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Joan Bridge
Joan Alice Bridge (13 March 1909 – 8 December 2009) was a British Technicolor consultant and costume designer. She was particularly known for her longstanding collaboration with fellow costume designer Elizabeth Haffenden on many notable film productions in the 1960s and 1970s. Her accolades include an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award.
Born on 13 March 1909 at Ripley, Derbyshire, Joan Bridge was the daughter of Harry Newton Bridge, a General Secretary in a Cooperative Society, and Alice Bridge.
Joan Bridge studied art at Birmingham University but was urged by her father to take a teacher training qualification, claiming she would never be able to make a living out of art.
In 1939, Joan Bridge was a colour adviser on the only feature film to be made in Dufaycolor, Sons of the Sea. During World War Two, Natalie Kalmus, Technicolor’s head of colour control was absent from Great Britain and Joan Bridge was the colour adviser on British wartime Technicolor productions. Natalie Kalmus returned in November 1945. Notwithstanding, Kalmus enjoys a credit on these wartime films as part of her contract with Technicolor. The two women shared British Technicolor production credits until 1949 after which Joan Bride had sole credit. Film historian Sarah Street has commented on the different experiences of the two women: Bridge's work was admired by cinematographers such as Oswald Morris who had not "accorded Kalmus the same courtesy", in fact she was met with hostility; it is likely that Bridge's personality and nationality helped to avoid the criticism experienced by her colleague in British studios. Street concludes "there is no doubt that the combination of Kalmus and Bridge assisted Technicolor in Britain, a record that has won begrudging recognition over the years".
Bridge's role drew her into a large number of productions, and she worked on up to six films per year in the late 1940s. Cecil Beaton, who worked with Joan Bridge on An Ideal Husband (1947), somewhat dismissively described her as "a color expert, run[ning] about with odd microscopic pieces of material and a lot of shop talk". Nevertheless, the costume designer did change a yellow dress planned for a pink boudoir scene when Bridge questioned the harmonisation of colours.
Frequent collaborators in this period were directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which whom Bridge worked six times: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943-uncredited), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), Gone to Earth (1950) and The Tales of Hoffman (1951).
Joan Bridge's colour direction or colour consultant credits in the 1950s include such acclaimed films as Moulin Rouge (1952), The Ladykillers (1955), and Invitation to the Dance (1956). Altogether, she is credited in over 100 three-strip Technicolor movies, including the last to be filmed using this technique: The Feminine Touch (1956). She is credited as a colour consultant in a handful of films in the late 1950s including Richard III (1955) and Ben Hur (1959). In the latter, she collaborated with the costume designer Elizabeth Haffenden.
Joan Bridge had first met Elizabeth Haffenden while working at Gainsborough Studios in the 1940s. They had a successful partnership in costume design throughout the 1960s and 70s. Between 1958 and her retirement, Bridge is credited with creating the costumes for more than 20 different productions.
Joan Bridge
Joan Alice Bridge (13 March 1909 – 8 December 2009) was a British Technicolor consultant and costume designer. She was particularly known for her longstanding collaboration with fellow costume designer Elizabeth Haffenden on many notable film productions in the 1960s and 1970s. Her accolades include an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award.
Born on 13 March 1909 at Ripley, Derbyshire, Joan Bridge was the daughter of Harry Newton Bridge, a General Secretary in a Cooperative Society, and Alice Bridge.
Joan Bridge studied art at Birmingham University but was urged by her father to take a teacher training qualification, claiming she would never be able to make a living out of art.
In 1939, Joan Bridge was a colour adviser on the only feature film to be made in Dufaycolor, Sons of the Sea. During World War Two, Natalie Kalmus, Technicolor’s head of colour control was absent from Great Britain and Joan Bridge was the colour adviser on British wartime Technicolor productions. Natalie Kalmus returned in November 1945. Notwithstanding, Kalmus enjoys a credit on these wartime films as part of her contract with Technicolor. The two women shared British Technicolor production credits until 1949 after which Joan Bride had sole credit. Film historian Sarah Street has commented on the different experiences of the two women: Bridge's work was admired by cinematographers such as Oswald Morris who had not "accorded Kalmus the same courtesy", in fact she was met with hostility; it is likely that Bridge's personality and nationality helped to avoid the criticism experienced by her colleague in British studios. Street concludes "there is no doubt that the combination of Kalmus and Bridge assisted Technicolor in Britain, a record that has won begrudging recognition over the years".
Bridge's role drew her into a large number of productions, and she worked on up to six films per year in the late 1940s. Cecil Beaton, who worked with Joan Bridge on An Ideal Husband (1947), somewhat dismissively described her as "a color expert, run[ning] about with odd microscopic pieces of material and a lot of shop talk". Nevertheless, the costume designer did change a yellow dress planned for a pink boudoir scene when Bridge questioned the harmonisation of colours.
Frequent collaborators in this period were directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which whom Bridge worked six times: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943-uncredited), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), Gone to Earth (1950) and The Tales of Hoffman (1951).
Joan Bridge's colour direction or colour consultant credits in the 1950s include such acclaimed films as Moulin Rouge (1952), The Ladykillers (1955), and Invitation to the Dance (1956). Altogether, she is credited in over 100 three-strip Technicolor movies, including the last to be filmed using this technique: The Feminine Touch (1956). She is credited as a colour consultant in a handful of films in the late 1950s including Richard III (1955) and Ben Hur (1959). In the latter, she collaborated with the costume designer Elizabeth Haffenden.
Joan Bridge had first met Elizabeth Haffenden while working at Gainsborough Studios in the 1940s. They had a successful partnership in costume design throughout the 1960s and 70s. Between 1958 and her retirement, Bridge is credited with creating the costumes for more than 20 different productions.