Coming Soon: "Courage, New Hampshire" TV Series

On Memorial Day Monday (May 27th), the INSP cable network will be premiering a four-part, four-hour independent drama series about the years leading up to the American Revolution.  Courage, New Hampshire recounts the stories of the citizens of a small, rural New England town on the eve of the War.  Beginning in 1770, it traces both the political and the very personal ways in which the colonists reacted to the events that lead to the fight for American independence.  According to the production company's website, this is only the first in a multiple-"season" series; each subsequent four-part "season" will focus on another year of the 1770s, eventually culminating in the experiences of the war years themselves.

Production still linked from the Courage, New Hampshire website.

We've both been eagerly anticipating seeing this series ever since news about its development first trickled out a couple of years ago.  We were thus delighted to hear several months ago that it had been picked up for a tv broadcast.  Original historical dramas are way too few and far between these days! 

Production still linked from the Courage, New Hampshire website.

From everything we've read and the clips we've seen thus far, the production values for this series seem to be particularly high, which is fantastic to hear for a historical drama whose success depends so much on its accuracy.  The series is filmed at Riley's Farm, a living history site in CA.  Lauren at American Duchess has interviewed the costume designer, Mary Johns, and I was so impressed to hear the tremendous efforts to which she has gone to attempt to preserve accuracy in the costuming, using only natural-fiber textiles and researching styles and accessories to try to retain the historical integrity of the clothing, even in the face of the necessary artistic demands of narrative and character development.  And I also thought it was pretty cool that Mary's wardrobe team includes three people - herself and her two sisters  :-)

Production still linked from the Courage, New Hampshire website.

Check INSP's website for broadcast specifics and the promotional trailer.  We can't wait to see this!  If you're too anxious to wait until Memorial Day, all four episodes of the series can be viewed online here.

Bringing Mary Todd Lincoln to Life: The First Lady's Costumes in "Lincoln"

Last weekend, I finally got to see "Lincoln," which I've been eagerly anticipating and reading about for months and months.  The film did not disappoint; all of the hype and praise being lavished on it is very well-deserved and I highly recommend it.  It sounds like a cliche, but the movie truly is very much a monument to the almost super-human accomplishments of one of our most honored presidents.  Daniel Day-Lewis does an unbelievable job at representing the intelligence, the quirkiness, and the heart of the enigma that was Abraham Lincoln, and the film is beautifully filmed with incredible details that will make your heart stop.

In this brief interview, the production designer, Rick Carter, discusses how he created a calendar of the last weeks of Lincoln's life to ensure that what emerged on screen would be as accurate as it was possible to make it.  Because so much documentation exists about what absorbed the president both personally and politically, and about what the spaces and furniture and artifacts of the rooms of Lincoln White House looked like, the production team was able to recreate what would have been in certain rooms on certain days, from the letters and books on a table, to the maps on the wall.  Even the sound of the ticking watch that emerges at moments throughout the film is accurate to the most minute degree: Spielberg had Lincoln's own pocket watch taken out of museum storage so that its own unique sound could be used in the movie.  I don't think any movie has quite captured and conveyed so completely an immersion into a historical period as this one does.  It really is quite an achievement.

Of course, being a period film, you know where much of my visual attention was drawn!  Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln worked well with Day-Lewis's impression of the president, and I was very pleasantly surprised at how much she looked the part.  "Lincoln"'s costume designer, Joanna Johnston, describes in this video how Field strategically gained weight to achieve the exact waistline and body shape of the First Lady she would portray, much to Johnston's delight because it meant the original proportions of Mary Todd Lincoln's gowns could be maintained in the recreations.  Some of the gowns you see in the film were almost exactly reproduced from extant pieces.

Joanna Johnston with two of the gowns she designed for

Mary Todd Lincoln (Sally Field) for the film.

Photo linked from EW.com.

In this previous post that I did after a visit to the Mary Todd Lincoln House Museum, I mentioned the handful of clothing items and accessories that are currently in the museum's collection.  I inquired whether any additional clothes were known to exist, and the docent pointed me to the Smithsonian inauguration gown, but said she didn't know of any more.  I've since discovered a handful of other gowns held in various museums (I feel a new post coming on...!), and Johnston says she inspected many of them - in addition to the numerous photographic and artistic representations of Mary Todd Lincoln, and contemporary fashion plates - in preparation for designing and creating Mary's look for the film.

One of the extant dresses owned and worn by Mary Todd Lincoln (right).

It was one of the inspirations for the film gown below.

Photo linked from "Matt and Emily"'s flickr photostream.

It is evident from Mary's gowns, visible in both extant items and in images, and by the (borderline politicized) controversy that raged throughout Lincoln's presidency over his wife's more than extravagant clothing expenditures, that the First Lady delighted in stretching fashion to its limits and was defined by a very unique sense of style.  She loved to display her shoulders (much to the chagrin of Washington society because of her age) and to indulge in bright colors (fuchsia, anyone?), heavy trims, and elaborate decorative elements.

Costume sketches from "Lincoln," by Richard Merritt.

Images linked from SAA Illustration Hub.

One particular dress (shown above and below), Johnston explains in this very interesting video overview of the costumes, is a combination of two of Mary Todd Lincoln's dresses.  Johnston had a French striped silk satin fabric overprinted with the floral design to meld the look of the two original gowns together.  The source for the floral sprays is pictured in the original gown above.  Period antique lace and a typical Mary Todd-sized corsage completes the stunning visual and historical effect of the ensemble.

Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln.

Photo linked from imdb.com.

Another fantastic video interview with costume designer Joanna Johnston can be found here.  And here's a link to another article with a close up of another one of Mary Todd Lincoln's movie dresses, complete with bonnet.

Encountering "Anna Karenina" on the Streets of NYC

Last weekend, I went with my mum and a couple of family friends to see the Radio City Christmas show in NYC, which is celebrating the 85th anniversary of the Rockettes this year (more on that - with some pretty cool costume pictures - in an upcoming post!).  After the show, we wandered around Rockefeller Center, previewing some of the window displays just going up for the holiday season.

As we strolled past Banana Republic on Fifth Avenue, this just happened to catch my eye:

Does it look familiar?  It's the "poster gown" from the new Anna Karenina film, starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law!

Anna Karenina film poster.

Image linked from Just Jared.

The display included three costumes from the film: Anna/Keira Knightley's red gown, Vronsky/Jude Law's white uniform, and the gorgeous pearl grey ensemble with fur accessories below.  These are being showcased to complement and promote Banana Republic's new fall line, conceptualized by Anna Karenina's costume designer, Jacqueline Durran, and inspired by the 1870s-esque Russian fashions featured in the movie.

Close-up of the bodice of the gown.  My apologies,

I couldn't get away from the reflective glare on the glass!

I haven't yet seen the film, but I've been following the tidbits trickling out about the costumes, and I have to say that I'm both intrigued by and incredibly skeptical about the approach the production has taken to its period setting.  Rather than doing a strict "costume drama" depiction of 1870s Russia, the film's designers elected to adopt a more interpretive stance, translating rather than transcribing the period fashions and sets to the screen.

Costume designer Jacqueline Durran wanted to represent the indulgent luxury of Anna's world in the character's dress style and appearance; as a member of Russia's social elite who moved in aristocratic circles, Anna Karenina kept abreast of the latest European trends.  Durran wanted to reflect Anna's height-of-fashion opulence in a way that would speak to both her unique identity as a nineteenth-century character, and as a technique to convey that chic luxuriousness to modern audiences.

Anna/Keira Knightley with director Joe Wright on set.  This is a

nice example of Durran's fusion of 1950s couture with the look

of the 1870s.  Does it work?  I'm not yet convinced...

Image linked from IMDB.

In an interview on the film's official website, she describes the thought process that justified her approach as follows:

"I thought that Joe [Wright]'s idea was genius because a lot of 1950s couture was itself looking back to an earlier time.  We looked at some images from the time next to fashion pictures from the 1870s and although there were eight decades apart, the two periods meshed together very well.

"We associate 1950s couture with chic elegance, and so this would be a signifier to the audience and a way in for them to the image Joe wants conveyed.  With Anna, I did keep an 1870s skirt shape all the way through - while pushing the bodices in the direction of the 1950s.  There is also a 1950s feel to several of the other costumes, such as Anna's gray silk jacket - it's very much a 1950s jacket shape, with buttons down the front, although even this is paired with an 1870s skirt."

(quoted from the official Focus Features website)

Pearl grey jacket and skirt with fur accessories.  *sigh*

Durran goes to describe how the asymmetrical lines of a number of Anna's gowns (you can see it clearly in the red example here), along with their clever folding and draping of fabrics into elaborate necklines and bustles, were intended to pay homage to 1950s French couture, while keeping it in the restricted realm of being a clearly stylized element of an 1870s costume.  She also notes how she used color strategically throughout to reflect Anna's changing social and emotional status.  At the beginning, trapped in the stifling world of Karenin's social circle, her clothes exhibit a darker palate; as she falls in love with Vronksy and is swept into their whirlwind romance, the tone of her clothes becomes correspondingly lighter.  With the disintegration of her relationship with her lover, however, and her descent towards her tragic end, her outfits once more become somber, mirroring the intensity of her dark, brooding mood (this red gown, as you might expect, comes at the climax of the film).

 

As I said, I have yet to see the movie, so I'm reserving judgment until I can see how these costumes work with the overall concept and look of the piece on screen.  These looks make my fashion heart go pitter patter, but my historical costume head replies with sadness at the lost opportunity for some pretty incredible truly accurate period pieces.  We'll see...

 

Has anyone seen the movie yet?  What did you make of the costumes?  Did you think the "fusion" of periods worked with the overall production?



My Personal "Eyre Affair": The Newest "Jane" Film

Yesterday, we (finally!) went to see the new Jane Eyre film, which stars Mia Wasikowska (Jane), Michael Fassbender (Rochester), Jamie Bell (St John Rivers), and Judi Dench (Mrs Fairfax).  We went with a family friend, our second grade teacher who we've kept in close touch with all these many years.  The summer before I entered high school, she handed me her two favorite books, said I was finally old enough to read them, and told me she looked forward to the endless discussions she knew we'd have as soon as I finished them.  The novels were Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre, and I hold that one summer's experience responsible for my lifelong love affair with eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature (aka my career!) and history, and my fascination with the history of fashion.  So of course I couldn't go to see a new adaptation of the novel without her!

Rochester and Jane.  Photo from the official Focus Features website.

I should preface my review with the disclaimer that I am prodigiously difficult to please when it comes to adaptations of novels.  I should also say that when it comes to Jane Eyre in particular, my perspective is necessarily an academically skewed one tainted by years of close study, so I hope the review that follows won't unduly offend anyone; it certainly isn't intended to do so, and I completely understand how someone coming to the film without such excess "baggage" would view it with a much milder eye.  But I'll begin with the positive - the good stuff - the costumes!

Visually the film is very, very strong.  The cinematography is stunning and the location shots and color palates are gorgeous works of art.  The costumes, designed by Oscar-winning Michael O'Connor (of The Duchess fame), are fantastic and one of the greatest assets of the film.  Apparently, both O'Connor and the director, Cary Joji Fukunaga, elected to set their adaptation in the 1840s because they both dislike the excesses of 1830s fashion.  The only costume in the film styled to date from the latter period appears on Aunt Reed at the beginning of the movie.  With the director as invested in the details of dress as the costumer designer, it's no wonder the costumes here achieve such a high standard of superior excellence and accuracy which makes all the difference to the film as a whole. 

Jane's beautifully understated wedding gown. 

I wish I could find a close-up of the sheer bonnet because

I'd love to try to make something like it.

Photo from Vanity Fair.

From leather to hair accessories to shoes, O'Connor describes how the details of the period correct drove his design decisions.  He used antique textiles from the period wherever possible, though due to their rarity, he explains, they were most often able to be integrated only in small amounts as trims and laces.  All of his fabric choices and designs are based on meticulous research, and his mantra throughout this film rings sweetly in the ears of historical sewers.  "The lining, the buttons, the stitching, everything was totally researched. I always say, ‘Is there a reference for that, is that something they did?’ And if people say [they] don’t know, then I say we can’t do it—there’s so much information from that time that there’s no excuse not to have it."  For the full Vanity Fair interview from which this quote and much of this information is drawn, click here.   For a closer, very sigh-worthy look at some of the costumes and accessories, accompanied by comments from O'Connor and Fukunaga, see this movie "Style Gallery" from THR.

The straw bonnet at right was made with antique hat braid gifted to the filmmakers. 

I wish I could find a picture of the back because it's an amazing piece.  I want it!

Photo from the official Focus Features website.

Some of the film's costumes were recently on display to promote the film, and can be seen on the Hollywood Movie Costumes and Props blog.  Be sure to check out the wedding gown, Jane's plain grey dress, and the cloak and plaid gown Jane wears when she flees Thornfield.

The stunning ensemble worn in the final scenes of the film. 

The dress fabric is a reproduction cotton and the hat made from antique hat braid.

Photo from the official Focus Features website.

All that said, I was quite disappointed with this movie when it came down to the interpretation of the story by both the screenwriter and the actors, especially after all of the hype surrounding the film.  One reviewer praises "the freewheeling adaptation [which] drops needless scenes and spurs the story ahead with galloping momentum,"  but I read these characteristics very differently.  I appreciated the intriguing re-organization of the timeline of the story; the Moor House scenes are privileged at the beginning of the movie, which was a productive move on the whole because film adaptations in general conveniently forget or downplay that rather difficult-to-reconcile (yet so crucial) portion of the book.  On the other hand, though, there were just too many other scenes vital to the complex and multi-layered overall meanings of the novel that were completely left out: Bertha Mason was relegated to less-than-a-subplot (a strange move, considering the fantastically gothic feel of the film overall), there was little dialogue at all provided for the fleeting Gateshead opening (though these famous opening chapters establish the basis for who Jane becomes and what ultimately motivates her throughout her life), and Blanche Ingram, that essential figure of contrast, self-doubt, and ultimate self-definition for Jane, remained one-dimensional and almost unintegrated into the plotline.  I was also a little surprised by the abrupt ending and the lack of any real show of remorse by Rochester during the "confession" scene (which has some of the finest dialogue in all of English literature).  The re-writing of so much of the original dialogue in general across the whole of the film seemed a little unnecessary.  Also, the incredibly understated nature of Mia Wasikowska's Jane was a little too quiet and subdued for the Jane that Bronte seems to imagine.  But in the end, I'm left wondering how many of these faults are the result of some unfortunate editing, necessitated by the all-too-brief two-hour feature film requirements.

Blanche Ingram's fabulous riding habit. 

The hat is trimmed with an antique veil. 

Photo from the Enchanted Serenity of Period Films blog.

As I'm certain many of you know, there are numerous film and television adaptations of Jane Eyre.  My personal favorite is the 1983 BBC miniseries starring Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton; not only does it preserve almost all of the original plot and its structure, but also much of the dialogue is drawn verbatim from the pages of the novel.  For those used to big-budget, bright-and-shiny Hollywood adaptations (or even BBC productions of the last 15 years), the starkness of the sets and the simplicity of the cinematography will be a shock, but you quickly get used to it and I almost prefer that style because it privileges the story, rather than the medium used to represent it.  The 2006 Masterpiece Theatre version is also good and worth watching (Toby Stevens makes a very fine Rochester!).  The other adaptations I don't much fancy and wouldn't recommend, either for reasons of mis-cast lead roles or because they ignore or re-write massive chunks of the original novel.

Marla Schaffel and James Barbour in the 2000

Broadway production of Jane Eyre: The Musical. 

Photo from Playbill.com.

But by far and away the finest adaptation of Jane Eyre ever made is - believe it or not - the musical version, written by Paul Gordon and John Caird, which played on Broadway from 2000-2001.  If you aren't familiar with it, this review from Playbill.com gives a fantastic overview (except when it comes to that last paragraph, which is wildly inaccurate, in my opinion).  Luckily, I've located some amateur video of the production on YouTube (follow the links to the "Jane Eyre: The Musical" in parts at the side), and although the quality isn't the best, it gives a fine idea of how the musical achieved what (to date) no film or television adaptation has: representing the passion and the soul that motivate the story in the first place.  It's just a shame that something necessarily as ephemeral as a theatrical production is the dramatization that has come closest to "getting it right."

Finding a Voice: The King's Speech

Yesterday, we finally (finally!) managed to see The King's Speech, which we've been dying to get to ever since its Christmas release.  After weeks of being teased by the tv previews that were the cruelest of taunts because it wasn't playing anywhere local, and then after another couple of weeks of being just-plain-too-busy to be able to go once it *was* playing nearby, we finally got ourselves (and our mother!) there.  It was well worth the wait!  The film is superb, beautifully filmed, and wonderfully understated.  Definitely a must-see.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, The King's Speech explores the relationship between King George VI (the father of the present Queen Elizabeth II, known to his family as "Bertie") and Lionel Logue, an unconventional speech therapist enlisted by Bertie's wife to help her husband learn to cope with a speech impediment that made public speaking for him a torturous experience.  The film focuses on the years between 1925 and 1939, covering some of the world-altering events that demanded a very public reaction from Bertie.

The second son of King George V, Bertie only ever intended to live out his life in relative privacy with his wife and daughters.  The scandalous 1936 abdication of his older brother, Edward VIII, however, demanded Bertie assume the throne and thrust him into a public spotlight he neither sought nor relished.  As the newly crowned George VI, he was forced to confront the increasingly threatening situation with Hitler amidst a tide of popular opinion still decidedly in favor of his older brother - even in spite of Edward's thinly veiled Nazi sympathies.  Recognizing the country's need of a strong and inspiring leader, George VI responded with a speech declaring war on Germany on the 3rd of September 1939 and urging courage, strength, and unity from his people in the face of the difficult times ahead.  Logue stood by the king's side, assisting him through this and every subsequent wartime radio broadcast and public speech.

King George VI on 4 September 1939, the day after "the king's speech"

that declared war on Germany.

To hear the actual "king's speech" from 3 September 1939, click here.  As the film explains, Logue helped George VI develop the steady, measured style that you hear, a technique that offered a way around the king's nervous stammer.  In a NPR interview, the film's director, Tom Hooper, explained how he and Colin Firth (who plays George VI) watched and listened to hours of archival records of the king speaking, and were both "extremely moved" by the effort and pain the king's halting voice and expressions reveal.  The pauses actually come across as quite dramatic in the original audio file, and you can hear the subtle influence of this speech style in the present queen's way of speaking in public, though she does not suffer from the same impediment as her father.  You might say it became something of a royal trademark over the years, a sign of self-assured strength rather than weakness.  After all, it was that voice that got Britain through World War II.

The film was nominated for seven Golden Globes, including Best Picture.  Last night, Colin Firth was awarded the Best Actor title, a well-deserved honor for the thoughtfully moving performance he gave.

If you're interested in learning more about the real-life figures in this drama, check out the movie tie-in book, The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy, a biography of Logue co-written by his grandson and based on Logue's case notes from his meetings with Bertie.  Several years ago, PBS also did a bio-pic about George VI and Queen Elizabeth called Bertie and Elizabeth, which is worth a watch.  The 1936 abdication of Edward VIII, which brought George VI to the throne, has been the subject of numerous books and films; the best of these, I think, is a 1978 mini-series, Edward and Mrs Simpson, though there have been several more recent dramatizations of the story.