Starring: Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield Directed By: Martin Scorsese Acclaimed director Martin Scorsese concocts a cracking children’s fantasy in homage to silent movie magician Georges Méliès; his beloved Hugo barely drops a cog in its methodically realised mechanical world. Scorsese has unmistakably made a children’s movie. Some may argue not as it is crammed full of references to early moving pictures that only adults could probably recognise. Yet Scorsese’s purpose, like that of his hero Méliès, is to entertain and inform. For all the po-faced wittering by cinema scholars that Hugo is meant for them, one has to wonder if deep down Scorsese really cares if any…

These are not great photos, well they are not official photos, but they do at least confirm that Anne Hathaway is playing Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises and not just Selina Kyle. That is definitely a Catwoman costume. Perhaps the biggest surprise with director Christopher Nolan and costume designer Lindy Hemming’s version of the costume is thigh high leather boots with steel spike heels and wedge soles. In Nolan’s (comparatively) realistic Batman universe, these boots seem more akin to an ironic S&M club than for scaling buildings as a cat burglar. Hathaway’s long steel heels are distinctly visible. Then again, they certainly add sex appeal. Ditto the feline Alice…

On first discovering that the late Eiko Ishioka’s costumes for Tarsem Singh’s fairytale update Mirror Mirror: The Untold Adventures of Snow White are to be featured in an ‘app’ for Apple products we were, to put it mildly, sceptical. On further consideration, however, this is actually a fun and really quite sweet idea. Simply titled ‘Dress Up Snow’ this free app showcases several of Ishioka’s most typically imaginative and extravagant outfits for the movie, all worn by Lily Collins as Snow White – alas none for Julia Roberts’ Evil Queen. Users can alter a cutesy rendered image of Collins wearing different ensembles, in addition to changing the scenery, adding accessories,…

Catch up with the costume gossip you’ve missed. Godzilla “Contemporary in design with a multitude of uniforms”, says costume designer Sharen Davis. We remember chatting to Ms. Davis about her work on Godzilla during an interview for Django Unchained – she was so stoked to be working with director Gareth Edwards. X-Men: Days of Future Past Q&A with ace Louise Mingenbach which we haven’t read because we haven’t seen the movie yet. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom For the film’s 30th birthday an enticing look back at Anthony Powell’s costume design by Tim Pelan for Cinetropolis. Game of Thrones More secrets in the costumes, unless you want to…

You too can look as tasteless as 1980s gangster Tony Montana by sporting a snazzy neck scarf and money clip. Then watch Scarface on a limited edition steel book Blu-ray and see what a mistake you’ve made. We have three triple play DVDs, scarf and money clip combo sets to give away. Everyone knows Scarface (1982), director Brian De Palma’s epic tale of Cuban refugee Tony Montana (Al Pacino) and his violent rise and fall as a drug baron in early eighties Miami. Patricia Neal’s costumes are one of the most memorable elements, combining period accuracy with flamboyant creativity, especially wild Tony’s island shirts and the glitzy, sometimes stunning dresses…

This is the most conspicuous outfit Grace Kelly as Frances Stevens wears in To Catch a Thief (1954), principally because there is little narrative justification for it being so elaborate. Her 18th century lamé gown, for example, is deliberately ostentatious. It is costume designer Edith Head’s show stopping finale, intended to throw all attention onto Frances as part of her and John Robie’s (Cary Grant) elaborate ruse. This exotic beach wear, however, is jarringly visible for no other reason than because Frances enjoys attention; far from ingratiating her to Robie, or us, she is presented as self-admiring and rather childish. Note how Frances pauses for a moment on entering the…

Part 2 of our detailed look at the costumes in Tron Legacy. After examining the overall creation and construction of the light suits, we have now moved onto specific design elements for individual characters. Garrett Hedlund as Sam Flynn The only son of Kevin Flynn, Sam is 27 years old, daredevil, rebellious and haunted by the unexplained disappearance of his father. He is sucked into the Grid while following up a mysterious message apparently sent from inside his father’s old video games arcade. Hedlund’s primary costume is a disc game suit. It was far and away the most difficult for associate costume designer Christine Bieselin Clark and her team to…

As spoilt yet charming Frances Stevens, Grace Kelly wears a total of ten separate costumes in Alfred Hitchcock’s lavish romantic caper To Catch a Thief (1954). All outfits were designed by easily the most famous costume designer who ever lived, Edith Head. Typical for Head, Frances’ outfits are a mix of steady, daring and occasionally bizarre, including a pale yellow one-piece swimsuit with ‘cats eye’ sunglasses, an unflattering blue tunic trouser suit and wild 18th century gold lamé gown with piled up sausage curls wig. For our coverage, three of the more interesting ensembles have been chosen, each reflecting a facet of Frances’ personality and in some way informing the…

Directed By: Joseph Kosinksi Starring: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde Displacement of identity via corruption of the soul is the message at the heart of Tron Legacy. On premise alone this film has an incredible opportunity for depth and introspection. The Grid is a fascist state. Factions are separated via colour; costume differentiating allegiance, either to leader of the regime, CLU, (displaying red or yellow) or Grid dwellers, those passive or awaiting a rebellion (in white or blue). As CLU is fashioned in Kevin Flynn’s own image, director Joseph Kosinski employed cutting edge digital ‘sculpturing’ to ensure Jeff Bridges could play opposite himself aged twenty years younger. For the…

Moon (2009) is a love letter to the science fiction movies that director Duncan Jones grew up watching. He stated his intention was, “to create something which felt comfortable within that canon of those science fiction films from the sort of late seventies to the early eighties”*. Jones’ eerie story of a moon base worker who discovers uncomfortable truths about himself during a three year solo mission certainly achieved that. One of the central reasons the film succeeds, attests blogger Dallas King is its subtly readable costume design by Jane Petrie. Petrie’s only previous science fiction credit was in the costume department for Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace…