Talking About Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie with our guest, Costume Designer Antoinette Messam
On this episode of Movies We Like, we speak with costume designer Antoinette Messam about her incredible career in film and one of her favorite movies, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's magical 2001 film Amélie.
We have a fascinating conversation with Antoinette about her journey into costume design, including rebelling against family expectations, finding her way from fashion to film, and learning on the job. She shares amazing stories about her experience collaborating with directors like Ryan Coogler (Creed), F. Gary Gray (Lift), and Jeymes Samuel (The Harder They Fall, The Book of Clarence), and dressing icons like Sylvester Stallone and Michael B. Jordan.
When it comes to Amélie, we dive deep into the stunning use of color and how it brings the whimsical world to life. Antoinette explains how the color palette was meticulously constructed through collaboration between the director, production design, costume, and more - truly effortless worldbuilding. We also discuss the joyful spirit of the film, Audrey Tautou’s masterful performance, and how the music perfectly complements the visuals.
Our chat with Antoinette gives rare insight into the art of costume design and the magic of movies. Amélie is a vibrant, feel-good film with incredible attention to detail that we highly recommend. We have an amazing time learning from Antoinette's experiences and perspectives on this delightful movie.
Talking About Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie with our guest, Costume Designer Antoinette Messam
On this episode of Movies We Like, we speak with costume designer Antoinette Messam about her incredible career in film and one of her favorite movies, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's magical 2001 film Amélie.
We have a fascinating conversation with Antoinette about her journey into costume design, including rebelling against family expectations, finding her way from fashion to film, and learning on the job. She shares amazing stories about her experience collaborating with directors like Ryan Coogler (Creed), F. Gary Gray (Lift), and Jeymes Samuel (The Harder They Fall, The Book of Clarence), and dressing icons like Sylvester Stallone and Michael B. Jordan.
When it comes to Amélie, we dive deep into the stunning use of color and how it brings the whimsical world to life. Antoinette explains how the color palette was meticulously constructed through collaboration between the director, production design, costume, and more - truly effortless worldbuilding. We also discuss the joyful spirit of the film, Audrey Tautou’s masterful performance, and how the music perfectly complements the visuals.
Our chat with Antoinette gives rare insight into the art of costume design and the magic of movies. Amélie is a vibrant, feel-good film with incredible attention to detail that we highly recommend. We have an amazing time learning from Antoinette's experiences and perspectives on this delightful movie.
Welcome to Movies We Like. Each episode, Andy Nelson and Pete Wright invite a film industry veteran to discuss one of their favorite films. What makes a movie inspirational to a cinematographer or a costume designer? Listen in to hear how these pros watch their favorite films. Part of The Next Reel family of film podcasts.
Andy Nelson:
Welcome to movies we like, part of the True Story FM Entertainment podcast network. I'm Andy Nelson, and that over there is Pete Wright.
Pete Wright:
I am Pete Wright.
Andy Nelson:
On today's episode, we invited Antoinette Messam to talk about Jean Pierre Jeunet's Amelie, a movie she likes. Antoinette, welcome to the show.
Antoinette Messam:
Thank you, and thank you for having me.
Pete Wright:
So excited to have you here today.
Andy Nelson:
We are thrilled to, to have you here to be talking with you about, you and what you do, all the amazing work that you create, and also about this fantastic movie. So before we start talking about Amelie, let's talk a little bit about you and kind of what led you to becoming a a costume designer. Your parents were both involved in the world of clothing and everything. Like, is that where you first were drawn into this world?
Antoinette Messam:
Absolutely not.
Andy Nelson:
Oh, okay.
Antoinette Messam:
I ran I ran away from it. My my mother it wasn't actually my parents. It was my grandfather was a tailor
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Antoinette Messam:
And, a very esteemed tailor. There wasn't very many tailors in Jamaica who had his skill level, who had trained away from home. And my mother, one of his, you know, 11 children was also very skilled as a she calls herself a dressmaker. I call her a designer because I saw what she did and it was far more than just making dresses. She sat with her clients and sketched and cut custom, so that's designing to me.
Antoinette Messam:
So it was expected that I would follow along in these footsteps. And being in Jamaica as a young child, the last thing I wanted to be doing is sitting behind a big, old, dirty, old it was just it just looks scary to me, singer. These old singer machines that were huge. And I just wanted to be outside and I wanted to run around and be in trees and go to the beach and pick get cockleshells for my grandmother. I didn't wanna sew.
Antoinette Messam:
So I rebelled against it, and I got in so much trouble. And if Antoinette the adult could go backwards and embrace the skill and learn from my grandfather, I'd be, to me, a much more skilled costume designer. So that was why I said absolutely not. I rebelled against it immediately. Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
So where was the point then when you flipped?
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Where where was that what was that switch?
Antoinette Messam:
The switch came I mean, growing up in around clothing and building, I loved fashion. I started modeling very early, around 16, and, segued from modeling to styling because I always appreciated and liked what the stylists were doing, especially in stills and advertising to create stories. I wanted to go in that direction, which I did for many years. And I became a parent and wanted some stability. And someone recommended that I could buy for film because I had the network, I had the vendors, the skills that I would it'd be a good transition for me to work in the film industry.
Antoinette Messam:
And that was in my, I'd say, late twenties. So it wasn't an it wasn't I mean, I went to school for fashion. I didn't go for costume or theater. I went for fashion. I thought I was going to be, if not have a clothing line, have a I wanted to do marketing.
Antoinette Messam:
I wanted to be in fashion, but for some reason, I thought I'd be in Paris working in Vogue. You know? But
Pete Wright:
If I had a dime. Yeah.
Antoinette Messam:
If I had a dime, but the costume costume was not on my radar. Never even crossed my mind.
Pete Wright:
And and somebody recommends you should give, the film industry a shot, and you think I think that might be more stable.
Antoinette Messam:
Well, you know what it was? I don't know what you know of fashion, but it's usually contractual, and you have to invoice. And then you have to wait 20, 30, 60, 90 days, sometimes to be paid when you invoice. And as a young mother, I had daycare. I had, you know, my kid had Obligations.
Antoinette Messam:
Obligations. And I was like, you need to be a grown up. This may not this lifestyle may not be the best. It may be you may look fantastic and dress in models and doing all that, but you're now a parent. You gotta become a grown up and get a weekly paycheck.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Right.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. So I, I reached out to a designer they recommended, Delphine White, who became not only hired me, but became a mentor and recommended me for my first costume gig very early in my career because she felt that I was a designer. She saw it in me. She thought that project, which was MTV's first drama series, was very suited to my background in fashion and then what I was learning in costumes. So she recommended me to the studio, to the producers that I had the eye.
Antoinette Messam:
And if they hired senior assistants to help me, they thought she thought I would be the best person for that job.
Andy Nelson:
Wow. Great.
Antoinette Messam:
And I started out from basically, as a costume designer and then went backwards and did all the positions in the department.
Andy Nelson:
So he'll learn learn learn it the backward way. Well
Pete Wright:
Yeah. So so your first the IMDB credits your first your first gig as a costume designer as one episode of classic close to my heart television forever night. How old were you when you started getting those gigs?
Antoinette Messam:
That was, like, 5 years on. Or Okay. Yeah. My first job as a costume designer was a series called Catwalk.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Antoinette Messam:
Which I don't even know if we can find it on IMDB. This is, like, 91, 92. And, I know I left it in 93, but it was Catwalk, and it was MTV's 1st drama series. And I did
Pete Wright:
was it.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. I did season 2.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. And I I think I did a couple of, you know, 2 camera sitcoms and realized very quickly that was not for me.
Pete Wright:
Why not?
Antoinette Messam:
It was like, woah, just factory, just pumping it out really quickly. And luckily, it was great training Coming from a background doing commercials and music videos, it was great training to do sitcom, but I just didn't feel it was giving me the opportunity to create or do stories. I was just dressing people, good looking people in in pretty clothes. You know? And I could go back to styling and make more money doing that.
Antoinette Messam:
Right? So I just felt like I I at that time is when I really re I realized that this may be my calling. I really enjoyed if I could read in that script and it come to to life in my head, if I saw the people dressed, walking, talking in their clothes, I knew what I wanted what I was gonna do, and it came naturally. You know, I've turned down projects that I'm I've read a script once, twice, and I just can't see it. I'm just not feeling it.
Antoinette Messam:
And half the time, that's because it's written poorly. But, you know, bad scripts affect you in different ways, and part of it is as being able to to immerse yourself in the story.
Andy Nelson:
Do you remember the the turning point as you started working, really kind of on costume design coming up with the ideas where you had the opportunity to, like you read the script, you had an idea, and it re you were able to fully realize it. Do you remember, like, what was that film where you felt like that was a that was a turning point where suddenly I'm like, this is I'm finally able to kind of, like, get this vision on screen.
Antoinette Messam:
Wow. I I'm maybe it is forever night. Because what was exciting about forever night, I did some independent films for that, which were fun and creative. But what was amazing about forever night is even though I'd done series before, this was this was grown up work. This was flashback over 800 years every episode, and that's where every skill that I had and didn't have came into play.
Antoinette Messam:
It's like the pace with the contemporary, which, you know, my background in fashion helped, but learning on the ground to do period. Each episode, what are we doing? What are we creating? So that was the first time I had to put together a shop, like, sewing shop to have people making things and we buyers to rent and pull. For those flashbacks.
Antoinette Messam:
I was able to create a system that I had a researcher researching the episode upcoming. So by the time, okay, we've now started shooting this episode, I'm moving ahead to read and read look at the research for what's coming to the next one. And when we pull it off and I look on on screen and I see it and I'm like, oh my god. This looks this is it. You know?
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Where the where the the character is allowed to transcend vampire soap opera. Right? Like Yeah. That's that's really cool.
Pete Wright:
And that show was kind of bonkers in terms of a mash up of, like, so many different tones.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. It was insane. I remember that was the first time that I understood the relationship between a production designer and a costume designer and what that marriage could be like working together on a project like that. If if I didn't have his mentorship, his, guidance because I was still a junior designer. This is only maybe 4 or 5 years into my career, you know?
Antoinette Messam:
So it was a big leap for them to hire me. And what it did is make me fall in love with period. Doing a film not long after that called Ruby's Bucket of Blood with Angela Bassett and Journee Smollett. Journee was like 13 years old, 12 going on 13. She was a baby.
Antoinette Messam:
That again is just like, I'm still to to this day one of my proudest works of in terms of period.
Pete Wright:
That's fantastic.
Andy Nelson:
And you've done quite a bit of it too over over your career. You've kind of danced quite a bit through all of it, and it's fascinating looking at the varieties of projects that you've been a part of from things like Creed to, most recently, Book of Clarence and Lift, and just seeing the variety of of tones that you end up playing with in the films. In in the process of all of these, I mean, you know, film by nature is just a very collaborative medium. You need to very much kind of collaborate with directors and actors and so many other department heads. What is the process, in in kind of finding the right tone for collaborating and helping the whole vision of the director realize, but also your vision of the costumes on screen?
Antoinette Messam:
The process usually starts with the director. I feel the director set the tone. You know? And even though they themselves may not be artists, I know that you know what I mean by that, where there is directors that their gift is the action, the storytelling, the actor, but it may not necessarily be as skilled in the creative end of the story. And and that's where people like costume designers, production designers, DPs, we come together to to flush out and and help in that world, where there's directors who know down to the tone of the paint what they want.
Antoinette Messam:
You know? And that too is lovely because then that rises a bar and is like, wow, can I meet this challenge and deliver what they're asking for? But collaboration for me is really, really important. And I realized really quickly if the the the players, the creative heads of departments, who's a collaborator and who's not. And I work better with talkers.
Antoinette Messam:
There's some people who just like to be left alone and do their thing. I feed off people and what they're doing. I mean, a good example of that, and probably up to this day, I don't know if I can match it, is Martin Wist, who I did The Harder They Fall With. I mean, Martin is an artist. He's a painter by craft.
Antoinette Messam:
Like, he he's he paints and he shows in galleries, so he's an artist already. We were like, again, that husband and wife team where I'd show him a scrap of fabric, and he'd come back, look at this wallpaper, and then boom, I'd go back and get something dyed to work. You know? And he's like, oh my god. That blue dress.
Antoinette Messam:
Now I know what I wanna put in that, the inside of that saloon. You know? So we Wow. We worked together. You know?
Antoinette Messam:
As soon as he started building that white town in Maysville, we went down there to see the colors and the tones and see what tonally knowing James wanted this town to be all white, but explaining to him that. Let Martin do the all white, and then I'll do layers, textures that will complement but not be jarring so that when the protagonist come, they
Pete Wright:
pop. Well and Martin is a is a wizard with color in his production design, and I imagine that's an incredible playground. I one of the things that you I I I note when I just look at your collection of films, your catalog, you have Creed, Harder They Fall, you know, book of Clarence. You are have had to face dressing icons, right, that that have transcended the the specific film that they're in. So I as I started kind of asking this question myself, I think the Internet was listening, and the algorithm fed me a video of Sylvester Stallone introducing his fedora that he now sells on his merch site.
Pete Wright:
Right? This is the classic fedora. And I got to thinking, I wonder what that's like from your perspective when you get to something like Creed and you have Stallone showing up and working with Coogler and, you know, trying to figure out how do you dress an icon? How do you dress Jesus? How do you dress this incredible sort of transcendent cowboy black cowboy western, that that is iconic.
Pete Wright:
What goes into your process when you're when you're faced with with, you know, dressing these kinds of characters?
Antoinette Messam:
Every movie is different for me. You know? And, yes, it's their icons, and you can be intimidated. And I I'm I'm I can be intimidated, but what helps is is communication. You know?
Antoinette Messam:
And with Sylvester Stallone, I asked the producers if I could meet with him before I traveled to Philadelphia, before he traveled, because I knew that our communication needed not to happen 2 days before he shot, you know, or the day before. I needed to get an idea of what his thoughts were. Did his character arc turn or change from when we saw him last? Like, who was he the who was this man now? Or was he the same person?
Antoinette Messam:
And those are questions that I had for him, you know, also just quite honestly using the excuse that I needed measurements and if I could do it in person. Measuring him was secondary to talking to him and hearing his thoughts and his ideas. And, okay, this is who I want you to call to get the duplicate hat made. They made the first they've always made the hats. They'll make the hats again.
Pete Wright:
Do you ever run into to, hey, Sly. Let's lose the hat. What if we lost the hat?
Antoinette Messam:
Oh, I didn't. That was above my pay scale. That was above my pay scale. I mean, we got into, you know, whether or not he had enough for aging on his clothes and and wanted to age it himself. And it's like, you can age it yourself because then I have to match it.
Antoinette Messam:
You know? So it was challenging, because he's such an icon. I don't know if either one of you have been to Philadelphia. Even just going through the airport, he's everywhere. You know?
Antoinette Messam:
Well, there's a big statue of him. Yeah. Yeah. Every every it's like wherever you turn, there's something to say Rocky was here. Yeah.
Antoinette Messam:
Right. Right. So that that was some big shoes to fill. But even harder than that was communicating with Ryan, who was still a a young filmmaker finding his his way. And I could just imagine how he felt working with Stallone and and the fact that he had the audacity to create this script and get it green lit.
Antoinette Messam:
So there was a lot of I felt there was this energy of a lot of pressure all around. Hannah Beakler, who was a production designer, bonded on that project as well. We came together and worked together to fill big shoes if you wanted to say that, you know. I'm really proud of that film. I did not have a lot of time, very, very little time because some producer thought that I could rent all these boxing kicks.
Antoinette Messam:
And I'm like, no, guy. They're made and the best ones are made in the UK, in London. So it was a learning curve for a lot of people.
Andy Nelson:
Wow. Jeez. Wow.
Pete Wright:
That that movie actually I follow-up question. That movie, gets me thinking a lot about the human body. Right? Because, of course, Michael b Jordan is, you know, transcendently huge in that movie. Right?
Pete Wright:
And as much as I want to imagine you going up to him one day and saying, hey. You know, your abs aren't showing off my work enough. Back to the gym, buddy. I'm sure you didn't do that. How do you how do you relate to physical form coming from your background in in fashion and modeling when it comes to dressing people like, you know, Michael b Jordan or somebody who has to exude sex appeal or something.
Pete Wright:
How do you relate to them with their body conditioning over the course of a film?
Antoinette Messam:
That was a that's a good question. That one was tough because when Michael was in training and still wanting to define his body so when we started, he he was already there working with boxing coaches. He had multiple people working with him for different reasons, whether it was the hands or the pulled toning or just build in bulk. So I measured him right off the top and then continued to do so. Luckily for us, this this tailored stuff was closer to the end.
Antoinette Messam:
His most of his clothing was was athletic and loose and and very in the beginning LA version of that, sort of stylized and, you know, coordinated and hip as compared to grassroots and organic, which it's it kind of the art went that way once he got into the local gyms. I mean, there are one scene story just to to share with you, going into the original gym that they shot the first few rockies in and seen t shirts that they sell with the the logo and wanting to use this. Like, take off that Nike tank top and put on this t shirt because that's what you would do, you know? But his body wasn't as bulky as it is now. He didn't get that frame really until Black Panther.
Antoinette Messam:
He was he bulked up considerably for Black Panther. So after the first Black Panther, when you see him do creed 3
Pete Wright:
He's significantly larger.
Antoinette Messam:
He's he's significantly larger. So he was fit and toned, but not to the he wasn't as massive as he was now.
Andy Nelson:
It wasn't as big a change over the course of that story.
Antoinette Messam:
No. Same with Jonathan Majors. Jonathan, when I did the harder they fall with him, was very fit and very toned, and you see it in the scene where he's being whipped and punched.
Andy Nelson:
Right.
Antoinette Messam:
But who'd he became with Creed 3 and the Marvel movie was, like, double his size.
Andy Nelson:
Right. Right. Right. You know, as kind of following off of that whole idea of working with bodies and and and people and coming up with outfits that obviously fit the character you know, you want the care you want the outfits to be honest to the character, but also kind of finding a different tone for each of them. And, you know, thinking of Lift, one of the the the recent Netflix movie that you have, it seems like a fun opportunity for you to return to the world of fashion to a certain extent.
Andy Nelson:
You know, you're filming all across Europe with a whole bunch of beautiful people who are very rich because they're all thieves, and so they're all very well dressed. And they, just they look great. They're stealing, you know, the a bunch of gold out of a plane, but they all look fantastic
Pete Wright:
through the whole
Andy Nelson:
movie. And they all but they all also have their own little their own looks and everything. I mean, I I think speaking to the idea of balance, you know, talking about what Pete was talking about with kind of the way that you have working with the body and everything, but also balancing out the the story, but also with all the different characters.
Antoinette Messam:
Experience helps. You know, it really does. I've I've learned a lot over the years. And the script helps because especially with Lyft, it it helped to give me a synopsis as a backstory for each of these characters and who they were. And, I mean, off the top, you're right.
Antoinette Messam:
They're millionaires. So I had to keep that in mind that these these they as young as they looked, they're art thieves, so they have money. So I'm not a big fan of logos or placement that says Gucci, LV, but yet there had to be an air of money in places. And, I mean, you really see that on Kevin Hart's character.
Pete Wright:
You put Kevin Hart in a black turtleneck, he looks like a a bazillionaire.
Andy Nelson:
He does.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. And trust me, nobody thought that would happen with some of my choices, they kind of looked at me. It's like, trust me. You know? And also too, let's make sure we define him and define a look that's very different than anything he's ever done.
Antoinette Messam:
Because when you look at Kevin's other works, he tends to be in that athletic street urban look all the time.
Andy Nelson:
Sure.
Antoinette Messam:
Which is who he is in real life. That's how he rolls. You know? So if when he's doing press or doing any, type of advertising type stuff, he's a little slicker. But in real life, he's really casual.
Antoinette Messam:
I just wanted to make it effortless how he looked. You know? That if he put on a suit or that first time we see him in his apartment, he is wearing a very expensive Tom Ford floor polo with custom made cashmere track pants. You know what I mean?
Pete Wright:
That's a beauty it work. That's right.
Antoinette Messam:
But it it looked it looked effortless, and that was the goal with him Yeah. With all of them.
Pete Wright:
I feel like Lyft in general part for a couple of characters. I mean, Gugu Mbatha, you can, put her in. She's magnificent. I feel like the mountain that you had to climb between Kevin Hart, who generally plays someone who's kind of goofy, right, the comedian, and Vincent D'Onofrio, who's coming off of Kingpin, making D'Onofrio the goofball and Kevin Hart the strategic genius and making those character profiles work felt to me like a massive, not to go into term, lift on your part. Can you talk a little bit about the other side of that, making, D'Onofrio play as a mountain of a man?
Antoinette Messam:
Oh, wow. I just, like, literally had chills. I love that man. I think that was the highlight of making lift for me is working with an actor of that caliber, an actor who came in with ideas. And we had so much fun working on those characters.
Antoinette Messam:
I mean, my staff didn't have fun. I mean, trying to find a Texas student while you're in Belfast that is across the other end of the world. Yeah. You know, I had buyers in LA and Texas looking for his size because he's a big man.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Antoinette Messam:
It's not that I couldn't have found it. It's finding one to fit Vincent. Yeah. And, but, yeah, we had fun with that. I mean, it included the collaboration with our makeup and hair head department, and we would stay after he wrapped and and test looks on him.
Antoinette Messam:
And he'd go outside and just immediately morph into character, especially that first costume that he wears, the suit with the
Pete Wright:
With the cane.
Antoinette Messam:
The cane and the sloppy asp because it couldn't be too perfect. You know what I mean? Because he doesn't know how to do that. But yeah. So everything was it was in character, but a little off.
Antoinette Messam:
Not quite perfect. Right?
Pete Wright:
Well, it's it's, you know, transitioning to the book of Clarence, which, you know, watching the movie, it it's not the movie I expected from James after The Heart of They Fall. It is so full of fantastic treatments with the sort of anachronistic touches. Right? The, and I'm I'm curious how you approach you approach that script. Do you remember the first time you read it thinking, what am I gonna do with this?
Antoinette Messam:
Oh, man. That was, the backstory to my doing the book of Clarence is I knew about a couple of projects that James had floating around. You know, the prequel to The Heart of They Fall, the sequel to The Heart of They Fall, a biblical movie. And he called me. I'm in Jamaica with my parents, and it's end of August.
Antoinette Messam:
And he says, are you ready? Let's go. And I'm like
Andy Nelson:
Oh, what? I I don't know how to do
Pete Wright:
that right now from here. And I'm
Antoinette Messam:
like, I'm in Jamaica. And which one?
Andy Nelson:
You're right.
Antoinette Messam:
Which one? And he's like, oh, we're doing the book of Clarence. I said, I'm in Jamaica. How soon do I need to get to LA? He's like, now.
Antoinette Messam:
We're going in 12 weeks.
Andy Nelson:
Oh, jeez.
Antoinette Messam:
And what do you mean we're going in 12 weeks? No. We we're shooting in 12 weeks. So I had to get
Andy Nelson:
Holy cow.
Antoinette Messam:
Pack up my parents, get them to Toronto where that's where they live and where I grew up, and then get on a plane and get to LA, and I'm reading the script on the plane.
Andy Nelson:
Oh, jeez.
Antoinette Messam:
Let yeah. I'm reading the script on the plane, making notes at questions. Thankfully, God bless Wi Fi on planes. As I'm reading the script, I reached out to Western Costume Rental House that has a research department and I had to say, okay, you guys, this is an emergency situation. I'm literally getting off a plane, meeting with the director, turning around, packing my kit, getting on a plane to Rome.
Antoinette Messam:
I need I know nothing about this, this, this, and this. Yeah. And, predominantly, this this script, what freaked me out, every job I I don't know. You've you've guys have talked about the diversity and the the choices I've made. I'm crazy.
Antoinette Messam:
I do that. I like a challenge. I like to to to mix it up, do something different. One of the reasons I went to do Lyft after a period, I'm I I think Lyft came after secret headquarters, which was
Pete Wright:
Owen Wilson.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. That was very much about I've never done a superhero costume again, and it's okay if I never do another one.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. I
Antoinette Messam:
just hadn't gotten to
Pete Wright:
that question yet. And what what's it like putting Owen Wilson and Michael Pena in superhero gear?
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. PTSD from that one.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Oh, no. Oh,
Antoinette Messam:
no. Yeah. So I literally, like, I knew nothing about the Roman soldiers. And military is really important because you have to get that right. You have to make sure that it's authentic, it's the right uniform, the right level of seniority within ranks, all that stuff.
Antoinette Messam:
And it wasn't even like I had time to hire someone to do specifically. I just needed to know what does it mean to me? What is backstory? This is a time period. Give me what you know on Roman soldiers at that time in this region.
Antoinette Messam:
And then I will break it down from there and do a deeper dive, but just the the the Coles notes. You know? And then I'm like, this is a black movie. How did the black people get there? Which was more important to me because soldiers, we could fabricate if we couldn't find it.
Antoinette Messam:
We could, you know but is this fantastical? Is this are we making this up or is there some fact to this? So that person that gave me my start in this business, my mentor, I reached out to her from the plane typing away. This is true. Because I needed to have these the right questions when I had the 5 minutes with James before he got on a plane and went to Italy.
Antoinette Messam:
And I said, you just worked in Malta. You did that same time period. She did, dovekeepers in Malta, and it's a beautiful little period film. And I said, so you you have some experience with this time period. Can you do some research on I'm assuming they're African or Arab or, like, where did they come from?
Antoinette Messam:
How did they get to Jerusalem? Yeah. Because I needed to be able to say to Jane, this is fact. This is not. How do we wanna treat this?
Andy Nelson:
Right. Right.
Antoinette Messam:
And she came back with some of the most fascinating articles and research because she's an educator too. And it wasn't even about the visual yet. It was just about where they originated. This is the trade route that they came in from Northern Africa or Western Africa, and the reasons they ended up in Jerusalem. So that was really fascinating and just actually made me happy to, again, like the harder they fall, say, these people existed.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Right.
Antoinette Messam:
You know? Yeah. And at the end of the film, I went to Rome and went through some of the museums and actually saw art and pictures of tombs with carvings of what is obviously black African curly haired people. You know? Yeah.
Antoinette Messam:
So, that was that was lovely. And, I mean, I shared this obviously with James, but it was just knowing the facts now, having some factual information, then I'm sitting in front of him and say, what movie are we making?
Pete Wright:
Yeah. It's a significant question for this movie.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. Yeah. What do you want this to look like? I mean, there's lots of biblical films out there. Some of us grew up on the 10 commandments, and then there's life of crime.
Antoinette Messam:
Yes.
Pete Wright:
History of the world part 2, Mel Brooks.
Antoinette Messam:
Mel Brooks. Right? And then you go all the way over to the other end, the passion of Christ. And, you know, so Jesus of Nazareth, we could go on and on and on.
Andy Nelson:
Right. Right.
Antoinette Messam:
And the Italians are masters of this. They do them yearly. So I said, which ones do you like? What do you gravitate to? So he immediately said that this is trash.
Antoinette Messam:
This I don't like. This is fantastic. This is a work of so he broke down his favorites for me, which started to narrow down my okay. This I see where he's going here. I see what he likes.
Antoinette Messam:
And what came out of that conversation was Jesus of Nazareth, this I think it was like multi was it many mini a miniseries? There was so much of it. He studied that because he just liked the way that story was told. But what he also liked tonally was how that movie looked. You know?
Antoinette Messam:
Some of the other ones were a little both of us agreed were too embellished, were too over the top, wanted to pair it back. He used the word a lot, gully. I'm Jamaican. I know what gully means. Gully is sort of organic dirt, not dirty in the sense of dirt on clothes, but down and dirty, down real, you know.
Antoinette Messam:
Let's get let's get down and make it real, make it real street. That's that's the slang. That's what gully means.
Andy Nelson:
Gully. Gotcha.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. I mean, the harder they fall, the word was I want swagger. But with this film, he wanted it gully. And that's the, you know, communicating with James, that's you learn to understand. He says, I want it gully.
Antoinette Messam:
I want hoods for him. People would think you're putting on a hood of a hoodie. No. Hoods for him was he wanted those head wraps wrapped like hoods. So when he said hoods, I needed to understand that.
Antoinette Messam:
But more importantly, I needed to explain that to the Italians who had no idea what that meant because to them, they're turbans and
Andy Nelson:
Oh, sure.
Antoinette Messam:
You know?
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Totally different. Yeah.
Antoinette Messam:
Totally different. But most important because I had such little time, by the time I got to LA, we're 10 weeks out. By the time I was able to get on a plane to Rome, we're 9 weeks out. I'm in Rome 8 weeks out trying to crew and set up shop and figure everything out. So I'm behind the 8 ball.
Antoinette Messam:
And it's not even like I had my director in walking distance or to show or do anything because he's not he went straight to Matera, which is where we shot the film.
Pete Wright:
Crew based in Rome.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. Crew based in Rome, and we all traveled to Matera as a as a production.
Andy Nelson:
Wow. Did you go to Matera? Were you there during production, or were you bouncing back and forth between the two places?
Antoinette Messam:
What I did is we start we prepped predominantly prepped in Rome because the rental houses are there, the space is there to prep. And then I went there for a weekend to meet with James. It was the first weekend that DP was starting as well, and meet the production designer. So I wanted to meet everyone and spend some time with them seeing what they were doing. And they were all behind the 8 ball as much I mean, production designer.
Antoinette Messam:
I don't think he he looked like he was gonna have a heart attack before the movie ended. You know? But we met. But what was important for me with going to Matera that I didn't realize until I got there, is any ideas that I thought about design went out the window once I actually landed in Matera. Because I got to see up front my palette, my backdrop
Andy Nelson:
The actual location.
Antoinette Messam:
Which was the location. Matera was our location. There was a lot of dressing of, you know, that period into Matera, but the sandstone of the walls, the sand and dirt of the streets, the blue sky, the the hills with stone and and and grass, like, my set was standing in front of me. So then colors James loves color. I had to be careful how I use color here because it could it could either be a nice foil against all this natural or it could be garish.
Antoinette Messam:
Right?
Pete Wright:
Sure.
Antoinette Messam:
And something he asked me to do, which was very challenging and he felt I didn't do it, but then he he saw how it worked, was he wanted a lot of white hoods. And that would have been too stark because I treat white like a color. And to some people, it's a neutral. For me, it's a color. In this particular film, it would have been so harsh a color because of the naturalness of my backdrop.
Andy Nelson:
Right. It almost would have been glowing everywhere.
Antoinette Messam:
Exactly. But then using it effectively in the right places, which is what he then saw. Using it for my messiahs, using it for my mother Jesus, where I needed people to glow, you know, to be special. How do I make them special in a sea of costumes that technically are the same? You know?
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
The the looks of these are just stunning. The the craftsmanship clearly shines through in all of these examples. So, so, yeah, I mean, it's an amazing career with a lot of just stunning work that you've been, building up over the over the years. So but, you know, speaking of color, I think this might be a good time to shift our conversation and start talking about Amelie, which is a fantastic film that is just vibrant and packed with wonderful colors. Do you know
Pete Wright:
what these people have in common? This is Amelie. With the discovery of a simple childhood treasure, she begins a quest to fix other people's lives. And perhaps her own as well.
Andy Nelson:
This is a movie that you picked to talk about, one of your favorites. What is it that draws you to this film, Antoinette?
Antoinette Messam:
What drew me to the film was the colors and how if any film that I think resonates with me, that that collaboration is in play between, 1, the direction and the director, but the costume, the sets, the lighting, beautifully married was this film. I mean, there's other films, but this was just so I don't know. Maybe it's because it's so specific. The red is so specific and the use of the red. You know, the green, the color 3 colors that stand out is the red, the green, and goals in different tones.
Antoinette Messam:
Sometimes different tones in the same frame and done beautifully. Sometimes so subtle and so quiet. And then other times, depending on the set, so busy and so loud, but all working together. I just thought that was brilliant. You know?
Antoinette Messam:
At the time, I didn't stop and think about what does the red signify or what does the green signify. I was just somebody watching it and just thought how beautifully done. I wanna be able to do something like this one day. And then as time progressed and it's still one of my favorites and then realizing, hold on a minute. Production, set deck, art directors, DP, camera, everybody, directors nominated up the hill.
Antoinette Messam:
I think there was, like, 50 between 50 wins and nominations in total and only one for costume design.
Andy Nelson:
I saw that. I was looking up, and I couldn't believe it. It shocked me. I'm like, surely, it had more than this. And I kept going through the list, just one.
Antoinette Messam:
Just one. And I mean, I'm in this now over 30 years. It just speaks to the I don't know if the word is what the word is, but that it's just recently that there's not period fantastical films being nominated for Oscars. You know, I was so happy when Mad Max won. But that's the direction.
Antoinette Messam:
If the costumes aren't larger than life, loud, over the top custom, They're not nominated. I'm an academy member. I sit in on these meetings. And why wasn't Saltburn nominated? Again, costumes effortlessly told the story throughout that film.
Antoinette Messam:
And that's what up what I I realized with this is they're acknowledging the lighting and the set, but they're not acknowledging that it takes all 3. If the clothes were not bang on, if the designs, if the characters didn't fit within that lighting and set, it would have thrown that movie off. She was a prong in that wheel that made it work and wasn't recognized for.
Andy Nelson:
Well, in a you know, I I suppose it's it's always a challenge in in these projects that has that have so much vibrance in so many different categories, really, that it it it overwhelms. And I suppose, to a certain extent, you just say, well, maybe there were just so many things happening. I don't I don't really can't figure it out. But, you know, people acknowledging the the director and the production design and the camera and everything else, like and not acknowledging the costume just seems so strange to me because it's it's such an integral part of this particular film.
Antoinette Messam:
It's not strange. It's because everybody can dress themselves. I had more input on lift with costumes that were contemporary costumes that to were as easy as pie than the harder they fall in the book of Clarence put together.
Pete Wright:
Wait. Wait. Talk more about that. How did that how does that come to pass?
Antoinette Messam:
Because and, I mean, this is something that costume designers chat about, that they trust that we've done our research and we know that, period, more than they do. So they're trusting in our expertise.
Andy Nelson:
Mhmm.
Antoinette Messam:
But with a contemporary project, they're wearing this clothes in a similar time span. I don't like that jacket. I prefer this jacket. Or why don't you get a jacket like this? My son just brought it.
Pete Wright:
I got it.
Antoinette Messam:
I got it. Great. Yeah. But I'm like, but it's not right for this character.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.
Andy Nelson:
That makes sense. Yeah. Well and and Amelie is a very interesting film. It's it's it takes place theoretically in our world. Right?
Andy Nelson:
I mean, it starts in the seventies and ends in the nineties. You know, we've kind of got, this journey of of following her over the course of it, but there is this magical realism element that Junet clearly infuses into the film throughout. I think that that allows a lot of these flourishes that we get that we see in in the colors and the way the camera moves. And even just in the performances. You know, we we there's so much that everybody is kind of putting into this world.
Andy Nelson:
And and Junet you know, I first learned of Junet in the film that he directed with Mark Caro, Delicatessen, a few years before. And I could already see that there's a lot of really creative energy being funneled out of out of his head. And seeing it here is just, like, there's so much creativity on screen in so many different ways. I don't know. I it it just speaks to, I guess, the joy of storytelling and finding a unique way to bring a vision to life.
Pete Wright:
Well and there's no way for me to watch this movie without smiling ear to ear. That's that is, like, this this movie is just joy even though she's kind of a sociopath. Like, there's just she's got some issues, but it is a joyful film. The thing that I love so much about this, and speaking directly to costumes, my absolute rank amateur take on, on this is that these colors are so vibrant. They could be taken as sort of a lampoon to the world.
Pete Wright:
Right? But, somehow, Audrey Tutu, when she puts on the clothes that she wears, when she interacts with the vibrant reds when she's happy and the desaturated world when she's not, and Nino with the blues and the greens and, like, the entire universe feels, to the point you made earlier, effortless. It feels so natural that she would, to character, exist in the fabrics, in the textures, in the colors in this world. And I I think that is that is as much a part of world building as any production design conversation we've ever had. And, it it just feels effortless.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. It does. It looks effortless. It feels effortless. And, I mean, as a lead, she she obviously stands out.
Antoinette Messam:
She's so beautiful. But when you look at the other, you know, supporting cast, the eccentricities with some of these people that she's helping to make, you know, wanting to make them happy. After talking to me, look at it with different eyes. Because if she's been given a color palette, Madeline, the designer has been given a specific color palette that she has to work throughout this film with each character and still have it look like their own clothes and effortless. Do you know what I mean?
Antoinette Messam:
Those colors that are on the woman behind the, the counter in the cafe are the same
Pete Wright:
cigarette desk. Yeah.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. It's the same colors that we're seeing on the in in the fruit, the display of the fruit at the at the market with the 2 men behind. Yeah. But now they're wearing the colors that were the behind the wall. So they're literally it's almost like those 3 had to sit in and all the production designer, set decorator, and the costume designer, and whoever had to sit in the same room and work together through each frame.
Antoinette Messam:
And that is a skill.
Andy Nelson:
That's exactly right. Wow. That's just amazing.
Antoinette Messam:
Right? It's it's it's it's it's each frame is almost then you get to the man with the new the noom. What is this? What do you call those? Those little Dutch little noom things that ended up in the the the Polaroids through each place.
Pete Wright:
Oh. Oh, the gnome.
Antoinette Messam:
The gnome gnome. Right.
Andy Nelson:
Right. Right. Yeah.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. He only wears naturals. Neutral colors. Beige. No color.
Antoinette Messam:
Beige. But the green is all in his his his garden. Right. Right. Is in the decoration of where the gnome is.
Antoinette Messam:
Do You know what I mean? So there's, again, who's who's the neutral in this this story and who's the color, and they're they're bouncing back and forth. That was a dance that they synchronized, choreographed perfectly, but she was part of the dance. Do you know what I mean?
Andy Nelson:
It's an amazing amount of balancing act that
Antoinette Messam:
the director goes act.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. This is something that, Pete and I talk about a lot on our other podcasts. The world of voice overs in film. I know Pete often hates voice overs. A lot of people do because a lot of times, people don't know how to use voice overs effectively in the story, and they're just telling you stuff that you're already seeing or you'd rather just be seeing.
Andy Nelson:
This is a very different type of voice over. It's kind of this this, omniscient storyteller kind of telling us this story. I what do you think of the the voice over? Does it work for you?
Antoinette Messam:
It's fine. I mean, it it worked with this movie. Sometimes it's jarring. You know what I mean? And other times, it's background.
Antoinette Messam:
With this film, it worked, but just in the nature of the kind of film that it is, I mean, with the flashbacks and
Pete Wright:
And then it's a fable.
Antoinette Messam:
Right? Like, it's Yeah. But, you know, it's like some people hate subtitles. Maybe because I watch so many movies, they don't bug me, but I could see my son being irritated by it. You know, when he just wants to get in the story
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Antoinette Messam:
And not be distracted by subtitles. I voice over this voice over worked for this movie. Yeah. You know? I'm I'm maybe I'm the only one that thinks so, but I felt it worked.
Antoinette Messam:
It didn't it didn't stop me from being immersed in the film, if that's makes sense.
Pete Wright:
Totally. And I don't think you're I don't think you're wrong. And in fact, I think this is a case example of how to use voice over. So Yeah. You know, if you're looking to make a movie and you think, maybe I should have a voice over, watch Amelie first to see how it's done.
Pete Wright:
That's what I that's the case.
Andy Nelson:
I mean, I I think from the beginning, Junet really sets it up in that, like you said, Pete, kind of a fable. Like, this is a story that is gonna that they're going to tell for us. And when we start watching a fly land on the road and get run over by a car, like, that's how this film begins. It's like, okay. I'm not sure where we're going.
Andy Nelson:
But then you start seeing, and then the glasses dancing on the tablecloth as it's blowing in the wind, and the guy like, it's it's about the little things. It it's all about these details. And and each time we meet a new character, instead of, like, just jumping into their life, we're introduced to backstory with them through the voice over about, you know, he loves cleaning out his tool chest. He hates getting out of the pool with his swimming suit all, well, crinkled up. And that my favorite is, like, you know, she loves hearing the sound the cat's bowl makes when she puts it on the the tile.
Andy Nelson:
And the cat loves eavesdropping on them telling the stories. Like, we're just going into these strange little tales, but it's like building this world and that like, I so rarely find a voice over that so effectively gives me, like, a full rich painting of of so many details. And it's almost like looking at the painting that the the, the glass man is always repainting. Like, you're every time you look at, like a Renoir like that, it's like, oh, I didn't notice that detail before or this detail before. And this is one of those films where it's just like it's just overflowing with these details.
Antoinette Messam:
And that detail, if you talk talk think about detail, it took me a minute to realize, who's the other person with the eyeglass watching?
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Yeah.
Antoinette Messam:
Right? Because it wasn't revealed until later. And then I'm still did I catch that right? It is the glass man. Right?
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. Yeah. But it was like it's flipped. She was the one in the beginning, and then someone started to watch her. And what did he think watching her do those things?
Antoinette Messam:
Was that ever revealed? I don't think so. You know? I mean, I've I've watched the film a few times, sometimes without words, just it's on. It's in on the background.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. Plain. And I feel like I need to go back once you guys contact you know, said pick a film. It's like, I think I need to go back and just watch the movie from a different older perspective, a more experienced perspective, but just watch the movie. Because I think this time around, I'll watch it with different eyes and see different things.
Antoinette Messam:
You know?
Andy Nelson:
That's always an interesting challenge for people in the industry to you know, when you're so close to the process to be able to step away from the process and and just enjoy it for what it is again. You know? Because so often, you know, we talk to people who, like, they're they're studying, like, the way that the camera is moving or the or, like, the the costumes and how the color palette is is evolving and everything like that. And it it becomes almost a task to set aside as a as an another time to say, okay. I'm just gonna let myself enjoy this as a movie and just let the story wash over me.
Andy Nelson:
And I think that's luckily, I think this is a very easy film to do that with. I think it's very easy to kind of get sucked into her, you know, like Pete said, her kind of, like, sociopathic crazy ways that she's decided, you know what? Like, she it's it's such an interesting character. She's so afraid to to put herself out there. And I think this is something that I I forget about often when I think about film because I I so enjoy the love story between her and Nino as they slowly kind of come together.
Andy Nelson:
But the fact that she really is, like, not wanting to, like, be vulnerable. You know? She's she's kind of built this wall up. Her father always raised her that way. And so she's happy to do all these things to make these people happy, but only secretively.
Andy Nelson:
And it's it's only through kind of, like, the evolution of her character arc, which, you know, is wonderful where she finally is able to kind of get to that moment where, she and Nino connect at the door, and it's just it's perfect.
Pete Wright:
It's such a lovely movie about control. Right? Because the things that she can control are the things she can't control human interaction, but she can control her action. Right? She just she can't confront anything because that there's too much uncertainty, and I think that's so much of this movie is her coming to find comfort in uncertainty, and that's the that's the big prize at the end.
Pete Wright:
Like you said, it's the it's the doorway connection where she gets to let go.
Antoinette Messam:
But let's just acknowledge that this actress said so much without saying anything. Like, her face. Talk about expressiveness. You know? That's a master class, I think, just watching Emily the and looking at the actress and how she tells a story on her face.
Antoinette Messam:
You can get lost in that woman's eyes and her faces.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
And she's great at delivering a punch line. There is this the sequence in here when she is they they set it up with, you know, Emily is likes to consider the the great questions of the world, like how many orgasms are happening right now. And we get that fantastic montage of so many orgasms, and she looks at camera and says 15, that smirk slays. It slays every time she nails her punch lines.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. Yeah. She was good. She was good. And got lots of nominations and wins.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
Well, rightly so. Rightly so. Yeah. It's it is a really interesting and and just magical film, and I guess that's, you know, just the the joy of of movies and and just telling these stories. And, you know, surely, you felt this with some of the projects you're doing where I mean, it starts as words on a page.
Andy Nelson:
And through the process of so many people, you know, and in this case, with Junay's, you know, crazy vision of, like, these these vibrant, you know, reds, greens, golds, the camera dancing, and just, like, the crazy movements that he puts into it and infuses, and just the voiceovers, and the crazy little CG light fixture that she has, and just, like, all of these elements that like, by the time you get to the end, it's an effortless movie to watch, but it just it lifts you up, and it's just it's kind of invigorating for what cinema can do. And, you know, just starting with words on a page, and suddenly, we're in this place where we're watching this incredible story. And it's just like it just is so moving.
Antoinette Messam:
And what's interesting, not only is it moving, but it makes you happy. It makes you smile. It's a it's a sweet film. And to be honest with you, I normally don't gravitate to sweets films. I I started my career doing a lot of horror films, A lot of drama, which I love because then the clothes reflected that.
Antoinette Messam:
And one of the movies that I I I It's been so long since I've seen it was his other film, the city of lost children, which is a complete opposite
Andy Nelson:
Right. Yeah.
Antoinette Messam:
Of Emily and which is normally where I go. But, you know, that kind of moody, edgy,
Pete Wright:
dark
Antoinette Messam:
And I never thought I'd like Emily, but I do. I just love there's a lightness. Even with some of the the the dark stuff that's in there, it still feels uplifting. But I think you have to get that. You have to be somewhat, like I said, there's there's some whole market that would never understand this movie, and those who do, who really do.
Andy Nelson:
Right.
Antoinette Messam:
And and that's what's great about it.
Andy Nelson:
Well, that's you know, before we started, our conversation, we were talking briefly about it. And you had mentioned that, you know, when this movie came out, like, there were some people that you had talked to who said, oh, it's just a light, fluffy thing. And it just it was almost like it's a trifle. There's this element to this film that, on the surface, I suppose, it feels like it just feels like kind of a rom com. You know, we've all seen rom coms.
Andy Nelson:
We've seen a 1000000 different iterations of the same story. What is it about this one that makes it feel so different? Is is there a distinctive Frenchness that comes across?
Antoinette Messam:
I think it's not being able to define what it is. What is this movie? Do you know what? It doesn't fit in a box. Being not American and not growing up in film in America, America likes to put film in boxes.
Antoinette Messam:
You know, categories, different genres. This seems to not tick any of those boxes, which is one of the main reasons I liked it because it was different. But it's interesting. Someone said to me the other day, I don't want different. I just want entertainment.
Antoinette Messam:
I want light entertainment. I've worked all day. I just wanna come home and watch something that doesn't make me my brain work too hard. And even though you would think this is light and it doesn't, if you stop and dig deeper and I'm not just a surface layer, which people could easily say is fluffy. If you really pay attention to the story and the look and the direction and, I mean, those flashbacks in black and white are pure genius.
Antoinette Messam:
Like, if you understand as if not as a filmmaker, but just a connoisseur of films, what is being done here, then you see that it's not just fluff. But if somebody doesn't wanna think that think harder than what they you know, a pretty little girl running around Paris doing god knows what, you know, then it's fluffy. Yeah. But you have to pay attention a little bit, and sometimes people don't do that. And one of the reasons I like working with James Samuel, you may look at his film and think, oh, this is not that deep, or it's just a western, or it's just a biblical.
Antoinette Messam:
But give it a second watch, and stuff starts to come out of it. It's like, oh, I didn't catch that the first time.
Pete Wright:
Well, I'll tell you what. Harder they fall, I felt like I got that the first time. I did not get the book of Clarence the first time. I am eager to watch that movie again. There is a lot going on.
Antoinette Messam:
A lot going on.
Pete Wright:
Much more than I ever expected on that movie.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. That's reflective of the audience who are seeing it now. They they're going in expecting something else. And it's like, oh, this is not what I thought this is gonna be. And some people are either they embrace that and wanna look at it again, or it's a good thing, or it's completely I didn't get that film.
Antoinette Messam:
And they write it off.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. And then they write it off, and then it's done.
Andy Nelson:
I've been trying to take it as a challenge to myself when I when I see a film that I'm just like, I just don't get that. It just wasn't you know, it doesn't work for me to revisit it because I, in general, find, you know, on a second watch, I'm like, oh, okay. Now I see what's happening here.
Antoinette Messam:
And also too, if there's not any pressure to watch it for a reason. Do you know what I mean? Right? Our timeline, and you could just sit back and just immerse yourself into the movie.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Antoinette Messam:
If you do, you can come back and tell me what you think.
Pete Wright:
Well, it's a beautiful, compelling, really interesting movie. And, like I said, it's got so much going on, completely unexpected from James, but a a worthy watch. Disappointing, that I'm hearing crud about it because it's, undeserved.
Antoinette Messam:
It's
Pete Wright:
worth it's worth checking out for sure. And I'll tell you, the reveal of the Last Supper montage is shockingly good.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Really interesting stuff going on.
Andy Nelson:
Just I you know, I mean, we're off the topic of Amelie, but just like the way that it builds to that ending. Like, it was a really surprising ending for me. Totally. I wasn't expecting that from the film. And I'm like, wow.
Andy Nelson:
Okay. That actually went a lot farther than I was thinking they were gonna go with this film, and it was just a real surprise. So it was just nice to see.
Pete Wright:
Well and that's what I think, Antoinette, you're talking about. Like, when the movie starts off and it sets a certain tone and then it delivers a punch line that doesn't match the initial tone, that's jarring. That's jarring for people. But that's also that's kinda what he does with
Antoinette Messam:
his movies. Right? Exactly. Exactly.
Pete Wright:
Anyway. Andy, how does movie do an award season?
Andy Nelson:
Well, we've already been talking about it a little bit. Yeah. A very, very popular movie. It had 59 wins with 74 other nominations. Very, very popular.
Andy Nelson:
Sadly, only one for costume design at the Caesar Awards. But Caesar Awards is very popular. Thirteen nominations. It won for best director, best film, best music, best production design. Audrey Tortue was nominated for best actress but lost to Emmanuel Davos in Read My Lips.
Andy Nelson:
Screenplay and sound also lost to Read My Lips. Best supporting actor, Jamelle Debus. I think I'm saying his name somewhat close. And Rufus were both nominated for supporting actor but lost to Andre DuSollier in the officers' ward. Cinematography also lost to the officers' ward.
Andy Nelson:
Isabelle Nanti, she was the, cigarette counter girl, was nominated for supporting actress but lost to Annie Girardot in The Piano Teacher. Editing lost to Wing Migration and costume design. This is the one nomination it got. It lost to Brotherhood of the Wolf. Very interesting costume but, to Antoinette's point, something that is period fantasy, all of that.
Pete Wright:
Falling apart at the seams.
Andy Nelson:
Falling apart at the seams. At the Oscars, it had 5 nominations. Original screenplay, lost to Gosford Park. Best foreign language film, lost to no man's land. Best cinematography, lost to Fellowship of the Ring.
Andy Nelson:
Best Art Direction set decoration lost to Moulin Rouge. And Best Sound lost to Black Hawk Down. So, you know, it it had its place in the awards. Obviously, won a good number of them. It was very popular.
Andy Nelson:
But, sadly, costume design. Contemporary just wasn't getting noticed.
Pete Wright:
Okay. But how to do at the box office? This is, it it had to have made some money.
Andy Nelson:
It did. I don't know the French numbers for Junet's budget, but it translates to $10,000,000 or 17.9 in today's dollars. The movie opened in France April 25, 2001, then here in the States on November 2, 2001 opposite Monsters Inc, The 1, Domestic Disturbance, and The Man Who Wasn't There. It started in a fairly limited release, but grew to just over 300 screens and it found a passionate audience that definitely connected with it.
Pete Wright:
In the
Andy Nelson:
end, the film ended up grossing 33,200,000 domestically and 100 41,000,000 internationally for a total gross of 311,900,000 in today's dollars. That lands the film with an adjusted profit per finished minute of almost 2,400,000, a great success for everyone involved.
Pete Wright:
It seems like at 33,200,000 domestically, those are that's domestic to France.
Andy Nelson:
No. That's actually US. When I'm doing domestic, it's always just the US numbers.
Pete Wright:
Oh, it's always US. Okay. I was gonna say the French didn't do their part, but it sounds like maybe they did.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. They're they're probably the bulk of that 141. It was a very popular film over there.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Right. Very popular film.
Andy Nelson:
You know, I I I wanna say something else about Amelie that I I think really helps the the overall, vibe of the whole thing. The music that we have through Amelie with that Jan Thierson did is just like it really kind of lifts everything up that much more. Like, just that the fantastic accordion music. It's just You
Antoinette Messam:
wanna skip Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
It's just like by the time they're on their little, you know, motor scooter at the end, just like zipping through Paris, it's just like that music is just like it's like my heartbeat. It's just like pumping through. It's just it's vibrant and alive, and it just, I think, you know, just piecing all of these things together with this film is just it's just kind of amazing that it all came together so perfectly and it just it really does feel effortless. We've talked about that a number of times here but the music, everything. It's just a it's a wonderful, wonderful film.
Antoinette Messam:
Well, I'm I'm happy that you guys let you know, you get that pick one, and you're like you hope that they're gonna like your choices.
Pete Wright:
No. You hit that out of the park. This was this is, yeah, this is moth to the flame for us.
Andy Nelson:
An easy, easy watch. Absolutely. It has been such a wonderful time talking with you about this, Antoinette. Thank you so much for joining us.
Antoinette Messam:
My pleasure. Before I go though, I'm gonna, if you liked the color palette of Emily or what was done with the colors and the set, take a look at the film I did with Jeremy Selena. I don't know if you've seen hold the dark.
Andy Nelson:
I did with, Jeffrey Wright.
Antoinette Messam:
Jeffrey Wright. I mean, much more subtle.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Cold.
Antoinette Messam:
Cold. Very when we were in the depths of mountains of Calgary Yeah. It's very cold. The only thing the other stuff that shot up there is revenant and and the Game of Thrones wolves sequences. But, working with that production designer in DP was a gift because I felt that that film is as close to that type of storytelling that I've gotten to before working with Martin.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah.
Antoinette Messam:
Much more subtle, much darker, not a happy story, but
Andy Nelson:
Right.
Antoinette Messam:
The colors helped tell that story, I thought.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. And and, you won an award, I think, for that one too. Right?
Antoinette Messam:
Yes. I won a calf a Canadian costume award. Yes.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. That's awesome.
Antoinette Messam:
Thank you.
Andy Nelson:
That film made me very cold.
Pete Wright:
I was very cold watching that movie.
Andy Nelson:
I wanted that big coat that he had because it was just yeah. Well, do you have places online that we should send people? I think you you have a home on Instagram. Right?
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. I have a home on Instagram.
Pete Wright:
I just followed you on threads. Big threads person
Andy Nelson:
right there. Hey.
Antoinette Messam:
I have to get used to it. I kind of walked away from x.
Andy Nelson:
Yep. Yeah. Yep.
Antoinette Messam:
Yeah. I don't know what's going on over there, but it just to me is what I don't want from social media right now.
Andy Nelson:
Sure. Yeah.
Antoinette Messam:
Going down that rabbit hole. You know?
Andy Nelson:
Yep. Yep.
Antoinette Messam:
I'm I'm starting to get used to threads, so we'll see. You know? We wanna have conversations, but conversations that are not, I felt, politically driven or toxic.
Andy Nelson:
Safe, fun conversations. I I
Antoinette Messam:
Well, it doesn't have to be safe, and it doesn't have to be fun, but I would like it to be somewhat intelligent. Is that too high?
Andy Nelson:
Well, it is social media.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. I'm afraid you you missed the memo. There's none of that. That's something allowed.
Antoinette Messam:
I know. I said that. I said that.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Well, we'll put all of these in the show notes so that everybody can track you down and follow you and see what you're up to and everything.
Andy Nelson:
So
Antoinette Messam:
Thank you. This has been fun. Thank you very much.
Pete Wright:
You're awesome. Thank you. It's been a treat.
Andy Nelson:
It has been such a wonderful time. Thanks again. And for everybody else out there, we hope that you liked the show and certainly hope that you like the movies like we do here on Movies We Like. Movies we like is a part of the True Story FM Entertainment Podcast Network. The music is chomclap by Out of Flux.
Andy Nelson:
Find the show at true story dot f m and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, threads, and letterboxed at the next reel. And if your podcast app allows ratings and reviews, we always appreciate it if you drop one in there for us. See you next time.