Hats Off To The Movies: Costume Design

A few weeks ago I bought a cloche that I found at a thrift store for $7.  Just what I needed-- another hat.  I love hats of all kinds.  I own baseball caps, newsboy caps, a couple of fedoras and cloches, knit caps, skull caps, stocking caps, and a few decorative headbands that "almost" qualify as hats.  I even taught myself how to crochet, just so I could make my own hats.

I wish all of us could go around wearing hats like British royalty.  But people just don't wear hats much like they used to.  I think that's a shame.  Hats mix things up.  They add a spark to your personality, an element of style to an ordinary outfit, an air of mystery to your personal image. 

In the twenties and thirties, people wore hats.  It wasn't just "playing dress-up."  It was called "getting dressed."  See, hats were for everyday wear.  People were far more formal (and stylish) back then.

I always notice costuming-- especially usage of hats in movies.  Here are some of my favorite hats from motion pictures.  Some are as iconic as the characters that wore them.  Some you may have forgotten about.  And there are a few hats so intertwined with the movie star that we may forget where and when it was worn.

Pretty Baby (1978)

Costume Designer: Mina Mittelman

~ I love this straw hat with added floral elements ~

 Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961)

Principle Wardrobe/ Miss Hepburn:  Hubert de Givenchy

Sabrina (1954)

~ It's almost unfair to include Audrey Hepburn in this category.  Her work with costume designers like Givenchy and the unique fashions she was able to pull off in her movies are in a category all her own.

 Mad Men (2007-)

~ The distinguished Don Draper sports a fedora in an early episode of AMC's Mad Men. There are a boatload of people working in costuming on this series and I can see why.  All the details matter.  And there are so many details to keep track of.

 Carmen Miranda

~ Not everyone can get away with carrying a fruit basket on her head, but would Carmen Miranda be remembered without it?  I think not.  (Sorry, Carmen. The fruit is most of your appeal. No pun intended.)

Changeling (2008)

Costume Design: Deborah Hopper

~ This is totally my style and very similar to the aforementioned cloche I recently purchased.  (Although mine is grey with a dark blue flower.)  Cloches were all the rage in the '20s.  They are still one of my favorite styles.

 Dick Tracy (1990)

Costume Design:  Milena Canonero

 ~ I wanted to be Tess Trueheart, but I'd take Warren Beatty's banana yellow fedora anytime.  It fit perfectly into the comic-book, gangster world of Dick Tracy.

 Top Hat (1935)

~ What would this movie be without Fred Astaire's top hat?

 It Happened One Night (1934)

Costume Design: Robert Kalloch

~ There is something so simple about Claudette Colbert's black beret.  Nearly anyone can pull off this look, but Colbert does it with her eyes closed as Clark Gable looks on. 

 Legally Blonde (2001)

Costume Design: Sophie de Rakoff Carbonell

 ~ OMG!  Has it really been this long since Elle Woods first graced the silver screen?  Yes, I'm afraid, it has.  However, that cute crochet hat with the lilac flower?  You don't need a law degree, a chihuahua or a Beverly Hills address to know that hat's a style to snatch.

 Batman Returns (1992)

Costumes: Bob Ringwood and Mary Vogt

 ~ I know there have been other Catwomen, but Michelle Pfeiffer's version was always my favorite.  To let the cat outta the bag, I'd love, love to own this costume!  It's black, sexy, and skintight, but still has cut-outs large enough to reveal Pfeiffer's best facial features.  Hello, Cat-Eyes!

 Gone With The Wind (1939)

Hat Designer: John Frederics

~ I'd be willing to don a hoop skirt and pantaloons to bustle around in some of Scarlett O'Hara's frocks.  Beginning with the straw hat she wears to the Wilkes' barbecue, hats are very much a part of Scarlett's wardrobe.  Two of my other favorites seen below:  The emerald green, French bonnet Rhett gives her (and she "accidently on purpose" puts on backwards) and the green velvet, feathered cap made from curtain remnants at the family's plantation home, Tara.

 The Artist (2011)

Costume Design: Mark Bridges

~ As The Artist proves, everything old is new again.  The sophisticated Peppy Miller, now a bona fide star, dons a spectacular hat-- complete with netting-- as she goes to save George Valentin from his own demise.

Copyright ©2013 by KLiedle

Taxes: Can't A Guy Get A Little Peace And Quiet?

I remember the days when I did my own taxes.  I had this brilliant idea to do my taxes during the Academy Awards telecast every year.  I'd challenge myself to be completely finished by the time they announced Best Picture. Most of the time I succeeded, but only in the years when the telecast was close to 4 hours long.

I'm not a numbers person and I hate math and I always felt like if the government would get it right the first time, none of us would have to do taxes. Ever.  Luckily, these days I have an accountant to do the numbers work for me now.  It's totally worth it.  Taxes make me irritable.  

This classic sketch from The Carol Burnett Show totally reminds me of the frustrating, confusing years when I did my own taxes.  It also reminds me of my grandfather.  At our cabin, he had a poster on the wall that simply said:  "All I want is a little peace and quiet."  

To everyone in the good ol' U.S., good luck filing your taxes.  There's still over a month left before the deadline!    

Copyright © 2013 by KLiedle

  

Compliance: Manipulating Innocent People

I recently discovered this indie film and was riveted by the psychological implications of it.  Under stressful situations, people willingly comply with those who identify themselves as "authority figures" regardless of whether or not this might be true.  

I've never worked in fast-food, but I have worked jobs like the character Becky in Compliance.  Occasionally in these jobs, we received prank calls from men who asked to speak with female employees so they could "get off" by making sexual innuendos on the phone.  Usually, these pranksters were pretty easy to detect.  After the first few calls, our manager would simply stop answering the phone.  In Compliance, however, the "prankster" identifies himself as a cop, and at first, it all appears legitimate to Sandy, the Chickwich manager played by Ann Dowd.

This film is particularly disturbing because incidents like this actually happened.  The story of Compliance stemmed from a series of true incidents of prank calls to fast-food joints in mostly rural areas in the South.  The film closely depicts an incident that occurred at a McDonald's in Mount Washington, Kentucky in April 2004.  Compliance is not easy to watch, but the scary psychological tactics the caller uses to manipulate innocent people into acting in deviant ways is a fascinating study of human behavior.

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© Copyright 2013 by KLiedle

BAD AUDITION-- "Was That Perfect"

BAD AUDITION Episode #102 "Was That Perfect" 

Starring Kate Orlando, John Broccolo, Mikayla Ryan, 

Kate Davis Campbell, Miranda Coker, Gregory Kay, 

and Jackson Bond, Jr.  

Directed by Kendra Liedle

 

This past fall, I had the opportunity to work with a tremendous group of people on the new web series,  Bad Audition, created by Kate Orlando.  The series follows struggling actress, Elizabeth Park, as she "battles fame seekers, over-acting actors, clichéd scripts, and self obsessed directors in her search for stardom one bad audition at a time."

Creator Kate Orlando has talent, spunk,  and loads of ambition.  As series creator, writer, producer, and star of the series, she certainly had her work cut out for her!  With the collaborative efforts of a small, Los Angeles-based crew, Orlando was able to beautifully pull it all together. 

I was delighted to be a part of it, having directed Episode #102 (Seen above)

BAD AUDITION recently premiered in Los Angeles.  

Watch Season One on Youtube and support independent filmmakers!   

Click here to find the series on Facebook.

 Copyright © 2013 by K. Liedle

Five Things I Just Don't Get

1. ANIME I want to like anime.  I'm totally into Japanese language and culture and I dig the style & exaggerated features of anime characters.  That said, I don't understand the enormous popularity of it.  The cutesy-ness of it, the stories... they do nothing for me. 2.  KARDASHIANS Up until about a year ago, I was blissfully unaware of what a Kardashian was.  I thought it was a bonus word which might come in handy someday, but now I know that "Kardashian" has very little to do with intelligence.  I still can't tell any of the sisters apart; I don't even know how many sisters there are.  With their increasing empire and unfortunate influence on American culture however, Kardashians are becoming harder to avoid.  [It helps that I don't have cable.] 3.  EGYPT'S BAN ON BELLY-DANCING Under the regime of President Mohamed Morsi, a Cairo court recently ordered a TV channel off-the-air because it broadcast belly dance clips.  These belly dance clips were deemed "sexually explicit" and in direct violation to strict Islamic standards which require women's bodies to be entirely covered except for their faces.  I'm no expert, but didn't belly-dancing originate in Egypt and Turkey?  Hasn't belly-dancing been around for eons?  Like since Mesopotamian times? 4.  MY STRANGE ADDICTIONS On a lark, I checked out this TLC series about people with unbelievably odd addictions.  There's the woman who eats toilet paper like popcorn, the ventriloquist who can't go anywhere without her puppets, and the woman who can't fall asleep without having a running blowdryer on the bed next to her.   I've seen enough episodes now to wonder about things like: why didn't they pair the woman addicted to "collecting rocks" in the same episode with the woman addicted to "eating rocks"... seems like a win-win solution there.  Privately, I also wonder why I'm strangely addicted to My Strange Addictions.  Is there a cure for that? 5.  VIOLENCE IN THE MEDIA Why does it seem like every other week there's a cover story about the proliferation of violence in entertainment and the media?  Just this last week, The Los Angeles Times devoted the front pages of both the Calendar section and the Arts & Music section to this very topic.  I skipped reading both stories. How can there be any more to say about this topic?  It's the week before the Academy Awards!  Isn't there anything else entertainment-related to report?   I'm not saying that movies, video games and television content aren't violent.  I'm just getting tired of the constant "blame game."  [I think violence in America has more to do with what's lacking in our culture than what people are watching on their TV screens.] ©2013 by KLiedle

This Is How We End: Getting It Out There

Anything worthwhile is worth the heartache.  No, I'm not talking about love (given it's the day after Valentine's Day.)  In this case, I'm talking about writing.  After close to a year of writing and editing, I've released my first short story collection, "This Is How We End."  It's a collection of short stories, poetry & art that centers on the themes of both beginnings and endings.  (It's now available on Amazon in print and digital formats, including Kindle.)  Working on a book is not an easy process.  Just before publication, I read and re-read my own book more times than I'd like to remember.  Well before that stage, I'd spent countless hours coming up with characters and initial ideas.  I wrote most stories out longhand in a pink composition book.  Sometimes there were so many chicken scratchings and notes written in margins on those first drafts that I could barely figure out what I'd meant.   Sometimes my ideas didn't even make it to the notebook.  Those ideas were written on strips of scratch paper or anything I could get my hands on whenever an idea struck.  I kept these raw notes in a Strawberry Shortcake folder.  I'm probably way too old to be carrying around such a folder, but Strawberry Shortcake makes me happy.  I also convinced that it would make my former six-year-old self proud of the adult me. This Is How We End also includes several illustrations by Los Angeles-based artist, Scott Vogel.  THIS IS HOW WE END In life, sometimes an ending is really a beginning. We just don’t know it at the time. Filled with heart, passion & emotion, “This Is How We End” is a collection of short stories, poetry & art that examines beginnings & endings. Check it out and help spread the word!  I welcome comments.  In future posts, I'll also include exclusive excerpts from the book. Like it on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/ThisIsHowWeEnd Kendra Liedle Author of "This Is How We End"

For The Love Of Dance: First Position

When I was four years old, my mother enrolled me in ballet classes.  I continued studying dance at Omaha's Entenman Studio Of Dance until I graduated from high school.  My mother has a closet full of my old tutus, leotards, sequined hats, pink tights, and pointe shoes.  Over the years, I've studied ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, and Middle-Eastern bellydance.  Even when I haven't formally been studying dance, I've been known to spin around and 'bust a move' in the comfort of my own living room.

Dance brings me calm, a sense of enjoyment, a joy for life.  Somewhere along the line, I realized I'd never be good enough to pursue dance professionally.  However, I do have an amazing appreciation for the beauty and artistry of dance and a high level of respect for young dancers who set out to follow their dreams of dancing professionally.  Dance is an art form that is easy to love, but unbelievably difficult to pursue as a career.

First Position is a dance documentary which provides a rare glimpse into the varied lives of six beautifully talented young dancers as they prepare to compete at the Youth America Grand Prix.   All of these young adults, some of them mere children,  genuinely love dance.  Even though dance training consumes their young lives, one gets a sense that they wouldn't want it any other way.  Filmmaker Bess Kargman, studied dance at Boston Ballet School.  By watching the film, it's obvious that she knows this world.  She's been there.  First Position is her first film, and it's an excellent one at that.  It premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

There's a sadness in knowing that, no matter how much talent or perseverance they have, few dancers are able to make a living at it.  There's a heartbreak in knowing that dance careers, by their very nature, are short-lived. But there's a beauty in knowing that dance in all its many forms brings joy to people around the world.

First Position is now available for viewing on Netflix, Video On Demand, and iTunes.

Copyright © 2013 by KLiedle

http://www.balletdocumentary.com