Costume designer Esther Amuser is an expert in historical films – Munich
There are reasons people watch movies. Not all of them have to do with the stories being told. Some watch because of the actors or locations, others because of the action, the effects – or because they want to know which clothes the leading actress is wearing. And this is where Esther Amuser comes into play: The Munich costume designer is responsible for the full textile equipment for the actors and extras. Together with directors, production designers, camera and lighting people, she works on the look of the film. It’s an endless coordination process that starts with color concepts and doesn’t end with textures, materials and cuts. Film is teamwork, with the right clothing the costume design contributes significantly to the overall picture and it also helps the actors to find their roles. “It doesn’t bother me if the costumes don’t attract attention,” says the woman in her mid-fifties while taking a walk in Schwabing. “It is crucial that the unity is right.”
Esther Amuser was born in Munich, she grew up in Schwabing and also lives here, after school she trained as a tailor. “I always wanted to learn something manual,” she says. Even as teenagers, they often sat at the sewing machine. “Back then I sewed a lot for myself,” she says, “simply because there weren’t that many shops with cheap fashion for young people.” In the afternoon she often strolled through the boutiques on Hohenzollernstrasse or Kurfürstenstrasse and was inspired by tailoring the unaffordable clothing at home – and in the evenings when she left. She later worked in one of the most glamorous shops: The international jet set stopped by “Lord John & Lady Jane” in the eighties, names like Freddie Mercury, Rod Stewart or Bianca Jagger are on the customer list. It was there that she met her partner, Reinhard Kufer was one of the managing directors, and he has been the man at her side for many years.
After her apprenticeship, she went to the Opera House in Brussels with a friend, where the legendary impresario Gerard Mortier was director at the time, and world stars like Rudolf Nureyev are on the stage there. The young woman from Munich soon went to London, where she worked as a tailor on Franco Zeffirelli’s “Hamlet” film in 1990, with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close playing the leading roles. “That was my first film, it was all very exciting,” she recalls. Big box office hits like “Interview with a Vampire” with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise or “Little Buddha” with Keanu Reeves followed. That was probably even more exciting, but Amuser was still drawn back to Munich.
They didn’t just want to mend, adapt or sew film costumes, so she soon worked as a textile and fashion designer for the Munich labels MCM and Lily Farouche. She also worked in the theater, as a costume tailor at the Kammerspiele or in the Gärtnerplatztheater, at the Bayreuth and Salzburg festivals. “Actually, I’ve always worked, there have never been long breaks,” she says, taking off her scarf. In the meantime you have arrived at a café on Belgradstrasse, there are still places available right in front of the door. On this winter day, the textile expert wears a coordinated outfit with a dark caban jacket, gray skirt and classy sneakers, the cold doesn’t seem to bother her. She is very interested in fashion, she says, but she doesn’t want to follow every trend.
“She has a very practical technical understanding of her job,” says Edgar Reitz
At the beginning of the noughties she returned to film, this time as a costume design assistant for German cinema and television film productions such as “Herr Bello” or “Stauffenberg”. Directors like Jo Baier, Kai Wessel or Gregor Schnitzler appreciate their work, they have worked together several times. “This job is a lot about trust,” she says, “so it helps if you know each other better.” Margarethe von Trotta trusted her in 2008: When shooting her film “Vision – From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen”, Amuser was no longer an assistant for the first time, but was responsible for the costume design, together with a colleague. It was von Trotta who recommended her to a fellow director: Edgar Reitz hired her as a costume designer for his 2013 cinema epic “The other home”.
During a phone call, the famous director explains why he entrusted Esther Amuser with this job: “She has a very practical technical understanding of her job, which I found trustworthy.” Reitz sees himself as a film craftsman, which he repeats over and over again in interviews. In this film he told of poor farmers and workers in the Hunsrück in 1840. “The people were self-sufficient,” explains Reitz, “they grew flax and laboriously spun threads from it and woven them into fabrics. Their clothes had to last a lifetime.” You couldn’t just tailor something like that, which is why his costume designer wandered through the Hunsrück villages for months looking for original fabrics and clothes that were dying in the granaries of old farmhouses. The performers would have entered the costumes for weeks until they felt like a second skin, and there were even historical underwear for them. The smocks, aprons and trousers were washed as they were in the 19th century.
It is probably the most important film in Esther Amuser’s career so far, for which she received a nomination for the German Film Prize, created as an expert on historical material. The costumes for “Luis Trenker – The Thin Line of Truth” come from her as well as those for “Tannbach” or “Lotte am Bauhaus”. She also works for contemporary films, for a “Tatort” or a “Polizeiruf 110”, for example, and the children’s movie hit was only recently shown “The School of Magical Animals” one.
The Munich resident has dresses and suits made and searches archives, she also has her own small costume pool. Most of it is stored with a relative in the country; there is simply not that much space in her city apartment. “If I see interesting pieces at flea markets, I take them with me,” she says, “even if I don’t yet know when and where I can use them.” Original parts from the eighties or nineties are no longer so easy to get, due to the vintage and second-hand trends, the market is pretty empty. If it goes back further historically, the costume designer often comes up against natural limits: people used to be smaller and skinny than they are today. With “Die Andere Heimat” it was often the case that she found original shirts that didn’t fit anyone. People in the 21st century are also physically different from those in the 19th century.
The costumes for her next project are a little bigger and more lavish: “The Magic Flute” is to be a music and fantasy film based on Mozart’s famous opera. One of the producers is Roland Emmerich. Has already been shot, in Bavaria, Salzburg and on the Canary Islands, the cinema release is in December 2022. For Esther Amuser it is an Art Déjà-vu, “The Magic Flute” accompanies her through her professional life, among other things she designed the costumes for a production at the Gärtnerplatztheater.
And again and again she is surprised by the question: How many feathers can the Papageno tolerate? What should the Queen of the Night wear? The whole thing still has to be seen a bit for the big screen, familiar and yet new: “That gave me a few sleepless nights,” admits the costume designer on the way home. Because in this case it may well be that people go to the cinema especially because of their creations.