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NOCTURNAL ANIMALS

I recently watched the Golden Globe winning ‘Nocturnal Animals’ - Tom Ford’s second endeavour as a director. I was insanely impressed! To have such creative talent to be able to produce stunning collection but also the visuals and lead to produce such a thrilling film is beyond amazing to me - credit to Tom Ford for being so multi talented.

The film follows the story of Susan Morrow a married, wealthy, sad art galleriest, who while her husband is away on business, receives a manuscript from her estranged ex husband, Edward Sheffield. Susan reads the work and clearly sees the manuscript as a mild threat or revenge plot against her. The manuscript follows a family of 3 who are travelling through West Texas at night when they are stopped by joyriders and (SPOILER ALERT) murdered. The interesting part is that the husband with in the family is played by Jake Gyllenhaal who also plays Edward, and the wife is played by an actress who looks very similar to Susan - a hint to how the manuscript is clearly based on the divorcees. Throughout the film you also see flashbacks of when Susan and Edward were together.

Interestingly enough, no one in the film wears any Tom Ford even though it would definitely be some prime product placement for his brand. A quote from costume designer, Arianne Philips describes the relationship between fashion and film ”I think the burden was on the costumes to help set the tone differently in each story; As Tom directed and explained to me — there's the inner life and the outer life; That exterior almost has to be juxtaposed to her internal world of alienation, isolation, an unhappy marriage; The costume really has to create for the actor and the audience this visual veneer in a way to this complicated internal life." This is so interesting to me as it’s essentially so true - without the contrast of clothes throughout the film it would tell a different story. The costumes in Nocturnal Animals really pay homage to Tom Ford’s clean cut, meticulous nature.


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