#costume design deserves an Oscar

[s4w-tp]

After seeing Nosferatu twice in one weekend, my thoughts are

Outside of the AMAZING LINGUISTIC WORK which deserves recognition

Nosferatu (2024) as a film is not groundbreaking, but it’s not a bad movie! Decent vampire film. Pleased to see more Monster/Human romance/lust narratives happening on screen, especially given how prudish and puritanical this country is becoming.

Beautiful to look at; Award worthy costume and set design. The score and sound design is great, overall a nice movie-theater-experience type movie. I had a lovely time both times watching it; 7/10 would recommend seeing in the theater if you can.

However, the film as a whole feels short of its own potential in many ways.

I wanted Eggers to go above and beyond what he’s already done, but I felt he came up short of himself. The Witch was extremely fucking weird and creepy - I wanted Nosferatu to be 100x more weird and creepy than that; It was only somewhat comparable.

I feel like Nosferatu was a bit restrained. Maybe Eggers was under some constraints or pressure to keep it more “accessible” ??? which is… bleh.

It was too safe; Not bizarre enough; I felt like I was being edged the entire film for something truly disturbing and grotesque. The final scene of the film is gorgeously done but it’s not strong enough on its own to support the other 95 minutes leading up to it.

EVERYONE did a FANTASTIC job on this film; I just found the creepiness and horror was lacking some nuance.

I look forward to seeing how Robert Eggers grows as a director and I hope he doesn’t fall into a trap of making good-looking but otherwise unchallenging remakes.

[tchaikovskaya]

The Barbie movie was very very good but I do not understand the people who think it’s some kind of feminist magnum opus like it’s never that serious

[sakebytheriver]

Anyways America Ferrera really is the only one in that cast who deserved an Oscar nom, because of how she was able to deliver that cringe ass speech at the climax and not make me want to kill myself the whole time she was speaking

[metalandmagi]

Nice to know that the Academy and Crunchyroll have one thing in common: they only see 2 things per year and just give those all the awards. Yes, some are deserved, but some members need their horizons expanded.

[daincrediblegg]

Btw I’m so sorry to everyone for the person I’m going to become on tuesday. Its the joaquinsurgence

[marzipanandminutiae]

two movies that play with history in costuming in ways that make Brain Go Brrrr for me:

Jingle Jangle, A Christmas Journey (2020). the actual plot was very much a "this is fine but I'm not the intended audience and I didn't watch it as a child, so it will never have the nostalgia factor and it doesn't particularly compel me as an adult. and that's okay!" situation

but the COSTUMES. oh my god. Cheyney McKnight calls this "Afro-Victorian," and they did it in such an amazing way. one part that struck me is the way the clothes change over time- they didn't have to start it with 1860s-inspired fashions and then make the 30 Years Later timeskip clearly 1890s. it's a fantasy land; people would have forgiven them. but they DID and it's SO COOL

beginning of the movie. the hoops! the little perched hats! this is clearly like 1865, but it works in a lot of both fantastical twists and colors and patterns inspired by various African cloth-dyeing traditions

main character's adult daughter, after the timeskip. puffed sleeves! menswear-inspired tailoring! this is clearly Fantasy 1890s!

main character's granddaughter and her friends post-timeskip. honestly, I say African-inspired textile colors and prints, but some of these would definitely not be out of place in classic European Victorian fashion. mostly the plaid on the white girl here. appropriate skirt lengths for little girls! Cute BootsTM! hats on 99% of the female characters in this shot!

the other is The Favourite (2018)

early 18th century is severely underrepresented in film. the 1690s-1710s were gorgeous and I will die on this hill. plus the way they play around with laser-cut trim and exaggerated hair and makeup is heightening the period look, not watering it down to suit modern sensibilities

Queen Anne and her lover are doing something here; I forget what. I liked the movie, but it wasn't a- pardon the pun -favorite

would she have been wearing full-on masc clothing to shoot? probably not. is it reasonably accurate masc clothing for the era, but Stylized? yes! Also This Is Hot so I'm not complaining. maybe I'd be more into butches if they wore historical menswear...? anyway I digress

holy Tim Burton wet dream I love it so much

do I think Black Panther deserved to win the Oscar that year because the designer had to create a whole visually cohesive clothing culture from scratch? yes. do I still love the costumes in this movie? YES.

so like. it's not that I require 100% accuracy! I just like movies to be having a conversation with history rather than shouting over it, if that makes sense. (also avoiding my specific pet peeves- just be normal about corsets and put women's hair up/add hats where there should be hats. please?)

[klapollo]

barbie had INCREDIBLE production value, set and costume design, directing etc and i think those were among the best of the year and deserved the highest accolades. but ultimately in terms of writing and acting it's a toy commercial and a silly popcorn movie and frankly it's DEEEEEEEPLY corny and beyond those aspects above it wasn't excellent enough to stand with the big dogs. idk call me a snob but i felt the same way about top gun maverick and avatar 2 getting nominated. the inverse of this is that i feel like some movies try SO HARD to be "oscar bait" without any actual substance or artistic cohesion (like the whale) that the end result is contrived and equally undeserving.

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Studios choose who to submit and in which category in advance and it's an extremely strategic and political process. Especially around things like whether to submit as a comedy, drama, or limited series or who to go as lead, supporting, or guest actor.

(a little bit of info if you like to nerd about this stuff cause I literally read this article yesterday. Get around the paywall by adding "12ft.io/" to the front of the url if you have to)

Everyone is getting submitted for an Emmy! I hope Lorne and Maddie win

[chaoticladyfire]

Things I screamed about in ATSV (spoilers)

-Got to rewatch the film so I’m just going to add the colours changing to warmer tones when Gwen hugs her father. Not even ten minutes in and I was already crying.

-Realised that we missed the Gwen-Vulture fight BUT got to see Jessica Drew enter the scene like a bad ass in her bad ass bike and hearing the audience collectively say ‘me too’ when Gwen asked if Jessica could adopt her. 

-Screaming OSCAR ISAAC when Miguel spoke

-Lyla. Just Lyla.

- ‘Do you say anything other than no?’ ‘No-YES!’ more of miguel and jessica pls

-The Spot’s introduction. I didn’t see any promotional stuff, teasers or even trailers before watching this film so I had no idea who or what the The Spot was which was great because he really went from villain of the week to villain of the movie. And they clearly had a great time choreographing the fight scenes with him

-Miles’ heating up the beef patty while the spot and the convenience store man argue

-Miles patting the spot’s with a ‘good cow’ text

-Gwen and Miles both having to deepen their voices to avoid being recognised by their respective cop dads

-Miles saying that he can get two cakes when the counsellor says you can’t have your cake and eat it too and then bringing two cakes for his father’s party and neither of them saying what he wanted to convey. 

-Rio and Jeff scolding an annoyed miles but instantly smiling when a relative hugs them what an universal experience 

-Gwen teasing Miles for drawing her in his notebook almost obsessively but also breaking the biggest rule to spend time with him knowing the consequences. 

-As they went to talk, my friend leaned over and said ‘yeah I bet they will talk’ and when they only talked he groaned very loudly at which point I had to remind him Miles was only 15 

-Watching Jeff talk to Spiderman about his son not knowing his son is spiderman

-The DJ increasing the volume when Miles’ parents started scolding him in the middle of the party (the real mvp of the movie actually) 

-JK Simmons cameo that no one seems to be talking about??? Embarrassingly enough I had to literally scream into my friend’s ear for most of the people to realise it was indeed JK Simmons

-Just the entire Mumbattan scene. It was so exciting to see my city be represented like that, still a bit cliched in my opinion but not like Slumdog so obviously they have updated their views. Everything from the traffic gag to Pav’s rant about chai tea had the theatre howling. Also the detail of the thought boxes (?) and sounds being written in Hindi 

-Screaming DANIEL KALUUYA

-My friend and I are huge fans of the UK punk scene (her for the ideologies and myself for the music and fashion) so Hobie was a dream come true. He was already super cool with his guitar and mohawk costume but when he revealed his face it was just so amazing

-Gayatri is every indian’s dream girl with her modern shirt-flannel and jeans combo mixed with bangles and piercings I really wish we get to see more of her in the next movie. Anyway there was a lot of wolf-whistling and hooting for her and Pav

-Also Pavitr literally means pure I don’t know if they did that on purpose or not but I love it

-His pet name being Pav cured my soul

-’This is the most emotional I have seen him’ and Captain Singh has no emotions at all

-I want to see how they came up with so many spider designs because each was so unique and immediately endearing. My friend who is also a big dinosaur fan screamed DINOSAUR 

-Kind of obsessed with how detailed Ben Reilly’s arms are they did not need to go that hard with it

-Tom Holland’s Spider-Man being referred to as ‘the little nerd’ by Miguel

-When everyone was making puns about the Spot my friend leaned over and said ‘i wonder which hole the spot prefers’ it is a miracle we are still friends actually

-The Donald Grover cameo!!!

-Peter B Parker having a cute little baby with the love of his life is what he deserves

-Miguel O Hara is one step away from becoming a Batman-Spiderman 

-Hobie’s admiration for Mayday being the avatar of chaos Spider-baby

-Screaming ANDY SAMBERG

-I think they saw the appreciation for the art style in the previous film and then trebled it for this film and I cannot thank them enough for it

-Peter complaining about how Miguel breaks the Spiderman tradition of being funny and witty and Miguel being the first anomaly 

-Every scene with the Spot is very unnerving because as I said, you watch him transform from this joker to a literal void of vengeance and it is every bit of terrifying

-Miguel is a man suffering from the destruction of an entire universe because of his selfish actions and forcing that anomaly narrative on a fifteen year old boy who became a spiderman on accident and doesn’t want his father to die because of that. Unlike the Spot, who isn’t even human anymore, Miguel is drowning in grief and guilt and trying to ignore it by holding the weight of the spider-verse on his shoulder. I hated him so much for making a boy go through that but then I just couldn’t in the end. 

-Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire cameo!!! Hopefully we’ll get a fun Tom Holland one too in the next movie.

-’Let me guess, he died?’ being a therapist for Spider Men must be a fairly boring job after a few patients.

-I just loved the absolute of wrongness of the scene where Miles returns ‘home’. The rain and darkness. I didn’t really think about Rio asking Miles what happened to his hair because I thought she was referring to the rain (although of course she wouldn’t ask him why his hair was wet when it was obviously raining outside) but realised something was wrong when he didn’t know about comic con but she did because in the first film there’s a joke about Peter B Parker explaining the concept to Miles. 

- This movie is not good for my father related issues

-The glaring neon welcome sign when the gang end up in Earth 42

-How did Uncle Aaron get even scarier? 

-Miles being the Prowler is honestly a great twist I saw it coming but still felt the shock of the reveal

-Prowler Miles having an accented voice meaning his father probably died when he was young and he only had his mom growing up

-Can’t wait for the original spider team to return for the third film seeing as they brought back Spider-Man Noir and Spider Ham and Peni Parker

-Screaming WHAT when the ‘to be continued’ appeared because that cliffhanger is absolutely destructive. All that adrenaline and excitement just popped. I’m still oscillating between being impressed and being disappointed. 

I probably skipped over a lot of other scenes because these were the most memorable and I only watched the film once (unfortunate) but I can’t wait for the movie to hit streaming services and watch it again and again for all the other details I missed. Ill probably keep adding things as I remember

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Deborah Kerr (Bonjour Tristesse, An Affair to Remember, The King and I)— For several decades she held the record for most Oscar nominations without a win (6 in total), and she was a prolific leading lady throughout the 40s and 50s. She's best known today for the romance An Affair to Remember with Cary Grant, and as the governess in The King and I. Many people have this erroneous perception of her as extremely prim, proper, and virginal, but this could not be further from the truth. When she first came to Hollywood under MGM she was typecast into boring decorative roles, but broke sexual boundaries for herself and Hollywood generally in From Here to Eternity, when she made out (horizontally!) with Burt Lancaster (on top of him!) in the famous Beach Scene. She went on to play many sexually conflicted women, a character type that would define most of her post- Eternity work. She continued to break Hays Code boundaries with Tea and Sympathy, which addresses homosexuality/homophobia head-on, and even did a topless scene in The Gypsy Moths 1969!! One of the only classic stars to do so. She deserves a more nuanced and frankly a hotter legacy than she currently has!!!

Devika Rani (Achhut Kanya)—She was grandniece of Rabindranath Tagore (laureate). She was sent to boarding school in England at age nine and grew up there. After completing her schooling, she joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the Royal Academy of Music to study acting and music, at a time when aristocratic women did not enter showbiz. She studied filmmaking in Berlin. It is well known that she underwent training at the UFA Studios in the art and technique of acting under Eric Pommer, and other aspects of film production including costume and set designing and make-up, under eminent directors like GW Pabst, Fritz Lang, Emil Jannings and Josef von Sternberg. She is also reported to have worked with Marlene Dietrich. She had a multi-faceted personality and took on many responsibilities of film production at Bombay Talkies, a studio that she co-founded with Himanshu Rai in Mumbai in 1934. She often took care of hair and make up, supervised set design and editing, scouted for new talent and mentored them. She was the face of Bombay Talkies, and also the reason behind the political and financial backing the studio received, at a time when even women from red light districts refused to work as actresses. She was the first recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, when it was instituted in 1970.

This is round 3 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Deborah Kerr:

I think she was one of my first crushes before I realised I was bi in The King and I when I watched it as a kid honestly. The kissing scene in From Here to Eternity is iconic for a reason. Actually tried to learn the accents for the characters she was playing if they weren't English which is more than pretty much anyone else was doing then. Played very restrained characters who frequently seemed to be desperate not to be so restrained. Did horror movies without venturing into hagsploitation tropes. Gave Marni Nixon the credit she deserved for her share of the singing in The King and I.

Anne Larsen is a peak late 1950s bisexual with big MILF energy. Have you seen the behind the scenes pics of her wearing a suit?? Have you????? Vote Deb as Anne Larsen.

Nominated for an Oscar six (6) times and never won, but besides her having actual talent (hot), and besides her looking Like That (very hot, also beautiful), she was always playing women who are, like, crazy repressed. Which makes it fun and easy for me to read these characters as queer. Icon!!!! You know what's hot? Playing ambiguously gay in vintage Hollywood.

Her face and talent and body, yes, ofc, duh. But also!!! Her HANDS!!!! I may be but a simple lesbian, but she is the best hactor (hand actor) that ever lived and that's HOT! For propriety's sake I feel I must redact a large portion of my commentary on this subject. Anyway. She's hot in her most famous roles (mentioned above), and also some of her sexiest hacting is on display in An Affair to Remember (her hand on the bannister when Cary Grant kisses her off-screen??? HELLO???), Tea and Sympathy (when she's trying to persuade Tom not to go out and she keeps flexing her hands like she wants to reach out to him but can't??? ALLY BEHAVIOR! WE STAN!), and The Innocents (which opens and closes with extended shots of her hands bc director Jack Clayton was also an ally and he did that for ME). Much of her appeal also lies in the fact that she often played deeply repressed characters and you know what's hot? When those uptight characters finally unravel. It's sexy. It's cathartic. It's erotic. Plus, she's beautiful to look at in both black & white and technicolor, and the more of her films you see, the more you can't help but fall in love!

Literally is in thee most famously sexy scene of all time (or maybe just during the hays code era which is what we're talking about HELLO), which is the beach scene with Burt Lancaster in from here to eternity. To quote a tumblr post of a screen capture of a tweet of a video of joy behar on the view: "y'know, there used to be movies where they were kissing on the beach... From Here to Eternity. They're kissing-- Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr are Kissing on the Beach and then the WAVES crash!! You know exactly what they did!"

She might have a reputation of being chaste and virginal or whatever, but we all know it's the quiet ones who are certifiable FREAKS

Devika Rani:

Achhut Kanya (1936) is the only one of hers I've seen but hot DAMN

[mygreatadventurehasbegun]

The costumes in the new Nosferatu are absolutely stunning. Sadly, there aren't a ton of images available yet, but these two articles/interviews give some insight into the design process as well as including some HQ images.

Just the level of detail on some of them...*chef's kiss*

And it was so nice seeing bonnets and caps, greatcoats and cloaks, large sleeves, corsets (with chemises underneath!) and period appropriate hair!

I'd love it if the designer was nominated for the Oscar, because she definitely deserves it...gonna be tough with movies like Wicked and Dune 2 in there, but fingers crossed!

[floralgraveyard]

Nominations I believe Wicked should get at the 2025 Oscars.

Best Picture - (It is a best picture material film in my opinion.)

Best Actress - Cynthia Erivo (I actually believe she should win this. I'll be happy if she's just nominated but she deserves to win it.)

Best Supporting Actress - Ariana Grande. (She was genuinely so funny and amazing as Glinda I really enjoyed her perfomance

Best Director - Jon M. Chu. (Literally every aspect of this film is a visual audially tonal treat and we have him to thank for it.)

Best Adapted Screenplay. - (This movie is so well written fight me)

Best Cinematography - (This movie is so beautiful every moment is so alive and ammersive it sucks you into Oz and doesn't hold back with the magic.)

Best Production Design - (9 MILLION TULIPS! JUST FOR THE MUNCHKIN VILLAGE! WHICH WAS IN ONE SCENE! The sets for this movie are actually insane I beg that they open them up to the public because people would pay so much money to visit the real Shiz, Munchkin Village or Emerald City. The Production for this movie is insane.)

Best Editing - (That one shot where the camera goes into the water with the fish and then pops up at Shiz University? The editing of Cynthias stunts into Defying Gravity? Chefs kiss. Actually devine.)

Best Costume Design - (Glindas Bubble dress. Need I say more??)

Best Makeup and Hair Styling - (Elphaba. Cynthia's Elphaba Makeup and hair.)

Best Sound Mixing & Best Sound Editing - Stephen Schwartz (HE DID SO GOOD ON THIS?? HE TOOK THE ORIGINAL WICKEDS SOUND AND SAID "LETS MAKE THIS SHIZ 10 TIMES BETTER!!!")

Best VFX - (Yes)

Tell me if I missed some but Wicked deserves to ATLEAST be nominated for all of these. It's such a hardly worked on film and everyone involved loved it. And so did all we. <3

[blueshistorysims]

April 16th, 1935, Henford-on-Bagley, England

Montgomery,

It’s been a year. I do not know how time has evaded me. It feels barely a week since the funeral. God, I bloody miss you. So much has happened, I scarcely know where to begin. 

Miranda is six in a month! Eleora and I have spent nothing but planning her birthday party these past few weeks. If anyone deserves a large birthday, it’s her. Your death was quite hard on our family. She used to ask where you were almost every day for months. I ask myself the same question. 

Your mother passed three months after you. She was already 73, but I think your passing was the final blow. Elspeth comes at least once a month now since Miranda is now her only family. I don’t think she likes me. I don’t blame her, considering my title and wealth are representative of everything she is politically against. In my defense, I hadn’t asked to be a duke. 

There is happy news as well in light of death. Giselle is an Academy Award-winning designer! She won Best Costume Design at the Oscars in Hollywood earlier this year for the film she was working on at the time of your death. We’re all very excited and proud of her, Francesca especially.

Samson has finally reached international waters with his music. It seems all of a sudden I can’t escape him on the radio. Eleora and I will be attending his debut at the Royal Albert Hall in July. I know she is especially looking forward to it. As am I, as I have yet to meet his paramour and pianist, a Mr. Brooks Washington. 

My mother is still not speaking to me. My letters go unanswered, and the moment she realizes it is I on the phone, she hangs up. Giselle completely refuses to even call our mother. I worry that they will be estranged forever. She and Francesca say I am too forgiving. Perhaps they are right, but I would still like my children to have both of their grandmothers in their lives. 

We haven’t changed your room at all. Sometimes I go in there and stare at all the photographs. I miss you dearly, my friend. I only wish I could really send this to you. 

Byron

beginning/previous/next

[fashionsfromhistory]

🔥 three things because I couldn't pick; the crimson peak costumes, pigeon breast fronts as a concept, and 1890s clothes?

CRIMSON PEAK COSTUMES ARE S-TIER AND IT DESERVED THE VERY LEAST AN OSCAR NOM FOR COSTUMES & PRODUCTION DESIGN AND I WILL DIE ON THAT HILL

(Kate Hawley's costumes are also the only good thing about Rings of Power imo)

ANYWAY

I don't mind pouter pigeon fronts, although from some angles they do look funky. And the 1890s has some bangers, but I prefer the 1870s-1880s and the 1900s-1910s more.

[cressida-jayoungr]

One Dress a Day Challenge

November: Oscar Winners

Shakespeare in Love / Colin Firth as Lord Wessex

Year: 1998

Designer: Sandy Powell

I've featured some of the women's costumes from this film before, but the men deserve some attention as well. Lord Wessex wears this magnificent outfit when he comes to inform Viola that a match has been arranged between them. The embroidery on his doublet and cloak is simply jaw-dropping in its variety and intricacy. I've included some closeups to show both the details of the embroidery and the texture of the various materials.

It's a shame we can't see what he's got for footwear, and we also never see him wearing the hat. He also manages to make the ruff look like something a person might actually wear on a regular basis.

[grimsonandclover]

My review of Nosferatu

SPOILERS!!!

INSANNNEEEE!!!!! I AM SO HAPPY THAT I SAW THIS IN THEATERS

What a MOVIE! I know there will be pessemistic critics to this movie, as there is to every movie, but to me-- to ME, THIS is cinema. This is a film, this is acting and directing and cinematography. This is a soundtrack and sound design. My theater rumbled with the voice of Nosferatu. It's been a while since I've been any amount of scared in a movie, and while for the majority of it I wasn't, it was REFRESHING when I jumped or had that delicious feeling of dread. I've seen some people say they got shivers when they saw Count Orlak, but eh. I don't know, the last time costume design and special effects makeup actually had me uncomfortable and freaked was The Thing, but I don't care for that. I admire it more than I look to be scared of it-- and that's just a personal thing.

The cinematography had me in it's shadowy grips. The way lighting was played with, making it look like it was in black and grey like the 1920's original silent film, centering characters in almost every frame they're in, how half of their face was almost always concealed until the FINAL SCENE!!!!! Oh my gooooddddddddd that final embrace between Ellen and Nosferatu, and the sunlight pouring and and the blood pouring out. The most light in the movie, the most exposed. I want to paint the final frame, it's so beautiful. In my heart and in my mind, it's a fantastic piece of art that I already want to rewatch. I'm so glad I saw the original before this, comparing the two in my mind was so fun (and this one was way more interesting to me). The performances were fenominal and Aaron Taylor Johnson's broken, withering, widowed father drew me to tears. 

The costume department deserves the world. I'd like to briefly note how much I admire the visual contrast between Ellen and Anna-- that's a detail I always love, as simple as it can be. Beautiful gowns, gorgeous gowns. I did kinda wonder how Ellen managed to get done up every day in her state, but more power to her. I giggled every time she started shaking becuase before this I saw a TikTok with Nicki Minaj in it and couldn't get it out of my head, and me and the girls sitting near me giggled when she'd start to moan.

I spent every scene with Count Orlok trying to find Bill Skarsgaard. Couldn't find him, at all, so props to the makeup department. Their rent was due and so was Bill's. Willem Dafoe is the love of my life. Emma Corrin has my heart. I forgive Lily Rose Depp for The Idol (I say that like it's not a guilty pleasure of mine, I'm joking). Nicholas Hoult, you will always be famous. Simon McBurney should win an Oscar. I love cinema.

There's so much more I admired but I don't know how to put into words, but the love is there.