Life Is Beautiful (1997)

Costume Design by Danilo Donati

Costume designer Danilo Donati had previously worked with Benigni on 1994's The Monster and would work with him again on 2002's Pinocchio; Donati's experience on Fascist-era period productions like Fellini's Amarcord and Pasolini's Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom - both of which are far superior films to Benigni's tasteless exercise in cutesying up the Holocaust - was no doubt another factor in Donati being handed the job.

Most of the costumes made by Donati's team for the main players - Benigni himself as Jewish waiter Guido, and Nicoletta Braschi as his character's love interest Dora - are fairly formal 1930s wear, with 1930s children's clothing being custom-made for a young Giorgio Cantarini as Guido's son. Waiter uniforms were also made for Benigni in various scenes.

The costumes were constructed in Italian costume house Costumi D'Arte, which also supplied the 1930s stock wardrobe and Fascist uniforms for extras in the film's first half set in 1930s Italy. The SS uniforms and prisoner outfits in the concentration camp scenes were presumably made in bulk for the film, though I don't know if it was Costumi D'Arte or a different movie uniform supplier that made them.

It is Braschi who gets to wear most of the film's standout costumes; Braschi is first seen wearing a white dress and bolera jacket with orange and green lining around the collar, pockets and cuffs.

Braschi's next costume, worn when Dora is watching opera, is a black patterned jacket with glittery lining on the lapels, worn with a small hat also encrusted with similar ornamentation, and worn with a plain black skirt.

Donati also constructed a pair of bright red costumes worn by the opera singers; both are made from shiny materials, one a frilly dress and one a suit with top hat.

The rest of the film's costume highlights are worn during the dinner party sequence; Raffaella Lebboroni, as Dora's friend Elena, wears a shiny steely-grey dress with golden buttons.

A more elaborate white dress was designed for Marisa Paredes as Dora's mother, consisting of floral ornamentation around the shoulders and chest, with a white chiffon cape.

However, the film's costume design showstopper is again worn by Braschi; a pink dress with stone-like white ornamentation around the collar, with hard pieces covering the dress all over it, with a bow on the back of the dress.

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)

Costume Design by Danilo Donati

The design sense of Salo, Pier Paolo Pasolini's infamously bleak and grotesque final film, is in stark contrast to his previous works, with perhaps the clearest difference seen in the costumes. Donati's costumes for Pasolini's 'Trilogy of Life' utilized bright colours, while the costumes for Salo are in various muted hues of grey, black, white and brown; the colours of fascist uniforms, no less.

The costumes of Salo were fabricated in the Sartoria Farani costume house, where Donati had constructed the costumes for many of Fellini and Pasolini's movies. The bulk of Salo's costumes are dull coloured 1930s and 1940s fashions, presumably most of it wardrobe stock or found in flea markets; the Italian Fascist and SS uniforms were, if not supplied for the movie, possibly stock from earlier Italian WWII productions.

However, I am certain the dresses worn by the fascist libertines as they crossdress, the women 'storytellers' such as the grey suit worn by Caterina Boratto and the shiny brown suit worn by Elsa De Giorgi, as well as the hats and suits worn by the unlucky 'daughters' of the libertines, were bespoke made at Farani for the film.

Two wedding dresses were also made, a silvery patterned dress for Renata Moar and a more flat-coloured dress for Sergio Fascetti; notice that even these dresses feel steely and metallic in their fabric texture, fitting in with the costume design's palette being inspired by fascist imagery.

Salo is divided into segments named after Dante's Inferno, each having a 'storyteller' narrating vulgar, sexual stories for the libertines' amusement. Hélène Surgère playes Signora Vaccari during the 'Circle of Manias', wearing a wide-sleeved and low-cut dress with black floral markings all over.

Elsa De Giorgi plays Signora Signora Maggi during the 'Circle of Shit' segment; Donati designed a black sequined dress with gold lining and matching bolero jacket for De Giorgi to wear, with a fur-lined black sequined cape worn over it as well.

Caterina Boratto wears a silvery white glittery dress as Signora Castelli during the 'Circle of Blood'; this dress is mostly seen at a distance, and worn with white furs.

The four perverted fascists, only named - the Duke, the Bishop, the Magistrate and the President - wear 1940s suits for most of their scenes; the one exception is the occult-inspired wedding at the start of the 'Circle of Blood' segment. Giorgio Cataldi, as the Bishop, wears a red gown with ornamentation on the shoulders and head as a mock priest costume, while the other libertines are in drag (as seen at the start of this entry).

The Night Porter (1974)

Costume Design by Piero Tosi

One wonders how much director Liliana Cavani was inspired by Luchino Visconti's The Damned when setting out to make The Night Porter (aka Il portiere di notte) - not only do both films star Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling, but both share Piero Tosi as costume designer. And just like in The Damned, Tosi had the costumes fabricated at the Tirelli Costumi costume house.

Rampling stars as Lucia, a former concentration camp inmate who Bogarde's former SS officer had a fling with; I can't remember when Rampling wears this dress in the film, but her flashback dress is a white design with lace panelling and shoulders. The SS uniforms in the flashback sequences, such as the one worn by Dirk Bogarde in the below image, were possibly the same ones supplied by Tirelli for The Damned.

(And before you ask, no, I'm not including Rampling's infamous Nazi uniform fetish look - it doesn't count anyway as it was probably just cobbled from Tirelli's wardrobe stock, due to its very brief appearance in the film).

In the present day of Night Porter's story, Rampling first appears wearing this gorgeous sparkly black dress with with a chiffon shawl worn over it - this dress is only worn very briefly in the film, no less.

Getting even less screentime is this silvery dress and shawl Rampling wears when watching an opera performance; this photo from an Italian film costume exhibition is far better a shot of it than what you'd get in the movie itself, as Rampling wears it during extreme close-up shots as she's sitting.

Isa Miranda stars as the Countess Stein, whose most notable costume is this lovely gold and black design, with the gold in a 'flame' like pattern around the chest with matching rings on the cuffs. I suspect that Bogarde's waiter uniform (seen below) was tailored for him personally, while the rest of the cast's costumes were vintage wear due to the then-recent setting.

The Damned (1969)

Costume Design by Piero Tosi

A dark and disturbing allegory for the rise of fascism, Luchino Visconti's The Damned (aka La caduta degli dei in its native Italy) centres on a family of perverted, wealthy industrialists who manipulate one another to curry favour with Hitler's regime. Costume designer Piero Tosi had to recreate 1930s German upper class fashion, but not fall copy the glitz and glamour associated with American stars of the decade.

In an interview with Variety, Tosi recounted, 'My goal was to rediscover, through movie characters’ look, the refined and sober style of the German world in that specific historical moment, different from glamor and the glossy and sexy image 1930s Hollywood America promoted through its movies'. Tosi also had the problem of using fabrics best-suited for the period, to make the period setting believable, 'It was the late ’60s and fashion at that time proposed rigid fabrics to support the geometric and linear clothing styles. For soft and slippery lines typical of the early 1930s, I needed soft and drooping materials like crêpe and silk cadì. I had to use fur covers found in an old warehouse.'

The costumes were constructed at Tirelli Costumi, where Tosi fabricated the costumes he designed for many of Visconti's films. Naturally, sets of 1930s menswear were made for the male main players such as Dirk Bogarde and Helmut Berger. Assorted uniforms of the SS, SA 'Brownshirts' and Wehrmacht were also supplied, presumably by Tirelli, for the picture.

However, for this article we are mostly going to focus on the women's wear. Most of the film's dresses were designed for Ingrid Thulin as Sophie von Essenbeck, the family's resident femme fatale; Thulin's first outfit is a black dress worn with a dark blue sequined bolera jacket with raised shoulders, and glittery strips on the collar.

Thulin's second dress doesn't get seen fully; a slinky black dress with sparkling lining around the chest and back.

For when Sophie discusses with the SS, Thulin wears an asymmetrically patterned silver and dark brown dress, with silver lining inside the sleeves; the look is completed with a translucent brown wide-brimmed hat.

The dinner scene near the film's finale has Thulin wearing another black dress with silver ornamentation around the cuffs, with holes cut around the chest - the cuffs are detailed with small gems, some of which can only be seen depending on Thulin's posture in the shot.

One dress made for Thulin that only gets very little screentime in the final film is this black dress with a large ruffled collar, with a black flower fixed to it as well.

On that note, Thulin wears several nightgowns throughout the film; a silvery nightdress and frilly lilac top, a peach-coloured robe with furred cuffs, and my personal favorite, a kimono-style gown made of a patterned fabric with pink lining.

Thulin's last dress is similar in design to her earlier silver and brown dress, being pale pink and grey in its colour scheme, with the grey panelling asymmetrical in design. The dress is worn with a cloche hat and veil.

Tosi also had to dress Charlotte Rampling as Elizabeth Thallmann, another relative of the family who finds herself embroiled in its sinister machinations, In contrast to Thulin's costumes mostly being designed with dark colours, Rampling's utilize lighter colours, highlighting her relative innocence in comparison. Rampling first appears sporting a cream lace dress with a flower on her shoulder.

Rampling also wears this sleek silvery nightdress when the SS arrives to arrest her husband, notice the curved panelling around the waist.

Rampling's other costumes in the film are more on the formal side, such as the white and brown top with an asymmetrically-cut collar, and the coat with strips of panelling around the lapels. Shame you can't see the dress underneath the coat, though!

Florinda Bolkan stars as Olga, girlfriend to Helmut Berger's Martin von Essenbeck, the sociopathic heir to the family's fortune; Bolkan first appears wearing a tan suit with curved pockets, and is worn with a wide brimmed hat and brown, white and orange patterned scarf.

Bolkan is also briefly seen wearing an orange-red nightgown with pink furred lining around the lapels and cuffs - it doesn't get good screntime due to Bolkan either sitting in bed or moving fast when wearing it.

When Olga is finally a part of the Essenbeck family, a silvery cocktail dress with glittery lining around the chest and back, worn with silver high-heels.

Lastly, is of course the drag costume sported by Helmut Berger during Martin's drag routine as Marlene Dietrich at the film's start - with glittery lining around the chest and over the front, topped off with a silver top hat and feather boa!

Facepaint In Film: A Gallery Through the Decades

Now, this may seem like a bit of an odd choice to talk about here; after all, it's not actually costumes, real tangible objects that exist and remain after filming is done. But really, I feel makeup in movies is adjacent to costume design as it is also about establishing a look for a character, and often the costume designer has a hand in designing the look of the facial makeup; this happens with special makeup effects as well, where the special effects teams will follow from the costume designer's sketches.

This is going to be mostly focused on cult and exploitation film; the characters donning facepaint usually tend to be evil occultists or violent punks, with some exceptions. The inspiration tends to come mostly from either various indigenous cultures - Native American, African, Pacific Islander, Maori, etc - or from more contemporary sources such as musicians (Arthur Brown, Peter Gabriel or KISS come to mind) or wrestlers, though how much the latter takes inspiration from the former is up for debate!

For the sake of my own time, not *every* bit of facial makeup in a movie will be included; anything as minimal as the makeup worn by Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange will not be included, and clown/mime makeup will also not be included due to redundancy. Additionally, riffs on such bands as KISS are not included, nor are movies with 'tribal' characters, as they're often copies of real-world tribal facepaint.

Also, one or two really famous bits of face makeup, such as Mel Gibson's blue facepaint in Braveheart or the Darth Maul makeup in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, will not be included due to redundancy.

Kamen Rider (1971)

Organizing this by date somehow puts this at the top of the list! Agents of the villainous 'Shocker' organization wear green and red wavy facepaint, even when performing medical duties.

Blood Orgy of the She-Devils (1973)

Skirts the line between facepaint and beauty makeup, but it's elaborate and striking enough to count on here; love that there's silver *and* gold inside the red lining.

The Burning Hell (1974)

None other than Satan himself wears this elaborate facial makeup in the infamous Christian propaganda 'classic'.

Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

Brian De Palma's seminal satire of the music industry has a parodic take on Alice Cooper et al in the form of 'The Undeads' wearing stylized black and white facepaint, before KISS made it cool (or uncool, depending on your opinion on KISS); and of course, who can forget Gerrit Graham's silvery bodypaint?

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Some very mime-inspired facial makeups in the iconic cult classic, though I also included an image from the original stage play!

The Tomorrow People 'Worlds Away' (1975)

Two forest dwellers of the planet Pyrie wear multicoloured facial makeups utilizing woodland colours.

Doctor Who 'The Brain of Morbius' (1976)

Members of the flame-worshipping Sisterhood of Karn sport gold facial makeup with detailed flame markings around the eyes.

Doctor Who 'The Robots of Death' (1977)

David Bailie sports this shiny makeup in his turn as the robot supremacist Taren Capel; does this read as being a little inspired by Peter Gabriel to you as well?

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)

A half-face patterned makeup was applied to Duke Butler and H.B. Haggerty in their turns as the 'Tigerman'.

Ring of Darkness (1979)

A hexagram facepaint pattern adorns the coven's leader in this schlocky Italian ripoff of Rosemary's Baby and The Omen; sublime Stelvia Cipriani soundtrack though!

The Warriors (1979)

One of the most iconic images from Walter Hill's larger-than-life cult classic; the facepaint was the idea of costume designer Bobbie Mannix, who denied any inspiration from A Clockwork Orange or KISS; I can see it, the facepaint looks much more inspired by indigenous facepaint, fitting with the 'tribalism' theme of the film.

Crazy Thunder Road (1980)

Sogo Ishii's directorial debut revolving around a biker gang; one of them sports this very elaborate technicolour face makeup.

Blake's 7 'Stardrive' (1981)

The 'Space Rats' are a futuristic spin on biker gangs and punks, so of course they sport garish makeup, especially the yellow and black design sported by Damien Thomas; only one of his underlings has their facepaint clearly visible.

Liquid Sky (1982)

Several bold and garish facial makeup jobs were applied on various performers in this arthouse send-up of New Wave makeup and fashion.

The Last Horror Film (1982)

A lovely blue and white makeup pattern was sported by Joe Spinell in this meta spoof on the horror genre.

Blade Runner (1982)

A rather colourful wheel-shaped makeup is sported by a dancer in the Snake Pit scene, though only seen clearly in one promotional photo, sadly.

1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982)

The 'Iron Man' tapdancing gang, taking some cues from the Baseball Furies of The Warriors, sport flame-patterned warpaint.

Endgame: Bronx Lotta Finale (1983)

The fighters of the titular deathsport, as well as some other extras, sport rather New Wave inspired facepaint; special mention to George Eastman's red, silver and black design.

Warrior of the Lost World (1983)

Another cheap Italian post-apocalypse film, with more garish makeups; the highlight is the black and white checkerboard pattern sported by one of the wasteland thugs, though of course there's the usual New Wave eye makeups!

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)

A sadly unused facial makeup was designed for Molly Ringwald's turn in the Star Wars/Mad Max hybrid oddity, sadly only seen in these promotional photos.

The Boxer's Omen (1983)

The evil magician in this Hong Kong cult classic sports facepaint that seems a little inspired by Papa New Guinea traditional makeup.

The Toxic Avenger (1984)

One hoodlum sports this rather fetching half-face black and red makeup, with accentuated lipstick on the unpainted side - rather glam!

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Infamously racist for yknow, demeaning an entire religion's deity as some sub-Satanist cult, but the Thuggee cultists so sport some great outfits complemented with facial makeup; the priests wear corpsepaint (inspired by Baron Samedi?) while the warriors sport a red pattern.

The Midnight Hour (1985)

A bold, geometrically patterned blue and white face makeup is sported by a Halloween partygoer in this family oriented horror special.

Vamp (1986)

The iconic Grace Jones stars as a vampire queen in this cult classic, sporting a bodypaint job designed and applied by none other than Keith Haring; Haring and Jones had collaborated previously before, which can be read about more in this article from Artland Magazine. For the Vamp assignment however, Haring's bodypaint is completed with a mime-like white face makeup.

Unmasking the Idol (1986)

Janet Nease sports a red, blue and gold glitter facial makeup in this rather unfunny James Bond/Indiana Jones b-movie spoof; it's better than Order of the Black Eagle, at least.

Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986)

The 'Cretins' gang in Troma's delightfully trashy entry in the punksploitation trend sport some very elaborate facial makeups.

Terminus (1987)

Arthouse-influenced French scifi thriller where the protagonists are harassed by soldiers sporting ornate facial makeup; Enki Bilal was involved on the film and this may have been his influence, due to similar facepainted fascists being present in his Nikopol comics trilogy. The black and white half-face pattern has cropped up many times over the years, such as the Star Trek episode 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield' or the villain's makeup in The Equalizer 'Blood & Wine' two-parter, so I'm ignoring them to save time.

The Barbarians (1987)

Various tribesmen in the schlocky Ruggero Deodato Conan the Barbarian ripoff sport colourful facial makeup jobs.

The Lair of the White Worm (1988)

Ken Russell's deliciously kinky gothic horror has Amanda Donohoe sporting this full bodypaint, with dark blue detailing around her face with streaks along the hair; more complex makeup design was applied to the male extras during one hallucination sequence. I think at least some of these designs were inspired by Nuba facepaint but in a blue tone.

The Toxic Avenger Part III (1989)

One thug sports this ornate half-face makeup depicting waves and rain drops; the actor's hair's been shaved for this no less.

Howling VI: The Freaks (1991)

A circus freakshow themed entry in the tired Howling series, among its number is a circus jester and bird-biting geek who sports this elaborate red, white and black facepaint design.

TC 2000 (1993)

Various wasteland thugs sport elaborate facial makeup; Jalal Merhi sports to distinctive designs, one a colourful wavy pattern and the other a half-face yellow and black design.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 'Rules of Acquisition' (1993)

The 'Dosi' aliens sport a variety of red and white face patterns, with blue dots and streaks going down to the chest; Brian Thompson and Emilia Crow get the most screentime, but many more patterns were made for the various extras, most of them never being seen properly on-screen.

Death Machine (1994)

Martin McDougall sports this red half-face makeup, slightly makes me think of a 'target' motif, fitting the character's warrior nature.

No Escape (1994)

A few of the extras playing the feral inmates of the 'Absolon' island prison sport tribal-inspired makeups, in particular the blue pattern that feels indebted to Maori tattoos.

Lunarcop (1995)

Billy Drago dons a colourful warpaint makeup during the final battle in this forgotten Michael Pare post-apocalyptic action vehicle.

Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Slightly more minimalistic black facial makeup markings were applied to the various 'Lo Tek' extras.

Dungeons & Dragons (2000)

One or two makeup jobs are worn by extras in this maligned fantasy film; I have no idea if it's meant to be tribal facepaint or even meant to be some sort of non-human character, but still, it counts. Notice that the green paintjob changes on the same performer!

Ghosts of Mars (2001)

Various 'tribal' and corpsepaint-a-like makeups are worn by the possessed maniacs in Carpenter's scifi actioner. Almost all of these, barring the last shot, were taken from behind the scenes material; none of them are properly visible in the film itself.

The Wicker Man (2006)

A particularly loathed remake, but I do find these makeup designs worn by the cultists to be kinda charming, especially the alternating blue and white design sported by Ellen Burstyn, which even has the lipstick split in two colours!

Doomsday (2008)

An ornate face makeup is sported by Lee-Anne Liebenberg as the warrior 'Viper' in Neil Marshall's schlocky Scotch tribute to 1980s action films; the design feels like a combination of Maori tattoos and New Wave eyelining makeups.