The Look of the Period
This period of history saw Amelia Earhart attempt to become the first woman to pilot an aircraft across the Atlantic; Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin; Mickey Mouse appeared in Steamboat Willie, and Flapper dresses and bobbed haircuts were de rigueur. According to award-winning costume designer Charlotte Walter, dressing the characters in EASY VIRTUE was ‘a gift’. A long-time collector of vintage clothing, she explains: “I was very fortunate having such a fantastic cast. Stephan wanted all the costumes in the film to look real and attractive, but not without humour. Kristin was very gratifying to dress and completely understands clothes and style. I based her clothes on the two women in my life who were the most influential, my grandmother and my aunt.
“Colin’s character was ‘shabby chic’, and he too grasped the idea and wore the clothes with just the right attitude. Jessica was the alien arriving in the English countryside from America and Europe, and Steph wanted her to stand out as such. I decided her palette would be black and white, silver, cream and grey – straight angles and no frills or fuss like the art deco of the time – a complete contrast to the greens and browns of the English countryside. She looked so elegant in the clothes and embraced the period feel by bravely wearing 1930s underwear every day even when it was freezing, to get the correct feel and shape or her clothes,” adds Charlotte.
Jessica Biel agrees that the clothing is particularly relevant to the era and was more than delighted with the designs. “My wardrobe on this film has just been amazing. I literally wanted to walk away with every piece! Because Larita is such a modern woman, she is almost ahead of her time. Everything is very streamlined but all of her outfits have a little cheek to them somehow, so for me, wearing the clothes every day really brought her alive.”
“Katherine was my joker card,” continues Charlotte, “she was a delight. All her costumes made me laugh, and they all subtly made her a bit oblivious to her clothes and her mother’s influence. Kimberley Nixon who plays Marion the little sister was also fun to dress. She wanted to look like Larita and break out! Her costumes were pretty but practical and probably hand-me-downs, and then she started to borrow scarves and brooches from Larita.”
When asked to describe the ‘look’ of the film, director of photography Martin Kenzie, says that he and director Stephan Elliott agreed they were going for a very classical look with a modern edge. “We shot it in winter,” explains Kenzie, “and we had some really bright frosty days, which really worked well for us. We also felt that a modern audience wouldn’t necessarily be attracted to this story if we made it as an ordinary romantic comedy, as it were. So we have tried to give it a modern feel with some energetic camera moves while trying to maintain some kind of period look and glossing it to bring it up to date a bit.
Describing Elliott’s directing style, producer Thompson says: “He is very stylish just in terms of the way he moves the camera around, and I think he is quite daring, or cavalier in terms of how he feels something should be caught on film, which immediately liberates you.”
Award-winning hair and make-up supervisor, Jeremy Woodhead talks about the look he tried to create for the characters: “The script was all about contrast and we wanted to heighten the differences between them,” he continues. “For example for someone like Mrs. Whittaker who would never dye her hair, Larita sweeping in with this very fair hair would be such shock to an upper class lady in the shires! Jessica’s hair is naturally brown but we decided collectively that she should be a very obvious blonde with Carole Lombard and Jean Harlow as the reference points. We wanted her to glitter each time she walked into a room,” he says.
Production designer John Beard takes up the story: “Right from the start I was aware that Stephan wanted something slightly quirky in terms of visuals. Both houses, Flintham and Englefield, had real character, and somehow we had to make you believe that all the scenes were taking place in the same house. It was a very good experience for the art department and Stephan was very enthusiastic and great to work with.”
“The one thing about period films is they bore the hell of me,” explains Stephan. “In my head I was thinking I don’t want a museum piece, I want a serious house that looks like it’s in trouble. So I talked to Giles our location manager, and I said I need a house that is falling apart, where every corner is frayed as it is written in the script.
As part of the look we took a really ‘30s style to Larita, and when she is in silver and white she looks like the classic ‘30s movie star, stuck on Mars, in this frayed dying old world. And lucky old Jess, she looks a million dollars in every single shot because of what’s around her, and we went to great lengths. Any bright colour that was around her, we got rid of it, so that was the tonal thing…Jessica is an alien arriving from Mars in a silver spaceship and that became a very interesting thing about the colour palette.”
The Locations
EASY VIRTUE was filmed in three magnificent stately homes in the UK which all uniquely reflected aspects of upper middle class life at the time. Flintham Hall in Nottinghamshire acted as the Whittaker house including the fabulous and rare conservatory, described as ‘the finest structure in England still attached to a private house.’ Englefield Hall in Berkshire provided some of the interior shots of the Whittaker family home; and finally, Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire was used during the last days of filming as the neighbouring estate, the home of the Hurst family and where they shot the Hunt scenes.
“When I first read the script”, begins location manager Giles Edleston, “I immediately thought of Flintham for the family house. I had known about it for ages, and had been holding back just waiting for the right film; and here it was; it just leapt off the page at me as I was reading the script.” The red brick Grade 1 listed house fitted the story perfectly in that, among its very many unusual and grand features, it boasts a magnificent conservatory, which also served the story perfectly.
The Music
“Musically we are taking a gamble,” says Stephan. “I have never done this before; I am used to scoring a film, and when something sad happens you put some sad music on, for a happy scene you put happy music on…We have recorded all these songs, and sometimes they will come from an old gramophone, and then they will explode into big 5.1 stereo. Finally I decided we had to take one or two gambles, so we are going to record a handful of very contemporary tracks, and re-record them as period. Marius de Vries is our composer, and he did Moulin Rouge so there is a taste of that, but we are taking it one step further.”
“The gamble I think is getting the balance right, between it being of the period of the film and having various cheeky references to more modern cultural things that are anachronistic and doing it in a way that hopefully doesn’t ruffle the surface of the movie too much,” says award-winning de Vries.
“Between Stephan and me, we made a fairly early decision to avoid almost entirely conventional underscore techniques so there isn’t a pretty period piece score underneath it. Almost without exception it’s all scored with songs of the period, or songs that sound as if they come from the period, so to build the musical narrative entirely out of songs is a fresh approach. And allowing the natural liveliness and exuberance of the jazz of the 20s to speak through, and to translate that energy into something that is palpable for a modern audience, without pandering to what might be a superficial need for more contemporary musical signposts,” he explains.
…The Cast Can Sing
Stephan discusses the cast’s musical talents further: “After a few glasses of Ealing?s cheekiest chardonnay, Ben Barnes began to serenade a lovely waitress and accidentally let out his dirty little secret. He?s got one hell of a set of lungs on him. Once I started digging – it just got better n? better. Seems he (almost) represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest headlining a boy band called HYRISE (all on You Tube). He quit after one hilarious performance in front of Sir Terry Wogan. That planted a seed in my brain.
During shoot – in a sequence (since cut) I asked Jessica to sing as she dresses for Mrs. Whittaker’s party finale. And out flew another dirty little secret – this one voiced by an angel.
Thought I should try my luck with the rest of the cast. See if I could put a little band together. I started with Colin who nearly tore my head off. Seems little old ladies are stalking him in supermarkets singing MAMMA MIA. So I left it at that.
As I had now talked Ben into singing ROOM WITH A VIEW as John and Larita approach the house for the first time, it seemed criminal not get Jessica in on the act. Having already flown back home end of shoot, I rang her to see how she’d feel about having a crack at the main title track MAD ABOUT THE BOY. And she jumped at it. Seems she wanted to sing all her life – and never been given the opportunity. So she cleared a very busy schedule and flew back just for us to lay the vocal. And we were not disappointed.
Getting right into the spirit – I decided to sing the final reprisal of ROOM WITH A VIEW myself. I?m the second last vocal on the film for those with keen to torture their ears. When Ben found out – he wanted to sing more! How about a duet with his “wife?” Why ever not? The result is a hands-in-the air end title, WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, and I defy anybody to leave a screening of EASY VIRTUE without their feet tapping.”
Easy Virtue (2009)
Directed by: Stephan Elliott
Starring: Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth, Kimberley Nixon, Katherine Parkinson, Kris Marshall, Christian Brassington, Charlotte Riley, Jim McManus, Joanna Bacon
Screenplay by: Stephan Elliott
Production Design by: John Beard
Cinematography by: Martin Kenzie
Film Editing by: Sue Blainey
Costume Design by: Charlotte Walter
Set Decoration by: Niamh Coulter
Art Direction by: Mark Scruton
Music by: Marius De Vries
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, brief partial nudity, and smoking throughout.
Distributed by:: Sony Pictures Classics
Release Date: May 22, 2009
Visits: 124
