Interview

CB: Your work for this film is so beautiful. There’s such romance and poetry in the clothes. Some costumes can feel so alien to the actors, whereas the Brideshead costumes feel as if they belong to them. The costumes feel so integral to the characters. You presumably build a relationship with the actors.

ENM: Especially with something like Brideshead, I knew that Ben Whishaw, Matthew Goode, and Hayley Atwell were all quite young and these were big roles for them. Also in taking on the mantle of Brideshead, of which people still go, “Oh, Brideshead, it’s so . . .”

CB: They immediately think of Jeremy Irons.

ENM: Yeah, people go, “Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews.” I knew that they would be a little bit nervous about that, so it was important to try to help them to create their character.

CB: You wanted to help them do it on their own, as opposed to trying to emulate the television series.

ENM: Exactly. To say, “Well, we all know what Brideshead was, and it was fantastic, but let’s talk about 2008 and start with a fresh plate.”

CB: How did you yourself start? Were you thinking more evocatively of the period, because I’m sure, even for you, it was difficult to put the original Brideshead in a box and start in a 2008 way of thinking. What’s funny is that someone gave me the whole DVD set of Brideshead two Christmases ago, and I just watched it about a year ago.

ENM: They did a beautiful job on that series. Some of the crew members said, “Oh, no, I couldn’t watch it because then I’d only be thinking about that.” But I did watch it. It was easy for me to say, “Okay, quite lovely, now move on . . .”

CB: I’m the same way when I’m working. I’m able to look at lots of different things and then put them in a little box in my head and say, “Okay, seen that, but then this is my point of view, my vision.” Also, in the original series, I guess because of the quality of the film, the colors were . . . I won’t say crude, but they weren’t particularly sophisticated. With your costumes, there is a sensitivity and harmony that you don’t get in the series.

ENM: Color is very important, because things can be really fleeting onscreen. You want to try to create a mood and an atmosphere. If somebody stands in front of you, you can say, “Wow, look at her or him! Don’t they look amazing!”

CB: You can stare for a little while.

ENM: Yeah. But on film, you put a lot of work into something and it’s gone.

CB: Three seconds. That’s the shot.

ENM: She steps out of the car, and the next time you see her she’s having dinner and she’s changed. So you want to draw people in. There’s a scene where Charles is at home in London, and the house is very dark. Then he goes to Oxford, and it’s all students. Then he goes to Venice, and it’s very romantic, very passionate. So you’re trying to evoke different atmospheres. You’re all the time thinking about the character and the place, the person and the place.

CB: Did you shoot the film in sequence? That’s what I find most difficult about making films. You might start shooting the end at the beginning because of a particular location.

ENM: It is so hard on the actors. I’ve only ever worked on one film that was shot in sequence, The Wind That Shakes the Barley [2006], which Ken Loach directed. That’s how he works, but he’s unique in that way. Luckily, on Brideshead, Morocco was our last location, and there is the scene that is the last time Charles and Sebastian meet. We did that the last day, so that was a good-bye. It was lovely. But it is difficult for the actors. For me, it’s just logistics.