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Entries in Colorology (86)

Thursday
Feb252016

Thoughts I Had... First Pics of Oscar Set

Thoughts I had looking at the first pics of the Oscar set for Sunday night in the order they came to me after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Friday
Feb122016

Interview: Sandy Powell on Color, Character, Carol, Cinderella, and Cate

Sandy Powell on the set of CinderellaSome people rush to movies if their favorite movie star's face is prominent on the poster. Others swear allegiance to directors. Obsessive cinephiles go for all sorts of reasons. One of ours at The Film Experience is Sandy Powell. If she's the costume designer, we're there, no questions asked. We sat through The Tempest (2010) just for her and trust me that that's devotion.

Meeting her in person earlier this season to talk Carol and Cinderella, which brought her her 11th and 12th Oscar nominations and could well bring her a 4th Oscar, was a personal joy. I had talked to her once before by phone but in person we were able to look at costume stills together and had a great conversation. This cinematic MVP was a fun, lively, and personable interviewee. I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did. 

NATHANIEL R:  I intervewed you once a long time ago and I was really taken aback by something you said. You implied that you were surprised and amused by analytical readings of your work.

SANDY POWELL: I was talking about that today with Judy Becker and she said thing "I've learned so much about my work today!". People read things into it that you weren't consciously thinking about. But they're not bad things! You start thinking "maybe subliminally..." You start taking credit for it! 

A lot of the time you work so fast that you make snap decisions and you don't know what it's based on. I do work instinctively and intuitively. I don't sit and analyze. I don't think about the significance and "What shall I consciously put on her or him or her to convey that?"  I do what feels right. And quite often just by doing that you've got it right, you actually have given something so symbolism.

NATHANIEL R: Do you start thinking of full outfits while you're reading a script?

her answer and much more after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Sunday
Jan102016

Golden Globe Arrivals

07:00 The 73rd Annual Golden Globes are here. And we're seated and not yet drunk, far from the Beverly Hilton (NYC to be precise).  I'm getting a late start. I blame pizza cravings. As I sat down with half of a pizza in my mouth -- I don't play around! -- Svelte Kirsten Dunst in autoerotic black (damn girl) was talking about her recent diet to plump up a bit for Fargo "you know... bread and cheese". Dear reader it's like I was on TV and she was making fun of me from home, the cheese dribbling down my chin.

07:08 Earlier on the TV we also learned that Alicia Vikander went sky-diving (okay) that maybe don't surprise Jamie Lee Curtis with a question about her mother's Golden Globe win for Psycho  ("you know... my mom's been gone a long time... we're moving forward... I'm happy to be here representing my show") and Jennifer Lopez had difficult describing the color of her dress. 

it's kind of a mustardy, yellow, marigoldy... I don't know."

I think you do know JLo.

07:12 Distracted momentarily by Monty-- who has refused to do his cat pundtiry this year. Sorry people. He's old, so give him a break -- I missed the context of Amy Schumer saying she has "old lady fingers" Anyone? 

07:18 At some point Joann Froggat from Downton Abbey reveals that she stans Cate Blanchett hard. This did not seem worth typing at the time because who doesn't. But still... She does.

07:20 Channing & Jenna (Mrs Tatum) don't sound like they're lying at all when they express surprise that people keep talking about the Lipsynch Battle. Which either suggests they are in a very tiny celebrity bubble world or they're good at playing their 'who us?' chill married couple persona.

07: 30 Kate Hudson and The Rock talking about Halloween for some reason 

 

07:31 We need to talk about Rooney Mara's braid.

07:34 Jacob Tremblay is already such a pro. Cackling when he stifles a "Duh!" and politely answers questions about whether he's seen The Force Awakens.

 

 

 

07:35 Amy Adams to Ryan Seacrest:

I'm so bad at winning awards!"

Tough problems.

07:42  Rami Malek reveals that he has been friends with Kirsten Dunst for a long time. Interesting.

07:45 Very cute exchange between Jennifer Lawrence and Katy Perry. Katy Perry saw Joy by herself in her sweatpants crying/inspired. 'I can make it in the world!' JLaw chuckles. 'I think you've already made it.'

07:46 I can listen to Saoirse Ronan talk about anything forever. I sometimes cant even register what she's going on about I'm so crushing on the vocals. Finally Saoirse says, without confidence, "I think I'm sitting at Amy Schumer and Jennifer Lawrence's table?" Doesn't this seem like something you'd commit to memory as soon as you heard?! 

08:00 ooh, show is starting. Byeeeee

 

 

Wednesday
Jan062016

Odile Dicks-Mireaux on Enhancing Saoirse's Journey in "Brooklyn" / Reuniting with Rachel Weisz for "Denial" 

Odile Dicks-Mireaux. Image via Female FirstThe thing about Brooklyn is that everyone can relate to it. Stories of immigration touch almost everyone, or at least run through their family's DNA. Even the move from one state with a personality quite unlike your original home, can feel like a reinvention.  Nearly a year after seeing Brooklyn for the first time it's strange to think that I worried that people wouldn't connect to it! Who needs sensationalistic drama when a story is this really. When it's power can sneak up on you? 

I had the pleasure of discussing this universal resonance, and the job of defining Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) through her costume changes with the designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux, who herself related to the story. Her mother was French and her father British and they met, both immigrants, in Brooklyn in the 1940s, and built a life in a foreign country together. Odile is London based and was best known, prior to know, with her frequently BAFTA nominated work on British television miniseries like Gormenghast and Great Expectations though she's also designed Oscar nominated dramas like The Constant Gardener and An Education

Here's our interview. 

NATHANIEL R: I first saw Brooklyn at Sundance and I loved it but I remember feeling that I had no idea how people would react to it when it was released.  Which in retrospect was kind of foolish of me.

 ODILE DICKS-MIREAUX: You never know when you're making a movie how it's going to turn out and whether it will hit a nerve. Would it be too much of a simple story or too old fashioned? So it's been a real pleasure that it's resonated. [More...]

Click to read more ...

Tuesday
Dec292015

Interview: Carol's Production Design Judy Becker 

Judy Becker. Photo © Tom Uhlman at New York TimesThis won't have escaped you but we're a little bit obsessed with Todd Haynes's Carol. We tried to devote a week to it but the love can't be contained by calendars. The romantic drama about a glamorous society wife and a young shopgirl is rolling out slowly -- agonizingly slowly -- to more cities each week. It leads the Golden Globe nominations and though the Academy's decisions about the year's "best" are yet to come, there's reason to be hopeful that they'll embrace the filmmaker's triumphant return to the silver screen.

The Oscar-nominated production designer Judy Becker (American Hustle), is responsible for most everything you see onscreen in Carol from Therese's humble apartment to Frankenberg's Department Store, the Aird estate, and much more. "The props, there are close-ups on them, so I don’t know how you can say, that’s not important," she says passionately, underlining the fact that everything we see is part of 'the look'. She describes herself as a very hands-on designer and is sure this drives new members of her staff crazy but she has high praise for her frequent set decorator Heather Loeffler. "She never gets upset if I veto something but, at the same time, she brings a lot to the table and surprises me all the time with great stuff."

Though Becker is best known for her frequent collaborations with  David O. Russell this is not her first Todd Haynes film, having also designed his abstract Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There (2007). We began our chat marvelling at his genius. Though I'm Not There was a larger scale task, essentially designing multiple worlds, Carol wasn't much easier for different reasons. "Every film has its challenges," she explains. And films as gorgeously realized as Carol don't happen without a lot of planning, work, and inspiration. 

Our interview is after the jump...

Click to read more ...

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