OVP: Best Costume (2002)
The Nominees Were...
Colleen Atwood, Chicago
Julie Weiss, Frida
Sandy Powell, Gangs of New York
Ann Roth, The Hours
Anna Sheppard, The Pianist
My Thoughts: We are moving slowly into Best Costume today as we continue our look at the Oscar races of 2002, which takes the "period costume" thing to an extreme. In most years, this category is dominated by period costumes-Oscar has little use for contemporary, and admittedly 2002 isn't a year that you would automatically name-check for contemporary design. But in 2002, without nominations for Harry Potter or The Two Towers or Hero, we're truly in a realm where it's only period, not even fantasy costumes join the fray. We're going to start with Julie Weiss for no other reason than she's arguably the contender that had the least business being here.
The problem for me with Frida isn't that the designs are bad, it's that they don't stand out. Frida was one of many films in the past twenty years like Mr. Turner or Loving Vincent to use the paintings of an iconic artist not just as inspiration for a biopic, but as a backdrop into the world of the painter, and Julie Taymor should get credit for hatching this concept. Frida, though, doesn't have the same sort of pop on the costumes that the latter films do in jaw-droppingly recreating the worlds of Kahlo's paintings, and there's not enough "special" happening outside of those recreations for me to really warrant this nomination. Again, it's not so much bad as uninspiring in a list that otherwise is full of home runs.
This is almost certainly my favorite of all of the Gangs of New York nominations, after all. No costume designer alive does more to make men's fashion dance onscreen than Sandy Powell, and here she creates a meticulous bit of historical design with the flair of modern fashion. Think of Bill the Butcher's maroon velvet coat and too-high top hat (noticeably taller than every one of his fellow men-of-the-docks). This became a Halloween costume for a reason-it stands out, and it makes a balls-to-the-walls performance all the more spectacular. Throw in the dust-covered petticoats and red-striped shirts of the latter half of the film, and you have a costume budget that is bolstering the story & characters, not merely feeling like ornament.
This is also the case with The Pianist. The film is staggering in the way that the clothes continue to tell a story, perhaps even earlier than the story itself. We know The Pianist will eventually descend into the horrors of the Holocaust, but look at how progressively in the film's first hour the looks of this wealthy family start to descend into tatters, the way that the clothes that they can't tailor or update start to become worn, scuffed. It's crucial attention to detail in a film that is very focused on historical accuracy. Particularly with our main character Wladyslaw Szpilman, a well-dressed dandy who eventually must wear a Nazi coat to stay warm, clothes provide the backdrop for much of his character's isolation.
If you have Sandy Powell, you've gotta have Colleen Atwood, and of course Atwood finds ways to make the shorts shorter in Chicago. One of the main messages of Chicago is that Velma is the talent, Roxie is the aspirant, and you get that sense in the costuming, with Velma's dresses cut to flatter her more than Roxie's, high skirts & lowly-cut bodices. The film was of course borrowing from the stage show, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have something new to say & make it more cinematic, and particularly with some of the side characters like Matron Mama Morton's breast-pushing showgirl outfit or Lucy Liu's modernist bikini-cameo, Atwood is definitely playing with the audience's expectations, as well as the script's continual underlining of how the press objectifies women.
The final nomination is The Hours, which crosses three different time periods beautifully. Whenever you have a movie like this, obviously one era stands out, and for me that's likely the "Laura Brown" 1950's era, which is such a great compliment to Julianne Moore's other 1950's melodrama, Far From Heaven. Again, you have sexuality creeping below the surface with the juxtaposition of Toni Collette's glamorous housewife against Julianne Moore's frumpier one, but the way that each woman's fashion sort of stands as both an introduction to the characters and as we go on a way for us to show they've grown despite this all happening in a day is a remarkable achievement. Everything about this movie's looks pops in terms of its iconography.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Costume Designer's Guild in 2002 only split their categories into two halves, so we have Period/Fantasy vs. Contemporary. As you can imagine, the Period/Fantasy looks are more Oscar's tastes, though not as much as you'd guess with Oscar-blessed Chicago besting Frida, Road to Perdition, and The Two Towers, while About Schmidt won Contemporary against About a Boy, Igby Goes Down, Unfaithful, and White Oleander. The Two Towers would win the BAFTA, here against Catch Me If You Can, Chicago, Frida, and Gangs of New York. In terms of sixth place, it's gotta be The Two Towers, right? Trying to figure out the Academy's weird reaction to that movie is hard (it missed in a lot of noticeable places even as it was nominated for Best Picture), but I would assume it'd make it for Costume.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Yes, I'd definitely site The Two Towers, because it really steps up its game in the second movie, but perhaps more galling is the total miss for Far From Heaven, which couldn't even land a precursor citation. The glamorous, Douglas Sirk-inspired designs of this melodrama are totally worthy of consideration, and given its nominations in other categories, I'm surprised it couldn't sneak in here.
Oscar's Choice: Oscar used to love to shower its favorite movie with as many trophies as it could find, and Chicago was no exception, probably beating out Frida given that film's robust reception with the Academy elsewhere.
My Choice: Chicago is good, and it gets my silver, but I am going to go with the world-building work of The Hours, which perfects the universes of three different women living similar lives. Behind these two are The Pianist, Gangs of New York, and Frida.
And now, of course, it's your turn. Are you going to be dancing the cell block tango with Oscar or would you prefer to buy the flowers with me? Why do you think that the Academy skipped The Two Towers in so many categories it would honor the other two films in the series for? And do you think a contemporary design in 2002 was worthy of inclusion? Share your thoughts below!
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