costume+design

home 3.2 mise- en- scene( TASK ONE - an aspect) Costume design is an aspect of mise-en-scene

They were once common men's headwear across the cooler [|north of the country], in regions of [|Aragon] , [|Navarre] , the [|Basque Country] , [|Cantabria] , [|Asturias] and [|Galicia] and nearby areas. || The beret is part of the long-standing stereotype of the [|intellectual], [|film director] , [|artist] , " [|hipsters] ", poet, [|bohemians] and [|beatniks]. In America and Britain, the middle of the twentieth century saw an explosion of berets in women's fashion. In the later part of the twentieth century, the beret was adopted by the Chinese both as a fashion statement and for its political undertones.
 * = Roman Soldier's Clothes. = || [[image:http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/caligae.jpg caption="Replica of Roman soldier's hobnailed boots (caligae)."]][[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Sven_Palmqvist_1965.jpg/170px-Sven_Palmqvist_1965.jpg width="170" height="194"]]Traditional Beret worn by the Basques. Berets
 * Replica of Roman soldier's hobnailed boots (caligae). || === In fashion and culture  ===

As a revolutionary symbol
The "// [|Guerrillero Heroico] //" portrait of Che Guevara  One of the most famous photographs of the Argentine revolutionary [|Che Guevara], //El [|Guerrillero Heroico] //, shows him wearing a black beret with a red star. In the 1960s several activist groups adopted the [|black beret]. These include the [|Black Panther Party] of the United States, formed in 1966, [|[20]] the "Black Beret Cadre" (a similar [|Black Power] organisation in [|Bermuda] ), [|[21]] the [|Provisional Irish Republican Army] and the [|ETA] guerrillas (who wore black berets over hoods in public appearances). In addition, the [|Brown Berets] were a [|Chicano] organisation formed in 1967. The Young Lords Party, a Latino revolutionary organization in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, also wore berets.

Rastafarians
[|Rastafarian] with beret  Adherents of the [|Rastafari movement] often wear a very large knitted or crocheted black beret with red, gold, and green circles atop their [|dreadlocks]. The style is often erroneously called a //kufi//, after the skullcap known as //kufune//. They consider the beret and dreadlocks to be symbols of the biblical covenant of God with his chosen people, the "black Israelites". [|[3]]

( wikipedia)

Beret worn in the Kevin Smith film CLERKS ||  **Jarhead**

= standard USA marine fabric = ||

The Road to Perdition by Sam Mendes ( read below) JARHEAD by Sam Mendes ( read below )


 * ** Producers: Dean and Richard Zannuck **

While ROAD TO PERDITION is in places like a gangster flick, it's also a vessel for characters that stumble around a morally ambiguous world that seems a bit more realistic than that which imperious Corleones inhabit. No, ROAD tells the story of the Irish mob from the trenches, where blood and revenge share a house with math homework and snowball fights. ROAD'S world is not easy to nail down...and that's what makes it quite a curiosity. Movies like this don't often get //made// with such aplomb, if at all

See interview with Mendes below || ||

Reviews // I // t is a love story about a hit-man who fails in trying to protect his son from the life he chose.

Mendes's overrated American Beauty managed to be both bland and nasty; Road to Perdition is grim yet soppy.

based on the "graphic novel" (a term that is applied to a very long comic book printed on high-quality paper and sold in bookstores) by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner. As with many adaptations from this medium, Road to Perdition stuns with its atmosphere and visuals, but arguably underachieves in some aspects of its characterization and plotting. The storyline is straightforward, with no twists or surprises, and the character interaction is not as multi-faceted as it could be. I was pulled into Road to Perdition as much by the setting as by the story, however; while the film never ceased to engage me over its two-hour running length, I failed to develop an emotional bond with any of the characters. Mendes' laconic, unhurried approach defuses much of the tension. If you're expecting an action film or a traditional gangster narrative, you will be disappointed.

"Road to Perdition" is paved with good intentions. Its ambition is gigantic, its production craft immaculate, a couple of its performances Oscar-worthy. But like so many crusades, it takes a wrong turn – to Chicago, as a matter of fact! – and in the end frustrates more than satisfies

Clothes Design Designer: Albert Wolsky While RTP is indeed a gangster movie, it's set in America's Great Depression. You will see no heroic double-breasted suits, sweeping cavalier-like fedoras, flashy spats, or two-tone shoes. It's a grimy world, the grit of which saturates the simple fashion of the period. America was poor, Wolsky told me. In many cases, a man had only one suit to wear. Clothes were worn until they were utterly destroyed, and then thrown out, a fact which limited the pieces of actual vintage clothing available for research purposes. Fabrics were different then, and carried a weight that is not available in today's cloth. "Without the right fabric, you lose the period," Wolsky contends. "We tested the current fabrics and there was just no way to fake it. The weight dramatically affects the way the clothes move." Wolsky found a weaver in upstate New York named Rabbit Goody who recreated the much heavier fabrics in the copious amounts the production would require. To view the actors clothed in such dour, flat detail is a bit of a shock: there is no element of glamour or Robin Hood in these gangsters. ANTONY: [Looking at one of Newman's exhibited costumes, a black wool coat and tie] What should this costume tell us about Paul Newman's character [John Rooney]? WOLSKY: Newman was very always very nattily dressed, but not 'gangster natty'. In fact no one in this movie is dressed like your average gangster. This coat appears later in the film, and we were trying to shrink [Rooney] a bit, make him look as if he's losing weight... ANTONY: As a result of the conflict between his 'adopted' son and his real son? WOLSKY: Exactly.

=One aspect: Costume in setting. Example 1. A film by Sophia Coppola(2007)= Look at the setting for Marie Anoinette, circa 1749

=The French court colours of rich red and blue in fabrics of satin, taffeta and silk may be placed in contrast to the emerging democratization of dress. Here the fabric become a natural weave in muted tones.( See Jean -Jacques Rousseau= =

and the American Revolution) Listen to the designer of Marie Antoinette on the DVD of the film and hear why he went for pastes not solid colours=

Fashion in the period 1750–1795 **in [|European] and European-influenced countries reached heights of fantasy and [|abundant ornamentation], especially among the [|aristocracy] of [|France], before a long-simmering movement toward simplicity and democratization of dress under the influence of [|Jean-Jacques Rousseau] and the [|American Revolution] led to an entirely new mode and the triumph of [|British] [|tailoring]following the [|French Revolution].**

=The French Revolution= The French Revolution Facts French RevolutionFrench Revolution VS French Revolution TimelineKing Louis Louis Execution Corrupt King Worst PeopleNapoleonic Wars Rat Robespierre Foreign Kings King JohnMarie Antoinette [] [|h][|ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette_(2006_film]) Marie Antoinette (Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna von Habsburg-Lothringen) was born in Vienna on 2 November, 1755, and she was to become the young Austrian Queen of the King of France and by doing so one of the most reviled women in history. = = home =The American Revolution= [] George Washington [] =British tailoring= []
 * []**

[]
 * 2. example of a colour palette: JARHEAD directed by Sam Mendes **

Jarhead was set in the Persian Gulf. The palette is a range of bleaches colours. the temperatures in Gulf average 28 degrees Celsiusin summer and is freezing in winter with constant blue skies. The standard marine fabric fades.

fabric for Jarhead marines

= =

The Road to Perdition

Reviews It is a love story about a hit-man who fails in trying to protect his son from the life he chose.

// Mendes's overrated //// American Beauty //// managed to be both bland and nasty; //// Road to Perdition //// is grim yet soppy. //

based on the "graphic novel" (a term that is applied to a very long comic book printed on high-quality paper and sold in bookstores) by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner. As with many adaptations from this medium, Road to Perdition stuns with its atmosphere and visuals, but arguably underachieves in some aspects of its characterization and plotting. The storyline is straightforward, with no twists or surprises, and the character interaction is not as multi-faceted as it could be. I was pulled into Road to Perdition as much by the setting as by the story, however; while the film never ceased to engage me over its two-hour running length, I failed to develop an emotional bond with any of the characters. Mendes' laconic, unhurried approach defuses much of the tension. If you're expecting an action film or a traditional gangster narrative, you will be disappointed.

"Road to Perdition" is paved with good intentions. Its ambition is gigantic, its production craft immaculate, a couple of its performances Oscar-worthy. But like so many crusades, it takes a wrong turn – to Chicago, as a matter of fact! – and in the end frustrates more than satisfies

fabric detail

Clothes Design Designer: Albert Wolsky While RTP is indeed a gangster movie, it's set in America's Great Depression. You will see no heroic double-breasted suits, sweeping cavalier-like fedoras, flashy spats, or two-tone shoes. It's a grimy world, the grit of which saturates the simple fashion of the period. America was poor, Wolsky told me. In many cases, a man had only one suit to wear. Clothes were worn until they were utterly destroyed, and then thrown out, a fact which limited the pieces of actual vintage clothing available for research purposes. Fabrics were different then, and carried a weight that is not available in today's cloth. "Without the right fabric, you lose the period," Wolsky contends. "We tested the current fabrics and there was just no way to fake it. The weight dramatically affects the way the clothes move." Wolsky found a weaver in upstate New York named Rabbit Goody who recreated the much heavier fabrics in the copious amounts the production would require. To view the actors clothed in such dour, flat detail is a bit of a shock: there is no element of glamour or Robin Hood in these gangsters.

ANTONY: [Looking at one of Newman's exhibited costumes, a black wool coat and tie] What should this costume tell us about Paul Newman's character [John Rooney]? WOLSKY: Newman was very always very nattily dressed, but not 'gangster natty'. In fact no one in this movie is dressed like your average gangster. This coat appears later in the film, and we were trying to shrink [Rooney] a bit, make him look as if he's losing weight... ANTONY: As a result of the conflict between his 'adopted' son and his real son? WOLSKY: Exactly.

Directed by Sam Mendes from Max Allan Collins's graphic novel, //Road to Perdition// is pulp that aspires to Greek tragedy. The rain machine works overtime in this gloomy tale of Depression-era gangsters as they (and their sons) stalk each other through a sepulchral Chicago and across the bleak Midwest.
 * Direction **

The father and son relationship is a huge thematic force behind this movie.

Interview excerpt: MENDES: [America] is a country in which you can tell universal stories. It's a country in which you can express these things freely. It's very important to remember that. We can sit here and watch a film that says many things, that has a morally ambivalent [protagonist], in which there is no obvious hero. There's right or wrong, but there are shades of gray in between. [As a viewer], you're always bombarded with black and white choices. [ROAD TO PERDITION] is not about black and white. It's more complicated than that. Thematically, it's very layered. I feel that it's important tell these stories that make the audience think, and for which there are no easy answers.

PRESS: Is Hanks' character good or bad? MENDES: I think he's morally ambivalent. There's good and bad in [Sullivan], and there's good and bad in everybody. I wasn't looking for the good, or looking for the bad. This is a man who signed his pact with the devil twenty years ago, and he's learned to live with it. He's tried to protect his family from it. [Sullivan] is humanized by the process when his child gets access to this world before [the child] is ready for it.

Hanks stars as an enforcer who is forced to flee with his son from the crime syndicate for whom he had worked, and to ensure that his son does not become like him.

To establish the lighting of scenes in // Road to Perdition //, director [|Sam Mendes] drew from the paintings of [|Edward Hopper] as a source of inspiration, particularly Hopper's // New York Movie // (1939). Directed by Sam Mendes from Max Allan Collins's graphic novel, //Road to Perdition// is pulp that aspires to Greek tragedy. The rain machine works overtime in this gloomy tale of Depression-era gangsters as they (and their sons) stalk each other through a sepulchral Chicago and across the bleak Midwest.
 * Direction **

The father and son relationship is a huge thematic force behind this movie.

Interview excerpt: MENDES: [America] is a country in which you can tell universal stories. It's a country in which you can express these things freely. It's very important to remember that. We can sit here and watch a film that says many things, that has a morally ambivalent [protagonist], in which there is no obvious hero. There's right or wrong, but there are shades of gray in between. [As a viewer], you're always bombarded with black and white choices. [ROAD TO PERDITION] is not about black and white. It's more complicated than that. Thematically, it's very layered. I feel that it's important tell these stories that make the audience think, and for which there are no easy answers.

PRESS: Is Hanks' character good or bad? MENDES: I think he's morally ambivalent. There's good and bad in [Sullivan], and there's good and bad in everybody. I wasn't looking for the good, or looking for the bad. This is a man who signed his pact with the devil twenty years ago, and he's learned to live with it. He's tried to protect his family from it. [Sullivan] is humanized by the process when his child gets access to this world before [the child] is ready for it.

Hanks stars as an enforcer who is forced to flee with his son from the crime syndicate for whom he had worked, and to ensure that his son does not become like him.

To establish the lighting of scenes in // Road to Perdition //, director [|Sam Mendes] drew from the paintings of [|Edward Hopper] as a source of inspiration, particularly Hopper's // New York Movie // (1939).

Cinematography

// Less is more // // Wide scene with Depth of field // // Black silk filters //

Cinematography. A film that had minimal dialogue and conveyed emotion in the imagery. A "cold look" was created for the to emphasize the characters' emotional states. Hall took advantage of the lighting and the environment to create symbolism for the film -atmospheric lighting similar what is found in the paintings of Edward Hopper

MORNING IN A CITY: Women staring out the open windows of cheap apartments and hotel rooms. Painting by Edward Hopper

Mendes and cinematographer [|Conrad Hall] sought to convey similar atmospheric lighting for the film's scenes, applying a "less is more" mantra

Hall also shot wide open s cenes that retained one point in the [|depth of field] sharply focused. Hall considered the technique to provide an emotional dimension to the scenes. The cinematographer also used unconventional techniques and materials to create unique lighting effects. One of Hall's methods was to use black silk in daylight exterior scenes to filter the light enough to create an in-shade look

Hall purposely distanced the camera from Hanks's character, Michael Sullivan, at the beginning of the film to establish the perspective of Sullivan's son, who is unaware of his father's nature. Hanks's character was filmed as partially obscured and seen through doorways, and his entrances and exits took place in shadows. Shots in the film were drawn directly from panels in the graphic novel [|//Road to Perdition//], illustrated by Richard Piers Rayner. An instance of the direct influence was the scene in which Michael Jr. looks up at the Chicago skyline from the vehicle, with the skyline reflected in the vehicle's glass.

A seamless 40-second driving scene in which Michael Sullivan and his son travel into Chicago from the countryside was aided by visual effects. The live-action part of the scene was filmed at [|LaSalle Street], and due to the lack of scenery for part of the drive down LaSalle Street, the background of Balbo Drive was included with the use of visual effects

// Road to Perdition // allows you to feel, smell, and breathe the air of 1930s Chicago.
 * Set **


 * LaSalle Street ** is a major north-south street in [|Chicago] named for [|Sieur de La Salle], an early explorer of Illinois. The portion that runs through the [|Loop] is considered to be Chicago's [|financial district] . For most of its length, the street has the address 150 West. See [|Streets and highways of Chicago].

Costume Designer cont. ANTONY: It's interesting to hear about costuming as a collaborative process. I tend to think about the designer up there on the mountain designating what people wear... WOLSKY: No, it's mostly collaborative. I prefer it that way. PRESS: What were the biggest challenges to your costumes throughout the production? WOLSKY: The rain, and keeping [costumes] dry. We had a lot of rain. I expected the bullets [which necessitate bullet wounds]. The multiples [costumes that require duplicate sets] can be the worst problem. The rain was the worst. [In the movie] there's a lot of rain at night, and it doesn't show [on film], so they use torrential rain. It was like we were doing a Dorothy Lamour movie like THE HURRICANE, just sheets of rain. At one point, Tom [Hanks] put his head down and the water [was so heavy] he started to laugh. He couldn't concentrate. I should have done hats with funnels in the back.