Interview: on the Ghostly Costume Design of "The Beguiled"

 by Nathaniel R

The costume designer Stacey Battat has, to date, worked mostly in female-oriented contemporary indies. That's quite a perfect niche to build a design career from. Or at least it is when the women who've visually helped define your early work are such stylish talented icons themselves. Battat first made her mark on two Parker Posey features in the late Aughts (Broken English, Happy Tears). Soon after she was deep in the Julianne Moore business (Still Alice, Freeheld, What Maisie Knew). Other credits include The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her and Him and Mozart in the Jungle but it's been her partnership with writer/director Sofia Coppola that's come to define her young career.

The two began working together on the LA dreamy Somewhere (2010). Battat proved invaluable to all the fashiongasms of Coppola's arguably most underrated feature The Bling Ring (2013). Then came an atypical challenge: a forgotten girls school deep in the Civil War era.

I spoke with Battat recently by phone to talk about one of the most visually striking films this past year, The Beguiled, and what she brought to it. Our interview, edited for clarity and length follows...

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Podcast: A Proper Oscar Season Kick-Off

Katey, Nick, Joe and Nathaniel reunite to talk about the Oscar season as the floodgates open - Globe & SAG noms are about to hit! There are absolutely no spoilers in this so listen away.

Index (43 minutes)
00:01 Introductions & The Greatest Showman
02:11 Lady Bird's prospects
04:15 SAG ensemble possibilities
11:00 Girls Trip & Comedy Globe
16:00 Best Director -- easy or tough call?
21:00 Three Billboards, Darkest Hour, Screenplay race
30:00 Phantom Thread, The Post, Murder on the Orient Express, Visual and Sound categories
38:30 Roman Israel Esq
41:00 Colin Farrell & Goodbyes

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

December 10th Oscar Check In

Link Therapy

• Criterion Close Isabelle Huppert makes her picks! 
• i09 Netflix odd email phishing scam promotion of The Punisher (I received this too and was like hmmmm... clever but gross and no thank you)
• Gr8ter Days Ann Wedgeworth, a favorite of the National Society of Film Critics prizes in the late 70s and early 80s (Handle with Care, Sweet Dreams) and a Tony winner for a Chapter Two (which later became a film albeit without Wedgeworth) and a TV regular has died
• Boy Culture It only took 50+ years but the Star Trek franchise just got its first gay kiss via Star Trek: Discovery thanks and out actors Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz
• Playbill Broadway hit Come From Away, which is about passengers stranded in a small Newfoundland town during 9/11, is going to get a film version with the Broadway director and writers transferring over
• Tracking Board Mahershala Ali and Carmen Ejogo (YAS! She's so undervalued) will headline the third season of True Detective for HBO

Our Ongoing Collective Trauma
• HuffPost a fine piece by Matt Jacobs on loving Hollywood and the pop-culture machine but realizing how rotten its been since its inception when it comes to abuses of power and the treatment of women
• Deadline Marti Nixon on the recent allegations against Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner 
• Variety Matthew Weiner denies the allegations but admits to being angry on set a lot of the time and wishes he had behaved differently
• AV Club Lena Dunham defends a Girls writer accused of assault
• Nylon a personal essay from Evan Rachel Wood about what the psychotic hurricane of these past two years and what she's learned about herself and others during this awful decline in time. 
• Film School Rejects on the way film sites have been reacting (or not) to the growing list of accusations

Two Videos
On Hela's hello cool antler headpiece in Thor Ragnarok and the short teaser for Incredibles 2 (basically Jack Jack giggling and causing havoc with his laser beam eyes) 

Off Screen for Fun
• New Yorker Disney princes reimagined as allies

Prince Eric is extremely committed to female equality in his kingdom. He has so much to tell Ariel about the plight and oppression of women that he fails to notice that she doesn’t have a voice.

Yes No Maybe So: "Phantom Thread"

by Ben Miller

Paul Thomas Anderson's latest joint, Phantom Thread, has him collaborating for a second time Daniel Day-Lewis (who is reportedly retiring following this film). The Christmas release follows the true story of 1950s London fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock.  Tagging along are his muse Alma (Vicky Krieps) and his sister (Lesley Manville).

After a long long wait, the first poster and the trailer have arrived. See them after the jump as we nail down the Yes, No, and Maybe So of it all…

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Interview: Grace & Frankie's Emmy-nominated costume designers

by Nathaniel R

One of the most satisfying moments of Emmy nomination morning was the contemporary costume nomination for Grace & Frankie. The Netflix sitcom starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin is hot off its third and best season. The writers and creative team seem to know the characters and their interpersonal dynamics, in and out at this point. That intimacy is abundanctly evidence in the terrific costuming. Until the television Academy split off their costume design category into period and contemporary, their was little opportunity for designers who specialize in contemporary clothing to be honored no matter how strong their work - exceptions like Sex and the City were all too rare.

I had the opportunity to discuss Grace & Frankie's worthy and vibrant work with its three nominees Allyson B Fanger the costume designer, Heather Pain, her assistant costume designer, and Lori DeLapp the costume supervisor. Their overlapping answers, despite their separate duties, and light ribbing over the abundance of statement piece jewelry worn by Frankie were ample evidence that they're totally in synch.

That's true whether or not their subjects Grace (Jane Fonda) and Frankie (Lily Tomlin) are seeing eye to eye in any given episode...

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