Mary Anne Thompson - Louisville, Kentucky

Mary Anne Thompson
Film Connection Student - Louisville, Kentucky

Aren't period pieces great? Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette was like a masterpiece of a painting brought to life in the silver screen. We're moved from our places in the theater and into the time period itself. We experience something from hundreds of years ago. It enables us to be a part of our history that we thought long gone, but truth is, in some ways, we can always relive it.

Now, a lot of the success of period pieces is attention to details, especially with the costumes. You'd be amazed at how difficult it can be just to outfit period pieces. The eighties might be known for its shoulder pads, among other things, but you can't just place a bunch of pads in the actors' shoulders and say the scene is from the eighties. No, it will catch the attention of the audience, and they won't be brought back to that period in time that you wanted them to go to. It makes the film less realistic, and in that essence, when the viewers are no longer able to believe, the movie is done. Finished.


Designing the costumes gives the audience that film connection to be a part of that movie and making them believe it. Costumes might be a small fish in a pond of big fishes for the directors, producers, and actors, but you've got to admit, without people paying attention to these things onscreen, all the hard work would be done. It's not as simple a job as one might thing. And what do you know, it helps that we get to shop.