Sandy Powell ❤️ plaid

Powell on the set of "The Irishman"by Cláudio Alves

Some auteurists would have you believe that only directors among filmmakers have a distinctive style, a visual language transversal to all their projects. People like Sandy Powell, one of AMPAS' favorite costume designers, defy this logic. Her films share an aesthetic ethos and her taste is ever-present. Notice, for instance, how Powell has a penchant for saturated contrasting colors and bold patterns, often filling the frame with a cacophony of clashing prints. Her approach is so characteristic, in part, because busy textiles aren't something that normally works on camera.

Too much visual information can often distract the audience, dispersing the focus instead of guiding the eye with careful purpose. Powell, however, is capable of making it all work and her films are always bursting at the seams with complicated motifs, be it moiré silks or paisley wools, sequined brocades or floral cotton. Most of all, Powell loves plaid...

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YNMS: The Glorias

From guest contributor Matt St Clair...

Oscar Winner Julianne Moore stars in the latest entry of what’s suddenly become the Gloria Cinematic Universe. Mrs America starring Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem is still fresh in the memory (and competing at the Emmys on Sunday). And after playing the titular heroine in Gloria Bell, Moore now plays the iconic Gloria Steinem in the upcoming biopic The Glorias, which once again has Moore playing a Gloria in glasses, and has a “glorious” new trailer. Let’s give this preview the Yes No Maybe So treatment and see whether you think it’s bound for “glory.” (Sorry)

The official IMDB synopsis:

The story of feminist icon Gloria Steinem's itinerant childhood's influence on her life as a writer, activist and organizer for women's rights worldwide.”

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Gloria Steinem is a lot more interesting than "The Glorias" would have us believe

Ren Jender reporting from Sundance

Director Julie Taymor's The Glorias adapted (by Taymor and Sarah Ruhl) from Gloria Steinem's 2015 book "My Life on the Road" premiered this past Sunday at Sundance to long applause and a talk afterward between Steinem and Taymor. But those who have read Steinem's books and paid more than cursory attention to her feminist activism will be disappointed in how clunky and oversimplified the script is. One groan-worthy device has Gloria, at various ages, (the majority of the time she’s played either by either by a stiff Alicia Vikander or a warmer, but still anodyne, Julianne Moore) sitting in a bus looking out the window and conversing with her previous selves...

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