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...

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New Nicole Photoshoot

Nicole Kidman covers Harpers Bazaar UK. This photo! ♥️

Or as Tom and Lorenzo aptly put it...

Shine on, you fabulous faux princess.

photos & article at Harpers Bazaar

SAG Awards Live Blog

Let's talk about you for a second...

7:11 This is the face Sarah Silverman made after hearing "Let's talk about you for a second" which is... sublimely funny, a perfect encapsulation of the faux humility #blessed of superstars attending awards shows in which they all fawn on each other. You're great. No, no, you're great.

07:14 Rami Malek doesn't know who he was wearing. Alicia Vikander says 'I've only watched this on YouTube' before. Idris Elba is working the grey in his beard. Everyone is adorable x3 is my point.

07:22 Saoirse is in light pink and Brie in baby blue and I'm not sure what to make of that.

07:25 Jesse Tyler Ferguson and E! Brad talking to each other 

- "Are you a nervous nellie."
- "Yaaas"

(hugs)

"-I hope I didn't get any contour on you"

This is the gayest thing I've ever seen on television. Which is saying a lot.

07:31 Nicole Kidman has arrived. [More...]

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Interview: Lucinda Coxon's 11 Years With "The Danish Girl"

One of this season's most talked about movies, The Danish Girl, set tongues wagging long before anyone had seen a single frame. Years before in fact. It wasn't just the subject matter, though the subject matter would have been enough. The Danish Girl tells the true story of married painters Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander) and Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne) who struggle to come to grips with Einar's true identity, Lili Elbe. Lili was one of the first trans women to ever undergo gender confirmation surgery which was then an experimental series of surgery. It's a difficult subject to dramatize, and a difficult subject to talk about particularly given how quickly the verbiage and discourse has changed across the decades. People didn't know how to talk about it in 1930 when the story was a very current sensation in Denmark and Germany and do people really know how to talk about it now? A quick perusal of any trans story around the internet will tell you the answer is still no. 

It's always a particular challenge for heavily buzzed pictures to get out into the marketplace and form their own identity outside of everyone's pre-screening perceptions of them. Oscar winner Tom Hooper's (The King's Speech) latest is definitely no exception. Even the casting, which wouldn't have been all that controversial even a handful of years ago other than in a rubber-necking kind of "Oscar bait" way, has been the subject of spirited debates along the lines of "shouldn't a trans actor be playing the part?" But films take a long time to make. Who could have known the happy development in the past few years in regards to trans visibility in Transparent, Tangerine, Orange is the New Black. 

The Danish Girl's complicated gestation period is where I began when i sat down with the woman who'd been with the project the longest, its screenwriter Lucinda Coxon. Our interview is after the jump... 

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Best of '15: Red Carpet Beauty

Jose reporting for red carpet duty. One of the most significant things that happened in fashion in 2015, was the end of Raf Simons' short reign at Dior. With that we saw what I like to think was the "theme of the year", a return to form for starlets, and Best Actress Oscar winners, who seemed constrained under the requirements of their contracts. Not that they were crying about getting paid millions to dress in expensive couture, and sell perfumes mind you. Still, it was refreshing to see people like J.Law go back to the All-American goodness she first embodied in that red Calvin Klein dress at the Oscars.

We also saw perennial favorites find new ways to astound us (Cate, Nicole and Diane are indeed the holy trinity for fashion lovers), and usually lackluster people finally find their unique sartorial voice, thanks to the work of magician stylists (thank you for existing, Petra Flannery). I hope you're surprised by some of the inclusions in the list, but overall I hope they manage to put some beauty into your day (even when the dresses in question aren't necessarily "pretty"...)

The 15 Best Looks of '15
continues after the jump 

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