The art of Crimson Peak

Costume Designer Kate Hawley knew what she was getting into when director Guillermo Del Toro hired her for his cheeky horror film Crimson Peak, which he described to her as just a little Victorian-era film. Having first worked with him on pre-production concept work when he was attached to direct The Hobbit series, Hawley and Del Toro connected over some of the 600 books she travels with, “looking for a common language,” to interpret his new work. She knew even when Del Toro does a smaller film, he and his team pours everything into it.

Taking place at the turn of the 20th century, it tells the story of Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), a wealthy, precocious young woman, haunted by the death of her mother when she was a girl, who lives with her industrialist father in Buffalo, NY. The city is fast becoming a burgeoning metropolis, with carriages and dirt roads quickly giving way to paved streets and automobiles. A foreign visitor comes to town, Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), an English nobleman fallen on hard times, along with his sister, Lady Lucille Sharpe (Jessica Chastain). They are looking for bank credit and speculators to invest in developing the blood-red clay mine upon which their estate, Allerdale Hall rests. When the clay seeps up to surface and stains the snow, the mountainside is known as “Crimson Peak.” Edith is smitten with the dashing nobleman, her father is immediately suspicious. Without giving more of the plot away, soon Edith is off to England and Allerdale Hall as Sharpe’s new wife, but the dilapidated estate has many secrets.

“Guillermo already had a strong idea of what the ghosts were, and the color coding he wanted for the settings and costumes. Buffalo, NY with its cornucopia of wealth and overt lusciousness had warm and gold hues, while Allerdale Hall in England  is a world of winter and starvation, cold blue hues. I responded immediately. I read the script and then we got to work and built layers into these ideas.”

Hawley did a month of personal research before her five months of pre-production began, which was followed by three months of shooting.  “I started doing sketches and drawings based on my initial research.” Then Hawley moved into pre-production, meeting with Del Toro and the other department heads regularly as work switched into high gear. “Del Toro and I looked through lots of paintings for references, I would do mood boards and sketches of costume ideas. My costume department would cut small, theatrical installations of sets, adding fabrics and props for each character. So it’s like magpie-ing. I magpie from everywhere. And then we distilled things based on Del Toro’s response.”

It was important for Hawley and Del Toro to get the silhouettes of the characters correct in terms of how they would look in their costumes. In the production notes Hawley says Del Toro told her “We’re going to build the costumes and we’re going to couture the architecture.” Hawley and her team were constantly layering new ideas onto the costumes throughout the pre-production process. Wasikowska’s clothes for Edith while in Buffalo were light lace, cream colored, or burnt orange, to pick up on the rich warm glow of the atmosphere Del Toro was looking for, while Chastain’s clothes for Lucy were heavy dark fabrics, to represent the dark repressed world of the Allerdale Hall estate.

For Hawley, “creating this [visual] language we were able to have rules that we could make work on a practical and thematic level. For instance, it didn’t feel right to put decorations on Lucy’s clothes, it had to be part of this symbolist world.” Instead, they subtly wove designs of foliage, leaves, and acorns into Lucy’s deep blue colored dresses, as though Lucy was slowly becoming part of the dilapidated house and grounds, entrapped in her clothing. Using antiquated pleating techniques, the costume department spent hours day in and day out hand-stitching all the design iterations into the delicate, fine fabrics.

Hawley worked on Pacific Rim and Edge of Tomorrow before Crimson Peak, and just finished work on Suicide Squad, so working with Del Toro on a period costume drama was a breath of fresh air from the worlds of fantasy and science fiction. Although she did keep one rule in mind: “It’s gothic horror, not a slice of life.”

Text BY MATTHEW STEIGBIGEL

The Credits: https://www.mpaa.org/2015/10/costume-designer-kate-hawley-talks-crimson-peak/

Forgotten Lives: The New Orleans City Insane Asylum

According to the New Orleans City Insane Asylum Record of Patients (1882–1888), the classifications of "insanity" listed below were the most frequent reasons for institutionalization during the late 19th century.

For the majority of those admitted, these facilities became a permanent residence. Many patients never regained their freedom, ultimately passing away due to advanced age or illnesses exacerbated by inadequate staffing and poor institutional hygiene. At the time, the asylum was used to house not only the mentally ill but also those marginalized for their sexual orientation or physical disabilities—including the deaf, the blind, and those with developmental delays. Abandoned by society, many of these individuals were left to suffer without proper medical intervention.

As documented in historical accounts of the era:

"Sometimes the patients died out of the staff members' sight, and weren't discovered until days later, rotting away in some forgotten room. Eventually, all of the nightmarish trappings of asylums were introduced: solitary confinement, straightjackets, electroshock therapy (which gets a bad rap, but was likely overused as a means to control patients rather than as a mode of treatment), and the lobotomy."

 

These are documentary and historical photographs representing a small fraction of the thousands of people who spent their final years in asylums around the world. Although each institution had its own context, many of the stories share a common thread—marked by hardship and isolation. It is difficult to reflect on how many of these individuals were rarely visited by their families, eventually forgotten, and in some cases buried in unmarked graves.

Women and men were institutionalized for many different reasons. Some were considered “different” because they challenged social norms or held ideas that were ahead of their time. Others may have been placed there due to family pressures, social stigma, or circumstances that left them without support. In certain historical periods, individuals could be admitted at the request of relatives, sometimes influenced by personal, social, or marital conflicts. Some of these cases continued into the 1950s and 1960s.

Perhaps most troubling is that, in many institutions, standards of care did not always improve as quickly as they should have. Reports from various periods document neglect and mistreatment, including physical and psychological abuse. These photographs stand as a reminder of that complex and often painful chapter of history.

Historical Case Record: Melancholy (1883)

Patient Profile: Jacob Stihl

• Demographics: Male, White, Age 23, Single

• Origin: Switzerland

• Admission Date: January 3, 1883

• Diagnosis: Melancholy

Recommended for commitment to the State Insane Asylum, the following observations were recorded regarding Jacob Stihl:

"It is with difficulty that any thing can be obtained from him except the fact – that – he has sinned, and that – God may forgive him for his sins. To most questions asked he answers, 'If God says so, or if God is willing.' He will prostrate himself on his knees, implore God Almighty, the Holy Ghost, & remains apparently in prayers for an hour or more."

Jacob is a Swiss native who has been in this country since May of last year. Some of his fellow countrymen have expressed the belief that "nostalgia" (homesickness) may be the underlying cause of his current condition. Efforts to gather more information regarding his family in Switzerland have been difficult; I have been unable to determine from the patient whether he has living relatives. However, the Swiss Consul has written to his home to investigate further.

Historical Case Record: Chronic Mania (1883)

Patient Profile: Wilhelmina Steinheiser

• Demographics: Female, White, approximately 58* years of age

• Origin: Germany

• Admission Date: February 6, 1883

• Diagnosis: Chronic Mania

Recommended for commitment to the State Insane Asylum at Jackson, the following observations were recorded regarding Wilhelmina Steinheiser:

"She is very talkative, but incoherent. Her appearance is somewhat suggestive of a disordered mind. Twenty-three years ago she was confined in the S.I.A. at Jackson for insanity. This is her 2d attack, and dates back 18 months – She has been at the La. Retreat for 9 months."

*Note: Historical records are unclear; the age may be recorded as either 28 or 58.

Historical Case Record: Stupidity (1883)

Patient Profile: James Connolly

• Demographics: Male, White, Age 17

• Origin: New Orleans, Louisiana

• Admission Date: February 6, 1883

• Diagnosis: Stupidity (as a secondary result of Epilepsy)

Recommended for commitment to the State Insane Asylum at Jackson, the following archival observations were recorded regarding James Connolly:

"This child was at the City Insane Asylum, for several months. Last September when the inmates were sent to Jackson, the Judge [Mause?] & myself refused to send him there finding him suffering from Epilepsy. Since then he seems to have become quite stupid."

Historical Case Record: Incoherency (1883)

Patient Profile: Unknown Woman (Alias "Queen Victoria")

• Demographics: Female, White, Native of Germany? [sic]

• Admission Date: February 12, 1883

• Diagnosis: Incoherency

Recommended for commitment to the State Insane Asylum at Jackson, the following details were recorded regarding this patient:

"This unfortunate creature was picked, on Feb 1st/83, roaming about the streets and charged by the officer (Armstrong) with being insane. Her conversation is very incoherent. All I can make is that her troubles are here? — showing the praecordial region. This led me to inquire if she had any husband & children. She says her husband is up there (heaven) & her children, to the number of 4, are dear. She speaks German. From this I suppose that she is German by birth & that afflictions might have been the cause of her insanity."

Historical Case Record: Delirium of Grandeur (1882)

Patient Profile: Mrs. Mary Nelson

• Demographics: Female, White, Married

• Origin: Ireland

• Admission Date: August 14, 1882

• Diagnosis: Delirium of Grandeur

Recommended for commitment based on the following archival observations:

"This woman is very quiet in her speech and in-offensive. Her movements are slow and sluggish. She has a marked irregularity in the beatings of the heart. Her pulse is 96, but when the irregularity takes place, it scarcely beats two (2) pulsations in five (5) seconds. She complains that she has been robbed of her money, amounting to One Million of Dollars, which is in the hands of …..[sic] and yet she is dressed in rags and dirty. Hence her commitment on the charge of Delirium of Grandeur – Her education is very poor, or more properly, she has none; she is of the laboring class." 

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Hello, and welcome. If you’ve discovered this blog—a project I began in 2016—you’ll see a record of my life as an artist and thinker. My writing has been "on and off" over the years because life beyond the screen is demanding. I have traveled, studied, and navigated various career paths in search of my place in this world.

Like many, I have faced the challenge of leaders who view people as disposable. Through those trials, I have fought to keep art at the center of my life. I am still here, and I am still creating.

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Incorrupt slumber of The Saints

Incorruptibility is the property of a (usually human) non-decomposed corpse after death, despite not having been embalmed and preserved in any way.

Incorrupt bodies of saints

The Catholic Church, among others, has traditionally considered the cadaverous incorruptibility of certain characters, particularly saints and blessed, as a miraculous sign of his holiness and for this reason there are many corpses called uncorrupted venerated in Catholic shrines. The belief that an uncorrupted body was a sign of divine grace is found in the Western world since at least the Middle Ages.

The idea of the uncorrupted body usually gives rise to the idea that these bodies are kept more or less as they were at the time of death. The corpses are often publicly exposed and they have layers of wax coated to help prevent further deterioration of the corpse led by exposure. Some bodies are exposed in their natural state and the deterioration is appreciable.

There are also incorrupt bodies that have not received any treatment and keep well and others that some parts of their bodies have become corrupted, some parts have endured (the case of St. Anthony of Padua-of which the only remains uncorrupted is the tongue, St. Catherine of Siena, whose head is still preserved without rotting, Santa Margarita - whose brain remains intact).

-There are certain phenomena or characteristics that occur when a body is incorrupt:

• Odor

The phenomenon, known by the technical name of osmogenesia, consists on the releasing of a nice and soft scent of the mortal body of saints or of the graves where his/her relics lie.

• Flexibility

The preserved bodies by mummification, whether natural or artificially induced, show no flexibility phenomenon in regular bodies. They are hard and rigid bodies. The stiffening on the members begins within hours of death. Most incorrupt saints don’t suffer this rigidity; they remain flexible for many centuries.

• Blood

Another phenomenon that defies scientific explanations is the emanation of fresh blood that comes from a good number of these bodies, many years after their death.

• Oil

In some cases oil flows from the uncorrupted bodies from time to time . It is said that these same oils preserves the body.

There will always be skeptics about this topic, people without faith(not religious faith) on anything. Even if God himself would come down from heaven, this people will still refuse the existence of miracles... even if a miracle punch them in the face (so to speak). It's great to question things ... with an open mind. " What if..." will take our minds to many places.

I mean I believe in miracles, magic and reason, but why be an extremist? All or nothing? Some people question: why these bodies are not in perfect conditions, why some of them have a thin layer of wax, why some of the bodies wear masks if they are Saints!?. The reason is simple; they are delicate bodies. These bodies have been uncorrupted for centuries! Of course that these bodies will start to deteriorate and of course you have to help the bodies to stay in one piece with wax. If you buy a 100 year old antique, you will probably put it in a box or inside a glass cloche/bell glass to preserve it for more centuries, that’s what the church did with the bodies.

I think it’s very important in life to be an open minded person, you have your own beliefs but you have to consider other possibilities. To the people that repeat “Religion is the opium of the people" I say to them: “Hate is the blindness of the people”.  Just because most of these stories are related to the Church, why should non-believers brand them as fake? There are so many mysteries and so many things that mankind ignores ... just because we can't explain it with reason, it doesn't mean it's not real.

 +My question to you is: Do you think this bodies are trying to say something? 

Thank you for reading this post. I hope to read your comments and if you liked it, share it to the world!