OVP: Best Costume (2010)
The Nominees Were...
Colleen Atwood, Alice in Wonderland
Antonella Cannarozzi, I Am Love
My Thoughts: Oh, you knew at some point I'd be forced to put opposing pictures of Helena Bonham Carter, considering how her two films dominated the Oscars in 2010, so I figured it would be most appropriate here, when you have two queens, steeped in their regalia, as the top contenders.
It's hard to say which costumes Bonham Carter would be more at home wearing. The King's Speech, after all, speaks quite a bit to her roots. The costumes on display in that film hearken her Merchant Ivory past, though they're a tad later chronologically than those wore in A Room with a View. One sort of suspects that the Costume branch of 2010 was up a crick with only one significant period film, usually their favorite, to fall back upon, and so this nomination was a gimme even though there's a very "been there, done that" sort of attitude with the costumes. They are subtle, unlike Atwood's, but they meld almost too far into the background. I started to suspect that perhaps Beaven, who was in fact Merchant Ivory's go-to designer and won an Oscar for her work with Bonham Carter in A Room with a View may have picked up some of her old designs and pushed them through here, at least that's how it appeared. All-in-all, fine, but not exciting.
Colleen Atwood's work is rarely what you'd call old-fashioned, but her work in Alice left something to be desired. She of course has a wide (some would say gaudy or at least far too neon) color palette to be working with, but again, there's an ostentatious nature to this work that left me feeling more in a ghastly rather than amazed mood. Bonham Carter's queen, Depp's ragamuffin Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway's atrocious sugar-y look all seem overbaked and overdone. She can still amaze (I love some of the dresses that Mia Wasikowska dons, as well as her battle armor), but I know she can do better, and, more importantly for the OVP, Oscar definitely had stronger choices in 2010.
One of those choices is Atwood's partner in crime Sandy Powell. Interesting fact-Powell and Atwood have competed against each other six times at the Oscars, and every time that it's happened one or the other has won. There has never been a year where one hasn't won without the other being nominated, and in the years where they both were nominated, no one has beaten them both (though Alexandra Byrne had to have gotten very, very close). Either way, if you forced me to choose, Powell and her fine meld of the modern and the classical generally are my favorite of the two, and in 2010, despite Atwood being one of the Oscar frontrunners and Powell getting in based on it being a weak year and perhaps a little because of the streak (he said with an awards-loving giggle), I still favor Powell.
The Tempest, which we just discussed yesterday, is not a good movie, and perhaps is even a lesser film than Alice (it's a hard toss between two very different flicks), but the Costume work in it is lovely. Powell knows how to sell a signature look, and I loved the combination gown/tunic that Helen Mirren is wearing, covered in a swath of blues, teals, and greens showing her connection with the sea. The men as well get colorful, rich wears and we even get to see a scene where the clothes, hung on a line, are shown as if it's a fashion show within the movie. In a film that thrives on the natural melding of colors (think of all of the whites, blues, burgundies, and plums that populate the rock-addled sequences), Powell creates a collection that stimulates but doesn't distract the eye.
Mary Zophres is the only one of the designers to be a bit hampered by dressing men, rather than women. Men onscreen, unless you have the advantage of dressing during Elizabethen times or backstage at a drag show, don't have as many choices to work with as you do with women. There's of course our young supporting actress, but unlike her red carpet presence (remember how Hailee Steinfeld always ended up on the best-dressed list?), she's fairly limited in her apparel here. I have to say that while I admire the authenticity (notice how Steinfeld's clothing is slightly too large for her), I'm not wowed here. I know that part of a costume designer's job is to make sure that the clothing fits the film, but when you're giving out an Oscar, you need more than that: you need it to match the movie and be a visual stunner. Sandy Powell does that, Mary Zophres doesn't get there.
Antonella Cannarozzi also does it. Her work in the underrated (it was critically-acclaimed, but not enough people saw it, so I'm going with underrated) I Am Love has a couple things going for it that Powell also had: both a rich color palette (both oddly have the city of Milan featuring heavily in their plots, now that I think about it) and an iconic fashion muse (for Powell it's Mirren and for Cannarozzi, the sublime Tilda). Cannarozzi knows how to make Swinton (and the rest of the cast, but let's be honest, you're spending every second focusing on Tilda) look effortlessly flawless. Look at the cuts of the gowns. You half feel like you're in an issue of Vogue, except the fashion doesn't go provocative or hyper-modern, but instead stays clean and flawless. It's as if the world has been populated by Dior and Valentino and a dozen other similarly-minded designers. More than Sex and the City and its sea of shoes, this is the fashion world that we are desperate to live in (but like Sex and the City, you can't afford it). In a film that's a beautiful triumph, Cannarozzi's designs may be the crowning achievement.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Costume Designers Guild splits its categories into Fantasy, Contemporary, and Period, so we've got a lot to cover. In Fantasy, Alice was the victorious one, beating out The Tempest and the skintight jump suits of Tron: Legacy, which missed out with Oscar (though getting to do Garrett Hedlund's inseam is probably a far greater reward). For contemporary, none of the films went on to succeed with Oscar (the Academy, even in a year short on supply, favors time travel for Costume work), but chose everything from the hooded sweatshirts (The Social Network), tailored suits (Inception), more expensive tailored suits (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps), and risque costumes (Burlesque) before finally deciding on the tutus of Black Swan. And finally, for Oscar's favorite category, Period, they chose The King's Speech (the victor), True Grit, and (making all of us feel old by considering the 1990's period) The Fighter. The BAFTA Awards chose to give Atwood their prize as well, nominating The King's Speech and True Grit to go with the unique Black Swan and Made in Dagenham, one of the few other period offerings of the year. Overall, I think that sixth place was probably a race between Black Swan (which was accompanied by quite a bit of controversy over who actually did the designs, which probably cost Amy Westcott her first Oscar nomination) and Made in Dagenham, and considering this branch's relative disregard for Box Office (they regularly nominate films that have flopped), my gut says it was Dagenham that was the odd film out.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Westcott may have been embroiled in a scandal at the time, but I still think that she should have been included. Her color choices with Lily and especially Nina in the film were wonderful, and in addition to the Makeup work in the film (which should have won), Westcott should have gotten a nomination to go with the film's considerable nominations haul.
Oscar's Choice: In a year that I've already pointed out wasn't the greatest, I suspect this was a tussle between Atwood and Beaven, with the huge girth of clothing in Alice just slightly taking out the sweep of The King's Speech.
My Choice: Though I admired what Sandy Powell did in The Tempest, once again I'm going to give her second place as Cannarozzi's work in I Am Love is too epic and breathtaking to ignore. After these two, I'd go with Beaven, Atwood, and Sophres bringing up the rear.
After that designer marveling, if you have thoughts to share, please do. Tell me: what was your favorite of the five nominees? Which wardrobe would you most like in your closet? And if given the choice to design, would it be Helen Mirren, Tilda Swinton, or Helena Bonham Carter whom you'd most want to be your muse?
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