John McTiernan's flashy remake of "The Thomas Crown Affair" had a lot going against it when it first hit theaters in 1999. The original film featured two acting icons in Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway who completely embodied the roles of a billionaire playboy and a sexy art insurance agent in Norman Jewison's instant classic. The high fashion bar set in the first film would also be hard to top, thanks to costume designer Theadora Van Runkle's impeccable taste and McQueen's incredible transformation from bad boy to style icon. McQueen represented the pinnacle of Old Hollywood glamour bringing an American attitude and swagger to the character of Thomas Crown that rivaled the British self-assurance of James Bond. Really, it was the potential to update the style and fashion of the original that made remaking "The Thomas Crown Affair" actually make sense.
Looking back, it was the perfect choice...
Looking back, it was the perfect choice...
- 10/20/2022
- by Drew Tinnin
- Slash Film
by Cláudio Alves
At last, we must say goodbye to the 1986 cinematic year. The Supporting Actress Smackdown was a blast and, before moving on to 1937, there's one remaining matter to take care of – the Best Costume Design Oscar race. Just like Dianne Wiest won the first of her two Academy Awards at that ceremony, so did Jenny Beavan. The British designer dressed the likely runner-up for Supporting Actress, Maggie Smith in A Room with a View, delivering a dream of Edwardian fashions with the help of fellow costumier John Bright. Indeed, all of the nominees that year were period pieces, ranging from 1500s Venetian tragedies to a time-traveling misadventure through 1960's suburbia. The contenders were:
Anna Anni & Maurizio Millenotti, Otello Jenny Beavan & John Bright, A Room with a View Anthony Powell, Pirates Theadora Van Runkle, Peggy Sue Got Married Enrico Sabbatini, The Mission
First, let's examine the winner, our favorite and much-dissected Merchant-Ivory classic.
At last, we must say goodbye to the 1986 cinematic year. The Supporting Actress Smackdown was a blast and, before moving on to 1937, there's one remaining matter to take care of – the Best Costume Design Oscar race. Just like Dianne Wiest won the first of her two Academy Awards at that ceremony, so did Jenny Beavan. The British designer dressed the likely runner-up for Supporting Actress, Maggie Smith in A Room with a View, delivering a dream of Edwardian fashions with the help of fellow costumier John Bright. Indeed, all of the nominees that year were period pieces, ranging from 1500s Venetian tragedies to a time-traveling misadventure through 1960's suburbia. The contenders were:
Anna Anni & Maurizio Millenotti, Otello Jenny Beavan & John Bright, A Room with a View Anthony Powell, Pirates Theadora Van Runkle, Peggy Sue Got Married Enrico Sabbatini, The Mission
First, let's examine the winner, our favorite and much-dissected Merchant-Ivory classic.
- 9/1/2021
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
Fashion historian and collector Sandy Schreier on Theadora Van Runkle, Julie Weiss and Marlene Stewart: “I know all the Hollywood designers, they're very good friends of mine.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
At the press preview for The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute exhibition In Pursuit of Fashion The Sandy Schreier Collection, fashion historian and film enthusiast Sandy Schreier told me that she worked with George Clooney’s father Nick Clooney doing Sunday nights on the AMC (American Movie Classics) channel and wrote Lauren Bacall's scripts for her appearances on the show.
Portrait of Sandy Schreier by Theadora Van Runkle Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Oscar nominated costume designers Theadora Van Runkle, Julie Weiss and Oscar winner Ann Roth for Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient are a part of her world.
We started out with why Sandy Schreier wanted film production designers Shane Valentino and...
At the press preview for The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute exhibition In Pursuit of Fashion The Sandy Schreier Collection, fashion historian and film enthusiast Sandy Schreier told me that she worked with George Clooney’s father Nick Clooney doing Sunday nights on the AMC (American Movie Classics) channel and wrote Lauren Bacall's scripts for her appearances on the show.
Portrait of Sandy Schreier by Theadora Van Runkle Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Oscar nominated costume designers Theadora Van Runkle, Julie Weiss and Oscar winner Ann Roth for Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient are a part of her world.
We started out with why Sandy Schreier wanted film production designers Shane Valentino and...
- 12/12/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
This story originally appeared in EmmyWrap: Movies/Miniseries. When costume designer Marilyn Vance watched the 1967 movie “Bonnie and Clyde” starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, she was in awe of the wardrobe designed by Theadora Van Runkle. So when Vance got the job to design the costumes for Lifetime's “Bonnie & Clyde” miniseries — her first job in TV after something like 60 films — she knew what she had to do. But she would have to do it in a fraction of the time that she would have had for a feature film assignment. “I was a huge fan of...
- 6/19/2014
- by Jethro Nededog
- The Wrap
"The Thomas Crown Affair" was one of the most stylish movies of the 1960s -- stylish for the icy cool of Steve McQueen as the millionaire who robs banks for kicks; for the similarly frosty cool of Faye Dunaway as the investigator who plays an erotic game of cat-and-mouse with him; for the costumes of Theadora Van Runkle, who helped make Dunaway a fashion trendsetter in "Bonnie and Clyde" and did the same for her here with no fewer than 29 haute-couture outfits; for the jazzy score of Michel Legrand, including the Oscar-winning ballad "The Windmills of Your Mind"; and for the camera trickery of director Norman Jewison, the first Hollywood filmmaker to shoot heist scenes and love scenes in split-screen. The 1968 caper flick was a favorite of both McQueen and Dunaway, as well as of moviegoers, many of whom prefer it to the similarly slick 1999 remake that starred Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo.
- 5/9/2012
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
Self-taught costume designer who dressed Beatty and Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde
Theadora Van Runkle was almost 40 and broke, a commercial illustrator drawing fashion ads for the May Department Stores Company to support her children, when she met the movie costume designer Dorothy Jeakins at a party in Los Angeles in 1966. Jeakins had been in the business a long time by then (from Joan of Arc to The Sound of Music), but she was no sketch artist, and she hired Van Runkle on the spot to do that task for the glum epic Hawaii. The engagement lasted barely a month. As payback, Jeakins later called to say: "I've just been asked to do a little western over at Warner Bros" – she couldn't do it because of conflicting schedules – "and I recommended you."
Van Runkle, who has died of lung cancer aged 83, panicked. She had no design training, but she had...
Theadora Van Runkle was almost 40 and broke, a commercial illustrator drawing fashion ads for the May Department Stores Company to support her children, when she met the movie costume designer Dorothy Jeakins at a party in Los Angeles in 1966. Jeakins had been in the business a long time by then (from Joan of Arc to The Sound of Music), but she was no sketch artist, and she hired Van Runkle on the spot to do that task for the glum epic Hawaii. The engagement lasted barely a month. As payback, Jeakins later called to say: "I've just been asked to do a little western over at Warner Bros" – she couldn't do it because of conflicting schedules – "and I recommended you."
Van Runkle, who has died of lung cancer aged 83, panicked. She had no design training, but she had...
- 11/12/2011
- by Veronica Horwell
- The Guardian - Film News
Go ahead and tell us you click it for the articles, but there's no shame in admitting that what you're really after are the book reviews. And the new issue of Scope, the online journal of film and TV studies from the University of Nottingham, has ten new book reviews. Sampling from one of them, Daniele Rugo writes, "As the title provocatively announces Dudley Andrew's book What Cinema Is! engages in the complex task of responding to André Bazin's attempt to identify the core of the cinematographic creation…. Andrew develops an inspired and insightful, if perhaps nostalgic, roadmap delineating how cinema should proceed to remain faithful to its origins (or to Bazin's original ideas)." Let Catherine Grant be your guide to the full issue.
The November/December 2011 issue of Film Comment is up, with nearly as many online exclusives as samples from the print edition: Peter von Bagh's uncut interview with Aki Kaurismäki,...
The November/December 2011 issue of Film Comment is up, with nearly as many online exclusives as samples from the print edition: Peter von Bagh's uncut interview with Aki Kaurismäki,...
- 11/9/2011
- MUBI
Take off those berets and fedoras and pay your respects. The great costume designer Theadora Van Runkle, a three time Oscar nominee, passed away this past Friday of lung cancer at 83 years of age [src]. For those who don't immediately connect her name to her movies, know that her work was seismic.
Her most famous creations were actually those done on her very first feature Bonnie & Clyde (1967). She was able to do the picture only after Warren Beatty and the costume designers guild president screamed at each other for half an hour (she was not a guild member then) according to Mark Harris's invaluable tome Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and The Birth of New Hollywood. She had never done a film and at one tense point admitted to Warren Beatty that she had no idea what she was doing.
After Beatty vetoed her first period-specific ideas, she came...
Her most famous creations were actually those done on her very first feature Bonnie & Clyde (1967). She was able to do the picture only after Warren Beatty and the costume designers guild president screamed at each other for half an hour (she was not a guild member then) according to Mark Harris's invaluable tome Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and The Birth of New Hollywood. She had never done a film and at one tense point admitted to Warren Beatty that she had no idea what she was doing.
After Beatty vetoed her first period-specific ideas, she came...
- 11/9/2011
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Celebrated costume designer Theadora Van Runkle has died, aged 83.
The Oscar-nominated fashion icon lost her battle with lung cancer in Los Angeles on Friday.
She received three Academy Awards nods for dressing Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde and for her work in The Godfather Part III and Peggy Sue Got Married.
She also set major fashion trends by creating Dunaway's costumes for The Thomas Crown Affair and she worked as the actress' stylist at the 1968 Oscars.
Van Runkle's many accolades also included a 1983 Emmy Award and a Lifetime Achievement honour from the Costume Designers Guild in 2002.
The Oscar-nominated fashion icon lost her battle with lung cancer in Los Angeles on Friday.
She received three Academy Awards nods for dressing Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde and for her work in The Godfather Part III and Peggy Sue Got Married.
She also set major fashion trends by creating Dunaway's costumes for The Thomas Crown Affair and she worked as the actress' stylist at the 1968 Oscars.
Van Runkle's many accolades also included a 1983 Emmy Award and a Lifetime Achievement honour from the Costume Designers Guild in 2002.
- 11/9/2011
- WENN
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Well known and respected Hollywood costume designer, Theadora Van Runkle, passed away from lung cancer in West Hollywood on 4th November. She was 83.
Van Runkle essentially fell into costume design. While working as a fashion illustrator she happened to meet costume designer Dorothy Jeakins at a function who required a sketch artist for her upcoming project, Hawaii (1966). Van Runkle then took the job that Jeakins turned down as costume designer for Bonnie and Clyde (1967). This was her first experience in the industry. She may not yet have understood the finer realities of costume design (“I just stumbled through” Van Runkle later admitted) but she knew trends inside and out, instigating a timeless look for the film that stands up as a fashion classic today.
Theadora Van Runkle...
Well known and respected Hollywood costume designer, Theadora Van Runkle, passed away from lung cancer in West Hollywood on 4th November. She was 83.
Van Runkle essentially fell into costume design. While working as a fashion illustrator she happened to meet costume designer Dorothy Jeakins at a function who required a sketch artist for her upcoming project, Hawaii (1966). Van Runkle then took the job that Jeakins turned down as costume designer for Bonnie and Clyde (1967). This was her first experience in the industry. She may not yet have understood the finer realities of costume design (“I just stumbled through” Van Runkle later admitted) but she knew trends inside and out, instigating a timeless look for the film that stands up as a fashion classic today.
Theadora Van Runkle...
- 11/8/2011
- by Chris Laverty
- Clothes on Film
Filed under: Movie News
Veteran costume designer Theadora Van Runkle has died at the age of 83. Best known for her Oscar-nominated work on 'Bonnie and Clyde,' Van Runkle got her start as a sketch artist for award-winning designer Dorothy Jeakins ('The Sound of Music, 'The Ten Commandments'), and would later be recommended for the 'Bonnie and Clyde' job by Jeakins herself. Her costumes for Faye Dunaway and Warren Beaty in the film became iconic, cementing Van Runkle as one of the premiere designers in the business. She would later receive Oscar nominations for 'The Godfather Part II' and 'Peggy Sue Got Married.'
Continue Reading...
Veteran costume designer Theadora Van Runkle has died at the age of 83. Best known for her Oscar-nominated work on 'Bonnie and Clyde,' Van Runkle got her start as a sketch artist for award-winning designer Dorothy Jeakins ('The Sound of Music, 'The Ten Commandments'), and would later be recommended for the 'Bonnie and Clyde' job by Jeakins herself. Her costumes for Faye Dunaway and Warren Beaty in the film became iconic, cementing Van Runkle as one of the premiere designers in the business. She would later receive Oscar nominations for 'The Godfather Part II' and 'Peggy Sue Got Married.'
Continue Reading...
- 11/8/2011
- by Alex Suskind
- Moviefone
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Hats are one of the standout trends from this season’s Fall/Winter Collections. They add elegance and glamour to any outfit for both men and women. Costume Designer Theadora Van Runkle’s Oscar nominated work for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker, is a great example of how the simple addition of a hat can say a lot about a character.
The function of hats and other forms of headwear are not simply to cover the head and protect it from the elements. Their use has defined social and cultural identity throughout mankind’s history, and they go much further than being mere accessories or a fashion statement.
The designer's addition...
Hats are one of the standout trends from this season’s Fall/Winter Collections. They add elegance and glamour to any outfit for both men and women. Costume Designer Theadora Van Runkle’s Oscar nominated work for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker, is a great example of how the simple addition of a hat can say a lot about a character.
The function of hats and other forms of headwear are not simply to cover the head and protect it from the elements. Their use has defined social and cultural identity throughout mankind’s history, and they go much further than being mere accessories or a fashion statement.
The designer's addition...
- 11/3/2011
- by Contributor
- Clothes on Film
Arthur Penn, the director of the polarizing "Bonnie and Clyde" whose films often flew in the face of American mythology, died Tuesday, one day after his 88th birthday.
Daughter Molly Penn said her father died of congestive heart failure at his Manhattan home. Longtime friend and business manager Evan Bell said Wednesday that Penn had been ill for about a year.
A product of the golden era of live television and an accomplished theater director, Penn's work on "The Miracle Worker" earned him an Emmy nomination in 1957, a Tony in 1959 and an Oscar nom in 1962. At one time, Penn had five hits running simultaneously on Broadway.
Penn was one of a group of directors -- including John Frankenheimer, Sidney Lumet and Norman Jewison -- whose films were intelligent glimpses into politics, morals and social institutions. Often, they were met with controversy.
His movies debunked the allure of the gunman, the...
Daughter Molly Penn said her father died of congestive heart failure at his Manhattan home. Longtime friend and business manager Evan Bell said Wednesday that Penn had been ill for about a year.
A product of the golden era of live television and an accomplished theater director, Penn's work on "The Miracle Worker" earned him an Emmy nomination in 1957, a Tony in 1959 and an Oscar nom in 1962. At one time, Penn had five hits running simultaneously on Broadway.
Penn was one of a group of directors -- including John Frankenheimer, Sidney Lumet and Norman Jewison -- whose films were intelligent glimpses into politics, morals and social institutions. Often, they were met with controversy.
His movies debunked the allure of the gunman, the...
- 9/29/2010
- by By Duane Byrge
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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