Sarah Millman Still Mine Interview

Sarah Millman Still Mine Interview

Cast: James Cromwell, Genevieve Bujold, Campbell Scott
Director: Michael McGowan
Genre: Drama
Rated: PG
Running Time: 102 minutes

Synopsis: Michael McGowan's Still Mine is an exquisitely mounted and deeply affecting love story about one man's determination to create a suitable home for his ailing wife. Veterans James Cromwell and Genevieve Bujold are nothing short of magnificent in the story of a couple with a deep and complicated past.

When her health begins to fail, Craig Morrison is faced with the choice of either building a new, more suitable home for Irene or leaving the farm they have lived on for decades. A skilled carpenter, he imagines the only obstacles he faces are time and the weather. That is, until he meets Rick, a government inspector who makes it his personal mission to halt construction on the new house.

In a cinematic world obsessed with youth, Still Mine is in part about the battle between heritage and modernity and a refreshing look at the value of commitment and long term relationships. Craig and Irene's relationship is far richer because of the past they've shared.

Their conversations are changed, direct, and laden with subtext – not the kind of empty, verbal jousting we might see in a contemporary romance. They need all their wits about them as Irene becomes increasingly ill. Amidst a series of stop-work orders, Craig races to finish their house. Hauled into court and facing jail, Craig takes a final stance to save his home.

Still Mine
Release Date: June 6th, 2013
Website: www.umbrellaent.com.au

Interview with Costume Designer, Sarah Millman

Question: Can you talk about the clothes (lots of plaid) that Craig wears?

Sarah Millman: We based Craig's clothing on images of the real Craig Morrison, a lumberman and farmer from small-town New Brunswick, as well as Aldon Moore, the farmer whose property we shot on in Golden Valley, Ontario. Aldon was actually Michael's chief inspiration. I hadn't met him yet, but Michael would describe him to me, and I saw a few images of him from the tech scouts of his farm. He'd be in the background of an image in a barn, in his navy blue work wear and rugged plaids. He's a very handsome guy, and easy to take inspiration from. I guess you'd call his style 'salt of the earth."

From experience and research, I'd found that farmers tend to wear things that will protect them from the elements: wind, sun, rain, cold. They need their clothing to hold up while working a saw mill or chopping down trees or milking a cow or just moving around in the outdoors in general. For whatever reason, this means a lot of plaid, denim, and work wear: canvas, durable cottons, polyester blends, wools. Both Craig Morrison and Aldon are older gentlemen, like the character of Craig, and both are men with great style. I also looked a lot at farmers and 'people of the land" in the maritimes from the 1960s and 1970s – in particular the NFB film Folk Art Found Me about the Naugler brothers.

This was a time period when durable fabrics were still reasonably priced and in regular production, when work-wear meant function and quality. I think someone like Craig might have purchased a lot of his clothing back then and held onto it all these years later. If you look inside the label of some of the plaid jackets that Aldon wears now, you'd find that they are of vintage stock – from the '50s, '60s, and '70s. These are men who know how to make things last, who see no need to replace a jacket based on aesthetics alone.

The same mentality was applied to Craig wearing and re-wearing the same suit. Here is a man who built a house with his own hands because he had the knowledge and skill, but also because he wanted to stay out of debt. He isn't going to have a million suits for every occasion. He has one suit. For weddings, funerals, court cases. For everything that requires him to take off his beloved plaid. It had to be older looking, not at all fancy, no modern cuts.

That being said, it's not always easy to find 'vintage" pieces for a man who is 6'7, so we did a combination of vintage and contemporary. A lot of Mark's Work Warehouse. Michael was very concerned with representing these people as they are – but without looking like caricatures. There was a lot of back and forth about the 'right" type of plaid.


Question: Can you talk about the clothes that Irene wears – and how they reflect the kind of woman she is?

Sarah Millman: Irene really only wears one costume throughout the entire film. Coming to this decision was organic and unique – it was Michael and Geneviève and I trying to honour who we thought Irene was. As Geneviève got deeper into the character, the more passionate she felt that Irene was motivated by a need for absolute comfort and familiarity, so we ran with it. As her memory deteriorated, Irene needed to feel in control of something in her life, and putting on the same thing every day was a part of that. Wearing her jacket both inside and outside was also Genevieve's idea – she thought Irene was a woman who hated to be cold.


Question: Where did you get the clothes?

Sarah Millman: The clothes were a real mix of vintage, rentals, and work wear shops, like Mark's Work Wearhouse. There were also a lot of pieces from my own closet, as well as from the Assistant Costume Designer, Erinn Langille. We're both from Nova Scotia, and have a strong affinity for those wooly plaids.


Question: Irene wears her string of pearls in every scene, except when she's in the hospital. How did this come about?
Sarah Millman: It was Geneviève's idea. She really knew her character, and her motivations. The pearls came off only at the hospital, because the doctors would have taken them off. Even though she really only had one costume, Geneviève and I would talk in her trailer for very long periods of time about what Irene would 'do," in terms of her clothing. She would wave me inside, and she'd sit and smoke, and say 'You know, I was thinking..." and she would ask my opinion. We'd make the decision together. It felt like a huge privilege to be included in this intimate space. I have long admired Geneviève, so I adored these times together.


Question: What was your favourite thing?

Sarah Millman: My favourite costume was probably a chambray shirt for James, because I thought he looked elegant, rugged and handsome in it. My favourite costume for Geneviève was probably her tiny, size 5 Blundstone boots that she wore with hiking socks and a lovely green silk skirt. I loved that silhouette on her. My favourite thing about the shoot? Golden Valley was breathtaking. We lived in a cabin on a lake! The Production Designer, Tamara, has a house up there with an outdoor pizza oven, as well as a wood burning sauna. How many people can say that after wrapping a hard day at work, they took a sauna and dip in the lake with their co-workers? It was hands-down, the best experience of my career in film. Thanks to Michael McGowan. It was magic.


Question: What was your greatest challenge?

Sarah Millman: Probably the greatest challenge was finding pants and shirts that were long enough for Mr. Cromwell. At 6'7, things should have been custom for him, but our budget and time constraints made that difficult. We didn't even meet until the day before shooting, as both he and Geneviève live in California – and Michael was already on location in Golden Valley. So that was challenging I suppose. Doing everything long-distance. But really, it all worked out in the end!