Praha, 20 September 1994

So, Pepi,

here we have the other part for the American student community and that is: the merry tales of creating costumes, richly illustrated.The greatest and most complete conglomeration is from the film “I’m Jumping Over the Puddles, Again”. They are photographic sketches and concern the finished film. So now I’m on the runway – look here:COSTUME CREATION IN THE FILMthe costumes aren’t clothes, they aren’t merely dress. They are phantom, an image of flesh and bone created by actor and his personal charm. The elemental parts of dress are fitted on the actor in such a way so as to remind the viewer of the essence of a given character in the film. That cannot be done without an utterly subjective approach. The costume designer hands over his inner information to the director and cameraman so that they can either identify with it or express themselves about it in another way, also subjectively. Out of such a discussion an interesting solution for the character can originate – the character can suddenly transform itself, attain other inner dimension. Thanks to the appearance something becomes foggy and something clears up. Out of the fogginess suddenly an unknown face and some characteristics that had not been apparent until then surface. It is a mysterious process, full of tension. And this does not concern only the main characters. When the possibility offers itself – and in most cases it does – and the extras’ characters are at stake, they, too, play along in the background of the story although for but a short moment. And although the viewer may not even consciously register them, they are highly important, nevertheless.The costume is a carrier of thought. It is a difficult job full of tension. Sometimes the costume designer must cope with some of the live actor’s characteristics that do not suit the role, that are spoiling the intention. So the designers must play a game with the actor until he changes or, a little bit in a Machiavellina way, until he tricks him. An example: in the movie “Diamonds of the Night”, I found out that one of the two main heros had an unbreakable gesture, i.e. to comfortably, widely gesticulate with his arms.I know for sure that whether he knew it or not he would repeat this gesture in the film too. The shooting took place in the fall, and so after several attempts in vain to master the matter differently, I arrived at a single solution. I cut off all the buttons on his jacket so that he was unable to button up and because of the cold, if nothing else, he was forces to walk hunched over and keep both his arms across his chest.In this way the problem was solved, and because you are going to see the film “Diamonds of the Night”, I’ll add several words in addition. In this film about two runaways from a Concentration Camp the STYLE OF REALISM was used. We shall see now how to attain this style. For instance, I seriously dealt with both of the main protagonists’ costumes, several times. I let buttons be sown on the sleeves of the youth with the cut off buttons – this, unwittingly, reminds you of the fact that his coat had been once a well tailored and expensive jacket. Further, I ironed in a large stain on the back (it is usually done with bee wax or with wax through sot paper). Though the stain doesn’t mean anything by itself, it was an unsettling mark on the back of the jacket – it could just as easily dirt as well blood. It was A BLANDISHMENT, A CHRISTENING of that costume.The irregular lengths of the sleeves, the lengths of the trousers, the misfitting coats in the hallucinatory scenes – all that was no coincidence, but a conscious activity. The hallucinatory pictures in the film, in general: I used the fineness of the costumes connected with the props. For instance, the two SS men who were talking to each other capriciously were swinging carefully arranged packets in there hands. The result, “two cure young men”, was attained through a simple principle of going against the general sense of the term SS men by changing them into a young lads shopping. Their horridness asserted itself even more: the lethal uniforms connected with some presents or candies created by itself a small drama that ran through several seconds of the film.The German farm woman who goes to denounce the boys was created due to a coincidence, in fact. She was a German extra with beautiful long hair, as it turned out, when I asked her to undo her bun. Because the director, Jan Němec, had planned on the pictorial vision of murdering the character of the farm woman, I put her on the carpet and spread her beautiful hair around her. The costume, in fact, had its point of departure in the deluge of the air. Her skirt slightly hitched up with a rubber band on the stocking, her out-stretched hand – in fact, for this costume I created the costumes which, in a chronological order, came before this scene. These costumes became highly simple, inconspicuous. The did not need any detail which would have branded them. I had a trump up my sleeve, and that was the beautiful long hair.I have spoken now about several matters dealing with costume design and therefore it will be easier to understand it.At the outset of the work, it is not easy. I think that the most important principles I learned are perhaps these: not to stroke the character, in its appearance, along the grain. It is much better to go against the grain – it is far better because it starts to spark and then there is something in it that captures one ‘s attention. It produces resistance and that is interesting and exciting. For instance, classic character such as: the wealthy and dumb father, the envious aunt, the mean grandpa, the good mother, the conscientious child – out of these elements and characters often come beautiful as well as embarrassing stories. I maintain the possibility that they can be beautiful. The dumb father’s appearance does not have to trumpet that he is dumb, on the contrary, he may have a costume that goes against the grain very much, a costume that will ennoble him so much that his stupidity appears gorgeously in full light only in this ennoblement. It is a perfect stupidity because it is a surprising unexpected, and aggressive stupidity. The conscientious child may easily have his hair untidy and one stocking shorter than the other one – that much more the fact he is a meticulous child IN SPITE OF THAT. However, dear Pepi and Students, after reading what I’ve just written, I wanted to communicate my conclusion that creation creativity cannot be learned by the help of any recipe. At the same time it can also be true that a rich, dumb father can have a costume that implies that he is a dumb person in some way, and it ca be equally good (the expressions of “stupidity” are many, from egoism all the way to the lack of understanding, etc.). What matters every time is the team that creates the film. That is the very secret – that is not a chef’s recipe. It lies in the intuition and the mutual approximate contact of several people who drive the film like a team of horses. It is the compact of kindred souls. There exists no style that would be the single true one. The truth always appears in a new robe, in another change of clothes, in another costume, if you will.Creating costumes is similar to directing in a way. The costume designer receives the names of the cast, he looks over the photographs of the lesser knows or extras, he looks over the photographs of the best known ones and decides in sort of an internal manner, which way to navigate among the cliffs: he decides on the course. As I have said already about the occasion of the creation of the script, it is the same with casting, only unchangeable at this point. And every face, every actor’s personality has different “vibrations”, another value. One must decide in one’s mind how he will treat, for instance, a couple who will play the main part. One must decide on the order of importance, in the sense that one character will not trump over the other one, whether by its beauty or something else. One must confront WRITTEN PERSONALITIES with THE ACTORS’ CAST. One mist submit to a test to win. It is like the fingering exercise that we have talked about – only on another plain. Simultaneously, one must be capable of coming to an agreement with the actors. I have sometimes used Machiavelli’s method of saying something other than what I felt but it was not lying – lying is very difficult at work and it is generally a waste of time. Simply, I may indicated to the person in question by a certain type of suggestive talk that he(she should be the least conspicuous costume within the scope of the agreement and that person accepts it without batting an eyelid. Another time I may initiate some of the actors in the secrets of my activity and ask them to serve as the carries of a certain color because I need it for my intention – and, mostly, they have obliged with the greatest willingness.What I have just said concerns the composition of the costumes’ colors in a chosen style. There doesn’t exist one costume, and then another one, and so on – although it could be an interesting experiment – but what’s the case here is a complex art of all costumes performing in the film. Here a color scale is necessary that must be firmly decided upon with the agreement of the director and cameraman before the work begins. The color composition material may unfold on several various and individually interpreted principles. At stake may be a single, intentionally highly colorful scene that will stand out within the suppressed colorfulness of the other scenes in the course of the entire film. I am observing, Pepi and Students, how difficult a time I am having writing this. After all, writing about the work on a script can be done with a sufficient clarity but to talk about “art design” is like talking about music. But I will continue nevertheless, because maybe something will come out of it in the end.So, about color: what can be at stake are single scenes connected themselves, understood differently in regard to their color every time. To put it simply, you can have one scene be white and another red and the third one black another one yellow. This does not mean I am naming only concrete colors, I am noting now only the great contrasts that arise among colors. That means that in regard to the script and its content in a certain case this method can be suitable and it can express the substance and the essence of the script’s idea. Another example: in scene A a woman in white appears. In scene B she is wearing the same dress in black or she keeps the original white costume from scene A but with a black wrap, shawl, and the like. In the scene C the woman is all in black but the man who appears here is all in white. In scene D both the man and the woman are in black or white. In scene E they wear a completely different color or two colors, let’s say yellow and violet. In scene F they both wear white or black again but have kept yellow or violet elements. And so on: it is a GAME.The colors are not what matters, the above was only a sample of how an entire film can be played out, and for you to understand art design, because the art designer who succumbs to the psychosis to express only the character of the figures is a poor art designer. That is to say he has lost the view of the fact that film is VISUAL and that he must bring the best he knows to that visualness. And he must have the requisite knowledge, firmly built into his personal taste and color subconsciousness. I personally suggest not only costume designers but also directors and cameramen to perfect their knowledge of the graphic art. It is splendid, after all, to walk on a road where someone before us has already cleared the deep snow. We can learn everything the painter had to find painfully and with a lot of work.We learn to honor the mutual connections of colors, color relations, we will get to understand what color is, we will strengthen out feeling for the composition of the film frame. By the way, there isn’t a single film I collaborated on that would not have been guided without some aesthetic manifestation, whether as deeply hidden as possible or transformed to the appearance I needed. Not only the art of really great painters, but also kitsch and half-kitsch can be an inspiration for the art design of cinema. They are defenseless and naive but possess amazing vitality which we can se in old postcards and old advertisements for anything beginning with ersatz coffee. They also may contain animalistic brutality, harsh colors because the author was a primitive but even that is very good for playing with a film, of course.I have brought photographs from the preparation of director Karel Kachyňa’s film “I am Jumping Over the Pudlles, Again.” They are the sketches for the costumes. I draw the designs very sparingly. Only as late as the filming do I supplement them for what the original design contained.The film’s scheme: The film’s author was an Australian, the film was his autobiography. In the film the story was transposed to Central Europe, to our country. But I sort of saw to it that the film would remain on neutral ground regarding its appearance. It seemed the respectful and decent thing to do concerning the author. Therefore, I cleared away the real Czech or Moravian atmosphere kept ir in some village. Somewhere on Earth.The story: Husband and wife have two children, daughters. The father pines for a son. The son is born. The father works in a stallion farm. He is an alcoholic, not evil, but he drinks away their money. Mother has problems with him. The boy loves the father very much and desires to be a jockey. He loves horses, accompanies the father to the stables where father raises the horses. The boy gets polio, virtually dies and returns home paralyzed. Father and mother are devastated but the boy is very strong and what he undertook he succeeds in: on a Sunday when father and mother walk to church they see their son who otherwise walks on crutches as he rides on the back of the horse, proud of his effort to which he had been helped by his village friends.So, all my best – the photographs will show the rest.

Ester Krumbachová