Inspiration?

Doesn't this picture of Empress Elisabeth of Austria look like the inspiration for Christine's costume in Phantom of the Opera?

Sandy Powell Interviewed after the Oscars...

I thought this was a very cool "after" acceptance speech. Congrats Sandy!

http://www.deccanherald.com/CONTENT/Jun112008/state2008061172831.asp

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO...

BEST PICTURE: The Hurt Locker

BEST DIRECTOR: Kathryn Bigelow

BEST ACTRESS: Sandra Bullock

BEST ACTOR: Jeff Bridges

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: El Secreto de Sus Ojos

BEST FILM EDITING: The Hurt Locker

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: The Cove

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Avatar

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Up

BEST CINEMATOGRAHY: Avatar

BEST SOUND MIXING: The Hurt Locker

BEST SOUND EDITING: The Hurt Locker

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: The Young Victoria

BEST ART DIRECTION: Avatar

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Mo'nique

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Precious

BEST MAKEUP: Star Trek

BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION): The New Tenants

BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT): Music by Prudence

BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED): Logorama

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: The Hurt Locker

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: The Weary Kind (Crazy Heart)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM: Up

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christoph Waltz

Granger recruits?

I guess I can count this as relating to both films and costumes!

I just though this image was funny.

New Costume Images from Alice and Wonderland and The Young Victoria

Designed by Colleen Atwood

Designed by Sandy Powell

New Gatsby Project Announced!

If you don’t know that I like Baz Luhrman… then you don’t know me at all. I’m a huge fan of his red curtain’s series and a big follower of his artistic directing style. He’s a rather lavish director who is drawn to dramatically doomed dramas so it’s no wonder that he’s chosen The Great Gatsby as his next big project!

(I’m also a HUGE F. Scott Fitzgerald fan so as you can imagine I’m running around my house calling everyone I know).

Now, while I am looking forward to this endeavor, I am somewhat apprehensive about a studio trying to once again translate Fitzgerald’s heartbreaking tale of love and loss into a film media. The book, while well written and entertaining, has never really translated well into a film, no matter how skilled the director. My main theory behind this phenomenon is that it’s due to the way information is revealed about Gatsby in the novel.

Fitzgerald tells the tragic story of Gatsby and Daisy through the eyes of Nick Carraway, a young Yale graduate and new neighbor to Gatsby. While this is an affective method of story telling through a text media I don’t think it will translate (or has translated) well on screen. The story is told through Nick’s eyes and what he sees, hears, and experiences, but he doesn’t really participate in any of the story’s actual action which could render him, in the eyes of the audience, as a useless, eerie, voyeuristic neighbor who meddles in other people’s business.

The ultimate successes of the story’s interpretation will rely both on the talents of the director and writing staff as well as the audience’s ability to participate in Nick’s “voyeurism” without questioning it.

Until the opening date… I’ll just have to try and contain my excitement.

Here’s a link to a video interview with Baz discussing Gatsby:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI


Here’s a link to the 1974 movie starring Robert Redford:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI

There was also a movie made in 2000 staring Mira Sorvino as Daisy and Toby Stevens as Gatsby that I think is worth mentioning but I couldn’t find a trailer of the film online.

This Is Why I Love Natalie Portman

I love Natalie Portman for not only her talent as an actress, her intelligence, her cunning wit and charm, but also for her habit of selecting “unique” movie roles.

It has just been confirmed that Natalie Portman will now star as Lizzy Bennet in the newest Pride and Prejudice film. Her co-stars have yet to be confirmed but it is certain that most of them will be undead and in various stages of decay. Oh yea, this film will not be a remake of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice but will be an interpretation of the ever so popular book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

The novel actually follows the tale of Ms. Lizzy Bennet and her sisters pretty closely to Jane’s original story with the exception of the whole Mr. Darcy eating brains for dinner. I haven’t read the book… but will get on it ASAP!