www.backstage.com: This emperor definitely had clothes. Napoleon Bonaparte was known as much for his bicorn hat and long coat—and short stature—as his military prowess. To make sure all the characters in Ridley Scott’s biopic about the legendary French leader looked authentic, he brought in two pros: Janty Yates and David Crossman.
4 comments:
I think the length of production takes to achieve a look, even if it is on screen for seconds is extraordinary. Costuming for such a historic story has always seemed daunting to me. I think it's so interesting that these designers not only had to find and create the wardrobe for late 1800s court, balls, and everyday life but also appropriate costumes for the battlefield. This article talks a lot about authenticity and how these two brought it to the film. While I think the word, authenticity can be muddy sometimes and I think historical accuracy should be used more often I am always shocked by the sheer amount of research that goes into these films (or any project really) with massive budgets. My favorite part of the article was being able to see how they combined their artistic style and the accuracy of the clothing for the time within their pieces
Dramaturgy is one of my favorite areas of theater. I think that dramaturgy should influence designers' decisions more, and that designers should seek out dramaturgs to create their designs. I also really appreciated how on this project they tried to use as many non-animal products as they could. I think that using animal products in an entertainment piece is a little bit immoral, but I mean that hasn't stopped me from eating meat... What was really interesting to me was the fashion of the time. They had thrown out the rules that the kings had specified before, and so they had this really interesting design for this specific 20 year period in history. It kind of made me realize that trends are much quicker than I thought they were, and that when doing research into a specific era, you need to be absolutely sure of the timeline in order to maintain historical accuracy.
It was so cool to read about all the research that the designer did. I loved seeing the design drawings. I wish more movies released design drawings. I love to look at them and they really help you to see what the designer was thinking. It’s also really cool to compare the design drawings with the actual costumes in the movie. Another thing that I learned from reading this article is that people didn't used to wear underwear. I never knew that. That’s so weird. It makes me wonder when underwear became a thing. I was also super surprised at just how many costumes were made for this movie. They said that they made 28 dresses for Joséphine! They were all super intricate and detailed. That’s so impressive and so awesome. I wonder how long it takes to make that many costumes. If all the characters have that much detail I would be curious to see exactly how many man hours went into their creation.
I honestly don't know too much about Napoleon, and I have never heard about this movie even being created. However, looking at the drafts and the pictures of the costumes in the actual movie is phenomenal. The costumes are absolutely gorgeous and the long robes that Napoleon and his wife wear are incredible. I know I talked about Joker and another article but seeing as Joaquin Phoenix is playing Napoleon I've got to talk about it again! I mean Joaquin Phoenix is a genius. He is an incredibly well-rounded actor, and one who's facial expressions, tone inflection, and characteristics are just astounding. I loved him in Joker, and that was my main introduction to him. Now I'm not really a film buff and I don't really know many celebrities or like pop culture references or anything like that, but talking about stuff like this is really fun for me. I think it's really interesting designing for something that's a lot older because you have so much available research and references, especially for somebody like Napoleon who is this huge character and many people know the name of it feels almost intimidating but incredibly rewarding and impactful if you were to design for this movie.
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