ANGEL 2007

director: François OZON, adapted from the novel by Elizabeth TAYLOR,
cast: Romola GARAI, Sam NEILL, Charlotte RAMPLING, Lucy RUSSELL, Michael FASSBENDER

Costume designer Pascaline Chavanne (8 Women) about her inspirations for fashioning a time period from 1900 to 1928. In these 28 years enormous changes happened: with the political and social even morals and fashions changed. Fashion became more practical and streamlined: the waist and the bust were freed from their constraints, the corset was eliminated, skirts were shortened and short hairstyles came in: "... our film references were Douglas Sirk's melodramas, DRAGONWYCK by Mankiewicz, GONE WITH THE WIND, Minnelli's GIGI and Scorsese's THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. We also discovered a wonderful BBC documentary called Electric Edwardians, which is full of archive footage shot in London in the early 1900s. Each of these films offered different insights into Angel's aesthetic universe: from the rigorous realism of the early Edwardian era to the flamboyant Technicolor of the 1950s. These films and other sources, including photography collections like High Society, Golden Summer and La Femme 1900 led us to designers of the time, in particular the inescapable Charles Frederick Worth, whose color choices seemed to foreshadow the arrival of Technicolor. I also took inspiration from authentic examples in costume museums in Kyoto and Paris, along with items found at the Clignancourt flea market. Some of Angel's dresses are made from real material from the time: silk, velvet, lace, satin, tulle, gauze, crepe de chine, braids, ribbons and all sorts of luxurious accessories like ostrich feathers and jet paneling."

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photo: Esme (Michael Fassbender) and Angel (Romola Garai) © 2007 Concorde Filmverleih GmbH