A Netflix Anatomy - Orange is the new black

Piper Chapman, a Connecticut woman, is sentenced to 15 months in Litchfieldís federal prison for carrying a suitcase full of money on behalf of Alex Vause, an international drug trafficker once her lover: that's the starting point of Orange is the new black.

Arrived in prison, Piper collides with a parallel world, populated by prison guards and detained. Inside the prison walls is a varied anthropological split: the religious fundamentalist, the tormented transgender, the WASP, the Latin gang, the color queen ghetto, the supervillain, the wife, the daughter, the companion, the lover, the lesbian, the nun. In the hands of author Jenji Kohan, notorious for being the author of the Weeds TV series and collaborating with other major series such as Sex and the City, Gilmore Girls or Will & Grace, these stereotyped figures become real women, a disenchanted representation of the female universe.

So Orange is the new black, Netflix hit series, is not only the story of Piper (Taylor Schilling), but also that of Galina “Red” Reznikov (Kate Mulgrew), in charge of the kitchen with a past linked to the Mafia Russian; of Suzanne “Wondrous Eyes” Warren (Uzo Aduba); of nicknames Nicky Nichols (Natasha Lyonne), former addict and Red right arm; Tiffany “Pennsatucky” Doggett (Taryn Manning) who shot an employee of a clinic to have it derided for her 5 abortions; Dayanara “Daya” Diaz (Dascha Polanco), who has a relationship with the prison guard John Bennett (Matt McGorry); the one of Poussey of Washington (Samira Wiley); of the dangerous Yvonne “Vee” Parker (Lorraine Toussaint); Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson (Danielle Brooks) and of many more. Everyone is in Litchfield for a different reason and there has to adapt to a new situation. Everyone is forced to investigate self-destruction and the brutality that lies in her soul, a darkness amplified by the prison.

Orange is the new black, which has now come to the fifth season, is a choral series made up of different voices, always in the midst of life before and after the bars, a limbo between beauty and filthiness, irony and drama, comedy and cruelty, sense of inadequacy and desire for change, brutality and need love.

To understand and fall in love you just have to watch it.

Feel like: Florence Henri

Multiplication of views, fragmentation of images, shadow play that enchants the spectator and at the same time destabilizing, causing him almost a feeling of being lost in ambiguous perception.

No, we are not talking about OITNB, but about the work of Florence Henri, as well as many have described it.

Pianist, painter, and photographer, was born in 1893 in New York but grows in Europe, between Italy, France, and Germany.

During her life, she is in dialogue with the most influential artists and movements of the century from Dadaism to Constructivism, from Surrealism to Futurism, from Klee to Kandinsky, from Lèger to Mondrian to Arp and to Delaunayís spouses.

She began the creative career as a pianist and then devoted herself to abstract painting, collages and, starting with her Berlin stay during the years of World War I, to experiment with photography. Soon Florence refines her style: takes the subjects under the cubist way different angles, decomposing and recomposing reality using the mirrors, often uses photomontage.

In short, Henri applies the pictorial technique to photography, a refined and complex technique that puts her among the most interesting artists of its era, a sin that has been forgotten for a long time. Her human figures, landscapes, still lifes, objects, abstract forms personality, her eclectic personality and boyish bangs have fallen into oblivion.

Undeservedly.

Until someone rediscovered them.

Dress like: Vetements

For the most part of the time Orange is the new black's characters wear uniforms, so how do they create different identities if everyone is dressed in the same clothes?

For Jenn Rogien, costume designer for the Netflix series, but also of HBO's Girls, the secret is in the nuances, in the small details:

"In some cases, we followed the rules and regulations within the prison, no alterations to the uniforms, which are real prison uniforms from prison suppliers. In other cases, we folded and rolled cuffs. Sometimes, there were a few actual alterations to the uniform that characters could have executed on their own".

Thus, for example, the flip-flops were made with maxi pads, so a lipstick, a type of hairstyle, pants in boots or socks become the code for delineating a character, belonging to a group, even the feelings of a person.

To increase the chances of personalizing their look, inmates have available gray sweatshirts and trousers, brown jackets and everything they can to smuggle.

To see the semblance of a real wardrobe we have to wait for the moment of flashbacks, in which we can peep the lives of Piper & Co. before the arrest. These are the parts that left Rogien freer to play with clothes, but hers was not just a creative job, behind every look, there is a great search among vintage catalogs and vintage clothing stores.

A curiosity? The orange uniform represents newbies, when they go through orientation they are assigned the khaki one, a color chosen also because it dehumanizes, defeminizes.

So, in summary, OITNB girls wear uniforms, sweatshirts, brown utility jackets, basic items, genderless, oversized, made personal by the way they are customized ... all this stuff do not you remember the style of Demna Gvasalia and Vetements?

Think like: Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison by Piper Kerman

In Orange is the new black there are many books.

The prison library where they work Poussey Washington and "Taystee" Jefferson is one of the places where the story takes place and, from there, the inmates, reading, have access to many worlds, are free again. For example, Piper loves romance novels and great classical authors such as Jane Austen and Tolstoy, while Alex prefers Cormac McCarthy, Mark Twain and Haruki Murakami.

A key book is the American Piper Eressea Kerman's Orange is the New Year: My Year in a Womenís Prison, the one that gave birth to the cult series of Netflix.

The true story of the woman over 15 months in prison for drug trafficking and money laundering, and the desire to share that experience that changed her life became an international success.

There are, however, differences between the autobiographical bestseller and the show.

Here are some:

#1 The relationship between the protagonist and her former girlfriend in reality was much less intense and the two not remained in the same penitentiary, but they only met for a brief period of time in the Chicago jail during the trial.

#2 The real name of Alex is Nora, a much less young, handsome woman, and femme fatal than the one played by Laura Prepon.

#3 The link between Piper and her boyfriend was not so turbulent during her imprisonment and in 2006 the two married.

#4 Many characters have been created specifically to make most interesting the series, but others are inspired by true held, such as Taystee (Danielle Brooks), Crazy Eyes (Uzo Aduba), the transsexual Sophia (Laverne Cox) and Red (Kate Mulgrew).

#5 Life inside the prison reflects Kerman's experience. The writerís intent was to make known to as many people as possible, life in a womenís prison, laying bare the defects.

Much of what you see on the show is real: abuses; ethnic divisions; the relationship with the guards; the inmates who, once they leave, are unable to return to society and return to prison soon; rules, hierarchies and rituals that govern life within the prison walls; the little habits like the makeup and the hair that return the awareness and the pleasure of being a woman.

Sound like: You’ve Got Time by Regina Spektor

Orange is the new black, although is initially more focused on the figure of Piper, is a choral series.

Inside, one can find the stories and characters of different women, by age, social class, experiences, styles, nature, therefore, it is natural that the soundtrack reflects this heterogeneity.

So amplifying the pathos and highlighting each scene is a tracklist that includes every kind of artist, from 50 Cent to Joan Baez, from The Velvet Underground to Kelis.

However, when starting the tune of You've Got Time by Regina Spektor in front of the eyes appear the faces of the inmates of the prison Leachfield.

"I loved this song when I first heard it, but I loved it even more once I got to hear and see how beautifully it impacted our main titles",

Bruce Gilbert, TV series music supervisor, told talking about Spektorís hit, adding

"There's an immediate urgency to it that gives way to an emotion that breathe, even more, life into the stunning portraits of the prisoners".

Taste like: prison food & homemade hooch

Love like: Humanity, femininity that survives the brutality of life in prison

In Orange is the new black you adapt to new lives.

You survive.

You look boldly in your darkness, but even when the abuses, reps, and humiliations seem to take away all hope and every hint of humanity, a small sign emerges, a glimmer of opportunity, of redemption, of a beating heart.

Between irony, black humor, drama and loneliness there is intensity.