Director's Cut: Sofia Style

One of my favorite directors and style inspirations is Sofia Coppola. Her films are smart, insightful, quirky and envelope you in the moment and they range from period to contemporary. And as the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, no doubt her talents are in the genes.

First,  a quick look at her film career. After surviving a disastrous (review wise) role as the ill-fated daughter of Michael Corleone in Godfather Three, she eventually turned to directing with the film The Virgin Suicides (1999) that placed her squarely on the map.  Lost in Translation won her the Oscar for screenplay and three Golden Globes including Best Picture. For those of us who have experienced jet lag and language barriers in a foreign country, this film literally nails it and Bill Murray has never been better.

Murray with Scarlett Johannsen

Marie Antoinette (2006) was a complete departure and her interpretation of the lady who let them eat cake (based on Antonia Fraser's biography) was shot with a highly stylistic bent, eye candy colors and a contemporary soundtrack.

Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette

Next up is her film Somewhere (Focus Features, December 22) which recently won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. West Hollywood's famed, elusive and eerie Chateau Marmont is the centerpiece of the film where bad boy Johnny Marco (played by Stephen Dorff) lives life to the fullest only to be influenced to change his ways when he meets an eleven year old girl (Elle Fanning). Look for the film to make some major statements on the Hollywood lifestyle.

Dorff and Fanning

Coppola's  fashion interests are as wide ranging as her films. In l998 she created a Japanese clothing brand with Kim Gordon  called Milkfed. Friend and designer Marc Jacobs tapped her as the signature face of his fragrance in 2002 and she directed a commercial for Christian Dior. Perhaps her dream job -- well it would certainly be mine -- was her collection for Louis Vuitton. Apparently it began with the search for the perfect bag (a conversation I have had with numerous friends -- and like the perfect anything, we decided it does not exist) and her SC bag comes very very close.

Ad for Louis V - this might be the best back I have seen to a Little Black Dress

The collection includes both handbags and shoes

Ad for Louis V

The Dior Shoot

Photo Credits: Louis Vuitton, Focus Features, Christian Dior

The Gekko Lair

One of the most iconic film figures of the eighties, Gordon Gekko (brilliantly played by Michael Douglas) was the quintessential master of the universe in the original Wall Street, living in a world filled with power lunches, limos, money is no object and illegal insider trading. With his "greed is good" mantra, Gekko became the personification of an era run amok. And audiences loved it.

Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Michael Douglas

He's back this week in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (Twentieth Century Fox) fresh from a twenty year stint in prison and facing an all too real collapse of the financial system. Gekko sets out to repair his relationship with his daughter (Carey Mulligan) while tutoring his protege who just happens to be her fiance (Shia LaBeouf).  I am seeing an advance director screening this week (opens in theaters on Friday)  and hope it lives up to the original.

As a design enthusiast, I enjoyed the original Wall Street as it was filled with all sorts of wonderful "deconstructionist chic" (a term coined by director Oliver Stone) that we saw in character Bud Fox's (Charlie Sheen) hi-rise apartment. Production designer Stephen Hendrickson (who is currently designing the hit show The Good Wife) employed coffee tables with jagged glass, faux brick with touches of gilt and contemporary artwork all selected by interior decorator Darien (Darryl Hannah) and ready for a House and Garden spread.

Eighties Deconstructionist Chic 

Hendrickson's designs for Gekko's Wall Street office

This time around we see Gordon Gekko's new Manhattan lair and it's quite wonderful, understated, modern, clean and non-pretentious.  Kristi Zea and Diane Lederman (production designer and set decorator respectively) used a neutral color palette of taupe and creme, accented with a few choice pieces of artwork and sculpture and still makes a power statement for Gekko. You have seen Kristi's work on such diverse films as Confessions of a Shopaholic, The Departed and Silence of the Lambs while Diane's sets grace the films Remember Me and When in Rome.

Mulligan and LaBeouf's apartment

Photo credits: Twentieth Century Fox, Stephen Hendrickson
Barry Wetcher photographer on Money Never Sleeps

For those of you who enjoyed my piece on Edith Head last week, be sure to catch Silver Screen Modiste this week as Edie will be celebrated in  the theater! Also check out my friend and design editor of Veranda Linda Sherbert's piece on Edith here.

Edith Head, Fashion Icon

Long before Fashion Week, Project Runway and designers ordained as rock stars, there was Edith Head.

Head enjoyed a lustrous career  as a costume designer in Hollywood, designing wardrobes for over fifty years. She began her career as a sketch girl at Paramount in l924 (where she stayed for 44 years) and on to Universal Pictures where she remained until her death. At a time of male domination in Hollywood, she became the first design head. Nominated 35 times for the Academy Award and winning a record eight times, it's often said "Gowns by Edith Head" is one of the most noted screen credits in movie history (a record of 1100 films). She also is noted for one of my favorite Hollywood quotes, "I have yet to see one completely unspoiled star, except for Lassie."

A favorite of A list stars Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor, Head designed for films such as Sunset Boulevard, Vertigo, Marnie, All About Eve, A Place in the Sun, Roman Holiday, To Catch a Thief, Funny Face, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Sabrina...and the list goes on. A favorite of Alfred Hitchcock, the director played an integral role on costume development. Head notes, "He has a complete phobia about what he calls 'eye-catchers,' like a scene with a woman in bright purple or a man in an orange suit. Unless there is a story reason for a color, we keep the colors muted because Hitchcock believes they an detract from an important action scene."

Sketch for Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief and finished product below

Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief

Sketches  for Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina

Natalie Wood in Inside Daisy Clover

Sketch for Dorothy Lamour in Road to Bali

Her large blue lens glasses, Dutch boy haircut and tailored suits became her trademark (critics often wrote it disguised her age) and a look adapted for modern times by certain fashion editors. Head's later years found her writing books (The Dress Doctor and How to Dress for Success) and as a fashion commentator on The Art Linkletter Show. Her last film was the Steve Martin 1981 comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and Bette Davis gave the eulogy at her funeral.  All very fitting.

Sketch for Bette Davis in All About Eve

For more on her extraordinary career, I recommend the following books. Also check out the website Silver Screen Modiste for more on Hollywood costume designers.

Coming soon--Edith Head: The Fifty Year Career of
Hollywood's Greatest Costume Designer by Jay Jorgensen
Available for pre-order here

Edith Head's Hollywood by Edith Head and Paddy Calisto
Available on Amazon

Photo credits: Universal Pictures, Silver Screen Modiste, Edith Head's Hollywood 2,

On the Radar for Fall

I love this time of year as it signals the debut of a string of interesting movies. On my radar this fall will certainly be the following..

The Black Swan (Fox Searchlight, December lst)

Starring Natalie Portman, the film is a dark thriller about the the obsessive life of a New York Ballet ballerina, her stage door mother and the rivalry between two young dancers. The film debuted at the Venice Film Festival recently and already generating Oscar buzz for Portman.

Natalie Portman

The Romantics (Paramount, December 10th)

The film follows seven friends as they unit for a wedding and drama ensues as the bride and maid of honor play out their rivalry over the groom.  Based on the novel by Galt Niederhoffer, the romantic comedy  stars Katie Holmes, Anna Paquin, Josh Duhamel and Candice Bergen. Check out J. Crew's fashion spread on the film as well.

The cast in J Crew attire

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (Twentieth Century Fox, September 24th)

Michael Douglas reprises his memorable role as Gordon Gekko who partners after his release from prison with a young trader (Shia LaBouf) as they face a faltering Wall Street and global economy. I doubt "Greed is Good" will be the mantra of this highly anticipated sequel. Directed by Oliver Stone, the film has garnered alot of behind the scenes publicity with Douglas's sad cancer announcement and his battles with  ex-wife Diandra over Wall Street "sequel" money. Hang in there Michael.

Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko twenty years later

Shia LaBouef, Josh Brolin and Michael Douglas

Morning Glory (Paramount, November 12th)

Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford star as two feuding anchors on a Saturday morning news show and Rachel McAdams plays the television producer hired to revive their show. Great ensemble cast and something tells me they took this from real-life.

Rachel McAdams with Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford

Photo Credits: Paramount, Fox Searchlight, Twentieth Century Fox

The Man on Lincoln's Nose

A wonderful man passed away several weeks ago. Robert Boyle, one of the last of the great art directors, was 100 years young and held the honor or being the world's oldest living recipient of an Academy Award. Trained as an architect, he graduated from the University of Southern California and was eventually hired as a draftsmen in Paramount's art department in the thirties and moved on to art director at Universal in the forties. He was a true product of the Hollywood studio system.

Cary Grant, James Mason and Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest

Perhaps he was best known for his collaborations with famed suspense director Alfred Hitchcock (Saboteur 1942, North by Northwest 1959, The Birds 1963 and Marnie 1964). He gave us some classic film moments -- Cary Grant being chased by a crop duster (Boyle combined a toy truck and toy airplane on a miniature field) and Grant and Eva Marie Saint running across the faces of Mount Rushmore.

Hitchcock wanted to film at the famed National Park but the idea was nixed by the Department of Interior after the director boasted of his stars on the monument. Boyle rappelled down the actual monuments,  took photographs from various angles and made scale-model plaster casts of the presidents back at the studio soundstage. The audience was none the wiser.

The Van Damm house (which Boyle described as a sort of "jungle gym for Grant") was influenced by
Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house in western Pennsylvania. The floor to ceiling windows and rooms dangling dangerously over a cliff were perfect plot devices for Hitchcock's drama. His work garnered him an Academy Award nomination.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water

North by Northwest

Hitchcock's Amusing Take on Mount Rushmore

Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren in Marnie

The Birds with Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor

Boyle's sketch of the climactic Statue of Liberty scene for Hitchcock's Saboteur

His varied resume ran the gamut from sets for The Wolfman, Gaily Gaily, In Cold Blood and Mame (Lucille Ball version) to The Thrill of It All and The Thomas Crown Affair.

The Thrill of It All with Doris Day

Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen play cat and mouse in Thomas Crown Affair 

Boyle was nominated four times for an Oscar for Best Art Direction but never won. He eventually received an Honorary Academy Award at the age of 98, making him the oldest recipient of an Academy Award. He started a production design program at the American film Institute and taught up until the time of his death. I was fortunate to spend an afternoon at his house, listening to stories and looking through a lifetime of images (his mind was sharp as a tack). He will be missed but thankfully his work lives on.

Robert Boyle 1909-2010

For more on the documentary The Man on Lincoln's Nose, go here. He is also featured in a  documentary on art direction called Something's Gonna Live, see more here.

Photo credits: Universal, MGM,