Press
PIERCING
“Genre fiends will applaud at the loving close-up of black leather gloves — the ultimate giallo killer signifier — and be tipped off that there may be a few hiccups in Reed’s plan when they realize it’s Jackie who’s wearing them. (Also kudos to costume designer Whitney Adams, who dresses Wasikowska in a elegantly ratty-fur-coat ensemble that’s 100-percent uncut vintage grindhouse chic.)”
Collider: Nicolas Pesce on His High-Fashion Horror Romance ‘Piercing’ & Why He Loves the Ambiguous Ending
One of the other elements I love in this movie is that the clothes are incredible. I know it’s kind of a superficial thing…
PESCE: No, I love the clothes.
I love fashion and the costume design, and I really like the way you combine fashion and costuming in this. What was the motivation to make that element a part of the film? It’s so damn gorgeous.
PESCE: My dad is a fashion designer so I grew up with that and he … I always went to work with him and watched him make … he did women’s formal wear, so I was raised in a house with a fashion designer, cared a lot about fashion. As someone who doesn’t like to put that much effort into what I look like, I see movies as an opportunity to get to kind of flex a little bit. Something that I love about so much of Italian cinema is that no matter the story, actors look fucking amazing. So trying to find what would be authentic for these characters but is high fashion and is gonna be iconic. You know, I always think about Richard Gere in American Gigolo, in that suit, and Christian Bale in American Psycho, and that suit. It’s like we need one of those suits for Reed.
So, the guy who made … Jordan Belfort, who is the real life guy in Wolf of Wall Street, his real life suits, made Reed’s suit.…Then I was in a really big Claude Montana phase and I wanted a Claude Montana dress for Jackie but they are tens of thousands of dollars.
Bit of a budget breaker.
PESCE: Yeah. On an Indie movie you don’t really have the ability to do that, but our costume designer, Whitney Adams, who did the costumes on Eyes of My Mother as well, designed a Claude Montana-esque outfit for Jackie, and then even though I don’t know much about them. So, yeah, so I think that it was a lot about having to do with the artifice but also just like, I like fashion and I wanted to play with it.
“Pesce, along with production designer Alan Lampert, creates a gorgeous tactile world of rich, evocative colours and anonymous spaces (generic hotel rooms, abandoned hallways, uniform city skylines and a large, mostly empty apartment). Whitney Anne Adams’ costumes tie into the mise-en-scene, particularly Jackie’s fluffy fur coat which makes an immediate impression when she arrives at Reed’s cramped hotel room, as does the strategic use of split screens during key sequences to tie the film’s anti-heroes together in different locales.”
“One of the most notable aspects of “Piercing” is its look, which Pesce has obviously taken great pains to construct. Working with production designer Alan Lampert, costumer Whitney Adams and cinematographer Zachary Galler, he’s created a deliberately artificial ambience that extends to the closing credits, where the buildings are obviously decorative models. ”
“Of course, life — and death — don’t follow a script, and call girl Jackie (Mia Wasikowska), a disturbed blonde with a Dutch Boy bob, tramples over his plans, and adds a few to-dos of her own. The film is expertly crafted with jewel-toned cinematography, terrifically sleazy saxophone music, and performances by Abbott and Wasikowska that take turns seizing command.”
“The film balances revulsion with allure... Stars Christopher Abbott and Mia Wasikowska go a long way toward keeping this tricky pic balanced, though Pesce’s knowing use of sleazy-seventies vibe (following the distinctive black-and-white spareness of The Eyes of My Mother, his only previous feature) creates the perfect world for them to do it in. ... By the third act we’re in another deliciously art-directed interior (the skyscrapers housing these rooms are miniatures, adding to the pic’s careful unreality), whose luxury furnishings are pointed out to us at every turn.”
“Magenta hues bathe the opening scene as Reed contemplates infanticide; Jackie’s lipstick runs as red as her flat’s walls. There are the wardrobes, too, Reed’s sharp suits and impeccable hair, Jackie’s blonde bob, slick black dresses, and the fur coat she warehouses herself in—bright colors that mirror the keystones of the giallo aesthetic.”
“Strikingly styled and playfully retro in its references...the arresting design probably works best on a big screen”
“This is a film with its own sense of style and personality right from the outset. Writer/director Nicolas Pesce might be adapting Ryū Murakami’s 1994 novel, but the same distinctive flair that served his first effort, The Eyes of My Mother, so well is also evident here — just in a vastly different manner. Wasikowska particularly shines in a complex role, while the film’s colourful visuals and intoxicating score add to its irresistible allure.”
“What begins as a potentially grisly serial killer film becomes an increasingly demented macabre screwball comedy. With a mix of genres and tones, it takes very assured hands from the cast and crew to walk the tightrope with perfect balance and thankfully, they all pull it off with aplomb.
As expected, director Nicolas Pesce brings his stylistic aesthetic to the film and it brings an enjoyably surreal and dream-like atmosphere, reaching towards a neo-retro sensibility. ”
“I fell in love with this director’s style in The Eyes of My Mother, which now carries over to Piercing. It’s an awesome looking movie and worth seeing for the visuals alone ... Sexy, brutal, disturbing, Piercing is not one to be missed.”
“The film braids horror elements with dark humor, trippy visuals (cinematographer Zachary Galler’s work here is stunning and inventive), a twisted romance, and an inversion of the traditional and tired stalker/victim motif....Decorative aspects of the film instead ... glimpses into the characters through lavish costume and set design.”
