Hosted by culture writer and critic Nathalie Atkinson, this ongoing series considers the crucial contributions of below-the-line craft in both popular favorites and forgotten gems from across the decades, genres and eras. With expert introductions and special guest Q&As, the Revue explores the talents whose names may be less familiar but whose work in production design, art direction, costume and set decoration is intrinsic to the look and world of their films. As longtime Alfred Hitchcock collaborator Robert Boyle defined it, production design is the physical environment in which the action and the meaning of a film takes place, interpreting the psychology and emotion of a screenplay and relaying that in visual form. So too the integral, at times misunderstood, role that costume plays in storytelling and bringing characters to life.

The screenings are an invitation to reconsider films from a new or different angle, the invisible work made visible.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Nathalie Atkinson is a Toronto freelance culture journalist and film critic and a columnist for The Globe and Mail, where she is also a frequent contributor to Life & Arts. She writes regularly for magazines such as Noir City, The Kit, Canadian Notes & Queries, New York, and Zoomer, and is a member of the Toronto Film Critics Association. Nathalie has worked as both a film and fashion critic for more than a decade and was previously the award-winning editor and columnist of National Post’s Style & Design section. With a special interest in material culture and object-driven social history, her work often explores fashion and design at the intersection of culture and commerce.

IN THE PRESS

Dissecting the design in Elizabeth Taylor’s camp classic Boom! – NOW Magazine, Feb 5, 2019.

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