Dress Up and Play

The Fall

I've been hearing a lot about a new movie called The Fall lately. I haven't seen it, so I can't say first hand, but the pictures are incredible. The cinematography is a wonder to behold- absolutely no special effects were use and everything was shot on location in something like 12 different countries. It was released in 2006 at the festival circuit but has had no distribution until now, and even that has been fairly limited. But I think it will be a secret sleeper by the looks of attention it's getting in blogland.

The costumes are by Eiko Ishioka, the Oscar winning designer for Bram Stoker's Dracula, and who's specialty is opera-worthy female mind-seductresses and creepily hot armor. I was in love with her work when Dracula came out and thought she was the greatest thing ever living... lately I think some of her stuff is a tad... '90s'? (Like the colored fake fur below) But she still can deliver an *pow* image like almost no one else.

The story centers around a guy in a hospital telling a story to a little girl in the same hospital. The film goes in and out of her mind while the story is being told- much of what's seen below is from the 'story' part of it.

pssst... is it just me or did those three guys in armor a few pics back come off the set of Monty Python?

So Sad

I'm not in business of upsetting people or celebrity gossip so I will not be recounting any details- most of which are too hazy to be anything but false at this point- but I will say how sad about Heath Ledger's death! And with a sweet little girl....

Okay, this is a post that had actually been saved for awhile, so I'm not trying to be grotesque by plastering this quirky pic of him here. I have actually been looking forward to this movie for quite awhile- and it had everything to do with Heath in this Makeup. I think this is such a fantastic look (Make up Head: Peter Robb-King who I think will deserve a gold statue for this one.) The posters, the aesthetic- everything is perfect about this character, of course all brought to life by the brilliant Heath. It's such a far cry from the suave, clean-lined Jack Nicholson version (which was fantastically hilarious at the time.) There's something about this wicked mess of a face... everyone- EVERYONE can't keep from commenting how perfect it is. THAT'S when you know you've hit it- when it provokes such a strong reaction- and the movie isn't even out yet!

The costume designer for this movie is a Ms. Lindy Hemming, who is a 60 year old brit who has already won an Oscar for Topsy-Turvey. She has also designed Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Batman Begins, Four Weddings and a Funeral, the Lara Croft movies, and a handful of the Bond films. Guess she's great at action.

Of course it will be awhile before the movie comes out- next summer supposedly, but it's already had so much buzz I'm sure it'll be fantastic. Some peeps from my generation are comparing it to The Crow (for obvious reasons that have nothing to do with Batman.)

I still can't believe it.

Prince Caspian

Ack! I've been so busy and there's so much I want to talk about...(including my face to face meeting with Colleen Atwood! More about that later.) First the upcoming second installment of the Narnia Chronicles: Prince Caspian. The costumes are designed by Isis Mussenden, whom, I just found out, costume designed the Shrek movies... funny, huh? I had a conversation with an Animation teacher at CalArts several months ago and she was talking to me about the possibility of hiring actual costume designers to collaborate in the character development but I hadn't realized this was something that was already happening.

Anyway, here's a nice little article about the Prince Caspian costumes (with images):

More Armor... sort of

Not much newsworthy stuff going on and I'm in the middle of a busy swirl... so no film studies just yet. But I did find these great pictures of the bear from The Golden Compass. This was from some sort of exhibit on film, possibly also comics, I'm not sure. But the armor is fantastic! I really can't figure out the material and if it's actually hard. I would think it would have to be malleable in order to do any sort of animation or movement with the bear (not this bear of course, but whatever sort of bear they made it for.) It's a mystery. Guess I'm just gonna have to wait for the movie

And here is a candid shot of one of Nicole Kidman's coat in the same film:

The Golden Compass con't

More pictures that show some nice costume details:

Elizabeth's Armor

Some close up shot's of Elizabeth's Armor.