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Tom Ford Warns Against Shorts and Sandals

Damon Houx — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:39:23 +0000

Tom Ford is many things. He is the director of A Single Man, which got Colin Firth nominated for a Best Actor Oscar (and paved the way for his current win). He is one of the big movers and shakers behind the rise of Gucci. He’s one of the most important men in fashion, and has been for twenty years now. And he’s also a man not afraid to offer advice. He’s recently given Another Man his list of five lessons on how to be a modern gentleman.

It seems ungenlemanly to poach the list – and we wouldn’t want to cross Tom Ford – but though the majority of the list are somewhat generic platitudes (“Keep busy to be interesting” “Don’t hate”), it’s number five where he stirs up the hornet’s nest:

5. A man should never wear shorts in the city. Flip-flops and shorts in the city are never appropriate. Shorts should only be worn on the tennis court or on the beach.

On this divide between pro- and anti-shorts, this would-be gentleman sides with Ford. Comfort around the house and on vacation is one thing, but if one is to present one’s self to the world it seems a little unseemly for men to show their gams, especially with men doing so little maintenance to their legs. Perhaps – with many young men concerned with their fashion sense – this could be the next big thing. But at this juncture, shorts do not command respect and suggest insouciance.

Of course, men could consider his claim sexist as women often wear dresses and skirts without fear of being looked down upon by Ford. But perhaps that will come in his next top five list, as this is directed at men only. Perhaps Ford is not a foot or leg fetishist. One wonders Quentin Taratino’s opinion.

Are you pro-shorts and sandals?

A Single Man: Movie Review

Mali Elfman — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:29:20 +0000

Get ready for an an award winning film. First time director Tom Ford’s film A Single Man is a refreshing reminder of what going to the theaters should be like. Surprising, heart-warming, depressing, thought-provoking and above all interesting. The film is as beautiful on the surface as it is touching at its core. Not to be confused with the Cohen Brother’s A Serious Man (which is a very different, and good film), A Single Man is a story about a teacher in the 60’s who loses his lover in an accident and is left in a world that he no longer wishes to be a part of. Lets take a look…

The Players:

Director: Tom Ford
Writer: Tom Ford (screenplay) and Christopher Isherwood (novel)
Starring: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, Nicholas Hoult
Cinematography: Eduard Grau
Music: Abel Korzeniowski
Costumes: Arianne Phillips

The Good:

The Visuals: The literally pop off the screen, set the tone and enliven the audiences senses. From the use of dramatic colors to black and whites, the color palate, the lighting, the costumes, everything that went into the overall look was risky, bold, and completely awe-inspiring.
Colin Firth: The man can communicate so much with so little. Although he can, and does, go big and dramatic at times, it’s the small moments that make this performance one of the best I’ve seen all year. From the twitch of a pinky to the a small nod, he is able to covey an array of emotions in such a simple and effective way. This is truly one of his best performances to date.
Supporting Cast: I could list every actor in this film, they were all amazing. Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Goode, and the stunning Julianne Moore all gave performances that were full of life, love, and pain. Every single one of them stood out in their own way, in their own moment, and hopefully none of their efforts will be soon forgotten come Award Season.
The Script: The story plays with cliches but manages to avoid them in an interesting way. You know what’s coming (kind of) but you don’t really care because it’s not about the end result it’s about how you get there and all the interesting things that happen along the way that may or may not knock you our main character off course.
The Humor: The film could easily have been quite dreary and depressing, but luckily Ford managed to find some the lighter moments in the midst of the drama and thereby giving the audience a chance to breath or even laugh during some of the darkest moments.
The Layers: The characters in the film, although larger than life, acted and responded like real people, with real pasts, who have decades of background behind them and in doing so, it made the audience feel as if we were simply peaking in to their lives for a moment. With the careful mixture of humor, brilliant acting and amazing script, this is one of the most layered and interesting films of the year.
Topic of Homosexuality: I love a film about gay men that is un-apologetically gay and despite it being a main topic in the film it doesn’t define it. The film is about two gay lovers but that’s just something about it, there is SO much more to take in and I think this film is a real step forward in how homosexual love stories should be treated in film – like they belong.
Directing: From the choice of casting to the subtle camera movements, there were a number of amazing decisions made in this film, especially for a first time director. When making a film, so much can go wrong, it’s so refreshing to see it all go right.

The Bad:

It’s a bit too “artsy” for some but I didn’t have a problem with it. Overall I thought it was brilliantly well made with a number of great decisions by a first time director.

Rating: 9.5/10

Overall:

It’s a beautiful smart film, well acted from start to finish, that comes together perfectly and leaves you entranced. Basically… go see it!

Trailer:

Interview: Tom Ford For A Single Man

Mali Elfman — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:40:44 +0000

Famous fashionista Tom Ford sat down to an intimate press conference a little while ago to talk about his film debut A Single Man starring Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult, and Matthew Goode. Ford may be known for his explicit fashion photos and nude models, but aside from a few bare bums running across the screen for a moment here and there, his film is stunningly beautiful to watch and passionately deals with both the joy and pain of love and loss.

Colin Firth gives an Oscar worthy performance (read interview) alongside many other amazing performances. Find out how Ford made the successful transition from fashion designer or Oscar worthy director below…

Casting:

How difficult was it to convince actors to be a part of this since it was your first film and how much leeway did you give the actors in their performances?

Ford: I gave them a lot of leeway because I think one of the things, or well first of all and I don’t really want to talk too much about fashion because it’s very, very different for me in terms of what this was and why I did this and why I hope to keep doing it and was sort of expression it was but there is a certain similarity in that fashion it is a more collaborative field than one might think. You get used to working with [others]. You have to have an idea. You have to have a vision. You have to communicate that to a team of people to help you realize that vision and you have to create an environment that allows those people to give the very best that they can give. So to answer your question about the actors, I was lucky enough to have great actors and I tried to create an environment where they could perform to make them feel comfortable, to get the very best that I could get out of them to make each one of them want this to be the best performance that they could possibly give.

And how was it getting these actors to get on board? I know Julianne Moore was the first to sign on.

Ford: I don’t want to sound…it wasn’t hard. I sent them a screenplay. I wrote that part really hoping that Julianne would respond to it. She did. She emailed me back immediately. Colin [Firth], he had been my absolute first choice. We have the same agent and I checked on his availability at the very beginning and they said, ‘Forget about it. He’s doing this. He’s doing that and that.’ I went on and had another actor cast in the role and I ran into Colin at the ‘Mama Mia’ premiere in London. I was standing there chatting with him, knowing that I didn’t have him, that I was working with another actor who’s a great actor and I was looking Colin up and down and I was just thinking, ‘Oh, God. I can’t believe you’re not going to be George. You’re so perfect for this role.’ A few weeks later the other actor dropped out and I immediately got Colin’s email address. I emailed him out of the blue and Fed Ex’d him a script. He read it and emailed me back the very next day. He had a couple of questions about it. I jumped on a plane and flew from New Mexico where I was to London. I was there for eighteen hours. We had dinner. He came over to my house. I walked him through everything. I had a lot of visual images to show him and we talked a lot about the concept for the film. Basically by the end of the evening we had a handshake deal. So I like to think that the actors responded to the script.

Was there a specific reason that you cast an English actor to play an American?

Ford: I didn’t set out to find English actors to play Americans and Americans to play British roles. It was really that Julianne was someone that I had wanted to work with and she seemed so right for this character even though she wasn’t English, and as I said, she was the first actor to be cast. George I felt really did need to be English. I don’t know why I felt that but I did. I live in England half of the time so maybe my radar was tuned to British actors maybe more than if I’d been in America. But there wasn’t really a reason that I cast English actors to play Americans.

Can you put your finger on why Colin Firth was always your George?

Ford: That’s a hard question to answer. I think that I’ve always seen this character in Colin whenever I’ve seen him in anything, no matter what it was. Colin is such an amazing actor, and I’m not saying that he’s had small parts because he’s done some wonderful things in his life, but even in the smallest thing that you’ve ever seen Colin in there’s something that comes from inside him. He’s able to telegraph his thoughts or what his character is feeling, whether it’s real or not I don’t know. I don’t know enough about his process but he’s able to telegraph that with almost no movement to his face. There’s something about Colin that does seem very contained on the surface and yet inside you know there’s enormous emotion. That seemed absolutely perfect to me for George. So I think it was a case of actor and character very, very well suited. And Colin also, I mean I can’t say enough great things about Colin. He really inhabited that character. I can’t imagine anyone else in that role and it was fate and luck that put him there.

You had a main actor pull out but also for the role of Kenny, another actor pulled out, right?

Ford: He didn’t show up the first day that he was due and he’s a well known actor. I’m not going to say his name. He was attached for six months and we’d made his costumes. Yes. But again it was so lucky and I cannot imagine anyone else in that role but Nicholas Hoult. I had seen Nicholas’s tape a few weeks earlier and similar to running into Colin at that premiere in London I was kind of thinking to myself, I had a sick feeling inside that this guy was perfect for it and that I was working with another actor. It just came together.

The Era – Then and Now:

Looking at the movie and this story we’d like to think that we’ve come a long way since the ’50′s.

Ford: ’60′s. Well, it was still really the ’50′s because it was the ’50′s until Kennedy was assassinated. We were living on the surface in the same era.

And there’s a long way to go with things like Prop 8.

Ford: Which happened the night while we were shooting that.

How far do you think the gay community has managed to come in our time?

Ford: I think we’ve come a long way. I also think that Christopher Isherwood was way ahead of his time. One of the things that I always loved about his writing was the matter of fact way that he treated homosexuality. Most of his stories and novels were autobiographical and so there’s usually a gay character but that’s not the center of the story. The gay character is portrayed as a human being who lives a life and the relationship between George and Jim, I felt that it was very important to depict that in a very matter of fact way, that they were just really two people who are in love with each other. I wanted this not to be a gay story or a straight story but to be a human story. I think the more we see that and realize that love between people is love between two people that the better off we’ll all be for that.

Them feeling that they had to remain in the closet is definitely one of the walls that we’ve broken through.

Ford: Absolutely and we did have the period [for that]. You only sense it a couple of times; when he’s not invited to the funeral because he’s not family and the biggest time really is when Julianne, his very best friend who’s known him for years, Charlie, says to him, ‘Don’t you miss this, what we could’ve been, having a real relationship and kids?’ That to me, if I were George, would’ve been the thing that stung the most, that someone so close to you still didn’t really understand the relationship that you had with someone else. So, yes, it was certainly because of the time a part of it but it wasn’t meant to be the real focus of the story.

You have a long term partner.

Ford: Twenty three years.

How did that affect you as you wrote this story?

Ford: Well, I think that anyone with a long term partner with anyone that you love, the idea of losing someone that you love could throw you into a situation where you could not see your future and you really would be living in the past. That’s what happening with George. As I understand it from Don Bachardy, Christopher’s partner, Christopher wrote this story when Don left him for about eight months and moved to New York with someone else. Christopher imagined that Don had died and that he was alone and he wrote this story.

The Look and Translating the Book to Screen:

Can you talk about the color pallet that you chose?

Ford: Well, it was to help us understand what George was feeling. At the beginning of the day he’s depressed. Everything is flat. Color is flat. He’s not seeing color. His flashbacks are vivid in his mind because there are moments when he’s alive and so when he’s thinking about to these moments, even the terrible moments like when he hears that Jim’s died there is color because it’s vivid in his memory, other than the one that’s in black and white. The reason that’s in black and white was that he was taking the pictures of Jim that day in black and white. He was thinking in black and white and so for him that entire memory is black and white. The color heightens when George really starts to look at thing and the beauty of things starts to pull on him. I had a friend who was dying of cancer and I remember him telling me that snow didn’t look like he’d ever noticed it looking, everything, because he was seeing these things for the last time and he knew he was going to die. Things took on an almost surreal quality. So I wanted the audience to feel that, to experience what George was feeling and as the beauty of the world starts to pull on him, by the time that we’re at the end of the film he’s living in Technicolor, very vivid. That was the point of the color.

There’s a very languid style to the film, the male form and it’s variations. Since this is very close to you, I wonder if all of that was intentional or just sort of an occurrence?

Ford: It was very intentional and I had done a lot of research just photographically building the characters. I had a binder for each one of them that I put together even while I was writing the screenplay. Then certain things in the binder actually ended up working their way into the screenplay because visually they made sense for the character. So I knew who these characters were, where they lived. George’s house for example, he moved to America because he loved the fact that when you came to America you could make something of yourself no matter where you came from. So he would’ve wanted a dynamic and modern house. Yet he’s a professor who grew up in England in a dark paneled room with a fireplace and a scotch in one hand. So the kind of modern house that he would want would have to be warm, dark, cozy. So I spent a lot of time looking for just that right house to help the character, to help Colin as an actor understand his character and to help us understand the character.

I know in the book he’s in his head a lot…

Ford: The whole time, yeah.

How did you go about deciding when to use voice over and when to not use it?

Ford: I originally didn’t write any voice over at all. I added that voice over after I had cut the film and I realized that I needed those punctuations. I started out trying to have no voice over. I don’t know how said it, or maybe many people have said it, but a film, since it is primarily a visual medium, should really be like a silent film. You should be able to watch something and understand what was going on and use voice when you need to communicate something you can’t necessarily communicate visually. The book is the opposite. The book is an inner monologue which is beautiful, one of the most beautiful books. If you haven’t read it you should read it, but nothing happens in the book. There is no plan of suicide. If you were to just take the book and put it on film you wouldn’t know what was going on because there’s nothing external happening to help you understand what’s going on. So I had to create external scenes so that we would understand what George was thinking and what he was going through.

Tom Ford the Fashion Icon Turned Director:

Now that you’ve started this second profession while keeping at the fashion, I’m curious about what you saw yourself doing as a child?

Ford: God. I thought that I was going to be an actor. I actually studied acting at NYU and I made a lot of television commercials which is how I put myself through college. I quickly realized that I didn’t want to be an actor because I didn’t feel secure enough at that time. I remember doing a Purell shampoo commercial when I was nineteen and this kind of bitchy hairdresser said, ‘You’re losing your hair. It’s all going to fall out.’ I just remember becoming so paranoid about my appearance that I wasn’t a good actor because I was too self-absorbed and nervous. I realized that wasn’t going to happen for me so I went back to school and studied architecture and fashion and now I’ve sort of ended up here. But when I was a kid I thought that I was going to be an actor.

How did this process compare to fashion?

Ford: Well, the process as I explained is a little bit the same. You have to inspire people and get the best out of them.

Do you know what’s next for you in film?

Ford: No. I have something that I’m working on but I need to get a little distance from this. I just finished editing it in August and we’ve had all the film festivals and I need a little bit of space.

Is there an iconography for Colin’s wardrobe that you used? It reminded me of a ’60′s Michael Caine.

Ford: That’s a good reference.

The Details:

In your intention to make about it life, death is never far off, how did you balance the two?

Ford: Well, there are a couple of different reasons for that. George is a character who keeps himself together by keeping his outer world in order. This is how this man exists. This is how he gets through the day. On the worst day of his life he’s polishing his shoes. He’s putting on his tie. He’s just being held together by the surface and by the order of everything. Not to be too, this might sound silly to some of you – I don’t know – but Christopher Isherwood was a Vergo. Vergos are precise, almost uptight. It’s all about precision and order and I’m a Vergo. Colin Firth is a Vergo. This was the Vergo, Vergo, Vergo film. But it’s also very much a part of his character, written into the original book. This is a man who’s inner world and outer world are connected. He feels that if he can keep his outer world together that he won’t collapse inside. Colin’s character has a veneer but just inside is this romantic guy who’s suffering so much and it’s right behind the surface.

The nudity in this film is so tastefully done. Was there ever more consideration to going full frontal like you’ve done in some of your ads?

Ford: You could have but if you know anything about my career in fashion it has been very much about full frontal male nudity and full frontal female nudity and sexuality and sex. I think that a lot of people think that’s all I’m about and they understood that surface. This for me is a story about love and a story about romance and had there been a need for that kind of nudity then sure, but there wasn’t that need and it didn’t seem to come from the story. So that’s why it’s not there.

I loved seeing Don Bachardy in that cameo. How was it having his old lover on set?

Ford: It was wonderful and he contributed a lot because whenever I had a question about something, like for example I wrote Julianne’s character in a much more glamorous way than she’s depicted in the book. I said, ‘Don, do you think I’ve gone too far by doing this?’ He said, ‘The funny thing is she was based on Iris Tree who was very stylish.’ He pulled out all these pictures of Iris Tree and he said, ‘Christopher didn’t want her to know that she was the inspiration for this part so he changed her physically, but this is who the real woman was.’ That of course made feel better about altering that character to the extent that I did. So it was great to have Don and it was great to have Don’s vote of confidence. I think that he genuinely loves the film and is very happy. So that makes me very happy.

See A Single Man in theaters December 11th!

AFI Festival 2009!

Tom von Logue Newth — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:44:15 +0000

It is finally upon us – as I type the crowds are thronged outside the Grauman’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard for the American Film Institute Film Festival Opening Gala and North American Premiere of Wes Anderson’s stop-motion fable Fantastic Mr Fox (already covered by Screencrave from the London Film Festival – ahead of the game as usual).

Taking place all this week, largely at the Mann 6 Cinemas in the Hollywood & Highland Center, with special screenings at the Chinese and some in Santa Monica next weekend for the American Film Market, there’s plenty to see this year. But be warned – it’s going to be busy! Festival sponsors Audi have, remarkably, provided all tickets for free. Which means naturally that that they’ve all been pre-booked. But fear not, for there are standby lines opening an hour before each screening, and unclaimed seats are up for grabs fifteen minutes before the show starts. And this being LA how many people who pre-booked tickets are actually going to turn up do you reckon?

The full list is on the AFI website and it all looks pretty good, but there’s a handful of titles about which I am really excited (Sunday is a particularly good day):

Tonight at 9.30pm: Everyone Else, a German film that has gotten rave reports from Europe, exploring a young couple’s relationship in light of another couple they meet on holiday. Truthful and daring, it won the Grand Jury Prize at Berlin.
Saturday at 7pm: Mother, the latest from The Host director Bong Joon Ho continues to uphold the high reputation of contemporary South Korean cinema in a crime thriller featuring a mother as amateur detective, trying to clear the name of her son. More good festival reports, from Cannes and Karlovy Vary
Sunday 4.15pm (also on Friday at 1pm in Santa Monica): Police, Adjective seems to have been the most impressive film on the European festival circuit so far, a thriller of sorts, but also a philosophical examination of language. Romanian cinema is on a roll right now and if this is any indication, only getting better.
Sunday 7pm: White Ribbon won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and it looks for once as though Michael Haneke may be holding his haughty contempt for the audience in check (*he *calls it “respect”). Mysterious and sinister goings-on in a German village in the years leading up to WWI point fingers at the social mindset soon to be seduced by national socialism (but does not, non-spoiler alert, reveal the source of the aforementioned mysteries. He’s still got to piss some people off apparently).
Sunday 10.30pm: Castro is a short and fast-paced hunt through Buenos Aires for a missing person, described as a cross between Samuel Beckett and Mack Sennett, and reputed to be one of the best films from the very exciting alternative cinema scene in Argentina right now (I am still recommending Historias Extraordinarias to anyone who will listen. Or can find it…)
Monday at 7pm, Centerpiece Gala: The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus is the movie in the middle of making which Heath Ledger popped his clogs. So director Terry Gilliam replaced him with Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, playing alongside Christopher Plummer, Lily Cole (rather good, apparently), Verne Troyer and Tom Waits as the devil (excellent!). A traveling magic show features a magical mirror and lots of freaky stuff and no-one seems to want to come out and say if it’s any cop or not, just that it’s a Terry Gilliam film and that he’s back on top eccentric form. Which is good enough for me.
Tuesday at 7pm: I Killed My Mother generated loads of buzz at Cannes, in part because it was written, directed by and stars French-Canadian first-timer Xavier Dolan, who’s a mere 20 years old, and in part because it is actually rather impressive, a caustic and tender tale of familial and (homo)sexual relationships.
Tuesday at 10.15pm: Youth In Revolt. My sister said “I am so over Michael Cera” approximately 15 minutes before seeing the preview for this and her decision was instantly reversed. He plays a nerdy young man (you don’t say) who, to win the love of the girl next door, invents a smooth and unbridled (and mustachioed) alter ego whom only he can see. Much chaos and hilarity ensues; the trailer is, indeed, pretty funny.
Wednesday at 7pm: The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is not a remake of the Abel Ferrara film but does feature Nic Cage as a very badly-behaved police lieutenant, as directed with gloriously surreal touches by Werner Herzog. I got a screening of it last night and it is very funny, hugely enjoyable and Nic Cage is back on wonderfully insane form.
Thursday at 7pm: A Single Man is directed by ex-Gucci head Tom Ford (his first) and stars Colin Firth as a bereaved gay man in 60s LA. More terrific word of mouth from Europe and Oscar buzz for Firth, it’s reported to be arty (in a good way) and deeply moving.

But don’t take my word (entirely..) for it – take a look at the calendar, go stand in line, and enjoy high quality films from all over the world, many of which will never get near a North American release. And do it for free! Full details at AFI.com.

ScreenCrave.com » tom ford

Tom Ford Warns Against Shorts and Sandals

Related Posts

A Single Man: Movie Review

The Players:

The Good:

The Bad:

Rating: 9.5/10

Overall:

Trailer:

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Interview: Tom Ford For A Single Man

Casting:

The Era – Then and Now:

The Look and Translating the Book to Screen:

Tom Ford the Fashion Icon Turned Director:

The Details:

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AFI Festival 2009!

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