Variety: Matteo Garrone’s retelling of “Pinocchio” got a surprise boost when his spin on the children’s classic made the Academy shortlist for hair and makeup.
Rather than rely on visual effects, he called on Mark Coulier to realize his vision and transform the actor into the puppet who becomes a boy.
2 comments:
I hadn't heard of this production of Pinocchio before but now I'm really interested in watching it. I can't imagine having to get a child to sit still for 3 hours every day while you painstakingly create art on their body. That is a true testament to patience and skill. From the trailer, I was really impressed with how realistic it looked with no aid from VFX. The process they went through to design and craft the one-use prosthetics was also fascinating to see. It's particularly interesting how they chose to break up the pieces to properly contour to the body. The fact that each finger is individually covered and rather than just giving the actor full-length pants, high socks, and shoes they chose to also treat his legs. From the reviews I've seen, this probably shouldn't have been marketed as a children's movie. It has a lot of dark themes and scenes including hanging Pinocchio from a noose and drowning a donkey.
This is obviously an incredible feat that is a true showcase of skill for the designers and artists involved. However, I cannot help but feel the need to wash my eyes. Something about it just feels wrong to me and I am having a hard time putting my finger on why. Like objectively, it's amazing. It's almost so amazing to me that I refuse to believe it and my mind starts telling me it's VFX. It just looks so smooth and perfect like an unnatural blend of wood and flesh.And the end result almost makes the child actor look like an old man someone tried to smooth over in photoshop. Setting aside how nightmarish I think this looks, I still have so many questions. How will they make the nose grow? Was that even included in this retelling? Why are they trying so hard to ignore VFX? Why do we need a Pinocchio retelling at all? That being said, I’m sure this film will be visually stunning, especially in the makeup department. It is just really not my cup of tea!
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