Blood, baby eating, and Keanu Reeves’ terrible accent! It’s a gothic horror love story with some really exquisite bustle gowns. Director Francis Ford Coppola promised this movie would be faithful to the book, yet he stuck Vlad Tepes into Bram Stoker’s story with little historical/literary evidence. We might forgive him because we kinda like where he went with the Art Nouveau styling, plus he let costume designer Eiko Ishioka get inspired by an Australian frilled lizard.
You can listen to us critique Bram Stoker’s Dracula costumes below or on iTunes.
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Just stumbled on your podcasts and love them dearly (and, yes, I made a point of going to the iTunes store and giving you a review!). And I utterly loved your Dracula podcast. Tangentially related to which… is there any chance you’d be willing to take a look at a historic-ish fantasy with amazing costuming? You had such great, thoughtful things to say about the way Eiko Ishioka worked with historical accuracy and art and pure fantasy to make each costume a vivid expression of each character, and I wonder if you ever saw the last movie she designed for before her death, Mirror Mirror.
Yeah, yeah, Julia Roberts, Snow White, Disney yuck… but (a) it’s not as bad as all that (and as the parent of an 8-year-old, I speak as someone who’s had to watch it at least a dozen times), and (b) it’s visually stunning. Set in no particular period but sampling from everything prior to the Regency, somehow making it all at least semi-coherent, and just ridiculously pretty and stagey and immaculate down to the smallest detail — the last rewatch, I got mesmerized looking at the embroidered buttons on one character’s frockcoat and how precisely they illuminated his character. The BUTTONS. There’s also a wedding party scene whose costumes ended up just making me horribly disappointed when I finally saw the Capitol scenes in The Hunger Games — really, was that the best they could do? Because they were utterly, shamefully outdone by a dead lady dressing a Disney movie two years earlier.
Anyhow. Eiko Ishioka. A costume goddess for whom history is a glorious plaything. And I so freaking loved all your insights about her work and her immense creativity in clothing and adorning Coppola’s vision, I just want to hear you guys podcast about her again.
I haven’t seen Mirror Mirror but I know the costumes are AMAZING. I even love the Elizabethan-esque monstrosities on Julia Roberts. In fact, when I stumble across a photo of Roberts from that film I always catch myself thinking that’s what the costumes from Elizabeth should have looked like.
I just love that wedding gown, and I think it’s heavily inspired by the two paintings of Margarete Brömsen and Anna Rosinea Marquardt by Michael Conrad Hirt, especially the Margarete Brömsen one. So strange, so absurd :)
It appears that the model for Klimt’s “The Kiss” was most likey Klimt’s sister-in-law, not step-mother. Quoting my art historian husband, but I want the kiss from Sarah if it’s still offered.
Amazing review! Confirmed a lot of stuff and brought up some stuff that I’d never thought about. Lucy’s wedding dress has got to be absolutely the worst costume in the movie- what was Eiko thinking? :-).
Hi! Is it just me or have the podcasts disappeared? Can’t find them on the iTunes store, either :(
Too bad, ’cause I was really enjoying listening to them here at the office :)
eek! They must have gotten messed up when we upgraded our site earlier this week. We’ll track them down and get them reposted. Thanks for the heads up!
No problem! Glad to have them back. You guys rock :)
Nice job on the podcast, very entertaining!
A sound note, one of the speakers was far away from the microphone and I could not hear anything she said at one point (about 2/3rd of the way in).
I agree with zmayhem, to review Mirror Mirror. I have not seen the film but having checking out the costumes on an internet search I want to see for myself. They look amazing!