moviesandsets - Tumblr blog

[moviesandsets]

Mary Poppins - Robert Stevenson - 1964

To finish this cycle, I will again talk about a childhood film. Just as “Mon Oncle” had fascinated me for its sets, the film “Mary Poppins” did. The magic of Mary Poppins is only made visible thanks to this subtle mechanism of appearance and disappearance of objects in the sets. In this film, the sets really come to life. They are at the center of the wonder of the viewer but also of the children that Mary Poppins keeps. I remember not the story but rather what I would have liked to see in my life, such as the carousel horses that detach from their structure to go in the garden or when the toys that put themselves away.

Remember that some elements of the film set are also partially drawn. There is a mixture of techniques that sublimates the importance of the sets in the film. Just like in “The Grand Budapest Hotel” or “Women”, the goal is not to propose realism but rather a form of attraction with bright colors, materials, shapes that invite the show.

When we watched a film, we are here to dream and the sets contribute greatly to this. They are an aesthetic, scenaristic and fantastic contribution for the cinema.

I still remember when I visited the set of a friend of the FEMIS which represented a mad scientist's cave. I wanted to play inside like a child. The sets touched my soul like a child discovering the world.

[moviesandsets]

The Women - George Cukor - 1939

One of my favorite films is “The Women” directed by George Cukor. It's a film where the characters are all female. There is not a single man on the screen. The sets play a role in the intimacy of the characters. We are only in places where women from upper class meet each other: perfume stores, beauty salons, big houses in Manhattan, salons at the Opera...

Of course the settings are not essential in the scenario since we are dealing with characters who talk a lot and are in exuberance but they have always attracted my eyes. I find this impression of "falseness" which does not disturb me. We have for example a bathroom with many fabrics in which a character takes her bubble bath while being on the phone.

Before working in cinema, George Cukor was a Broadway director. I find that his use of sets comes from the stage. The objects and sets are not there to appear real but rather to serve the purpose of the characters. We are in a feminine and glamorous universe that is not realistic but spectacular.

Setdesigners : Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore

[moviesandsets]

The Grand Budapest Hotel - Wes Anderson - 2014

My three last articles will be focus on colorful sets. To stay in the same place but not in a same universe, I want to write about The Grand Budapest Hotel. 

As in “Shining”, we are in a big hotel in mountains but it is pink with an elevator which is central. Adversely in “Shining”, there are many characters that populate this huge hotel with sparkling colors. Wes Anderson's cinema is characterized by details of colors, objects and precisions that gives to see the imaginary universe of his director. It is not only the scenario or the choice of shots that allow Wes Anderson to express his point. He has made the sets a real way of expression. The sets are costumes for the characters who are printed in them.

We have the impression that the sets have been imprinted on the characters who live there. Just like in “Shining”, the viewer is quickly lost in this hotel and has trouble understanding where he is. We are in a fairy labyrinth where we love be lost and surprised when we discover a new room in the hotel.

Personally, I find that the settings of the film do not seem real. When I watch these movies, I feel like I become a character on the set. I have the same impression as when I am at Disneyland taking a boat ride in the Doll World attraction. This impression of "falseness" is for me the mark of a great filmmaker.

Setdesigner : Adam Stockhausen

[moviesandsets]

Dracula - Coppola - 1992

Today I find you with an article that will talk about one of my favorite films in terms of scenery. How to blog about sets without mentioning this masterpiece of American cinema: Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula made in 1992. This film is an adaptation of the famous short story by Bram Stocker. Dracula's tea has been taken up in a whole different way in the cinema. But, in addition to the narrative dimension, which is incredible, needs to be highlighted by the beauty of its customs and its settings. Indeed the plot takes place in the house of Dracula which is nothing other than a magnificent medieval castle. A lot of the scenes are also shot in gardens or outdoors, and even the outside looks absolutely amazing in terms of setting and staging. The enhancement of spaces is, in my opinion, accentuated by the beauty of the actors but also the detail of their costumes which present them as half-divine characters. If we analyze the interior sets, a famous scene from this wonderful film takes place in a room where Monica Belluci is levitating. THE room is made of mirror, gilding and red velvet creating a very sexual atmosphere but at the same time very subtle and strangely reassuring allowing to highlight all this horrific dimension that we can find in this film. This film is also known because the filming authorizations to film in this castle which is the property of a rich heiress were very hard to obtain and the film could not have taken place at all because the director only wanted this place to make his film.

[moviesandsets]

L’écume des jours - Michel Gondry

In 2013 was released the very expensive movie from the book of Boris Vian, “L’Ecume des Jours”. With a beautiful casting, there is also a remarkable work on the setting to reconstitute the surrealist universe of the author.

The budget of the movie was around 18 billions €, and a big part came on the set design. There were too much objects to create, and the set designer Stéphane Rozenbaum had to work with a lot of french craftspeople, and it was a mammoth task to create this fantastic universe.

Let’s focus on some accessories: 

The transparent limousine from the wedding of Colin and Chloé:

In reality, it is a Cadillac Fleetwood from the 1980s transformed by Peugeot. The project came to Peugot because the brand was a partner to the movie, and they dit one of the best product placement: showing the brand’s knowledge and the creativity in the service of French cinema.

The famous pianococktail, a funny musical instrument which creates drinks according to the pieces played. This marvellous object, invented by Vian thanks to his love for jazz and his overflowing imagination, took two months to make.

For all these creations, but also for the incredible kitchen, Omar Sy's office and the cocoon room, the film won the Cesar for best set design. The objective was simple: to create a timeless, zany, surrealist set inspired by the 1960s to 1980s.

[moviesandsets]

Maniac - 2018

Here I will again wrote about an american tv show realsed on Netflix in 2018. Yes, there are seriously good TV Shows sometimes. This one is a remake from a Norwegian TV Show, available now on Arte if you want ! 

Maniac was directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, mainly know for True Detective (the first season), and I watched it 4 years ago but what I remembered is that, when I watched the TV Show, I was really in love by the universe.

It’s a strange world, there are a lot oof references from the 80′, but there are also so much weird technologies like, for example, a miniature street cleaning robot, actors who can be ordered online to play the role of friends, and even a live advert in the form of an employee who comes to talk to you. We also don’t know if we are in Tokyo or in New-York, this strange universe make us ask ourself if we really are in the reality. Because all these contradictions were not enough to surprise the viewer, every episode, every pills took by our heroes bring us to another universe, another reality. 

Each universe (or hallucination) from our two progaonists (Annie & Owen) that we see through the clinical trials is carefully worked out and each one has its own tone and poetry. Thus, if we go from film noir to comedy to heroic-fantasy, the directors have taken care to give each of these genres its own colour. And beyond the chromatic palette of red, green, yellow and blue that accompanies each of the tests, we are bluffed by the delicacy and finesse given to each shot.

[moviesandsets]

Gattaca - Andrew Niccol

In the famous science-fiction movie of Andrew Niccol, relased in 1998 and produce by Colombia Pictures and Jersey Film, Nancy Nye and Jan Roelfs have won the oscar of the best set design. Of course, we had to talk about it in this blog. First, let’s focus on these two set design directors.

Nancy Nye had learned decoration in the famous art school : Les Beaux-Arts de Paris (we can be proud of it !!). She had worked as the set designer in a lot of movies, and she is mainly known for Body Of Lies from Ridley Scott, The Lincoln Lawyer by Brad Furman or Matchstick Men from again Ridley Scott.

Jan Roelfs, for his part, is also a production designer. He is mainly known for Ghost in the Shell by Rupert Sanders and Bird Box from Susanne Bier.

Let’s focus now on what we want : the set design: Gattaca is an anticipation film set in the near future. All the sets and props must therefore have been invented or chosen by the director or his assistants with full knowledge of the situation.

Gattaca differs from many science fiction films in its science fiction films by its setting. Not everything is built in a studio, but is a real place, taken out of its original context. The imposing Gattaca space centre, for example, was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (famous, among other things, for the spiral of the Guggenheim Museum in New York).

The straight lines and perfect curves recall the hardness of the human hand and many visual elements recall the symbolism of the DNA double helix, such as the spiral staircase in Jerome's flat. 

The environment is stripped of all vegetation and nature, in order to illustrate a world where nature no longer has a place and where the world and life are entirely shaped by the human hand.

There is also an importance in the choice of the color of the movie : the ochre colour: even if Gattaca is about DNA and perfection, there is still imperfections and the society is not so clean and wonderful that its wants to be.

[moviesandsets]

Ratched - Ryan Murphy - 2020

It’s the first time that we will talk about a TV Show in this blog. I am sure you all know the famous director Ryan Murphy, recognized for the famous show “American Horror Story”. Even another season from this TV Show would deserve a whole article, we will not praise the psychiatric hospital from the second season of American Horror Story but the hospital from Ratched, available on Netflix (sorry Jade, I love some TV Shows from Netflix even if some of them all look the same). In this TV Show, the set design from the hospital is really well conducted so as not to look like a sanitized environment but rather a luxury hotel. 

- The office of the director and the dr. richard hanover, which is the center piece of the clinic. -

“He wanted the hospital not to seem like a hospital, but to be a very glamorous hotel that had been converted into a hospital,” says Oscar- and Emmy-nominated production designer Judy Becker (who also worked for American Crime Story and Pose). 

To put a vintage touch, the set designer put floral patterns in every rooms and in the beautiful break room from the very evelegant hospital. The purpose of the set design was to give the impression to wanted to live in this place. 

But it’s not just to have the impression to be in an hotel, but also to show the “avant-garde” aspect of Dr Hanover's doctrine. By focusing on the luxurious side, the terrible nature of the acts committed in this place is highlighted by this contrast. 

[moviesandsets]

Suspiria - 1977 - Argento

In this beautiful movie directed by Dario Argento in 1977, the space is one of the most important character of  the storyline. Suspiria, considered as one of the goodest movie from Dario Argento, is a surnatural thriller with a lot of violence. At the time, the director asked to his artistic director to watch few movies like “Snow White”, “The Wizard Of Oz” or “Alice in Wonderland”. These references are clear : as in “Snow White”, a young girl is trapped in a place. The forest from “Snow White” is like the house (the dance school) in Suspiria. 

The movie is build like a fairy-tale, but in an horror and in a more violent way. The set design, by Giuseppe Bassan, is constructed around three primars colors : red, yellow and blue. Furnitures, lighted by Luciano Tovoli are luxurious, fairy-like but also almost fetishistic. Filmed in a wide and transversal manner, highlighted by Luciano Tovoli as a leading man, the spectator loses himself between oppressive walls and an architecture without landmarks.  

Following Suspiria, Giuseppe Bassan will work with Argento in the continuation of his witch trilogy on Inferno and Darkness. Luciano Tovoli, the director of photography, also participated in the second part of Argento's trilogy. Moving away from thrillers, he worked on several big French, Italian and American films such as “La Cage aux Folles”, “Vanille Fraise” from Gérard Oury, “Le Dîner de con” from Veber and also “La donna della domenica” from Luigi Comencini.

[moviesandsets]

The Shining - Stanley Kubrick - 1980

One of the most cinematographic places for me is a hotel. As we have seen, sets in films are often fabulous locations that convoke our look. In “ The Shining”, Stanley Kubrick takes the stereotypical set : a hotel to create a new point of view of it. Usually a hotel is a crossing place where there are a lot of people and the story is about all this meeting but in this film, this is the opposite : there is no one. 

At the beginning of the story, a family come in a beautiful, immense place in mountains with one. We are in a closed session which gives a importance to sets. This hotel is the enemy to fight in a certain way. 

I think that the structure of the scenario is also represented by the maze in the garden. We are in the garden but we can lost even if we are at home. All tensions are the opposition between characters and sets. In the book “Huis-Clos” written by Jean-Paul Sartre, I think that we found the same tension between three characters between them and the closed place where they are as in “The Shining”. For me, these two works, we found the same idea of the problematic of liberty and we are confined in the same place : “L'Enfer, c'est les autres.” In “The Shining”, the father becomes violent with his family because the hotel takes possession of him and haunt him. Today, a lot of people suffer from depression because we can't go out and we stay always in the same space with the pandemic.

Setdesigner : Roy Walker 

[moviesandsets]

Only lovers left alive - Jim Jarmush - 2013

I wanted to stay in the “gothic” atmosphere of Dogville in writing on the film “Only Lovers Left Alive” directed by Jim Jarmush. In Dogville, there is no set and in opposite, in “Only Lovers Left Alive”, sets are real places : Tanger and Detroit. Jim Jarmush took care to shot atmosphere, details, street, and to make the time to slip in Tanger and Detroit. These two cities are opposed geographically, culturally but they are the reflection of a lost, cultural and rich past. In these two cities live two vampires : Eve and Adam who are lovers, artists and full of knowledges. Eve decided to join Adam who lives in Detroit but they are disturbed by the Eve's young sister who makes some nonsense. Sets are very important in this film because they create the complexity and the power of these two characters. Adam loves music. He lives in a big typical house from Detroit with the most beautiful musical instruments in the world and Eve lives her books and knows every street in Tanger. I want also to precise that all the story takes place in the night, so we discover sets with subdued light. When I went out of the theater, I wanted to travel in Detroit to meet American and beautiful ghosts and remnants. Jim Jarmush choose perfectly sets to sublime his story.

Setdesigner : Marco Bittner Rosser 

[moviesandsets]

Dogville - Lars Von Trier - 2003

When there is no more set... this is the idea of Lars Von Trier for his film “Dogville”. We are in a black box as we were on stage, there are white lines on the ground to delimit different spaces and to create a little village in a invented mountain. Viewers have to project ourself in their imagination to think about the set. I love the idea to allow to participate viewers in the space's construction of the film. Also the set's absence strengthen the relationships between characters and the mind idea of this film : human cruelty. The story is simple, a young lady nommed Grace is hidden by all people of the village named Dogville in return, she works for them. But when a wanted notice is diffused in the country, residents think they are taking risks to hide her and they become more and more violent. When I watched the film, at the beginning, I was very frustrated to not see set because I love it and it help to be in the atmosphere of the film but during the watching, I was surprised by the fact that actually, there is set even if it is minimalistic. When we are in a house with two characters, I can also see what is going on the next house because there is no wall, so all character's lives are interlock together. And for me, sets are also the function in a film to create spaces where the filmmaker delivers his story with characters.

Setdesigner : Peter Grant 

[moviesandsets]

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Robert Wiene - 1920

When we think about gothic atmosphere and set, we can not forget to mention the film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ”. When we think about gothic atmospheres and sets in films, we can not forget to mention the film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”. In fact in this film, all sets are inspired by the artistic movement of German Expressionism. Characters live in paintings with inclined walls. In the title of the film, we can understand the importance of of sets with the word “cabinet”. It was shot in black and white with pellicular. The filmmaker Robert Wiene was build also his film's atmosphere in working on lights and makeup to sublimate sets and characters.The plot is this one : during a fair in a little german town, a old man named Dr. Caligari exposes a young sleepwalker who has also visions about the future but the administration of the town refuses that he continues his show. The next day, a man who works for the city council, is dead. Revelations, secrets and shadows begin to come in town and the figure of Dr. Caligari becomes more and more suspect. I have watch this film when I was in high-school. I don't remember very well the story but I have in mind all these sets. I would loved to visit them.

Setdesigner : Hermann Warm 

[moviesandsets]

Call me by your name - 2017

In the famous movie of Luca Guadagnino, from the book of André Aciman, the family house has a major role : it’s like a character from the film.  The setting and the places are very important because it’s an universe where the actors and technical teams can dive in; almost a starting point. This house isn’t only a good set, but it’s also a way to communicate ideas and emotions, and to better understand the characters.

The Perlman’s house seems to be a refuge for everybody, it’s timeless : even if the story happens in 1983, the all house looks old and almost like a museum. The bedroom of Elio has nothing to do with a teenager's room from the 80s. The is no swimming pool but just a stone watering place. In the bedroom, everything is made of wood, with old dark furniture and large colourful patterns. There are old books everywhere, everything is cluttered with antique pots, boxes and cubbyholes, the alcove with a cameo collection. 

The house seems to have been in the family for generations, and contrasts with the clothes worn by the characters and the packaging in the kitchen. The weight of the past against the modernity of the 1980s.

The house is also helping the love story; thanks to the communicating bathroom, a place of encounter and voyeurism, and thanks to the watering place, a place where bodies are stripped off.

[moviesandsets]

2001 : A Space Odyssey - 1968

Here, we will not discuss the philosophic interpretation of the movie who which would deserve an entire article. We will focus more on the avant-garde universe created by the filmmaker.

In this science-fiction movie, Kubrick breaks the codes by not using intergalactic battles but by using an aesthetic style of the filmmaker which makes the setting a capital element to understand the universe of the movie: The decor gives birth to a future modernity where materials, curves, geometric shapes and pure lines are mixed. 

As you know, Stanley Kubrick was a designer as well as a director and photographer : This is surely why many of his films benefit from an incredible set, as in Shining, A Clockwork Orange or even Eyes Wide Shut. Each of his films gives birth to a complete world, perfectly imagined in terms of space, architecture, details, content thanks to many renowned designers.

In this movie, A Space Odyssey, Kubrick had surrounded himself with a special team: 35 decorators, 20 special effects specialists, two Nasa recruits, but also a handful of major furniture designers. In the set, we can see many works of art: the french Olivier Mourgue and its “Djinn” chairs, or the Finnish-American Eero Saarinen with his “Tulip” serie (also used in Clockwork Orange), and the “Action Office” from George Nelson. In the modern world, however, there is a more realistic room, the bedroom in the final scene. The room, all immaculate white, is decorated with Louis XVI furniture, is in stark contrast to the rest of the film. This bedroom reminds us of the American bourgeois houses of the time, and echoes a mantra of Kubrick : “ you have to start from reality to create the illusion of reality “.

[moviesandsets]

Edward Scissorhands - 1990

Just after reading the article of JMD about Beetlejuice, I immediately had the desire to explore Tim Burton's sets in Edward Scissor.  In this almost autobiographical film, great intention is given to the sets. Bo Welch, the set designer also responsible for Beetlejuice places great importance on two particular sets which are in many ways opposed to each other.

At first, we have the world of Edward : a garden with a lot of colors, nature and fantasy sculptures but also a dark castle without colors, in a gothic’s style. This set immediately contrasts with the second setting of the film, the suburbs, which are made up of pastel-coloured, saturated, smooth and orderly houses.

At first, we can feel the fist set more grim than the second one. But all along the movie, the image of the nice suburb is becoming less and less comforting. We realized, when Edward starts to be rejected by the habitants, that the soft appearance of the suburbs is deceptive and let place to hypocrisy, cupidity and conformism.

In the end, it is in the dark, seemingly unwelcoming castle that Edward finds a refuge for his creativity and difference.

[moviesandsets]

Beetlejuice - Tim Burton - 1988

Adam and Barbara Maitland live in a beautiful house in countryside. On their way home, they have a car accident. Once they go back home, they discover than they became ghosts. Why is the set so important in the plot ? At this moment on the film, the main character becomes the house because the two ghosts cant' go out. They have to stay in their beautiful house and haunt it, but their home is sell to a rich couple, Charles and Delia Deetz from New York with their children. The Deetz decide to engage a decorator to transform all the house. They come with modern furnitures and a big white piano. The Maitland are horrified by all these set changes. Finally, we have the same question than in the film « Mon Oncle ». The ghost couple decided to invoke an other ghost Beetlejuice to help them to hunt the new family who doesn't see them. I love this space question which is also philosophic. The set is the key which creates the tension between all characters in the film. The filmmaker Tim Burton has a gothic atmosphere which results from original sets and costumes. Colors, forms and materials are in the center of the film's reflection. We are immersed in a cinematographic world which reflects the reality but also our common dreams. Without the set, the film doesn't have any singularity

Set designers : Bo Welch and Catherine Mann

Signed by JMD