Category: costume in cinema

Starring Johnny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, and Liv Tyler.  Costumes designed by Janty Yates.

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I’ve had a review of this film posted for a long time, and it was written based on only a vague memory of the film. However, my friend Shawna encouraged me to watch it again because the costumes were so whacked… so this one’s for Shawna!

Johnny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle play highwaymen — Miller is the classy one, Carlyle the down and dirty — who team up to rob from the rich in a generally very light-hearted, dark comedy, “modern” take on the classic buddy/adventure film.  Miller falls in love with Liv Tyler’s character, who’s a well to do lady who falls in with the bad boys.  Alan Cumming plays a super fop who is hilarious.  It’s fun and fast-paced and not too deep.

And… the costumes.  Oh, the costumes.  When the movie opens, a title card tells us the year — I’m pretty sure it’s 1748, but I could be off by a year or two.  Here’s why this matters:  Look, filmmakers — you clearly were not trying to make a Merchant/Ivory, historically accurate down to the toilet paper masterpiece.  Why throw a year on there?  Why not just let it be an 18th century-esque period-ish film?  Because lemme tell you, the costumes are a TOTAL MISHMASH of different eras, some historical, some not.  Someone will be wearing a 1770s pouf hairstyle and sitting next to someone else in a 1750s tete de mouton.  Liv Tyler has one scene (the ball) where she wears an 18th c. hairstyle, but the rest of the film she runs around with her hair down.  And the dresses are, by and large, totally goth-ified, sex-ified, and modern-ified, which you can see in the images below.  At least Liv’s are generally pretty… With the aristocracy, they’re very amped up and over the top in a silly way.  Many times it works, even when Alan Cumming (complete with eyebrow ring) is wearing the 18th c. equivalent of a purple Mad Hatter hat.  But there’s a minor character who, at her wedding, wears a sort-of-francaise that has, I kid you not, what looks like 2×4’s for panniers — it’s so bad I went and screencapped it from YouTube so I could show you.  Of course, the screencaps don’t really do it justice, so you might want to watch the scene starting at 0:43 yourself.

In the end, it’s a fun movie, and laughing at the costumes is part of the fun, so I do recommend it!

My review:  3 (out of 5)

If you like this era, you might also want to check my 18th c. Costume Movie Reviews.  If you’re in the mood for more silly-take-on-18th-century, I specifically recommend the following costume movies:  Abduction Club (2002), Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001), Casanova with David Tennant (2005), and Fanny Hill (2007).

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS (2011)

Starring Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, and Christoph Waltz.  Costumes designed by Jacqueline West.

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I have a particular connection to the history of the circus, as my father’s family were circus and vaudeville performers in Germany, England, and the US during the 19th and early 20th centuries.  So I may be biased in enjoying this story based in the circus of 1930s.  Robert Pattinson is actually relatively good as the veterinarian who, when his life crumbles, runs away and becomes a circus vet.  Reese Witherspoon is the star performer who, in gorgeous costumes and with faaaabulous hair, does a beauty act with elephants; Christoph Waltz is her anger-management-issues/abusive husband who owns the circus and so has a hold on everyone’s lives.  Of course, Pattinson’s and Witherspoon’s characters fall in love, and tragedy strikes, as you might expect.  It’s not a revolutionary story, but it’s good, and it’s an interesting milieu in which to set a film.  And Uggie (the fabulous dog from The Artist) is in it!!!

The main focus of the costumes are of course on Reese.  She has beautiful sparkly stage costumes and a great casual yet chic 1930s wardrobe.

The only real down side is that after the film’s release, it came out that the trainers may have abused the lead elephant from the film, which is really horrible.

My rating: 4 (out of 5)

If you like this era, you might also want to check my 20th c. Costume Movie Reviews.  I specifically recommend the following 1930s costume movies:  The Aviator (2004), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), Glorious 39 (2009), A Good Woman (2004), Gosford Park (2001), I Capture the Castle (2003), Love in a Cold Climate (2001), Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008), South Riding (2011), and Upstairs Downstairs (2010). Phew, there’s a lot of great 1930s-era costume movies!

(Note: I am catching up on all the movie reviews that I’ve been needing to post!  There will be more reviews coming!)

THE DEVIL’S WHORE (2008)

Starring Andrea Riseborough, Dominic West, and Michael Fassbender. Costumes designed by Michele Clapton.

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A few months ago, somebody asked if I took requests/recommendations for movies to review.  I wasn’t organized enough to respond at the time, so this review is my response, as it’s one of you who recommended it!  I totally missed this British miniseries when it came out, and I confess, the title conversely made me think of cranky Puritans and boring giant-white-collar butter-churny dresses…

I was wrong!  This was GREAT, and the costumes were gorgeous!  Andrea Riseborough stars as the fictional English aristocrat who is a part of Charles I’s court and then is caught up with Oliver Cromwell & Co. during the English Civil War.  Sure, it’s awfully convenient that Angelica happens to be involved with all of these key people, as well as different events and movements of the period, but hey, that’s the fun of good historical fiction.  She starts off young and somewhat unsure, and over the course of many trials and tribulations finds A) love and B) herself… and Michael Fassbender plays her love interest, which:  RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!  Dominic West plays Cromwell, and while West can be attractive, he’s definitely not in this!

The costumes were gorgeous, with Riseborough in various beautiful 1650s-60s-esque dresses.  They did stick with basically the same dress cut throughout the film, which ignores the developments of women’s styles over time, and they definitely needed more petticoats under the gowns.  Okay, and sometimes the off-the-shoulder was WAY too off-the-shoulder.  I don’t know enough about men’s costume of this era to be able to say whether it was accurate or not — it certainly looked good to my eye, but maybe you can tell me more!

If you like historical fiction (and I do), you’ll like this.  So, a big thank you to whoever recommended this miniseries!

My rating:  5 (out of 5)

If you like this era, you might also want to check my 17th c. Costume Movie Reviews.  I specifically recommend the following shiny 17th c. costume movies:  The Last King (2004) and Stage Beauty (2004).

Starring Eddie Redmayne and Clemence Poesy.  Costumes designed by Charlotte Walter.

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I’ve had this book in my “to read” pile for years, and never gotten around to it.  Yay! said I, when I heard there would be a TV adaptation.  I can decide if I like the story enough to read the book!  The answer:  nope.

I’m not sure if it’s the plot or the production, but it just felt totally lackluster.  Stephen is an Englishman who meets and falls for the married Isabelle, and she for him.  World War I intervenes, and Stephen has a miserable time in the trenches.  The two find each other again, but are ultimately parted by Random Issues That Would Never Really Keep Anyone Apart.  This all (minus the ending) sounds okay, right?  But it’s just a big ball of MEH.  Neither Redmayne nor Poesy give an inspired performance, and their characters are relatively spineless and annoying.  Visually, it’s fine, but the costumes are very “Hey! We’re casual people wearing modern clothes!”  That’s not to say I think they should be dressing like the Tsar/Tsarina of Russia, just that there are ways to make middle class clothing interesting, but the costumer doesn’t do so here.

My rating:  1 (out of 5)

If you like this era, you might also want to check my Edwardian Costume Movie Reviews.  I specifically recommend the following World War I costume movies:  Downton Abbey (2010) and The Winslow Boy (1999).  If you’re down with the cheese, then I also recommend In Love and War (1996).

What did you think?  Have you watched it, and if so, did Redmayne/Poesy annoy you to death?  Do you remember any of the costumes?

Hey look at me, doing all this blogging!  I’ve been thinking that I will post costume movie reviews as individual blog posts, and then also cross-post them to the appropriate Costume in Cinema page for posterity.  That way, it creates a bit more content for this here blog, plus allows you to let me know what you thought of the movie (and/or my review).

Bel Ami (2012)

Starring Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Christina Ricci.  Costumes designed by Odile Dicks-Mireaux.

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Based on an 1880s French novel written by Guy de Maupassant… and if that doesn’t give you an idea of the tone of this movie, then let me summarize late 19th century French literature for you:  the people are pretty, but the emotions are BLEAK and will hammer you over the head with their BLEAKNESS!  My boyfriend Robert Pattinson is Georges Duroy, a poor Algerian vet who climbs the Parisian social ladder by manipulating various women.   Pattinson’s performance is better than you might expect, you Twilight haters, but there’s a bit too much grimacing instead of emoting; the three female leads turn in nice performances, but nothing that made me jump up and down.  It’s unclear just what Duroy’s charm over women is supposed to be, exactly — most men can’t stand him, but when he smile/grimaces at a lady (or brings her a pear?), she just keels over, which never ends up working out too well for her.  The costumes are very pretty and quite accurate — I think the opening title card says it’s 1890, but I could be misremembering — they perfectly capture that transition between late 1880s bustle and 1890s.  Lots of pretty sleeveless evening gowns with that vertical line, hair up on top of the head in that pre-Pompadour (except Thurman, who randomly has hair that is about a decade out of style).  None of the gowns made me jump up and down, but they all looked RIGHT, and that’s saying something!  Also, I kept hoping Pattinson’s brows were going to get shaped up as his lot improved, but no dice.

My rating:  2 (out of 5)

If you like this era, you might also want to check my Victorian costume movie reviews.  I specifically recommend the following late bustle/early 1890s costume films:  An Ideal Husband (1999) and Tipping the Velvet (2002).