The road to Manderley lay ahead ...well, the dusty track to Mapperton lay ahead. As the great house comes into view, the car park and the field beyond is filled with trailers and generators. I’ve been invited to the set of the Netflix film of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel Rebecca. Featuring a glittering cast including Armie Hammer, Lily James, Kristin Scott Thomas and Keeley Hawes, I am here to meet the people who will reimagine du Maurier’s Manderley for a new millennium.
First on my list is costume designer Julian Day. Sporting a snappy broad-brimmed hat, shades and a nose ring, he cuts a striking figure as he walks towards me in the shimmering July heat. The elegant, upperclass country set of Daphne du Maurier’s 1930s England must be quite a change of milieu for this award-winning designer, who created the costumes for two recent British films about flamboyant larger-than-life leading men: Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and last year’s Rocket Man, for which Julian deployed “sackloads of Swarovski crystals.”
“Though they are worlds apart in terms of look, every film has a combination of a script, the characters and their clothes,” Julian observes. Rebecca does include some high-end glitz and glamour. “Chopard lent us some fabulous diamond jewellery for the ball scene for Lily and Keeley,” he reveals.
This story is from the November 2020 edition of Dorset Magazine.
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This story is from the November 2020 edition of Dorset Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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