took the Swarovski Award to ’spotlight exceptional talent and the prospect of a sparkling career’. The Young Victoria hit UK cinemas way back in March 2009 (December in the U.S.), but it seems a limited re-release might not be out of the question with all this good publicity.

Two more honorary award beneficiaries were Michael Travis for Career Achievement in Television and late costume designer Robert Turturice (Emmy winner for Moonlighting, 1987), who was given a spot on the CDG’s Hall of Fame. And for those who like their ad promos, and don’t we all when they are done right, Casey Storm won for Milkquarious, which was about milk, unsurprisingly.

What this means for Oscar night is precisely nothing as the votes have already been cast. We would not bet a penny against Sandy Powell getting something else heavy for her sideboard though.

Incidentally drop by FrockTalk in the next couple of days to read the inside scoop on what Guild member Kristin M. Burke has to say about the winners and losers. She voted, you know.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Live and Let Die: Yaphet Kotto’s Brown Suede Trench Coat

Chris Laverty — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:27:30 +0000

James Bond is unlikely to ever again face a group of antagonists so interested in what they are wearing as those in Live and Let and Die (1973).

Here freshman 007 Roger Moore faced off against a hotchpotch of hip, and some might say stereotypically racist, New York and Caribbean hoodlums. Yaphet Kotto as Mr. Big lead the fight with his anti-establishment, anti-fashion suits, while his gang reinvigorated the excesses of 1930s street style for a sartorially chaotic decade where elegance would take second billing to experimentation.

Experimentation, though, is not necessarily a bad thing. The flared trousers, brightly coloured trilby hats, ginormous shirt collars, heavily lapelled leather coats and animal print vests sported by Mr. Big’s mob (and, it would appear, virtually all of Harlem’s black inhabitants) are an important symbol of youth and minority rebellion. They may look riotous, even silly by today’s standards, but at the time they were radical and emblematic of a repressed culture desperate for self expression.

The first time we meet Kotto as Mr. Big he is laying out his most iconic line (“Names is for tombstones, baby!”) while wearing what was one of the seventies’ more successful attempts to modernise fashions of the past: a long suede trench coat. The film’s veteran costume designer Julie Harris once commented, “I liked Live and Let Die, where money was no object”. With the means to procure a coat as plush and extravagant as this, it is easy to understand why:

Full length 6 on 2 double breasted trench coat in tan suede, belted with spymaster collar, wrist straps and rear vent. Brown silk ‘Nehru’ collar shirt. Chain necklace with bar pendant. Dark brown leather gloves.

The wet weather trench coat was first produced on a mass scale by Thomas Burberry for officers during the First World War. Back then it would have been finished in Burberry’s patented Gabardine fabric, but as can be seen here the coat looks just as good, if not as functional, in suede or leather. That the trench coat was also trendy in the 1930s points to yet another influence borrowed from this era.

Socio-economic conditions of the 1970s meant that this so-called ‘pimp look’ was primarily sported by the lower classes, which was exactly the same situation during the 1930s. During this era of criminal and financial turmoil, street gangs would appropriate then amplify popular fashions and Hollywood gangster style (such as those sported by Edward G. Robinson and George Raft). This lead to ever-broadening pinstripes, lengthier lapels, higher trousers and wider shoulders with tighter jackets and louder checks. 1970s Street style was merely a continuation of this trend.

As Dr. Kananga, Yaphet Kotto’s style is dialed down to reflect a contemporary rather than fancy taste: lots of brown double breasted jackets and polyester suits with tonal brown ties, and nearly always a splash of red for the ‘voodoo’ subtext Live and Let Die pushes so vehemently throughout.

Then again this film was never intended as subtle Bond. Controversial on its release for those aforementioned racial overtones, but now more of a time capsule for fashionable experiments than anything else, Live and Let Die may not feature the most memorable villain for raspy nastiness, but – along with perhaps Emilio Largo in Thunderball (1965) – he is one of the most memorably dressed.

Running Scared: Costume Designer Kristin Burke – Pt2

Chris Laverty — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:06:41 +0000

Part two of our chat with costume designer for Running Scared (2006), Kristin M. Burke. If you thought part one was interesting, this will blow your socks off.

Chris, Clothes on Film: Regarding the ‘beefy dudes’ in Running Scared that you mentioned, they did all look massive on screen; it was like their clothes made them intimidating, especially ‘Mac Daddy’ pimp Lester (David Warshofsky). He is clearly dressed OTT and this suits his character and the tone of the film perfectly. How much do you know about the intended tone of a film when you start on the costumes?

Kristin Burke: Man, that Lester the Pimp story is epic. I will try to be brief. We had cast another actor – the original actor was 6′ 4″ and about 250 lbs. Size 13 shoe. His deal was not inked before I left LA, but the director’s vision was very strong for this character. He wanted Lester to have an ‘Honest John’ from Pinocchio vibe to him. The whole film was a fairytale, heightened reality seen through a child’s eyes. So this ‘Honest John’ look on a pimp would be, naturally, a pimp suit.

We bought four or five copies of the suit in downtown LA, complete with hat and jewellery in multiples, packed it up and shipped it off. When the actor’s deal was done, I called him to check in. We can’t legally call an actor until their deal is inked. I had procured this guy’s sizes from another costume crew with whom he had recently worked, so I knew the suit would fit him.

Long story short, he had some creative differences with production and was replaced at the last minute. The actor who was cast, David Warshofsky, called me from the airport as he was in line to board the plane. By this point I am sh*tting a brick, because I know he is probably going to be a different size. And he was: 5′9″, 150 lbs. Size 9 shoe. Further, the schedule was such that he had to get off the plane, come to the studio, get in the costume and immediately shoot the scene where he dies in a pool of blood. Which. Means. We. Need. All. The. Multiples. Ready. To. Fit. Him.

This is where I learned the bulk of my Czech swear words and tailor vocabulary. We had to cut those suits down, massively. There is no ‘pimp store’ in the CZ, and besides, we had to get this together overnight for him. I sent out one of our costumers to try to find ‘pimp shoes’ in his size, and thank God, with good luck and a lot of grace, she found a pair, in his size, with doubles. That was serious.

He arrived the next day, completely jetlagged from the flight and we had a suit ready for him. We continued to cut, alter and sew as the day progressed, so we had at least three suits completed for use in that scene. It was really unbelievable. I have never had to pull something so big our of my a$$ so quickly. It was kind of crazy. So, yes, in the end, that suit does look a bit comical on him. Now you know. Cutting it down overnight from a 52 to a 40 was quite a stretch.

Chris: You did an amazing job on the sleeve length; the looseness of the suit looks intentional, even the very long jacket.

KB: Thanks. We based the look on ‘Mr. Whitefolks’, a pimp (real-life pimp) from the documentary Pimps Up, Hos Down (1999). You should see it.

Chris: What was the idea behind Vera Farmiga’s ‘Virgin Mary’ look as Teresa? I can only assume she was cast on the way to the set for the first day’s shooting?

KB: Ha-ha. No, Vera was cast well in advance, actually. The problem was that she lives on the East Coast. We didn’t get to fit her until we were in Prague, but we had purchased a number of options for her while we were in LA. We did some studio shopping on memo (with an extension from the store) and sent back what we didn’t use. She was really, REALLY into the ‘Jersey-ness’ of the character. Vera has a lot of personal ties to New Jersey, and she knew the character inside and out.

As for the Virgin Mary stuff, the director Wayne Kramer and I spent a lot of time thinking about what images (from literature, culture, etc.) were iconic enough to use in this ‘fairytale’ world we were creating. Now, there is no disrespect intended in using the Virgin Mary in this context. She saves Oleg (Cameron Bright) and is the moral compass in the film. We just wanted a maternal icon that would be familiar enough (and subtle enough) to influence the audience without being overpowering.

Chris: I found it interesting that the immediate ordinariness of Vera’s costume drew attention away from her character. It was a surprise when she turned up later kickin’ ass for arguably the film’s most memorable scene.

KB: What do you mean by that? Do you mean that because she looked ordinary/Jersey, we didn’t have expectations of her ass-kicking?

Chris: Yeah. I was not sure how she’d fit into the story at first. Then WHAM, out of nowhere she turned up packing heat. I loved the jolt. Almost cheered. Terrific performance from Vera too.

KB: She was amazing. I had not seen her in anything before this film, so I had no expectations of her at all. I went to set to watch the scene where Oleg calls her from the bathroom of Dez and Edele’s house (the pedophiles). It was her coverage – just her on the phone and the script supervisor was reading Oleg’s lines. Vera had to act and emote with urgency and what she was reacting to was the script supervisor’s monotone, accented line-reading. Vera’s sense of place, character, situation and emotional level is superb. I knew, when I saw her in that moment, that she would be huge some day. And look at her now!

By the way, people in the audience where I saw the film DID, in fact, cheer when Vera does the whole ‘paedophile’ thing…I don’t want to spoil it for your readers.

Chris: I’ll put a spoiler in. Actually I want to get onto those two lovelies in a second. Just one more point about Teresa – there did seem a deliberate attempt to sexualise her from the get-go. I’m referring to her G-string popping out the jeans, then no jeans at all while making the dinner; much of the dialogue from peripheral characters refers to her in this way too. Is this correct or am I just being pervy here?

KB: Well. The G-string thing is a bit of a joke, especially for Teresa’s ‘type’. If we didn’t have the G-string, we would have missed the mark. As it was, Vera was hiking the sides of her undies up so that they would really show in the laundry room. It was funny. It’s really Vera’s embodiment and understanding of the character. I can’t recall the dialog of the other characters re: her sexuality. I think that, as a character, she embodies the best in womanhood. She’s a good mom, good neighbour, good wife and good person. She just presents herself in a way that suits the neighbourhood, her own self-perception and self-image. If you ever watch Dog the Bounty Hunter, take a look at Beth Chapman. Here is a woman who is taking her look to the extreme. It’s not all that uncommon here in the States. I know it must look tragic and unreal to eyes unaccustomed to such expression, ha-ha!

Chris: We Brits are so repressed. Bending over with your pants popping out would put you in The Tower. Vera’s dress at the funeral is beautiful by the way. Where was it from? US or Czech?

KB: I think I got that dress at the Burlington Coat Factory outside of LA. It’s a cheapo store that sells ‘Jersey-like’ clothes. I wanted to find something that was budget-appropriate for the character, but also tarty enough (the keyhole neckline) to be in line with her previously-established style. After all, she’s not REALLY in mourning. And I loved the giant 1980s sunglasses, too.

Chris: I must admit I laughed out loud when I saw the creepy paedophile couple (Elizabeth Mitchell and Bruce Altman). Never trust a woman in florals or a man in lemon! Just knew something serious was up with them. From an audience perspective this was fun costuming; it’s like you gave us clues to follow.

KB: Well, yes. We wanted them to have kind of happy, sing-song colours so as not to appear threatening. The colours of their house also fall into this scheme. They were really fun to costume, that’s for sure.

Chris: The silhouettes against the glass when Oleg is in their bathroom scared the living hell out of me.

KB: Ha, ha! We actually tweaked those silhouettes, adding shoulder pads and the finger extensions. Very creepy, but very fun to create!

Chris: The fingers reminded me of The Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz (1939). Excuse me while I check the doors are locked. Now, finally, how did Wayne Kramer’s decision to shoot an entire scene under UV light affect your costume choices? Surely whites would suddenly become very white? Or was there camera trickery involved?

KB: Yes, it was very important that we take the blue-light into consideration. James Whitaker, the DP (Director of Photography), and Wayne collaborated on the lighting for this scene at great length. First they tried black-light and then settled on blue-light, as it was (I think) easier to see the details of peoples faces, etc. while still getting the effect of black-light. I designed the hockey uniforms here in LA, and we did a lot of fabric testing under black-light to make sure the fabric would glow. Once we found the best ‘fluorescent’ fabrics, we turned them over to Sportsrobe (a costume house in LA known for sports equipment rental and manufacturing) and they constructed the hockey jerseys. If you look closely at the names on the back of the jerseys, they are Russian, and literally translated, mean things like ‘goat sucker”, etc. I wanted it to be extra creepy for anyone paying attention.

As for the rest of the guys on the ice, it was a continuation of what they were wearing before. Of course we knew from the beginning that we would end up here, in the blue-light, so we didn’t want any of their items to really pop as it might be too distracting. We teched John Noble’s (Igor Yugorsky’s) shirt so that it wouldn’t spike in the light. And come to think of it, we bought all of his stuff in Prague as well. We shot that ice rink sequence over the course of five days, with a little extra time in there for 2nd unit, fighting, etc. The lighting was no trick and the ice was real. Paul Walker was my personal hero. He really was face-down on that ice for days. And he never complained or had an attitude. I love him so much.

Chris: He had all that fake blood dripping from his mouth as well. Presumably one of the reasons to shoot with UV was to have all that excess blood without falling foul of the censors, as it would look black on screen?

KB: Wayne does not like the censors or the MPAA. We had such a good laugh about how offensive this film could be. I mean, they gave The Cooler (2003) an NC-17 rating because of a 1.75-second-long glimpse of pubic hair. So I think the idea was: give them all the violence they can handle, because they don’t seem to have an issue with blood and death.

Chris: Pubic hair?! Nooooooo!!!! Kristin, thank you so much for taking the time to chat during what I guess must be about breakfast time in LA.

KB: No, by now it’s noon!! Ha-ha, lunch time.

Any time you’re not perusing Clothes on Film, drop by Kristin’s immense movie costume review site FrockTalk for some education.

With thanks to Kristin M. Burke

BAFTA Results: The Young Victoria Costume Reigns

Chris Laverty — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:44:02 +0000

Despite some seasonably miserable weather, the UK managed to avoid grinding to a standstill and hold the BAFTA Film Awards. Big winner of the night was The Hurt Locker for Best Film and Best Director; big winner for Costume Design was The Young Victoria.

For all those who missed the red carpet arrivals, it was a typically regal affair in a sea of spectacular yet inappropriate dresses (we’re looking at you Audrey Tautou in pink blancmange Lanvin), lots of TV reporters running around looking lost and A Single Man director Tom Ford wearing his own Tom Ford tux.

But to the important stuff – the awards. The Hurt Locker was a popular winner for Best Film and Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow. So it would appear Avatar fever has calmed down at last then? Possibly, though it did bag a couple of technicals. Christoph Waltz’s Best Supporting Actor victory for Inglourious Basterds was practically a forgone conclusion.

Sandy Powell was a deserved, if not altogether surprising winner for Best Costume Design. Powell’s acceptance speech was certainly meaningful:

“I want to dedicate this to the memory of Annie Hadley who cut the costumes for most of my films. The Young Victoria was her last one. Annie is irreplaceable and we will miss her.”

For the complete of the winners, scroll down and have a good look at the list below courtesy of The Guardian:

Best Costume design – The Young Victoria

Film – The Hurt Locker

Director – Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

Supporting actor – Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)

Supporting actress – Mo’Nique (Precious)

Leading actor – Colin Firth (A Single Man)

Leading actress – Carey Mulligan (An Education)

Outstanding British film – Fish Tank

Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer – Duncan Jones (dir. – Moon)

Original screenplay – The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)

Adapted screenplay – Up in the Air (Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner)

Film not in the English language – A Prophet

Animated film – Up

Music – Up (Michael Giacchino)

Cinematography – The Hurt Locker

Editing – The Hurt Locker

Production design – Avatar

Sound – The Hurt Locker

Special visual effects – Avatar

Makeup & hair – The Young Victoria

Short animation – Mother of Many

Short film - I Do Air

Outstanding British contribution to cinema – Joe Dunton

The Orange Rising Star Award (voted for by the public) – Kristen Stewart

Now all we have to do is wait and see what the LA Academy can come up with on 7th March. Will Avatar be snubbed for the big ones again? Will Sandy Powell get repeat reward for The Young Victoria? Will it rain? No, maybe and absolutely no chance whatsoever, we say.

Source: The Guardian and Empire Live Blog.

Film Review: The Lovely Bones

Ben McCarthy — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:12:59 +0000

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Saoirse Ronan
Director: Peter Jackson

After directing one of the greatest multi-award winning trilogies ever and remaking his own favourite film in the world, King Kong (2005), Peter Jackson has decided to go back to basics with his interpretation of Alice Sebold’s ‘The Lovely Bones’.

The result is reminiscent of Jackson’s earlier work Heavenly Creatures (1995). Both films flit between the imagination and reality of two young girls; The Lovely Bones deals with life, death and the nature of heaven and hell.

Set in 1970s Wisconsin, fourteen year-old Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is murdered by her neighbour Mr Harvey (Stanley Tucci). Susie then finds herself stuck in the ‘in-between’ as she watches over her grieving family, the detective trying to solve her case and, of course, the killer himself. Obviously this is not your typical family fare, though what Jackson attempts to convey is the notion of child murder to a mainstream audience. This is no doubt a bold decision, so it is a shame the end result is such a damp squib.

There are some worthy performances; Stanley Tucci has been a reliable character actor in Hollywood for several years and has now finally stepped into the limelight. At no point do we sympathize with him; there is no cop-out backstory explaining that Mr Harvey was abused as a child. Yet we understand what makes him tick, and not in a grotesque way. Tucci thoroughly deserves his Oscar momination.

Mark Wahlberg is also worthwhile as the father who never gives up hope of finding his daughter’s killer, although he is trapped in the clichéd, confined space of a familiar role.

Saoirse Ronan delivers another assured turn after Atonement (2006), cementing her place as one of Hollywood’s most promising young actresses. Her character’s life has been unnecessarily taken away. We feel her pain knowing that she can never experience what a normal teenage girl goes through every day. It’s heart-breaking, although the moment she is ready to ‘let go’ is one of silenced satisfaction.

Peter Jackson creates some tense set pieces too, including the infiltration of Mr Harvey’s house and Susie’s murder in his underground den; particularly during the build up because we can sense what is going to happen and are waiting for the killer to make his move. We can see it in his eyes, this compulsion to the take whatever he wants. Jackson also does a fine job in recreating the 1970s. Aping David Fincher’s period crime thriller Zodiac (2007), he gives The Lovely Bones a monochrome look shooting with the Red-One camera – the latest digital technology to be utilised in mainstream cinema.

Costume design by Nancy Steiner is rich with colour and decor of seventies America. Full of check shirts, kipper ties, flared trousers and polo neck jumpers – this really does bring back the era. Steiner uses costume to great affect after Susie’s murder. Everyone’s dress code changes, all apart from Mr Harvey. They start wearing darker colours reflecting their characters’ psychic state; that they just cannot let go of Susie Salmon.

However The Lovely Bones ultimately crumbles around the hour mark because it does not know what it wants to be. There are three different films occurring at the same time: murder mystery, family drama and art-house cinema, all about life and death. It just doesn’t gel together.

Unusually for Jackson there is no assurance in the directing and you do feel he is holding back to get a family rating. Though Jackson is skillful when it comes to creating sympathetic characters, here he blunders into old clichés in order to move the plot along, as demonstrated with Rachel Weisz’s mother who disappears for half the movie grieving and Michael Imperioli’s sad-sack detective.

The ‘in-between’ scenes are generally beautiful, in an imaginative world filled with startling imagery (the sight of bottles smashing releasing ships into the water is a majestic sight), although these are hindered slightly by a pretentious voice-over. These are FX heavy moments too; this time around it seems Jackson is more concerned with fancy effects than he is with character.

Jackson’s schlock horror tendencies do not help with this kind of story either. Even though The Lovely Bones is a 12A certifcate it is violent film for younger viewers. When the more intense scenes come to light they feel out of place, along with Jackson’s attempts to inject humour to lighten the mood. This shift in tone mostly occurs with Susan Sarandon’s character as a chain-smoking, alcoholic grandmother. She does have some good one-liners but most of her dialogue seems disrespectful towards the subject matter.

This is a brave attempt at an apparently un-filmable book about a taboo theme. Yet The Lovely Bones cannot find the right balance to make it the emotional and profound experience it should be. The most disappointing film of the year so far.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps – Full Trailer Online

Chris Laverty — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:02:55 +0000

Shia LaBeouf runs about in a short leather jacket while Michael Douglas dons the coolest pair of retro shades for, well, this year at least. Welcome to the full international trailer for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

Show me the ~~money~~ trailer HERE

This flushes out the previous teaser in greater detail. Now we get a proper idea of the story (Douglas’ Gekko reformed, but not to be trusted) and more glimpses of Carey Mulligan in action as Gekko’s discontented daughter (may have something to do with the actress’ recent Oscar nod).

Directed by Oliver Stone as sequel to his own influential eighties hit Wall Street (1987), ‘Money Never Sleeps’, as the subtitle seems to confirm for good, arrives in UK and US cinemas on 23rd April. ka and ching.

Source: The Sun

Running Scared: Costume Designer Kristin Burke

Chris Laverty — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:35:58 +0000

Costume designer for Running Scared (2006), Kristin M. Burke, has kindly chatted to us about her contribution to the movie. Being a long time friend of Clothes on Film, she opened up her big book of anecdotes specially. For anyone even remotely interested in costume design this is essential reading.

Running Scared (directed by Wayne Kramer) is a restless action thriller; an enjoyable, if visually exhausting and violent fairytale. Paul Walker stars as Joey Gazelle, a low-level mob hood frantically searching for a ‘hot’ weapon he was supposed to stash, while pursed by crooked cops and an impatient mafia family. Vera Farmiga features as Joey’s loyal yet independent wife Teresa, who frankly has a bad enough time of it herself.

The film has garnered something of a cult following since its release and holds up well on sheer momentum alone. With a packed CV including The Cooler (2003) and recently Crossing Over (2009), Kristin Burke is highly experienced in her field. Yet the shoot for Running Scared was about as testing as they come. As calmly as possible, she tells us why:

Chris, Clothes on Film: I had a quick look over the film again today. I think I may be a little in love with Vera Farmiga.

Kristin Burke: He-heh. There’s a lot to love.

Chris: So then, you mentioned to me earlier that Running Scared was a difficult shoot. Can you elaborate why?

KB: Well, the film is set in New Jersey; we shot in Prague. That’s one thing. Prague is such a beautiful city, and we ended up having to disguise it! Money was the issue. The cost to shoot six weeks in Prague was the same as the cost to shoot two weeks in Jersey. The wages in the CZ (Czech Republic) are about 1/3 what they are in NJ, and we shot a lot of the film on ‘soundstages’. I use that term loosely because it was actually an old MIG (airplane) factory. Asbestos fell from the ceiling and it was freezing cold. It was way on the outskirts of town, and quite an experience. I was fortunate enough to bring my costume supervisor with me. When we landed in Prague we had a pre-selected crew waiting for us. Of those six people, only one spoke English. It was very difficult, and not ideal.

That aside, we also had late, VERY LATE, casting. And when you try to make a movie about New Jersey, you need to have those resources at your fingertips. There is NO store in Prague at which you can buy gangster wear, pimp clothes, hooker clothes – so it was a true challenge. Also at the time you were not allowed to make returns on anything you purchased from a store in the CZ. So if we bought a suit and it didn’t fit? TFB. We were stuck with it. We did a lot of international shipping from JC Penney and other vendors, because we were not finding the ‘Guido’ stuff we needed, especially in the right size range.

Czech people are, in general, pretty trim and there were a lot of actors in this film who were beefy, big dudes. We could not get the multiples we needed in the CZ. It was a joke. We looked in Germany and other places where we thought they might have ‘bigger people’ clothing, but to no avail. When you need six copies of a Guido Mafia suit, tie, shoes, etc., your best bet is the USA. Sad, but true.

So our resources were severely limited over there. It was eye-opening in that respect. If we were doing a period piece it would have been no problem; they have a lot of fabric, skilled sewing labour and a kind of opera/theatre house from which to pick stock. But Guidos, gangsters, thugs, mafia types, pimps, hos…not so much.

Chris: I assumed that costumes were sourced in the US and shipped out. Am I naively over-estimating how long you had to prep for the film before you got on a plane?

KB: The problem is casting. It is very common these days to NOT have actors right up to two or three days before shooting. This is terrible for us, and terrible for the actors. Everyone needs time to prepare and if you only have two or three days, you run the risk of being sloppy. It’s a travesty. I attribute this delay in casting to the deal-making process, for one. An actor (or their agent) might try to hold out for a bigger, better deal from someone else, or try to leverage another project against the one that you’re doing. It’s all about money. The foot-dragging is usually about getting more money or being available for other work. An agent must create a perceived ‘urgent need’ for the actor, in some regards, in order to get what they want, and usually that is more money.

This foot-dragging really kills the costume department on a smaller-budget movie. I think that Running Scared was budgeted at about $15 million, which is hardly “small”, but being in the position we were, we couldn’t just ship over 250 E-containers worth of costumes for a “just in case” scenario. It would have been cost-prohibitive. As it was, everything we shipped, E-containers and all, went via FedEx international. Many of our containers were held for a few weeks in customs. It was a crazy scene. I think we may have had three or four weeks of prep here in the US and we ransacked ‘The Alley’ in downtown LA, bought a bunch of cheesy fake gold jewellery, bad accessories, big baggy jeans, etc. But we couldn’t over-buy; it just wasn’t feasible for us. We ended up buying a lot of costumes in Prague and just scraping the barrel to find multiples. It was really a challenge.

I think all of Tommy’s (Johnny Messner) costumes were from Prague. Chazz Palminteri’s stuff was all from Prague. I mean, we did what we could, but at one point I hired an LA costumer to shop The Alley for us while we were in Prague. He FedExed us more Guido/thug wear. There was just no sourcing that in the CZ.

Chris: That’s a crazy situation. It must be very stressful, you trying to do the best work you can when, under the circumstances, that is practically impossible?

KB: Well by now I am used to the stress. The logistical aspect of the job is something I think I do pretty well. You know where to find things; you get creative about how to make something look like you want it to look – that is just skill acquired over time. The stressful thing is having to do all of this in a foreign place with different rules.

Now, I have lived in Europe and I speak a few languages, but I have never dealt with anything as immovable or stalwart as the Czech return policy. It was nuts. Further, I did the shopping by myself, while we were shooting, so I had no-one to help me translate. I spoke about three words of Czech when I arrived: “Yasem Americhanka” and “Djetkwui” – “I am American” and “Thank You”. This did not get me very far when I needed five copies of Tommy’s cream leather jacket. How do you say, “Can you call your other stores and put this on hold?” when they don’t even understand or have the concept of why I need five of the same jacket? It was intense.

I drew a lot of pictures, called the production office to have them translate over the phone, etc. At the end of the show, I was able to speak more Czech: “Please bring a black suit to work with you on Sunday”, “Can you take in the waist of these pants”, “These need to be hemmed” – that was about the extent of my Czech. Oh, and I also learned the word for “Bitch”. Very important.

Chris: Ha, Ha. I mean it’s not funny, but the situation sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen. Oh, and what’s the Czech word for bitch?

KB: It sounds like the word “peachy”.

Chris: How do you know how many multiples of a costume to buy? Obviously if there is a gunfight and blood is whooshing everywhere you need more, but I just wondered, in general, how you determined this?

We buy multiples of the costume depending on the requirements of the scene, set-up, or script in general. If we work with children, we automatically buy doubles (at minimum). Why? Because we will shoot a photo-double whenever we don’t see the child’s face. We can’t use ‘hot’ wardrobe on another actor – it’s a SAG violation – so we can’t put clothing that has been on one body, onto someone else. And let’s not forget that the hours we can shoot with kids are very limited. Here is the SAG table for you HERE. You can see exactly how it’s parceled out.

Children must also bank ‘school’ hours while working, so their time is at a premium for us on set. We might have more than doubles if we know the kid is messy, or if he has any stunts in the film (falling down, getting hit in the face with a pie, etc).

For Oleg I believe we had twelve copies of his costume. He had so much action, so many stunts, we had to cover ourselves. His stunt double was a Czech little person – a great guy – who was just about Cameron’s size and did all of the dangerous work (he had the plastic bag over his head in Dez & Edele’s closet, etc). For Alex Neuberger, I think we had four or five copies of his costume. We knew that we weren’t going to be able to go back to the store where we got the garments if we ran into trouble, so we were playing it safe. Plus there was that explosion in the end, so we had a stunt actor for him there, too.

For Joey Gazelle’s costume, we had eighteen copies. The film really takes place in one day (mostly) and you know, the things that happen to Joey Gazelle… well… there are a lot of costume considerations. We needed to have as many copies as we could. The problem is that he wears a plaid shirt. Matching plaids is very difficult. We wanted to make sure that of all eighteen shirts, the plaid patterns (especially in the front) were more or less the same. I think we originally purchased that shirt at Mervyn’s (a now-defunct department store) in Burbank.

As we needed eighteen of them, and we needed them to match pattern as closely as possible, I personally drove to every Mervyn’s store in Southern California to pick up each copy. I went to Fullerton. I went to Torrance. I went to West Hills. I went to Arcadia. Look at that on a map. Mervyn’s was not the kind of store with the infrastructure to transfer merchandise easily between store locations, so we had to do it ourselves. I did all of this on the Saturday before I left for Prague. It was actually a fun adventure – I had never been to Fullerton before! But we needed all of those multiples in order to get through the film. As it was, Paul had a stunt guy and a photo double that came with him, so it made shooting 2nd (and sometimes 3rd) unit go really quickly.

Read Part 2 of this interview next week. Get your comfy slippers on too, because Kristin has a lot more gems to share.