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The Fall- It's Multiple Fall-ses
17 Plays3 days ago
This is an epic tale. The kind of story that could only be created by a 6-year-old who's already Been-Through-It and an injured stuntman who's currently Going-Through-It. Full of questionable motives but truly stunning costumes. Eiko Ishioka is back with more brilliantly realized designs that can't be contained by time, place, or reality.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460791/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_6_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_the%2520fall
https://www.avclub.com/tarsem-1798213985
Music: Cassette Deck by Basket case
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Transcript
Introduction to Hot Set Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
I'm Melinda. I'm Ariel. This is Hot Set, the movie podcast about costume design.
00:00:21
Speaker
Hello and welcome to a new episode of Hot Set with us. This is Ariel and Melinda. We probably just had our our intro just before this, but who gives a damn?
00:00:35
Speaker
You can hear our names again. on excitement.
Overview of 'The Fall' and Aiko Ishioka's Costumes
00:00:39
Speaker
ah This week we are talking about The Fall by Tar Sam Singh with costumes designed by Aiko Ishioka. This movie came out in 2006.
00:00:48
Speaker
to howism six like I think so. Yeah, it seems like it sort of like but had a ah more gradual distribution.
00:00:58
Speaker
So I feel like the the year date kind of varies. It does. So I am, I think at first I want to apologize because I think in our last episode, I introduced this by saying Tarim Singh and that was very stupid.
00:01:12
Speaker
And ah um I might not, but that definitely woke me up like in the middle of the night. This is Tarsem Singh. And um okay, first let's start with impressions and just like first thoughts and like yeah a little brief synopsis. And then we'll go into some stuff that we've learned about the movie. And then of course we'll talk about the movie itself.
00:01:32
Speaker
So the synopsis on IMDb in 1920s, Los Angeles, a bedridden patient in a hospital captivates a young girl with a fantastic tale of heroes, myths, and villains on a desert island. but Wow. ah okay Interesting synopsis. And I'm not quite sure that I'd agree like the end of it. I don't think they're always on a desert island.
First Impressions and Visual Style
00:01:54
Speaker
Certainly not. They start on one. they They start on a very tiny butterfly. Yeah, like a sandbar. Yes. And then they, you know, go into a wider world.
00:02:06
Speaker
And okay, before we begin to do it, Melinda, this was your first time watching this, right? Yes. What were your first impressions? Put it all on you.
00:02:17
Speaker
That's why we're here. um I wasn't really sure what to expect because I feel like this is one of those movies that people say a lot of things about.
00:02:29
Speaker
So um i actually really enjoyed the movie. i i mean, it's like the the beauty of the movie is absolutely undeniable, but I also enjoyed the story of the movie as well. And i enjoyed our two lead characters very much and really enjoyed their performances. So honestly,
00:02:52
Speaker
Good. Good movie. That's my takeaway. What about you, Arielle? I know you've seen it before. i I love this movie. I think that the visual language of Tarsem Singh and Aiko Ishioka with him is so stunning.
00:03:09
Speaker
I think that their work together, because like the the movies that I've seen and liked, it's them working. she's She's working with him as costume designer. but like his visual, I don't know, aims are like, so he's so good at directing and making movies that feel like nightmares or like dreams, regardless of whether you like them, they feel like they're dreams.
00:03:36
Speaker
And so I really, really love that so much. I'm like, I hope we watch mirror mirror so we could talk about that one.
00:03:45
Speaker
As long as you don't make me watch the cell, because I do hate that movie. We can talk about the cell, but we don't have to watch the cell because that one is divisive. And like, I think that there's a lot of beautiful visual stuff in the cell.
00:03:57
Speaker
Undeniable. Undeniable. So it's like, I think that that is such a strong, strong thing. And so like, I just love the styles of his movies. And yeah.
00:04:09
Speaker
Ika Wishioka is, of course, just like my, she's just one of my favorites. Like she just, yeah I love her stuff. And I love this movie. I love
Plot and Character Analysis
00:04:19
Speaker
that that synopsis on IMDb is like so simple because the production of this movie was nuts.
00:04:25
Speaker
And then the story I think is like really Kind of lovely because it's like, it's sad. And there was an article where I was like, it's really creepy and messed up. and it's like, it's not that it's creepy. It's that it's dark.
00:04:38
Speaker
where It's dark. It's dark. This Hollywood stunt man has fallen in one of his stunts, jumping off of like a train track bridge into a river. And he is now paraplegic and he's recovering and he is, we're going to say it, suicidal. He's very depressed. His girlfriend left him for the star of the movie.
00:04:58
Speaker
And like his life is falling apart. And as with anybody who would experience a traumatic injury, he's not doing well. And have this, like, it's, it's, it's not a great time. Like, no, it's, it's, ah it's like, it would, it would be bad for anyone, but it's yeah not surprising. Like it was a terrible thing to go through.
00:05:19
Speaker
And so it's like, what we're seeing too, what makes it worse is that he doesn't seem to have people around him who are caring about him aside from the doctors and the nurses. But there's like lawyers, there's the star who like won't even really come in and just kind of talk shit about him and his girlfriend, his ex, who's like sitting in the car and won't even look at him. And like it's just these people who are like, just get paid and like get over It's like, that's just horrendous because his livelihood has been ripped from him. And he doesn't... This is also a time in which people with disabilities and and long-term injuries were not necessarily given...
00:05:55
Speaker
hope or like anything that they had to like dig for themselves so it's it's a massive turn in his life and um he meets this little girl named alexandria and she is there recovering after having fallen in an orange grove where her family picks oranges um and she has like super messed up her yeah shoulder or arm yeah so she's got this cast where her arm is always up propped up it's like the kind of like the the rod that goes in yeah it's So she has this little sweater that's like one arm and then buttoned under like around it.
00:06:31
Speaker
but i Like the sweater. i was so obsessed with her little sweater. So sweet. And like she's got these little braids with little ribbons. So it's like she's very loved by her family, but they can't stay with her. So they come and visit and it's just her mother. And I think her sister.
00:06:51
Speaker
and we get like this little story about you know like through through the story we hear that her father died and like when roy the stuntman asks her what happened she says angry people burned down our house and uh then we just kind of are led to understand and then find out later when she's having a nightmare that he was killed by the people who burned down their house yeah and um In Romania.
00:07:18
Speaker
I believe so. Yes. Yeah. And um so this little girl is just like recuperating, but she's fascinated with Roy and they kind of become these little friends, but he is using her.
00:07:32
Speaker
um now He's like bribing her with telling her this little story. And she's helping him build the story and she's like entertained by it, but he's weaving in things from his life.
00:07:43
Speaker
And at first he starts by weaving things from her life, like making the main character her dad. But then she's like, why is this guy talking like that? Yeah. No, this is ridiculous. My dad's dead.
00:07:54
Speaker
Like it should be you. And so he's like, okay. So at first we have this like protagonist in the fairy tale who is this like kind of campy masked bandit.
00:08:06
Speaker
And then he switches. He's kind of Spanish coded. Yeah, he's supposed to be Spanish. And then it becomes Roy. And then Roy's like, Alexandria's like, wasn't he Spanish? And he's like, no, was French. And for like two seconds, he has the most campy like French accent and then it just disappears.
00:08:23
Speaker
But we see them both in the the fantasy, in the fable, if you will. And then we see them in the real world. And while Roy is telling the story, um, we see days go by days go by. And like each day he's like building her trust a little bit. And he's like trying to find out if she can read English. And then he's telling her that he can't sleep and he needs certain pills to help him sleep.
00:08:48
Speaker
So she thinks that he's doing him a favor when she's actually helping him in a suicide attempt that does not succeed. And then she keeps getting more and more worried because she can't see him and she's worried that he can't sleep. So she tries again to steal more pills and she ends up Herving herself very badly and like needing surgery on her skull. And yeah, she feels horrendous about so many falls in this movie. Like this movie is very aptly titled. It's not just one singular fall. Yeah. It's many.
00:09:21
Speaker
And Roy feels just so guilty and so sad. And he's just like so, so low. And he keeps trying to tell her like, there is no happy ending with me. So the story that he's telling her is never going to be happy.
00:09:32
Speaker
But then at the very end of it, when he keeps trying to kill all the characters and he succeeds with both of them most of them, but he like turns it at the last second and he saves his character.
00:09:43
Speaker
Yeah, because she's like begging him. She's begging him to stop killing everybody in the story. But then she she stops talking about the people in the story. And she says, I don't want you to die. yeah And that like pulls him a step out of his despair.
00:09:59
Speaker
and like they both, I don't know that she's really been able to like grieve her father and her injury and her loneliness and so like all of that is like plugged in there and so they they end the movie with um kind of a happy ending in this fairy tale that he's been telling her where the daughter and the father yeah end up together and like dump the ex-girlfriend who like Oh, that ex-girlfriend is terrible. She's terrible.
00:10:25
Speaker
And she's like, this was a test to see how much you loved me. And and they're like, okay, we'll just go on your own way. We'll go on ours. Yeah, like, get wrecked. So it it's like this kind of finding a way to a little bit of healing through telling a story to this little girl and everything that happens around it.
00:10:43
Speaker
And what's really interesting is that the little girl, Alexandria, who is played by a romania Romanian actress who was six years old at the time. had she so small did not she like She had been learning English from the time that she was four, but she was not fluent.
00:11:02
Speaker
And Tarsem Singh noticed that when he started working with her, 10 days in, she was starting to get fluent. So he like made sure that more Romanian people were around that the English would with like go and would stay a little bit broken but what's okay okay let's get into the meat of this look I just I found her performance so affecting yes she was such she's a very naturalistic performance in the movie and it was so good i think the first thing she'd ever done
00:11:37
Speaker
yeah And she hasn't done very many things since.
Tarsem Singh's Filmmaking Techniques
00:11:41
Speaker
um But she she was just a six-year-old girl who was like speaking a second language that was not fluent. And so there are many times in the movie where you can tell she doesn't quite understand what Lee Pace, who is playing Roy, has said.
00:11:54
Speaker
And so she'll just repeat the last thing she said, or she'll say what she thinks. Yeah. And then at other times, she's able... Yeah, like smile and nod. But then there are other scenes where she's speaking a little bit more confidently.
00:12:09
Speaker
And so we kind of get to see this little girl like growing through this because she's also like actually losing teeth through the process of filming because the filming took so long. It took years.
00:12:22
Speaker
This is crazy. Okay, so Tar-San Singh is also, ah like I guess, a music video and commercial director so right can like in this uh interview that i was reading on av club which i highly recommend because it's very expansive but i do want to forewarn any readers that are something speaking without a filter and there are this is from 2008 i believe so there are some terms being used in here that are ones that we would not use now because people were advocating for them to not be used then, but it's more mainstream conversation. I believe now to be like, let's be respectful of different, you know, people and not use shorthand terms that are derogative.
00:13:05
Speaker
So, um, It just pops in for a second and goes like, okay. okay now kind of like takes your breath away for a second when you're like, wow. Okay.
00:13:16
Speaker
yeah But he talks about how his process of being this like commercial director, he can just choose what projects he wants. He doesn't have to do everything that comes to him. So what he does is he will look for, okay, here are 10 projects on the table. Here's where they're being filmed. Where do I want to film for this movie?
00:13:35
Speaker
I'll take that job and then I'll fly the actors out and we'll film this portion of the movie in on that location in that place. And that's tricky.
00:13:46
Speaker
Nuts. So I think I read that it was like 24 different like international. but Yeah. Yeah. yeah That's that's that's what I read as well. it was.
00:13:57
Speaker
And I mean, like the the beauty with which they are all showcased is amazing. Like they, they really made use of those locations in a wonderful way. Like it reminded me of some of the big like landscapes and stuff that we saw in like Hero.
00:14:18
Speaker
Like it's just these beautiful, huge, like untouched, swaths of the earth or beautiful like ah building like beautiful like buildings that have been there for a very long time or whatever. but like Just so lovingly shot.
00:14:35
Speaker
and Just like such depth in the color and like the cinematography is just so incredible. yeah and so Everything feels really clear and it feels and it's probably like pumped up in post but like but maybe some of it. but it's It just is so so colorful and it makes it feel like this can't be like regular life like it can't um right this isn't the same earth that i live on surely yeah
00:15:06
Speaker
So what else is crazy is that the film was self-financed. And ah the crew... Do we know what the budget ended up being? like did did you Did they have that information? i don't know. Because this this okay this interview goes for a while. And I think I made it maybe a third of the way through. Got it.
00:15:27
Speaker
And there's a lot of information in there. So... like He used the same crew and equipment that he was using for his commercial work. And so, i mean, this is just nuts. Okay.
00:15:42
Speaker
Now here's where we go into how crazy before, way before we're going talk about any costumes, about some more of the, the absolute insanity. And this also took my breath away. Okay.
00:15:55
Speaker
Okay. okay So the first part, okay, no, I have to this is Tarsem Singh's adaptation of, um, a film called your right Ho Yes. Which is 1981 Bulgarian film, which okay is also, it's very similar. It's, um,
00:16:20
Speaker
I think its it takes place in modern day, so it's in the eighty s where a movie stuntman befriends an injured child in a hospital and tells him a fantastical story of pirates and adventure while trying to manipulate him to get drugs to end his life.
00:16:32
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Very similar. Yeah. Very similar. And Tarsem decided that he was going to make his adaptation of that. That was like, I think a passion project for him while he was going through film school.
00:16:43
Speaker
And so that's why he went to such lengths to finance this on his own and to make this happen and to like, take those commercial shoots and then be like, okay, we're going to make everybody come out here, but it goes even even further. Okay. Yeah.
00:17:00
Speaker
This man, don't, I'm trying to figure out but this, this man lied to his crew and cast. ah ha He specifically decided which crew members could be there for a shoot.
00:17:15
Speaker
for for when they're in the hospital in South Africa. He says, yeah kind of directly quoting from the AV club, I had to get rid of my main crew because they knew the plot line that he'd had for 23 years, which changed. And this is me now, which changed when he cast Katinka, who was six. Originally he had something slightly different in mind, but then he wanted her to basically create the fantastical part of the story.
00:17:45
Speaker
And so um things were evolving as it was being filmed. And um he didn't want anybody to know that Lee Pace could walk.
00:17:58
Speaker
Right, right. so I did kind of, my eyes like kind of scanned over that line. And i think maybe on like the Wikipedia page and I was like, huh? And just like kept moving.
00:18:09
Speaker
So for this shoot in South Africa, this hospital, he specifically chose crew that had no idea what the original plot was going to be because he didn't want anything of that to go into it. And He also wanted no one who'd known any of Lee Pace's work. And this is early in Lee Pace's career. He'd done soldiers girl. And like, I'm not sure what else. Cause I didn't pull up his IMDb. Cause why would I at this moment? Right. But this is like pre pushing daisies.
00:18:39
Speaker
Oh yes. This is early. And so he said that they told everybody Lee can't walk. And, um, ah that every, they told everyone that a theater, he was a theater actor in New York who'd had a serious accident and was paralyzed.
00:18:56
Speaker
So all these people did not know that he could walk. He had somebody who was assigned to him to wheel him in and out of the bathroom, all of these things. Lee Pace was at the gym one day and like reported to Tarsem that someone off the crew or like one of the cast members like walked by and like saw him and he was like, oh my God, I was so freaked out.
00:19:15
Speaker
And then Realized that he didn't actually see him because like when you're at the gym, you're not really like staring at people and all that stuff. But like, yeah, the whole point is that Tar Sam Singh wanted it to feel real.
00:19:27
Speaker
And he wanted it to feel real for the little girl because like he goes on to describe no matter how nuts this is.
Ethical Considerations in Filmmaking
00:19:34
Speaker
He went on to describe that he didn't want people to. he was like sometimes on sets when things are happening, people get jokey.
00:19:42
Speaker
And so he's like, I didn't want anybody walking over the bed. I didn't want anybody, you know, doing certain things that you would do when you know that this person doesn't have a spinal injury. And, um, which is like, okay, I understand wanting like very similitude, like,
00:19:57
Speaker
Truth telling. But when they revealed to this child, when they reveal no to the whole crew, because she was like little. And so I'm not quite sure how they how they revealed it to her because I'm not sure if he really describes that here.
00:20:13
Speaker
But like she finds out, obviously. I mean, she has to. She's going to act. Yeah. yeah She's going to act with him. Yeah. but um But yeah, for 12 weeks, they basically like had all these people thinking this thing and then like.
00:20:29
Speaker
afterwards they told them and they were like, you could have just told us the truth. And he was like, I'm going to stick to my guns. I needed it to be real. And they were like, so lied to and felt like that's just, that's, that's nuts.
00:20:43
Speaker
likek I don't know. I would have been really mad if that was like, if I was part of that crew, I would not have appreciated that because an adult. They did not appreciate it at all. And so i i just, I,
00:20:54
Speaker
And that's one of the ones that like hit me like a hurricane. And he he kept telling people it had nothing to do with trust. It had very much to do with the atmosphere I needed for those 12 weeks. So that's one of those things where people talk about, like, what do you do to like make art? And it's like, I think you could have done just fine by telling people the truth.
00:21:11
Speaker
but I know. That's such a weird... It's it's it's an it's weird to me because people... I don't want to single out directors, but sometimes they they do these weird contrived kind of manipulative things in the name of whatever art they're trying to make. And it's sort of like, okay, but if you don't ever try anything else, you're going to assume that your tactics work because they work and not just...
00:21:40
Speaker
that they work or that everyone is a professional and they don't need to be tricked in order to act or crew properly. Like if you don't actually ever try it by being honest with people, you'll continue believing that it doesn't work.
00:21:58
Speaker
Yeah. And I simply don't believe that. It's ah I don't. Yeah. I'm very much with you. Tippi Hedren did not need actual birds attacking her in the birds.
00:22:09
Speaker
Like it's like, there's some story I cannot, it's like, I can't remember. It was like Laurence Olivier acting opposite someone who was brought up in the like method school of acting in the like sixties and seventies.
00:22:26
Speaker
And they were doing some project together they, the whoever he was acting against, some guy, like stayed up all night to like make himself be like crazy set and whatever, and was just like being the most stereotypically annoying version of Method that you can imagine.
00:22:45
Speaker
And the advice that he got from Laurence Olivier was, my boy, why don't you try Yeah. acting And I really just have to, like, I agree with that because I'm like, yeah, why don't you just try acting instead of- I agree with that so much. That's also why you have so many other departments on set is to create those other things to make you be able to have a thing to act with it. So it's like- I know.
00:23:10
Speaker
We don't need to be brutalizing anyone. And like the part that is honest and true that I think is very interesting is the fact that they cast a six-year-old non-actor who speaks a different language.
00:23:21
Speaker
And I think that that carried so much. And like, even if she yeah knew or didn't know anything about Lee, he's a stranger. Right. So it's like, we see her slowly get closer to him the same way that any child would, when they're interacting with someone more and more, it's like, you start to trust them get to know them and get familiar.
00:23:41
Speaker
And so they, they apparently like hid the camera and did all these things to make it look, um, more natural for her so that she wouldn't be like looking at the camera and she would yeah lean over and whisper things to me thinking that nobody could hear and then Tarsem says like and then some idiot like me would laugh in the next room watching this and she'd go with that about I can kind of understand like maybe making the camera really low-key or something if you're concerned that she'll like look into it like I understand that those things I understand
00:24:17
Speaker
yeah sir But no I understand and putting her arm in a cast. but Yeah, absolutely. Like, she is, at the end of the day, six. Like, her... her like relationship with the material is going to have to be different because of that. But that doesn't translate to the adult crew members needing not to be lied to at all. yeah So that was very strange. um But like, okay, wo on bad things like it, I don't know. It's just, there's so there's so much in this and because it was self-financed and because it happened over the course of a few years,
00:24:56
Speaker
It just like so much is going on, but there, one of the things that I love the most, which I think this is all super important is that I did briefly mention this, that ah this little girl was part of telling the fairy tale. She was, he asked her um what happens here and she would pitch something and then Tarsem would, would um edit it down because he says that it was super out there.
00:25:26
Speaker
And so i also I think that we get a little bit of that because at the end of the movie, we hear like her voiceover. i think that this was from him asking her what is happening in the story.
00:25:39
Speaker
And then he put the audio in there because at the very end, when she's back with her family and she's healed, um she's back in the orange groves and, um,
00:25:50
Speaker
She's like chasing a butterfly, which she calls almost like a flutter by, but not quite. I can't remember what she calls it. And um she's like, she's putting an old man's false teeth into two hollowed out um orange peels and then putting them together and then burying them so that an orange tree can grow.
00:26:13
Speaker
it's full of teeth. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, yeah, that feels like a kid's story. And I feel like that's that's what she was telling. was like That was part of the story that she was telling. And then she got she got a little bit of it put in there.
00:26:28
Speaker
I love that. So
Costume Design in Fantasy vs. Reality
00:26:30
Speaker
cute. But the story has some very fantastical little asides you know that are yeah pretty fantastic. But then like all while this is happening, it's a story for a little girl, but all while it's happening is what's happening to Roy.
00:26:45
Speaker
And like yeah when he has taken the pills and he's telling the story of like this wedding sequence, which we will go into depth about, you hear one of the characters, the the mystic say like, you've taken too many pills.
00:26:59
Speaker
If you fall asleep, you'll die. And so there's just like real things happening outside of him yeah and in the story. ah sorry okay. Okay.
00:27:11
Speaker
So we have two worlds, right? We've got the nineteen thirty s and like this hospital. 20s. Yeah. because it And yet Wikipedia. Yeah. They're silent films. Wikipedia claimed 1915, but everything else I've read said the 20s. And I was like, I don't know, but it's silent film era. At least we know. Yeah. So maybe like 1915 to early 1920s, somewhere in there. So. Right.
00:27:36
Speaker
Like I that go with that. Yeah, I also wasn't like super in-depth looking at everything. I feel like it's... It looked more 20s to me based on the clothing. Because of the cars too. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So true. um And certain hairstyles we've got like in the girlfriend, the Hollywood actress.
00:27:55
Speaker
I think it's early 20s. So um we have this like realistic world where everything is pretty... non-saturated right like it's right it's there are rich people with like beautiful cut suits and like gorgeous light white dresses like all those things but it's in a hospital so we have like nuns we have nurses we've got doctors we've got all the patients who are wearing their own clothing and it's very very divided from the fantasy world because we step into that and everything is like super saturated 10.
00:28:29
Speaker
um like to ten Oh my God, the main characters in the fairy tale each have like a dominant color in their color palette. And so we have, these characters are basically archetypes.
00:28:42
Speaker
Yeah, they're very, um and they have like one look. it's They have one look and a couple don't have names. They have title. And this was another thing that I was like, who we is that Lee Pace as this Hollywood stunt actor in the 1920s is introducing these characters in the beginning of the story. And he's like saying a lot things that I'm like, okay, this is what somebody yeah This is what a white man in 1920 would say.
00:29:10
Speaker
Okay. there is There is a lot of that. yeahp There's a lot of that. so um There's... ah I guess I should open my notes. Otodanga. This is like the Wizard of Oz.
00:29:23
Speaker
apps i that's it yeah That's in my notes. i was like It's like the Wizard of Oz. they only people They're people that Alexandria has seen at the hospital or knows from the Orange Grove. and so They're people that she knows and that also... has like the story that we see visually is her imagination of the words that Lee Pace is saying to her. So it's like, it's, it's her experience, like filtering into that stuff and informing it. So it's like people that she has met, interacted with, whatever, like, but yeah, I was like, Oh my God, it's like the wizard of Oz plus like the princess bride where it's like yeah little Fred Savage in the bed being told the story.
00:30:06
Speaker
And also the little princess where yeah she's telling the story, um like the fairy tales to the other little girls in the house. And in one of these articles, Tarzan, I'm saying mentions a little princess. So was like, okay. Yeah.
00:30:22
Speaker
um So we have Otabenga, who is also a guy whose name we don't know, who's working at the hospital, who's delivering ice. And Otabenga is wearing, like, leather. And i he's got these like this incredible helmet with these very tall horns. And, this like, chain or metal. It's almost like beaded chainmail. Yeah. Because it's not chainmail with loops.
00:30:48
Speaker
Right. They're, like, beads. It's like balls. Yeah. It's so... But it's like armored. Yes, it's an armored helmet. And um then we have the Indian who's in green and like bronze and the green is like a sapphire green. And I feel like Otabanga might be wearing more than just like browns and...
00:31:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's like metallics. And I don't remember because, yeah, something that is interesting with all of the characters is like the level of like how covered each person is like varies so much. And you're like, okay, so either the person who's very like body is very exposed and the person who's in like an ankle length coat, one of them's hot and one of them's cold. Like, yeah you know, this is not the real world logic. This is fairytale logic.
00:31:37
Speaker
And so like Otavanga is wearing like kind of like a skirt situation. yeah And like we're seeing his arms, his torso, his legs. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, I feel like there's a chance he could have been pretty comfortable compared to some in the heat and also could have been suffering because they were definitely filming in deserts.
00:31:55
Speaker
And yeah so the Indian, i believe his counterpart in the real world is a gentleman, Sikh gentleman she who is the orange grove. working with right yeah one of these yeah people who's picking oranges um but there is some like weird kind of thing because like the way that that Roy talks about that character is he seems to be referring to ah a Native American person. This is what I'm talking about is the terminology that's used here is that he's, but but it's also, he's using terms that we don't necessarily want to use at all about Native Americans.
00:32:37
Speaker
yeah um Indigenous folks to the U.S. But... yeah, what she's picturing is something different. And so she's picturing a gentleman from India. India. And like, that's like, that's what she knows because she knows that man.
00:32:55
Speaker
yeah So it's like his wife is like wearing this beautiful, sorry. And like all of this gorgeous, like red everywhere. And then he himself is wearing this like, Oh my God, just like beautiful green. And he just like has all this, he's just gorgeous.
00:33:11
Speaker
Yeah. and yeah We have freaking Luigi. So again, these are archetypes. Luigi, the explosive explosives expert whose color palette is like orange and red and yellow. And he's got these appliqued flames on the back of his coat.
00:33:27
Speaker
yeah These guys are like the Spice Force 5. We got the demolition expert. This is exactly what it is. Oh my god.
00:33:40
Speaker
We continue on and we've got the naturalist, Charles Darwin, which is so funny that it's like yeah Charles Darwin. And so he's wearing this jacket out of like basically faux fur. jack And it yeah it makes him look like like a it's like feathery kind of yeah feeling, but it's And it's meant it it has like butterfly styled markings and yeah it's like red and white red white purple black black yeah and um and like later on in the film we see his sketch like his his notebook open and that he has been studying like certain birds and things and that there's like yeah pattern looks like one yeah he and then he also has like a bowler hat he does with his giant like bowler hat
00:34:29
Speaker
yeah And I think he has jodhpurs on. Did you clock the jodhpurs? That's a theme, listeners, for me. i will always notice when someone's wearing jodhpurs. He also has a little monkey with his buddy. Yeah.
00:34:44
Speaker
yeah And I've forgotten the monkey's name. R.I.P. Me too. i But he's like a little sneaky guy and I love him. And then um we have the black band the original Black Bandit who's out with this crew to go save his brother, the Blue Bandit, who we never see.
00:35:01
Speaker
But right he starts to wear his like blue robe over his black and gold um sleeveless and skirted like attire. It's a pretty rad outfit.
00:35:13
Speaker
It's beautiful. I love it so much. It's got like not epaulette. Does he have epaulettes? But it has this like trend, like details up in front to make it look like a uniform, like a military uniform.
00:35:29
Speaker
Yeah. The gold braiding, like rows of gold braiding, or I think people might also be a like If you think of like a um stereotypical like circus ringmaster, the gold, like that might be something that people are more familiar with like visually.
00:35:44
Speaker
But i don't I'm looking at a picture, I don't see any epaulettes, but it does have a standing collar with more gold on it. Yeah, because like he doesn't have any sleeves, so i feel like an epaulette would be kind of crazy.
00:35:56
Speaker
I mean, but I wouldn't, you know, like we can't count that out. That could have happened. Is it a skirt that he's wearing or is it like voluminous pants that are like secret pants? I thought they were secret pants.
00:36:08
Speaker
Like because they're gigantic. I feel like the need would would require some secret pants. I think so. He also has this mask that's a rectangle. Yeah. Oh my God. it's Like a very thin little little line yeah to see through.
00:36:22
Speaker
yeah And i love this look and I loved it on the first time. bandit the mask the black bandit mask bandit um and then we get lee pace and this is just like i saw a little quick because movie is one of the places that released this and i saw like a quick little cut for tick tock part of what i guess is a wider thing with like interviews with people about their experience and so there is somewhere lee pace talking about these costumes and very quickly i saw him talk about it and he was like yeah when i went in for a fitting was talking about echo ishioka
00:36:56
Speaker
She patted his
Actors' Experiences with Costumes
00:36:58
Speaker
belly went, you're going to need to lose this. oh oh my God. I was like, he's chuckling because this is like a fond memory. And I was like, go could glad never if No.
00:37:14
Speaker
And I know that this is part and parcel of some people's experience. And it's like a big deal. It's a big conversation in fitting rooms and all things. Fitting rooms are supposed to be pretty sacred spaces where you respect somebody because they're very vulnerable.
00:37:28
Speaker
You see somebody in their skivvies, you see them without underwear, without any garments. You are touching people's bodies. You're yeah touching their bodies. You're photographing their bodies. You're talking about their bodies' bodies, like analytically, because sometimes you're just like, I just need to talk about like, you know, your calf is this measurement, but, but like body dysmorphia, body issues are real.
00:37:48
Speaker
And ah the idea of touching someone saying you got to lose this. It's just like, wow. I know. And it's like, I can't think that this is like, this is not ho, ho, ho. This is like, no, no. And it's interesting, like talking, like I've had many conversations with actors where they've told me in experiences that they've had with other costume professionals where I'm just like, wow, that was really not cool. And they're affected by it. And they bring that energy
00:38:22
Speaker
to the next project. And it's like, ah as a costume designer and a technician, like, we need to have trust with the actors. And if they come in, having had all these negative experiences, it's like an uphill battle.
00:38:35
Speaker
And it really is really affects how we can do our jobs. And a lot of costumers, at least in our experience at our level and like with theater or something where you're like consistently hands-on, because I don't know a film how consistently hands-on you are with the designer.
00:38:52
Speaker
But like if you're working in a fitting room, we're We're kind of taught that like part of costume design is psychology, right? Because like there are people you're like a little bit of a therapist. And like sometimes people are telling you things because they feel vulnerable and they're asking for you to meet them in the middle.
00:39:07
Speaker
And sometimes you're inputting your impressions, psychological, if you will, on like what a character might do or choose based on the information you have about that character or you're building them out, right? So there's a lot of right adding all of these things that you can't see.
00:39:23
Speaker
Yeah. And one of those things is that people like going into a dressing room and buying your own clothes can be really hard because like your body fluctuates naturally.
00:39:33
Speaker
And so that, that can be really shitty. But then to come into a room professionally where someone just makes you feel like shit. Like I remember when I was like 10 and I was in the
00:39:45
Speaker
a community music man production. was, when 10, I was probably like five, six, five. And like, I, you know, was not tiny like other children, but also my genetics were very different from the children in that community.
00:40:06
Speaker
And if I had been in a different community would not have been so different. And so there was a parent who was sewing all these costumes and this is, you know, music man. So it's very like sack dresses for the kids, right? Drop waist sack.
00:40:21
Speaker
Yeah. And ah she made what I'm going to calmly refer to as a circus tent and just threw it at me. And it's like, you could have taken that in.
00:40:35
Speaker
Like, yeah, what use the same like care and time that you did for every other costume in the show. and And now that I know how little effort it would have taken to just yeah the side seams, um yeah even more like you're absolute garbage for how you did that because that absolutely fed into a lot for me later on.
00:40:56
Speaker
And I've worked with professional actresses and actors who've come into my fitting rooms and been like, I'm not going to do this. And I'd be like, Whoa, hi you know? yeah Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay.
00:41:07
Speaker
Hi. Hello. My name is, can I, lets nice to meet you stranger. yeah And then it's like, I'm not even coming at it with anger or frustration. I'm like, you have been mistreated.
00:41:20
Speaker
And so like, I've had people who are like, I don't know that I'm going to trust, you know, like they say straight up, I don't know that I'm going to trust what you're going to for me. And then I buy and I have them fit. And I've had actors take home the items, like buy back the items that I bought for them because they felt so good because i make it a priority to give a shit.
00:41:43
Speaker
And so like to hear that about book. I don't like Kushioka. I was like, dang. That's not cool. But also like, oh, don't do that. no.
00:41:54
Speaker
Oh, no. ah what And I'm glad that he could recount it as like a ho, ho, ho. What a memory. And yeah so all to say that his costume when he's in it, because Lee Pace is like 6'6 or something, right? Like he's a tall human.
00:42:09
Speaker
he long that this costume is so and we've seen him now as like an elven king. We've seen him in foundation. so now we're more familiar with like the slinky nature. he has like like dancer's,
00:42:22
Speaker
like a dancer's physique I feel where he's like very lean very tall and he like is very conscientious of where his limbs are like he's not moving in a rough way it is like a yeah yeah there's like a musicality in how he moves and this costume works for him so well yeah in the this role and it was just like I to be in this world for a little bit longer because there's so much to look at so anyways now we go on to the mystic who yeah
00:42:53
Speaker
But I do have to note before we move the picture that I was looking at as a reference is one with him and Alexandria in her duplicate of his costume from later in movie. Okay, thank you. totally was going to steamroll past that.
00:43:07
Speaker
How dare you Her duplicate of his costume is so cute because it is like... perfectly it's it's it's not like a kid version it's just a small version of his and she has like all the same materials tricorn doesn't she like she has a little hat they both have a hat with a big like a black hat with a big brim um i don't know hers is hers has got a flat brim i think they both have a flat brim yeah for some reason in my mind it was
00:43:40
Speaker
a little tricorn i mean but ah a tricorn would be very welcome i'll take a yeah corn any day no no it's a flat brim so it's more like a goug like a situation a gaucho yes that's the word yeah so it's like there's definitely the spanish influence on the costume but like I think something that we touched on when we talked about Dracula is like, obviously io is not constrained by ah referencing one thing.
Character Costumes and Symbolism
00:44:09
Speaker
Like she'll pull anything that feels right to her. And that's why we love her so much. Yeah. It's like these things feel it's, it is interesting where she did her toe in reality and then pulls it out because like the, the Indian is, I don't want that character to have a name so bad, but um his, his clothing feels
00:44:28
Speaker
like you could have pulled it out of history and like yeah because it feels truer to something we've seen luigi's outfit has the vibes of like what you would imagine it's it's so funny like working in this and yet not actually researching anything to refer to anything accurately so I mean, like, yeah, like, his you can see how his started as like a great coat. And then she like exaggerated the cuffs are insane. The collar is huge. And it's like his hat is very Italian Renaissance.
00:45:02
Speaker
And like, right. he I feel like there's something twisted about it. oh no it's like very much opened up and it's become something else but it's like it started somewhere that she just yeah dips her toe and then blows it into something fantastical and I love it so much i like the the the mystic is this man who climbs out of a burning tree right like a burnt tree and he's wearing basically like like a loincloth a loincloth and dreads
00:45:35
Speaker
that we find out is, well, of course it's a wig, but like literally gets pulled off of his head at one point. Gets snatched. Yes. It's hard And we also have not named characters, but we have soldiers for general radius, who is the bad guy. And they are prevalent throughout these uniforms.
00:45:57
Speaker
Oh my God. love. They are, Okay, so think of the Black Knight from um Monty Python and the Holy Grail. For sure. Yeah. Because like think of that like bucket helmet, and then you want to take it and put this like angle on the top of the helmet, and then long... flares out it flares out there's like long pieces that cover the like it's just it's dehumanizing and these soldiers have sound effects that are like dogs and like i like wild boar or pigs or something so they're almost like orcs from the lord of the ring world and um or like um what are the goons from the power rangers um like evil goons kind of like them it's
00:46:43
Speaker
So it's like they're they're almost like not even human, like underneath these these uniforms. And they have like weird high-pitched laughs. Like it's just like so great. And they have like, we don't see any any skin on any of them. No, never. Never. I'm quite questioning whether they even have any. Okay.
00:47:01
Speaker
So those are clearly um like... The imagination of Alexandria taken from the guy at the hospital who has this like metal helmet and like kind of apron. What is that guy's job at the hospital? i couldn't ever figure it out.
00:47:20
Speaker
i have no idea. He looked like Dr. Cyclops. from He totally did. <unk>s like It seemed like he was walking into a room that was like super hot.
00:47:30
Speaker
Like a furnace or something? Like is he putting coal in a furnace? I don't know. i don't i don't know. and so he is a total figure of mystery to her. yeah And then like he's just so scary. And when she sees him...
00:47:44
Speaker
It's after we've seen these soldiers. So obviously she's seen him before. and he's like, it's like the middle of the night even because she's supposed to be in bed. And she just keeps repeating, go away, go away, go away. So she's like really scared by that. And I don't blame her.
00:47:58
Speaker
No, he was freaky looking. And you never see his actual face because he's got this like copper metal, like helmet, face shield, whatever. But yeah, I i was like, hopefully I was like, maybe I'm just like crazy. I never figured out what it was supposed to be. But no clue what he's there for. I don't know.
00:48:18
Speaker
And so I feel very much aligned with Alexandria in this one. Great. Yeah. We have okay, now we have some other named characters. We have Sister Evelyn. And we see her two ways in the real world. She's one of the nurses.
00:48:33
Speaker
And in this fantastical world, she's kind of taking the place of the Hollywood ex-girlfriend of Roy's in the real world. And in this one, she is like the lover.
00:48:43
Speaker
yeah The princess. The princess. yeah And like, she's all make them kiss. And he's like, no. And then like later on, he's like, okay, marriage. And then they can kiss. He's not about, like even even though he's so sad and heartbroken and depressed and all these things, he's also not trying to say be super inappropriate in the storytelling for this little He's like aware that he should like yeah it should have like a moral, which is very conflicting given like what he's doing. Yeah. it's like he's He's obviously a very confused person going through a really, really shitty time.
00:49:22
Speaker
And okay, so another main character named character is General Odious, who we see as the actor that Roy is the stuntman for, basically. right there' He's the counterpart to this actor. And he seems kind of like a shit. but um Like in the real world.
00:49:40
Speaker
A Hollywood actor in the early 20th century, not a nice guy?
00:49:47
Speaker
but no
00:49:50
Speaker
Like, he's just, he sucks. so He's got like a smart suit. He's almost like a Valentino, like in the, in the real world. And then in, he carries that into the fairy tale. He's not that different in the fairy tale.
00:50:06
Speaker
And he's just very loud and very demanding and very like petty. And then um we have the priest, the nephew. yeah And like, they are very interesting. So the first time we see the priest and the nephew, we see them with ah sister Evelyn when she comes out of this like carriage and she has this, we she has some great veils in this. Oh my God. The the veil work in the movie is like unparalleled. This is like, okay. Okay.
00:50:41
Speaker
This veil situation is held out from her face. I didn't study how it's constructed, but it's like held out mean with like metal works, like either from the top of her head or from her brow line.
00:50:53
Speaker
And it's like butterfly wings that are retractable and like fold away, not retractable, but they like fold up. It's like a fan. They look like folding fans. Yeah. yeah And they're like beautiful. Two fans that basically fold away from her eyes from the center.
00:51:08
Speaker
It's like in multiple times that we see her, her beauty is supposed to be kind of like hidden because she's traveling or she's like on her way to general odious, her fiance. And um she is like in red in the first scene that we see her with gold trim.
00:51:23
Speaker
So she's kind of like tied in with our masked bandit because his mask The first version at least is red. is i think it stays red. Yeah, it does. Okay, good.
00:51:35
Speaker
And then um he also has the gold trim. So there's like a connection there for the two of them. Right. It also like it just supports that kind of like butterfly. yeah Coloring of like nature. You kind of it just yeah, it all it it's like, i feel like there's a lot going on.
00:51:52
Speaker
She's just got gorgeous stuff happening. And she's never in one color palette. She's always changing. yeah And um the nephew like compliments her, I think, because he's he's like in the same color palette. yeah And then the priest is like almost this is where we get like hardcore Aiko Ushioka where it's like he has this.
00:52:16
Speaker
It's like he's from a different world, but it still fits. yeah And he he has this massive cowl collar that is like self-standing that has like I want to call it like star please.
00:52:33
Speaker
Like I don't, I want to know what this is because it's one of those things where like you see it and and there's so much else to look at. And so you're not like really looking at it, but at the ends, like the blunt ends around his face, it almost looks like stars.
00:52:48
Speaker
And from the sides, it looks like it's been pleated. It's just like, it's celestial. It makes you think of something yeah celestial, but it also makes you think that he's coming from space. It very much does look like that. And it, it, like, you wonder where, like, what part of her imagination is being tapped to come up with something like that? Like, who knows? But I also just like, I i want to see how something like that is...
00:53:16
Speaker
constructed yes and like what gives it the structure because it looks like unreal yeah and like it works really well in this scene because this like fan structure that we're seeing for um evelyn it not only has the fan but like wait do we see it in this scene is it the lotus flower like her whole headpiece in the scene i think yeah priest it isn't she in the white she's in the white ok a big headpiece with the like crystal veil no that's different so it is it is a fan one where it's like a red and white headpiece behind the fan and when you see her head from the back it's like a lotus so let me but when she's with the priest i think she's in the white okay
00:54:08
Speaker
that there's Every single person in this like fantasy world has like a distinct headpiece silhouette and construction. and every single one is super detailed and just like perfectly sculpted. And it's just like it takes it, I think, that extra step into...
00:54:28
Speaker
pure fantasy like delicious design oh and i speaking of headpieces can't believe that i skipped over this part the very first story that rory starts to tell alexandria is about alex alexander the great yeah now you haven't seen immortals right no okay this is like a roman centurion partial, like there's like horse hair, you know, like brush, like head pieces. There's this the gladiator skirts in all gold on Alexander.
Challenges of International Filming
00:55:05
Speaker
ah This little snippet is what will become the immortals essentially because this Alexander get up with all gold is what the gods look like in the immortals. They are wearing all gold and showing so ru much skin.
00:55:23
Speaker
And it's just like, like pretty phenomenal. And I forgot that this was in here because I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is great. Yeah, we he gets like three minutes of screen time and then we don't see him anymore. And he is like, campy is not the right word.
00:55:40
Speaker
But he has like, kind of like an Egyptian like collar and no, yeah nothing else. It's just the yeah the helmet headpiece, the collar, the skirt, gauntlets, and like boots.
00:55:53
Speaker
And I'm about it it's just like another none of his other like because he's like with a group of people they're all dressed yeah differently but like similarly you know like your idea of like ancient times but like nobody else looks like him he is singular it's very obvious that he is the great that he like introduces himself as like i am alexander the great and he just I love it so much because it's it's true. it like It really emphasizes everybody with a headpiece has a very strong designed headpiece.
00:56:27
Speaker
None of them feel like throwaways. And like you said, this is like a three minute scene and none of these feel like throwaways. I am just like in love with these. So I would love to hear from the costume supervisor that had to like take these clothes to like 24 different countries because We don't have a lot of changes. So these costumes have to travel with the actors. And I just want to know what that was like. Yeah. How how was the packing? how How much did you have to ship it? Did you literally have to be with it all the time? Because I would be so nervous with these things that had so much go into them to be like out of my sight and out of my hands. I know.
00:57:11
Speaker
and these are I just want there to be like a giant interview post-mortem. post-mortem with like you know, the craftsman and stuff sometimes because it's like, just tell us about your process. And it's like, I know that people are like, ah, it's just what we do. It's just our job. And it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah ya yeah But like, how did you do it?
00:57:29
Speaker
And right to talk about them really quick on IMDB, this is one of the longest lists of costume and wardrobe departments that we've had in a minute. And part of that is because they are international.
00:57:40
Speaker
We've got people listed for UK, for India, for South Africa, for Italy. and like, People were everywhere. Wow.
00:57:51
Speaker
It's crazy. Yeah, that's so true. Because it's like, yeah, you can't obviously you can't fly 20 crew, you know, like, so it's like you're flying like key crew members out. And then I'm sure you're like hiring some local crew. So then you really have to be.
00:58:06
Speaker
on top of everything because you're working with people that don't know the pieces like you do. And so you really have to, I wonder how that worked because, you know, I just wonder how it worked because like we have, yeah, people listed as seamstress in South Africa. We've got costume maker UK. We've got costume maker UK slash costume props, assistant, um assistant costume supervisor, India, assistant costume designer, Italy.
00:58:30
Speaker
so it's like, and slash assistant stylist. So it's just like, This everybody constantly, it seems like a constantly like evolving process. So to go back to Evelyn, she has evelyn yet quite a few costumes in this. Cause like as Evelyn, Evelyn, real world Evelyn, she's just the nurse. We never see her in anything else.
00:58:50
Speaker
And here we've got this like red and like the Lotus, the fan, like this butterfly motif kind of happening, not motif, but like vibe, this feeling. Yeah. ah Influence.
00:59:03
Speaker
Yes. And then we have the purple, the purple. which that was my favorite kind of like butterfly ballerina II like, yeah, because the skirt is just one layer.
00:59:17
Speaker
right Like, i like chiffon. It's yeah. See through, you know, totally see through. And then the bodice has like this deep cut. It's like the bodice for like an evening gown kind of, and like, like little sleeves.
00:59:32
Speaker
And it feels like, because again, not like in a picture, why would I do that? When I was looking at it it, felt like she was covered in butterflies without being covered in butterflies or like covered in yeah flower petals without that.
00:59:43
Speaker
It's got three dimensional, like embroidered. things on it so it's like it's not just like a flat fabric there's it's three-dimensional things like coming away from like the base fabric just like giving it this big texture like all over and it must turn into some kind of like bodysuit with like yeah because it feels like a tutu like it feels like it's constructed like the bodice of a tutu and it's just like So, so lovely because she just feels it feels this is also where she's like giving some of the words of the little girl and she's also asking questions.
01:00:21
Speaker
So it it kind of highlights that this version of the character isn't some femme fatale.
Character Evolution and Narrative Resolution
01:00:28
Speaker
She's like right kind of like the princess who's been rescued and like the princess that a little girl would envision where she's not that deep. like She's like, she changes at the end as like the motives of the storyteller yeah change. It really does. something else And the next time we see her, is that at the wedding sequence?
01:00:53
Speaker
I think so. the wedding sequence. yeah Yeah. Oh my God. The wedding sequence. I visually, okay. There are whirling dervishes in this scene and they are in like white.
01:01:11
Speaker
And like a little bit of blue. Yeah. There's like white and blue and. yes Oh my God. And she is in all white and like Aiko Ishioka and her bridal looks like she goes all out because Bram Stoker's Dracula. She went all out for Lucy. For this one, she has this gown that's like a, like a coat gown, um kind of like a robe and these massive structured sleeves and extreme words yeah because it's like there's padding in there to give these yeah the fantasy it's like the fantasy of those medieval bell sleeves that yes people like had like when you're a kid and you imagine like the medieval princess with the the sleeves that are like fitted down to the elbow and then they're like gigantic and like
01:02:04
Speaker
It's like that, but then like the the parts that are like gigantic are like have these like strips that are like quilted and padded so that it's heavy. it is It must have been... i wonder how heavy this whole costume is because on top of it, the actress has this collar at the top that's a very, very high collar and then the headpiece that goes from that. Okay, just so you know, if you don't sew...
01:02:32
Speaker
when you embroider applique bead something, you are adding weight to a garment that already exists, or you're adding weight to a foundation that could independently be a garment or a headpiece or hat, whatever that exists independently. But now you're adding all of this that adds weight.
01:02:52
Speaker
So this headpiece is like, It's almost like fallopian tube shape. It's like not totally, but it is because it's also like wings too, or like fins, the fins of like a dolphin.
01:03:06
Speaker
Yeah, like it has this amazing shape that is not one that you would normally see that it very long on the top. And if you were to draw a line like from the ends of the top to the back of her head, it would create a like V of like negative space. So it goes out very far.
01:03:23
Speaker
And then it's beaded. The whole front of it is beaded. He's hanging. And like hanging with like a scalloped edge that's like just follows the line of the hat.
01:03:37
Speaker
Oh, it's just gorgeous. But this thing, first of all, nobody's running in this. Nobody's doing any stunts in this. You are just standing. That's it. youre poses And that's all she's doing. You're posing. And then somebody is moving the beads out of your face and that's it.
01:03:52
Speaker
And so there has to be internal structure for support in this thing. Absolutely. Like the, it, it dips down pretty far in the back onto her neck. And I'm sure that that is creating.
01:04:08
Speaker
Yeah. It goes almost all the way down to her shoulder. And that, that piece, that extension that, cause it's all one solid piece is like helping brace the hat from like tipping forward under the weight yeah of those beads in the front. Like it's like, it's physics. It's like counterbalancing and.
01:04:26
Speaker
um weight distribution like it's all physics it's yeah just what it is it's it's beautiful and like yeah it's like a waterfall of beads in the front of her face that's just like so gentle and it's it's lovely and i feel like it's it's just like this magic that's created in this movie where in she is what a little girl would would want a princess to be. you know like She has all this going on.
01:04:56
Speaker
And like when we see her after this, I think that this is the most like spectacular costume that we see her in. And then she kind of like scales backward from this into more relaxed things.
01:05:09
Speaker
um yeah But like this whole scene of this wedding scene, like even the masked bandit has like... addition like he's wearing the blue robe of his like dead twin and everybody's just really standing in the middle of this like beautiful building with these like whirling dervishes like spinning around them on different levels but keep right and rising and rising and it's just being in that room my god with that happening so wild
01:05:43
Speaker
And it's like the sound of all that fabric going would just be like, it would be really great. A storm of fabric. And um I just like love that wedding scene so much.
01:05:53
Speaker
But after that, amazing we just like see her kind of start losing importance in the story for Alexandria. so it feels like she starts wearing, this might not even be true because again, I'm not actually looking at photos of these specific things, but it's it's almost like she starts wearing robes.
01:06:12
Speaker
like Yeah. They get more simple yeah more simple. And so there's still like the color and she's still beautiful, but she's not. Yeah. this like elevated princess anymore because right importance of her character has already reached and like reached her apex and um no longer it's the same because the context has changed. Now Alexandria has actually seen who she's been assuming this character has been based off of and she doesn't like her. So she doesn't like her anymore.
01:06:42
Speaker
Can't blame her. I can't blame her at all. And like, I just love this the way that her feelings about things influence these little bits of the story as it goes on. yeah But she's wearing kind of like this orange, like deconstructed. it It's like, it's a robe, but it's not a kimono.
01:07:01
Speaker
and it's, it's like silk. I feel like, cause it's got yeah this body and the shine to it. don't know. It's not a sorry. but No, but it could be like a silk taffeta with like a, um because a lot of those that have that like change is because it's like you have your your woven threads in two different directions and like One direction will be like orange and one direction will be like gold. And so it catches the light different. Like it could be something like that. I'm not totally sure. i just looked back at some of these photos and I actually want to correct what I said about the priest's collar. It doesn't look like stars. It looks like upside down paper airplanes. paper airplanes yeah it does look like paper airplanes i know i was thinking that and i was like weird and then i'm like i wish there had been a scene where we like saw her like folding paper airplanes or something yeah something to go into that the end of this movie was really affecting me like the really like heartbreaking scene between
01:08:06
Speaker
Lee Pace and um is it what's her name Katinka Katinka it was just beautiful like they're they were really well paired up for the movie and It made me so sad. it just made me really sad. like this this fairy tale kind of being this excuse for these two people to to look for something.
01:08:31
Speaker
And like the story being used to like throw it all away basically. And like for... Roy to be so just like at rock bottom because like he's drinking like next to the surgical table like that she's laying on. He's just drinking and he's apologizing, but he's just like at rock bottom.
01:08:53
Speaker
And In the story, the masked bandit is like fighting his final fight, like a duel, which is punching back and forth with General Odius.
01:09:05
Speaker
And the masked bandit gets like held in a pool and like laughed at by the bad guy. Like, why don't you stand up? It's only waist deep. And he's just being held underwater and he like, just doesn't come back up.
01:09:19
Speaker
And she's begging him in the real world. Like, please, please don't let him die. And in the story, her as the daughter, she's just sobbing because she's watching her dad like be held underwater.
01:09:32
Speaker
And then he hears her when she says like, I, she loves you. I love you. Like, I don't want you to die. and he forces himself up out of the water to give that last punch. And then she begs him to stop.
01:09:44
Speaker
fighting it's so beautiful because it feels like rock bottom kind of breaks in him yeah like he yeah he's like i don't have to keep fighting against this anymore and i can just like this is what it is like in the real world And then in the story, he picks her up and holds her and comforts her. And he says, it's okay.
01:10:08
Speaker
And like, it's so well done because this little girl is acting from a real place. And like, yeah you know, ah as they went on, of course, she's like understanding more and more parts of it, but like, she's six.
01:10:23
Speaker
She's so little.
Aiko Ishioka's Costume Design Legacy
01:10:26
Speaker
And she's just like, I don't want my friend to be crying. And they like feeding into each other. And like, I can't imagine like Lee Pace just being in that room with this little girl. It's like so sweet and just like so true because that would be just like devastating.
01:10:45
Speaker
I know. I'm like, that would make it like, I'm not an actor, ah but certainly not capable of doing what Lee Pace can do in the movie, but yeah. being in the room with that little girl, I feel like would make your job a little easier because it would not be hard to get emotional and get caught up in her feelings. Like it would make it a little heartbreakingly devastatingly easier. Yeah. And she just, she just seems like she just accepted so much that was like, Oh, you want me to run around with some oranges? Sure. You want me to pretend that my arm's broken? Okay. Like all of these things. And,
01:11:22
Speaker
It's just like also going away from this like fantastical, like super bright, saturated world back to the real world where things are as saturated.
01:11:35
Speaker
Like it's sunny and the oranges are bright and there's a butterfly that she chases that's beautiful, but it's just such like a different... world and she's so joyful and she's like so happy to be there like there's nothing that she ever misses about this world or this story she's just like it was a dream that we both needed and like then we get this like black and white sequence at the very end of the movie where she's speaking over it and she's talking about how her mother showed her like you know some of the films that roy had done because she was explaining to her
01:12:07
Speaker
what Roy did, that he was the person who got hit and jumped and like did all these things. And she's talking about basically like a super cut of like Buster Keaton and all these other yeah like famous stunts from the early part of the 20th century.
01:12:22
Speaker
and she's like, it was all Roy. And I think that they filmed one little thing that they show us that they show. yeah And she says, like, I watched it over and over again. And they show us over and over again that Roy's like taking a punch and getting a punch. Yeah. And so like, we just get these,
01:12:37
Speaker
things that like land us in the reality and then the false reality of the Hollywood film and then the false reality of the story and each one is slightly different because like the reality is what it is and then the Hollywood reality is like a campier version right what you see and then there's the story i just I'm glad we could about this one. And maybe this episode is a little bit of a mess, whatever. I hope you go and see it. audience your Cause like, uh, now it's been, you know I think like retouched or something and is being released wider.
01:13:13
Speaker
yeah I think there's like a 4k version. that Yeah. And it's worth it. Usually I'm like, okay, but this one is so, the color means a lot and it's not necessarily about symbolism. It's just about like, it's about the impact and the beauty of it.
01:13:30
Speaker
And um like I go, I go Ishioka, man, I need a coffee table book or something about her work and her words because yeah she is a figure of mystery to me who feels like she drops in with these operatic, you know,
01:13:46
Speaker
like we talked about it before she's done she did vera kai i think for sook du soleil like she has this incredible sensibility where it's like i can tell that that's like goishioka and and it it that she just pulls from reality and then sculpts it into something else and i think that that's a fair way to describe all of her work in film that we've seen yeah and mirror a mirror which we have not and i cannot wait because talking about that versus other things that she designed is going to be pretty delightful but but
01:14:26
Speaker
she just kind of like, she just, she has all her little things and she just kind of like opens her hand and she's like, about this? Yeah. Here's this. And you're like, oh my God. in Incredible. the bull Like I want to know so much more about her process. And I know that like at the base of it without like going super in depth is that, you know, you research, you research, you absorb, you do all these things, but it's like, what was her research? Like where she researching? yeah And like, how was her percolating?
01:14:55
Speaker
What connections is she making in her brain that lead her to what research she wants to do? You know, it's like there's so many little things that are so ah unique to her world building.
Looking Ahead to 'Wicked' and Conclusion
01:15:12
Speaker
But yeah, and I just want to know more. I want behind the scenes of these costumes. I want to see a collection of these costumes, like up close. Absolutely.
01:15:22
Speaker
Well, thank you very much for giving this film shot. Cause I, Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah I'm so glad I did. And I don't know that I would have otherwise, because I feel like it's one of those movies that sort of like reputation precedes it. And the reputation is not necessarily positive, but I know I thought it was a good movie. So I'm glad that we, that we watched it and that you were like, no, we have to watch this one.
01:15:49
Speaker
Well, thank you so much for joining us as we watch the fall. i will echo Ariel's ah suggestion. Please watch the movie. It's a great movie. Just put it on, sit down, give it a couple hours of your time.
01:16:03
Speaker
ah We will be back next week and well will be back with a new, pretty new movie. ah We are going to be watching the film adaptation, Wicked part one because of course the movie was split into two so that we can have twice as much Wicked in our lives.
01:16:24
Speaker
This film, i mean, the costumes in the movie are absolutely insane. ah The original Broadway show was designed by um Susan Hilferty, but the movie costumes are designed by Paul Tazewell.
01:16:39
Speaker
And i think that he really, he took what Susan did and really took it to a different level for film in a way that I don't think you could ever do on stage. So ah I'm really looking forward to hearing Ariel's take on the film.
01:16:58
Speaker
i cannot wait. ah like Wicked. It's one of the first like professional but like Broadway tour. I think it was the first Broadway tour that I ever saw. So it has like that kind of sentimental a thing for me.
01:17:13
Speaker
um But I mean, I'm not the biggest musical theater head out there for sure. So I don't have um super particular loyalty to very many musicals, I have to say.
01:17:26
Speaker
and I am the opposite on this one. Yeah.
01:17:31
Speaker
It's going to be admittedly the first time I see the show at all in any version because I know the story and I i am familiar with the actresses who originated the roles on Broadway. And like I love Cynthia Erivo, so I'm excited to hear her sing for this. But um there's sometimes certain styles of Broadway, Broadway, Broadway.
01:17:56
Speaker
that do not gel with my ears and this is one of those things and so this is me giving something a big old shot and I certainly feel that way about other shows where I'm like I just don't enjoy this music and I don't care to listen to it for a long time so so um Melinda has suggested if I want I can mute it and maybe that will come into play maybe not we'll get to find out in the next episode but I am looking forward to seeing those designs because i love Paul Tazwell's work And so I'm just like super excited to see that.
01:18:30
Speaker
um Thanks for listening to this episode. And yeah, we'll, we'll, see we'll talk to you next time. Yeah. See another day.