Chanel, Cinema Style

Before she was one of the most important forces in fashion, Jeanne Gabrielle Chanel a.k.a. Coco Chanel spent her youth in an orphanage where she learned how to be a seamstress.

Opening September 25th, the film Coco Before Chanel (Coco Avant Chanel) celebrates one of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century, chronicling the young designer's formative years.

This is not her first time on the screen, large or small. The iconic designer has been heralded in the biopic Chanel Solitaire (1981), documentary Signe' Chanel (2005) and Oscar winning actress Shirley MacLaine donned her pearls and black beret to play the legendary designer in later life in the Lifetime movie Coco Chanel (2008). She was even portrayed by Katherine Hepburn in the 1969 Broadway musical Coco. And in real life, Chanel was a costume designer on the Jean Renoir film La regle du jeu (1939).

MacLaine channels Mlle Chanel

Directed by the stylish Anne Fontaine (The Girl From Monaco), the story weaves the rags-to-riches tale of Chanel, concentrating on her early years. Fontaine referenced the Charles-Roux book Chanel and her World: Friends, Fashion, and Fame and noted, "I had to think about whether it was possible to stick to the first period of her life --the training years, what had happened before Chanel, herself, understood her dazzling destiny."

Director Anne Fontaine

French actress Audrey Tatou embodies both the spirit and sophistication of Chanel as well as the look. You may also recognize her from Amelie and The Da Vinci Code. Keira Knightly was said to have been offered the coveted role and turned it down.

Audrey Tatou as Chanel

Maison Chanel opened their archives for the historical period piece which features everything from the young Coco's Aubazine uniform (which is said to have greatly influenced her style with its black skirts and white blouses) to her classic couture. The daunting task of designing the film's costumes was assigned to costume designer Catherine Letterier who explained, "The Chanel style is distinctive in its cut, the supple hang of its fabric and the perfect simplicity of its finish. The costumes of this film had to be up to the exacting standards of haute couture."





For more on the life of Coco, check out Mademiselle: Coco Chanel/Summer 62 by Karl Lagerfeld and Douglas Kirland and the definitive book (in my humble opinion!) Chanel: A Woman of Her Own (Axel Madsen, Holt, 1991) as well as scores of other tomes.

And for more on the film, check out the official website.



Photo Credits: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics, Lifetime

Designing for the Backlot

If you are in Los Angeles this month, be sure and check out the Art Directors Guild screening of the film The Chase (1966) at the Aero Theatre in Los Angeles. Directed by Robert Penn, the film stars Marlon Brando, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda and filmed on the backlot of Columbia Pictures. The film was designed by Academy Award winning art director Richard Day whose forty year career gave us films such as Dodsworth (1936), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and On the Waterfront (1954).

Notes ADG President Tom Walsh, filming on the proverbial Hollywood backlot "was a most unique and central solution; one that facilitated the creation of thousands of motion picture and television shows of all periods and genres, to be filmed on an industrial scale 365 days a year."

A panel discussion featuring production designers Albert Brenner (The Sunshine Boys, 2010), William J. Creber (Planet of the Apes) on the creation, evolution and use of backlots in Hollywood films will follow the screening.

Sunday August 30th, 5:30 PM

Aero Theatre

1328 Montana Avenue

Santa Monica, CA

The screening is free to all members of the ADG and a guest

Make your reservations by email to

marjo@artdirectors.org.

For Non-members

General Admission $10, American Cinematheque

members: $7. Students/Seniors with valid ID: $8. These tickets are available for purchase at

Fandango or by visiting the Aero Theatre box office.

For more information about the American Cinematheque and the Aero Theatre go to

www.americancinematheque.com

or call 323-461-2020.

Cuisine in the Cinema Part Two- Julie & Julia

From director to best boy and everything in between, there are alot of cooks in the kitchen (no pun intended!) when it comes to making a film. Another popular role is that of food stylist, a job extremely important on a film where cooking is the major activity. Such is the case of Julie & Julia.

The film's food stylist (and founding food editor for Martha Stewart) and cookbook author Susan Spungen worked with actresses Meryl Streep and Amy Adams on how to properly work in the kitchen as well as preparing some of Julia Child's complicated dishes for the film.

You can read more of this in my cover story on Meryl Streep/Julie & Julia for

American Airlines Celebrated Living magazine. Be sure to check out the website's companion article on movie recipes which feature some of Spungen's adaptations as well as dishes from Border Grill chefs Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken and Thomas Keller of French Laundry.

As Julia would say, Bon Appetit!

Streep and Tucci on set as Mr. and Mrs. Childs

Amy Adams as blogtress Julie Powell with her idol Julia Childs

Photo Credits: Sony Pictures

Cuisine in the Cinema Part One

Since the debut of the ultimate foodie film Julie & Julia hit the theaters over the weekend (part two will feature a separate story), I thought I would mention my top ten favorite gastronomic movie moments:

1. The Big Night (1996): One of the best films on Italian cooking that introduced audiences to Timpano, a layered meat and pasta dish. The film centers around two brothers (Julie & Julia's Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub) struggling to keep their Italian restaurant afloat as they refuse to cater to the "tomato sauce crowd."

2. Tortilla Soup (2001): A quaint story of a Mexican chef (Hector Elizondo) who loses his taste after his wife dies and literally rediscovers the art of love through the art of cooking. The film's menus were designed by Border Grill chefs Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken.

3. Under the Tuscan Sun: Wonderful scenes of the preparation of fresh Italian fare by Diane Lane as the Frances Mayes character.

4. Chocolat (2000): Juliette Binoche plays a young mother who literally transforms a small repressed French village with her florentines, nougats and other chocolate delights. Somehow the Snickers bar in my purse couldn't hold a candle after seeing this film.

5. Babette's Feast: A 19th century housekeeper in Denmark prepares a French gourmet meal in the hit 1987 film. The film was based on the novel written by Karen Blixen who brought us the classic Out of Africa.

6. Like Water for Chocolate (1992): Based on Maria Esquival's best seller cookbook/love story, the film tells the story of a young woman who expresses her passion through her exotic dishes such as quail with rose petals and cream fritters.

7. Eat Drink Man Woman (1994): Director Ang Lee’s story of a widowed Japanese chef who loses his taste and zest for life finds joy through cooking. Sound familiar? It was remade as `Tortilla Soup. Amazingly, the film showcased over one hundred dishes.

8. Ratatouille (2007): This animated film actually combines the unthinkable --a welcomed rat in a French kitchen who assists a fledgling chef. French Laundry chef Thomas Keller was the chief advisor on the film and trained animators how to grill, saute and flambe. The film was so adorable that it made me rethink my lifelong phobia of rodents....well almost.

9. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009): The children's story made into an upcoming film where the forces of nature literally create food. Its raining meatballs and hamburgers!

10. Fried Green Tomatoes (1991): Based on Fannie Flagg's best selling novel turned film, the story centered around the activities at the Whistle Stop Cafe and helped placed fried green tomatoes on the culinary map (north of the Mason Dixon line that is).

And of course there are other memorable foodie moments in film. Tom Jones, Godfather Three and 9 1/2 Weeks gave us food as foreplay and Goodfellas taught us a razor blade is useful for chopping garlic in prison. What's Cooking? and Soul Food reminded us that family and angst always occur during Sunday dinner while Sideways taught us that wine helps with a mid-life crisis. And who can forget the food fight in Animal House?

Other honorable mentions: No Reservations, Tampopo, Vatel, Age of Innocence, Diner, The Cook, the Thief, HIs Wife, and Her Lover and My Dinner With Andre.

And perhaps one of the most lasting images over time was this one with James Cagney and a grapefruit in Warner Brothers gangster classic Public Enemy (1931)...

Photo Credits: Rysher Entertainment, Sony Pictures, Samuel Goldwyn, Pixar/Walt Disney, Miramax, Ballantine Books, Warner Brothers, Universal.

Mad Men Style

Maybe it's the constant reference points of my childhood where the Bonanza theme song meant Sunday night, a tv dinner was an exotic treat and people actually dressed up to board a plane. Or the Kodak snapshot of Manhattan and Madison Avenue in the sixties, a time where chauvanism (not that I am a proponent but fascinating to watch) and highballs at the office ran supreme and the Surgeon General was clueless on the hazards of smoking. Or the fabulous vintage clothes I would like to have in my closet and the impossibly sexy Jon Hamm as the show's protagonist Don Draper. Whatever it is, I am mad for Mad Men.

The women: A contrast of styles and figures

Thankfully Mad Men begins its third season on AMC Sunday, August l6th and if you have been living in a cave, I urge you to rent season one and two. Besides the backstabbing, office politics, sexual inuendo, sexism from the hallowed halls of Sterling Cooper and a great view of the creative process circa de sixties, Mad Men has some of the greatest fashions on television, past or present.

Costume designer Janie Bryant conducted extensive research for the show's wardrobe which plays an integral part of setting the mood as well as establishing the characters. Ad and ladies man Don Draper with his Brylcreemed hair, five o'clock shadow, charcoal tailored suits and two-inch skinny ties is classic Madison Avenue executive. It is said that Michael Kors was so influenced by the styles that he based his 2008 menswear collection on the show.

Jon Hamm as Don Draper

January Jones as Betty "Birdie" Draper

As the beleaguered wife of Don Draper, Betty is the show's central fashionista. Bryant dressed her with very tailored period appropriate touches of Jackie Kennedy and an obvious nod to Grace Kelly. Her clothes range from suburban cashmere to taffeta ballgowns and everything in between.

Bryant was influenced by Marilyn Monroe with this pink silk taffeta halter number -- shades of Marilyn in Some Like it Hot.

3/4 Gloves were another popular accessory....even for daytime

Joan (Christina Hendricks) , the office bombshell, is an interesting symbol of the times with her zaftig figure and form fitting clothes. Reminiscent of a red-haired Marilyn Monroe, Joan's character as a full size figure would clearly be considered a heavy-set "before" image in a Weight Watchers ad today. Bryant dresses her "as a character who works everything she has."

Feather hats....


Brightly colored satin swingcoats....

and the hat and trenchcoat in menswear are remnants of an era gone by.

From the opening credits and alarming images (think North by Northwest meets Vertigo), you will be hooked. And if you're still not convinced, Mad Men received 16 Emmy nominations including one for Outstanding Drama. Enough said.

Photo Credits: AMC

P.S. My book site is up and running. Check out redesignthebook.com

Coming Soon: Fall Movies

While we are still in the last remnants of summer, the fall movie season is upon us, hopefully rescuing us from reality tv and into the theater. (Can the Housewives of Poughkeepsie be far behind?)

In the upcoming weeks and months I plan to post on cuisine in the cinema with Julie & Julia (and shamelessly plug a cover article!) along with the designs for It's Complicated, the new Nancy Meyers romantic comedy with Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. As you recall, Meyers directed design rich films such as Somethings Gotta Give and The Holiday. I am interviewing Nancy and her design team next week and my article appears in the December issue of Traditional Home -- the Santa Barbara sets are beautiful and will not disappoint!

I will also cover the design duo of John Myhre and Gordon Sim on the highly anticipated Nine. Along with director Rob Marshall, they brought us the electric sets of Chicago and you will feel as if you are watching La Dolce Vita, 2009. The actress laden film (Sophia Loren, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Dame Judith Densch, Marion Cotillard and Fergie!) will be out Thanksgiving. And yes, Daniel Day Lewis plays the starring role.

Nine and its all star cast

I will also report on Coco Before Chanel in September and the historical period designs for Amelia (as in Earhart with Richard Gere and Hilary Swank) and Sherlock Holmes with Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr.

Audrey Tatou as Coco Chanel

in the film Coco Before Chanel

Hilary Swank as the ill fated Amelia Earhart in Amelia

Photo Credits: Warner Brothers, Sony Classics, Weinstein Company, Fox Searchlight

Movie Art: Collecting Vintage Posters

While commercialism is often front and center in the design of a movie poster, the designs can also be works of art. Since the beginning of film, posters (also known as "one sheets") have been a primary marketing tool used to publicize a film and fill the seats. Vintage posters (along with stills and lobby cards) have become hot collector's items over the years and have been known to fetch anywhere from $500 to $20,000 or more at auction.

At a Christie's auction in London last November, a rare one of three Casablanca posters created for the American ad campaign drew $109,000 while Attack of the 50 ft. Woman sold for $23,900 and the Bond films such as From Russia with Love went for around $22,600. As with any collection, buy what you love and the older and more vintage, the better.

Whether classic or contemporary, the following have made many top lists for both design and popularity as a collectible:

With its iconic image of the little black dress and cigarette holder, the poster for Breakfast at Tiffany's is just as stylish today as it was in l961.

All About Eve (1950) depicts the film's wit and sardonic humor with this design...

Faye Dunaway's iconic image for the Chinatown (1974) poster became a classic...


as did the haunting face of Mia Farrow in Roman Polanski's 1968 horror Rosemary's Baby.

The design for The Graduate (1967) is one of the most instantly recognizable images in film....

while the simplicity and color of the design for Sullivan's Travels (1941) makes this a sought after poster.

Through film posters we can see traces of the styles of the times...

Orson Welles' The Lady From Shanghai was classic forties...


as was A Hard Day's Night in the sixties, Mahogany in the seventies and Moonstruck in the late eighties...

Experts recommend learning everything there is to know about the market and selecting a niche (for example, a genre such as film noir, etc.) and concentrating on that. Foreign posters tend to demand more (a German poster of Breakfast at Tiffany's went for $17,500). While vintage is certainly a hot area, consider how popular a recent release will be in the years to come. Posters can be found at auctions, ebay, and websites such as filmposters.com and emovieposter.com auctions.

Two of the best books on the subject is the Art of the Modern Movie Poster (Judith Salavetz, Chronicle, 2008) and A Century of Movie Posters: From Silent to Art House (Emily King, Barron's, 2003) Both are available on Amazon.