Entertainment

How they got harder than they fell and the power of the dog emulates western style – The Hollywood Reporter

Over the years, The West has provided audiences with some indelible fashion statements on the big screen, from Stetson’s dusty poncho and wide-brimmed shoes in Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name to ’60s came Doc Holliday’s school uniform – known as much for his stunning beauty as his sharp photography – as portrayed in films like Clementine my lover (1946), Gunfight at OK Corral (1957) and Headstone (1993).

Even as the genre has become an endangered species in recent decades, myths of frontier justice and raw action often allow page designers to Let their imaginations go wild. This year, the two Wests have distinctly different stripes, Jane Campion’s The power of the dog and Jeymes Samuel’s The harder it is for them to fall, provided their costume designers with a rich landscape that was guided by personality and circumstances.

For Netflix’s The harder it is for them to fallIn a game-changing western set in the 1890s with a predominantly Black cast, designer Antoinette Messam took her cue from Samuel, using historical figures like Nat Love, Rufus Buck and Mary Fields (“Stagecoach Mary”) – many of them former slaves – serve as a starting point for a creative license that is both invigorating and crowd-pleasing.

“Jeymes Samuel is very adamant that these people do not appear as they have appeared in many films before,” Messam said, “it is oppressed people, references to slavery, ragged clothes. . He’s not making a dusty, dirty cowboy movie. I had to consider the extent of my aging, especially knowing that the Nat Love gang would be seen coming out of the plains, and I wanted it to be natural – not dirty, because they weren’t dirty. Everyone.”

If the wardrobe changes are striking, with bright, bold colors often not associated with the West, the headwear remains consistent – Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beetz) in her stove top hat , which Messam inherited from Erykah Badu’s cover-up of the role in Samuel’s 2013 51-minute film Western They die by Dawn, and Trudy Smith, aka “Cruel Trudy” (Regina King), is distinguished by her current bowler.

Buck (Idris Elba), fresh out of prison, goes from a striped prison suit to a striped suit, determined to regain his position as mayor and savior of Redwood City, even as he rules by hand. iron punch. In one scene, he wears a pair of gray slacks and a chic vest, a plain white shirt dress with a rhinestone collar and, as a big touch, a chic red velvet jacket.

“I received this red sample, and I knew that Jeymes wanted to see red throughout the film,” Messam said. “[The jacket] does what we need it to do, which is to say, ‘I’m back. I’m here. I am strong.’ “

For Messam, blue and red tones evoke energy and vibrancy. And because Redwood City was a factory town that didn’t depend on mail-order garments from Europe, she was free to tint to the saturation she wanted. (The final showdown between Mary and Trudy took place in a mill among a series of pastel fabrics.)

The movie’s weirdest scene occurs when Stagecoach Mary confronts Buck for the first time in his pub in Redwood City, and she’s greeted by a writhing, nimble figure who looks just like her. can jump out from Ballets Russes. “It was the most challenging scene,” Messam said. “[The dancer Aahkilah Cornelius] has the fewest clothes of anyone in the movie, but she’s the hardest to dress up, because it takes a lot of beats. For practical reasons, she has to wear clothes, body paint, and netting. In Jeymes’ vision, she was nude but painted only blue. Think of her almost like an original burlesque dancer if she had a little extra clothing and took it off according to what she was wearing. I think it’s something that I made from scratch. No references available. I really had to dream it up in my head and figure out how to do it.”

Images are slow to load

Idris Elba as Rufus Buck in The harder it is, the more they fall.
Courtesy of David Lee / Netflix

Because the The power of the dog. gentler but equally attractive approach to her outfit.

The story, based on a novel by Thomas Savage, revolves around the Burbank brothers, Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George (Jesse Plemons), cowherds and horse trainers, whose routines are interrupted by George’s sudden marriage to Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst). Phil views Rose with disdain, seeing her as a gold digger, and expresses disdain for her clumsy teenage son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee).

As for the wardrobe, Phil seems to work, sleep and eat in his cowboy jeans, stocked with assorted chaps (leather for summer, wool for winter) and blazers. George, the bookkeeper, is all in business in suits and bows.

Campion’s Kiwi colleague Cameron said: “One of my big favorites is work clothes. “It is something I observe, collect and have great passion for, both for its structural quality and practicality, as well as for its durability and wear and tear.”

She views her subjects’ clothing as uniforms that both identify and conceal their true identities. “One of the main prerequisites of the movie was to create something for Phil that he could totally use as armor,” she explains, “as protection, like masculine clothing. this, [masks] His inner self is angry about who he really is, and his self-hatred. “

Images are slow to load

Benedict Cumberbatch (left) and Jesse Plemons as Phil and George Burbank and Kirsten Dunst as Rose Gordon-Burbank in The power of the dog.
Courtesy of Kirsty Griffin / Netflix

The clothes are also nostalgic, reminding Phil of his late mentor, Bronco Henry, whom we never see, haunting Phil’s memories throughout the film. In this regard, Cameron does not refer to other Western films but considers hot TV series by Tennessee Williams and John Steinbeck’s saga of Cain and Abel. East of Eden to get inspired.

Like Messam, Cameron doesn’t follow historical accuracy as much as her instincts. “I mean, of course, you do that research, but it can really get in your way,” she said. “And one of the things that Jane and [producer] Tanya [Seghatchian] do [was] create this amazing image reservoir. They asked a number of researchers in London to do a deep and in-depth study with photographic references of the American West, from the late 1800s to the 1970s. To me, it was real. more about feeling and texture than anything else and about the undercurrent – the emotions and the tension that can be felt. ”

This story first appeared in the independent November issue of The Hollywood Reporter. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

Source link

news7h

News7h: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button