OVP: Best Costume Design
The Nominees Were...
Lisy Christl, Anonymous
Mark Bridges, The Artist
Sandy Powell, Hugo
Michael O'Connor, Jane Eyre
Arianne Phillips, W.E.
My Thoughts: Oscar clearly has a fondness for nostalgia, at least when it comes to what he is wearing. The only one of these films with any sort of modern touches is W.E., and we all know that this nomination is more about the wears of Wallis and Edward than Abbie Cornish's sleepwalking turn as a former Sotheby's employee. It's a pity, because there's more to life than corsets, but that's the lineup Oscar dealt me, and so I shall indulge him.
We might as well start out with Madonna's second (and more ambitious) directorial achievement. The film is a nightmare-the only redeeming factor would be Andrea Riseborough's strong work as Wallis Simpson. In particular, Abbie Cornish's work is dreadful-an actress who exhibited a wide range in her work in Bright Star, this film shows the Abbie Cornish the tabloids had us believing was the case-a Sienna Miller redux. The film has awful pacing problems, is an editing nightmare, and overall is beyond forgettable.
But we're not here for all of that-we're here for the costume work, which I have to admit is the prime drawing point, and not a bad one at that. The color palette is excellent across the film, and the costumes seem to merge with the art direction-whether that be the country castles that Wallis and Edward frequent or the glamorously gloomy apartment that Cornish inhabits. Riseborough's looks capture that eternally chic allure that the real-life Wallis exuded throughout her decades in the spotlight. The costumes may not be revolutionary, but they do give you something sexy to look at while you're being bored out of your skull by the tedium.
Michael O'Connor, on the other hand, has a brilliant film to accessorize in Jane Eyre. Cary Fukunaga's dark tale of Britain's most famous governess may be the 697th onscreen incarnation of the love story, but he has a wicked sense of both Jane and Rochester, and manages to focus on the creepy wife in the attic (don't expect a spoiler alert on that one-the book's 150-years-old), while not abandoning the central love story. O'Connor assists this by creating a day-to-day look of the days spent at Thornfield Hall. His costumes never pull focus, but appear perfectly practical, lovely, and time-appropriate. He manages to find the plainness in Jane's strong demeanor, and manages to find sturdy suits to add to Rochester's imposing nature. Whether or not he deserved the Oscar we'll get to in a minute, though doing trouser fittings for Michael Fassbender is probably a greater reward than a dozen shiny gold men.
If we jump back a couple of centuries, we enter the world of Lisy Christl's Anonymous, and the world of Elizabeth and Shakespeare. Whether or not one buys into the film's premise, it's difficult to call the film anything other than atrocious. The movie is gory, bloody, and nonsensical (all in bad ways), and features wild overacting and scenery-chewing. Even Vanessa Redgrave herself can't hold it together, and if she can't save your film, no one can. The film's costumes, I also have to say, are elaborate, but not anything more than average in terms of quality. This seems to be a case of a designer who swung for the rafter, no matter the scene and the reason. The movie looks a bit like it robbed the rejects of the costume closet on Elizabeth-anything worth noting has already been done dozens of times (like those dresses worn by the elderly Elizabeth), and the rest of the frocks are run-of-the-mill.
The final two films I won't get into their overall quality, as they made it to some "higher-ranking" awards and probably because you're most familiar with them, so we'll just stick to the costumes. For The Artist, we are given yet another era that's been done-to-death on the film screen (the flapper set of the 1920's and old Hollywood glamour), though one has to give kudos for the shades that Bridges brings to the limited black-and-white pallet on display in the film. Still, I see beautiful dresses of this nature every single red carpet-the outfits don't have the character-developing advent of Jane Eyre or the "eye pop" of W.E.
Sandy Powell, easily the Oscar vet of this bunch, has been better than she was in Hugo, but I'm only going to be comparing the nominees from this year, not the past (more spectacular) triumphs of her previous efforts. In that case, Powell is in my estimation the only contender that can rival what O'Connor is bringing to the screen. Powell's designs have more razzle dazzle, but they still lend to the film's iconography. Look at the Station Inspector and how instantly memorable his outfit is onscreen, or how the streets of Paris are filled with fashionable, yet clearly weekday wears. Powell lends a strong aesthetic to the lovely art direction already lifting up Hugo's setting to strong levels.
Other Precursor Contenders: The BFCA dropped Anonymous and W.E. in favor of the more mainstream My Week with Marilyn and The Help (with The Artist taking the trophy). The CDG, which separates Contemporary, Fantasy, and Period films out, cited all but Anonymous in the Period Film category (instead going for The Help, and giving the trophy to W.E.), and also found time to mention films as diverse as Bridesmaids, Drive, Melancholia, Thor, and Red Riding Hood. Continuing the theme, the BAFTA's also dumped Anonymous, along with W.E., and instead went with My Week with Marilyn and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. All-in-all, one has to feel for Marilyn's Jill Taylor and The Help's Sharen Davis, who were almost certainly near misses for an Oscar nomination.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Drive does what few films are able to do-create an instantly iconic look with the scorpion jacket and driving gloves. Additionally, I'm in love with the ludicrously wealthy fashions of Melancholia, particularly anything Kirsten Dunst decided to sport onscreen. These are "too modern" for Oscar, but add more to their respective films' plots than Anonymous could ever hope to achieve.
Oscar's Choice: Oscar probably had it down to the excess of Anonymous and the black-and-white fun of The Artist, and they wisely chose the latter.
My Choice: Obviously for me, it comes down to Hugo and Jane Eyre. Both do their job of being arresting fashions, assisting their film's personality, and driving character. I'm going to go with O'Connor, though, who is given more difficult characters to match with their clothing, and yet he does it seamlessly-these clothes are pleasant to the eye, and yet have a worn quality that makes them look as if they were literally pulled from their characters' closets. A close race, but O'Connor gets the statue, with Powell, Phillips, Bridges, and Christl falling in line behind him.
And now, of course, I welcome you to discuss in the comments-of the five films, what movie deserved the trophy? What films should have been nominated? And of all films in 2011, which had truly the best Costume Design?
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