20 thoughts on “Gabriella Pescucci: The Frock Flicks Guide

  1. I love her work, but my favourites are (in no particular order) The Borgias, Age of Innocence, Midsummer Night’s Dream (Titania’s blue/teal dress alone would add it to list – see Twitter post under Lady Cecily Neville), Dangerous Beauty, Penny Dreadful. Will have to try to find the others.

  2. Didn’t know she did Baron Munchausen and am impressed. That is one of the most visually amazing films ever made.

  3. Yeah, I’ve reviewed Gothic & Rowing Against the Wind, but I’ll have to find a copy of Haunted Summer — it was in my college goth movie rotation, natch, but I haven’t seen it since & don’t remember anything about the costumes!

  4. Surprising how many times the Mary Shelley thing has been re-hashed. FYI, the Queen of Sheba’s name was Balchis. Don’t remember where I ran across that nugget, but there it is. I guess “The Borgias” is my pick of what I’ve seen of her work. Was in “The Age of Innocence” The wife made her own bodice, then had trouble convincing Wardrobe it wasn’t theirs. Ryder looked quite ill through most of the 2-day shoot (the opera sequence).

  5. I’ve loved her work for some time, but Penny Dreadful quickly became my favorite. I LUURRRVVEEE the (sadly) brief period post-bustle and pre-Gibson Girl and Eva Green wears those costumes SOOO very well.

      1. Eva Green was great in Miss Peregrine — would love to see a Frock Flicks about that movie too!

  6. “Van Helsing” would have been a better movie if they hadn’t killed Anna Valerious near the end. I almost felt like howling and crying along with Van Helsing when he realized what he’d done as a werewolf when that happened :(. It isn’t technically a “historical fiction” film. In fact, it’s kind of an “alternate history/steampunk/fantasy/horror” film. Hell, Van Helsing was NEVER an actual badass warrior on a leather trench with a super-cool crossbow. In most Dracula stories, he’s an old man and a professor! This was totally a “drool over Hugh Jackman” movie for the girls, and for the guys, it was a “drool over the action, violence, and Kate Beckinsale” movie. Plus, Anna was supposed to be a Gypsy Princess and an action girl, hence the kick-ass outfit. What bothers me is some of the story-writing was ridiculous, but the action scenes and special-effects were great.

    “The Brothers Grimm” story would have been better if they’d spent more time on the writing and developing the characters more. Plus, they REALLY could have left out the gross stuff. Seriously. The concept was interesting, but the execution wasn’t so great. (Of course, considering who the director was, I’m amazed it wasn’t a film worthy of the most Razzies for the year). This film also gives you an early look at Lena Headley before she played Cersei Lannister.

    One of the most irritating trends I’ve seen among adult fairy-tale fans is, they like focusing on the violent, gross, nitty-gritty parts of the stories written down by the Brothers Grimm, and frankly, I really don’t enjoy seeing stuff like that turned into a violent grub-fest. They’re called “fairy tales” for a reason, not because of the bloodbaths or the dirt. It kind of robs the stories of the beauty and wonder that people originally loved.

    A lot of people really liked the Mirror Queen’s gown, though I thought some of the proportions were really insane, like the mile-long sleeves and train, or the devil-horns hennin. (Seriously, real medieval hennins were NEVER shaped like that, even the double ones). Her costume was so popular, it ended up in a SIMS game! “The Sims Medieval” has a modest and a slutty version of the dress, but with shorter sleeves and no train on the skirt.

    “Beowulf” was the very first CGI cartoon I had ever seen that was gratuitously gross and violent. I have NEVER, in my ENTIRE LIFE seen such a gory cartoon before that. Even “Starship Troopers” couldn’t measure up to that. Plus, I hated how it made the men weak towards Grendel’s mother’s sexual wiles and power, and despite slaying her children, she still technically wins in the end. That is NOT how the ancient poem goes, sorry. Its only good offering was the epic music and incredible CGI work. If you didn’t know it was a CGI cartoon, you could almost mistake the people for the real deal.

    Most of these movies and tv shows I’ve never seen or even heard of, but I guess it’s better that I hadn’t. I might still try the Borgias, though. I hear it was better than the Tudors.

    1. Van Helsing — sure, you’re right, but it’s still a baaaaaaad movie!

      Brothers Grimm had its problems, but I’m guessing that there may have been some studio interference. Who knows!

      I’m not a huge gore fan, but I do like the realification (I just made up that word) of fairy tales. I find it interesting! But ANYTHING being more gore-y than Starship Troopers is impressive!

  7. I’m happy to see “la nuit de Varennes” mentionned in frockflicks. I like the costumes and the set design of this movie, far from the glamorous 18th century, we are accustomed to see. Moreover, it turns out to be a movie about a costume, as we see in the scene with the mannequin and LouisXVI’s uniform.

    I find Indochine depressing too. But the costumes are very classy.

  8. I have very mixed feelings about Penny Dreadful as a show (they just didn’t stick the landing), but the costumes are amazing all the way through. In particular, there’s a ball scene in Season Two that features probably the best interplay of lighting and the colors chosen by the costumer as a way to convey mood that I can remember.

    Also, there’s this fantastic background detail: a sign that reads “Mme Pescucci, Dressmaker.”

  9. “The Borgias”! Always, always, always “The Borgias”! Followed closely by “The Age of Innocence”.

    I love that Ms. Pescucci can design costumes which are both historically accurate and fabulous. No one does it better, IMHO!

  10. I was at a talk about Mary Shelley and ‘Haunted Summer’ came up. The giver of the talk had never seen it. I’m now about to fall down the rabbit hole that is YouTube to see if I can track it down and feed my inner Lord Byron fangirl. Send prayers and popcorn!

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