Development 4/5

Development 4/5

Now that the main idea is settled it is time to give life to the characters. Since in the painting there are five women, I decided to replace them with the five main female characters from the Godfather trilogy which are; Carmella known as Mama Corleone, Apollonia, Kay, Mary and Connie. Their clothing will be inspired from stills in various moments from the three films as well as the importance and power depicted.

Getting started!

Carmella/Mama Corleone

This character was chosen because even though she was never part of the criminal side of the Family she knew all about it. She is the typical Italian mother who served as a safe harbour to the family.  The dress I decided to use for her was the one she wore for Connie’s wedding in the beginning of the first film. 

Apollonia Vitelli - Corleone

She was a young, simple and beautiful Sicilian girl who touched Michael’s heart like no other. I decided to use one of the dresses she wore when she and Michael were still courting but since it is black it resembles her fate; that of being assassinated instead of Michael.

I kept it simple with a v-neck and tied at the waist but short which apart from having a modern look it also resembles her short lived life.

Kay Adams Corleone

This character was always an outsider. She was an American and could never understand the traditional ways of the Italian family. She was also an independent woman who eventually ended up in destroying her marriage with Michael. 

In my opinion she did not have much style in clothes compared to the other Italians therefore I did some changes in her suit. Instead of having a blazer with tails and a below the knee skirt I dressed her in a trouser suit but keeping the same colours.

Mary Corleone

She was the clean side of Michael’s life. For her he had changed the way his business was run. But once she gets assassinated, instead of Michael like Appolonia, his sanity crumbles. For this character I decided to use her dress from the Opera scene and again I did some alterations to give it a more modern look as well to match the others. 

The main alteration in this dress is the colour. I decided to make it green showing life and make the dress more flowing and long to show elegance and flow.

Earlier in the film she is wearing a cross necklace and I decided to use it here as a symbol of her death.

All the figures are positioned in such order for a reason! Mama Corleone is the first, because she was there for Vito before the whole family started.  Apollonia comes next because she was Michael’s true love. After she is killed, he returned back to Kay from which marriage Mary was born. But the reason why Mary is positioned as the last person on the right is to provide the link with the next character; Connie. When Mary died, Connie took control and power of her family since Michael was not in a position to continue. In fact she was in charge of the actual transaction of power from Michael to Vincent.

Connie Corleone

To start with I decided to dress her in a suit with a feminine touch. I decided to take elements, such as the lace, from her Opera dress, since here it is visible her true power, importance and the fact that she was capable of murder to protect her family. 

Such power and importance is being shown in her pose. She is sitting down because every time that Michael is showing his authority he is always sitting down. This also links to the design of the chair, which is taken from a scene during Mama Corleone’s funeral on which Michael is sitting.

In Picasso’s painting there is a table which has fruits on it. Here I decided to use one of my previous concepts. This was also inspired from the film in the scene with the severed horse’s head in the film producer’s bed. Instead of any random fruit I decided to show oranges since they are almost always visible when murder is either being planned or about to happen. Oranges were also the favourite fruit of the old Don Corleone. I also placed a glass with whiskey since it is a drink often showed in the film as a consolation drink.