All Photos By Gail
Most of the props, sets, costumes, and models from the film 2001: A Apace Odyssey (1968) were intentionally destroyed by Director Stanley Kubrick to prevent their reuse in other productions; this surviving Aries 1B Spaceship Model is a rarity.
Continue reading Eye On Design: Aries 1-B Spaceship Model from Kubrick’s 2001
All Photos By Gail
In the 2019 Folk Horror film Misommar, the May Queen Dress is worn by lead character Dani (played by Florence Pugh) in the story’s intense concluding sequences. The elaborate gown features 10,000 silk flowers, including forget-me-nots, sweet peas, and butter cups, and weighs 30 pounds.
Continue reading Eye On Design: May Queen Dress from Midsommar
All Photos By Gail
There is no doubt that the costume designer plays an essential role in cinematic storytelling. For the Elton John biopic Rocketman (2019), costume designer Julian Day’s guiding principle was: the louder, the better.
Continue reading Eye On Design: Winged Devil Costume from Rocketman
Photo By Gail Worley
The movie Being John Malkovich (1999) is an absurdist and comic existential tale which revolves around issues of identity and bodily autonomy. In the film, which develops in New York City, actor John Cusack’s character, Craig Schwartz, is a puppeteer, who is at times played by a puppet, as puppets are often at the center of the narrative. Continue reading Eye On Design: Portrait Marionette of Craig Schwartz From Being John Malkovich
Photo By Gail
Ivan Albright painted this lurid work for the 1945 movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s 1891 novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. In Wilde’s tale, Dorian Gary commissions a portrait of himself as an attractive young man, and later trades his soul for an ever-youthful appearance. As the still-handsome Gray leads an increasingly dissolute and evil life, his painted representation rots and decays, revealing the extent of his moral corruption. Albright’s renown as a painter of the macabre made him the ideal choice to paint the horrific image of Gray for the film. Although the movie was shot in black and white, director Albert Lewin filmed the painted portrait in color to emphasize Gray’s shocking transformation.
Photographed in the Art Institute, Chicago.