For weeks, director Barry Jenkins and the department heads of his latest film, “If Beale Street Could Talk,” met at production designer Mark Friedberg’s Manhattan home, where they crafted the look of the movie, released on Christmas Day, scene by scene.Costume designer Caroline Eselin, who had worked with Jenkins on his Oscar-winning “Moonlight,” cherished the process and left with what she describes as “the most amazing gift ever” — one of the books Friedberg made for everyone out of the material generated during those creative sessions.The James Baldwin novel on which “Beale Street” is based was a rich source of visual inspiration.
Like the book, the film, set in 1970s Harlem, centers on a young African-American couple — Tish Rivers (KiKi Layne) and Fonny Hunt (Stephan James) — who are building a future together when Fonny is accused of rape and sent to jail for a crime he didn’t commit.
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