"Emily" and the mastery of Michael O'Connor

by Cláudio Alves

Frances O'Connor's directorial debut is available on PVOD starting today. Emily is a modern twist on the biography of Emily Brontë, regarding the Wuthering Heights author through a fictionalized prism. There are many reasons to watch the film, from Emma Mackey's performance in the titular role to Abel Korzeniowski's bewitching score. For costume aficionados, however, it's all about the Michael O'Connor-designed fits. As ever, the Oscar-winner blesses the project with a commitment to period veracity, capturing the detail and idiosyncrasy of the past even when it looks silly, fussy, or unattractive to contemporary eyes. He even pays the same attention to main actors and background players, upper-class characters and the poorer circles of society. The result is dramatic immersion, a sort of realism supported by on-screen materiality that's rare even in the most lavish of period pieces...

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Michael O'Connor and the costumes of “Ammonite”

by Cláudio Alves

As L. P. Hartley famously wrote, "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." When looking back at times gone by, filmmakers often find themselves as the intermediates between the audience and that strange land. Most try, in some regard, to be interpreters, translating foreign tongues to recognizable idioms, adapting what came before to contemporary sensibilities.

Others, like Michael O'Connor are more pedagogue than translator. In his work the oddities of the past are shown naked, and it's the audience that learns how to comprehend a new language. The British costume designer has made a name for himself with great feats of period couture. While purposefully austere, the Victorian wardrobe of Francis Lee's Ammonite is one of O'Connor's best creations yet…

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