In the novel, Brother of Sleep
, author Robert Schneider portrays the village of Eschberg as pandemonium. With great literary subtlety, he has exercised remarkable restraint in describing the villagers outward appearances. At weddings, everyone wears black -- including the bride. The dress of the villagers is usually not black and stiff, but dirty and untidy -- and certainly excludes anything that might emphasize the figure in a sensual way.
Their attire is loose and flappy, like the clothes of children who have to wear the hand-me-downs of their older brothers and sisters and grow into them. The villagers of Eschberg are described as wiry, lean and deformed as a result of the inbred debility of their community.
The exception to this uncannily gray community is the pair of lovers --Elsbeth and Elias. Elsbeth, a delicate young woman with long, flaxen hair, is dressed in russet linen and a cross-laced bodice. Through her, the author has brightened the picture with a spot of color. As an expression of his calling -- and of his illegitimate birth as the son of the priest -- from a young age, this boy squeezes himself into a frock coat like the churchmen. Beneath the travesty of this "soutane," however, he assumes the role of a martyr (as he knows them from the pictures of the saints), wearing a sweat-stained
linen shirt and going barefoot.
What kind clothing did the poorest people in a remote Alpine village wear around 1800? Robert Schneider was very sketchy when it came to describing the exterior of the characters in his novel. Research in galleries and libraries could only provide hints and a point of departure. Leather boots were a luxury reserved for religious holidays. The actors soon learned to appreciate the warmth of wooden shoes as opposed to leather shoes.
Most of the costumes came from Babelsberg and Prague. It took a lot of time and much Vaseline to make new costumes look old, and as rotten and worn out as possible. After filmming, we returned all of the costumes to their original condition, down to every little detail. We had replaced the plastic buttons by made of horn which is historically more accurate. Order and precision are clearly understood basics of our work.
Last Modified 05-September-1996
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