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| In The Grand Budapest Hotel, the hotel itself is as much a character as any of its guests. |
Each day as we make
our way to the Academy Awards ceremony Feb. 22, Last Cinema Standing will take
an in-depth look at each of the categories, sorting out the highs, the lows,
and everything in between. Check back right here for analysis, predictions, and
gripes as we inch toward the Dolby Theater and that world-famous red carpet.
Best Production Design
The nominees are:
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Into the Woods
Mr. Turner
As someone who grew up around carpenters, handymen, and generally skilled builders but never had an aptitude for the work myself, I have a great deal of respect for the people who put together film sets. It is no easy feat, as on any given day, they may be called upon to conceive of a train station, construct a boudoir, or dress an entire warzone. The next day, the task list could be completely different, but these chameleons of craft are always ready for the next challenge.
Similar to costume design, the Academy favors flashy period work and grand scale when voting in this category. In fact, the last non-period, non-fantasy film to win this award was All the President’s Men in 1976, though that depends on whether you consider Warren Beatty’s 1978 winner Heaven Can Wait a fantasy film, but the point remains the same. It has been more than three decades since a film set in the present day has won this award. That streak is certain to continue this year as all five nominees are either period, fantasy, or both.
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Okay, I have spent the last few days
calling most of The Grand Budapest Hotel
overrated, and I will admit to being a bit crabby about it. The film just does
not work for me. However, the production design is another matter. The titular
hotel is a character in the film, and as the title would suggest, it sure is
grand.
While the film intentionally trades on classic storybook
tropes, production designer Adam Stockhausen and set decorator Anna Pinnock
mesh that style with elements of classical melodramas such as Gone with the Wind or All That Heaven Allows, creating an
intimate series of interiors that exist within a clearly epic outer
environment. In this constantly snowing country, the reds, pinks, and purples
of the Grand Budapest Hotel provide a warming embrace, a place to shield
yourself from the cold, not to mention the velvety textures of every inch of
every surface in the inn.
Beyond that, there is some gorgeous miniature work the
blends seamlessly with the heightened reality of the universe director Wes
Anderson creates. You have never seen and will never see a chase on skis like
the one in this film. It all works because the artifice is made plain by
Stockhausen and Pinnock. They do not try to convince us that any of this exists
in our world. Instead, they try to bring us into theirs. Stockhausen was
nominated last year for 12 Years a Slave,
while Pinnock is a five-time nominee, including a dual nomination this year
that includes her work on Into the Woods.
Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh’s excellent JMW Turner biopic is a bit
of an odd duck this awards season. It made my top 10, and in fact, it made a
lot of critics’ top 10s. It is a great film, but it is a really hard film to
love. I understand that, so I was not holding out much hope for Academy Awards
recognition. Four nominations in key crafts categories were more than I could
have asked for, but you know – if you give a mouse a cookie. I wish Timothy
Spall could have found traction in Best Actor, Leigh in Original Screenplay or
Director, and obviously the film in Best Picture. Oh, well.
Production designer Suzie Davis and set decorator Charlotte
Watts are both first-time nominees, and they will probably have to be content
with the nomination, but make no mistake – their work is fabulous. It is not
easy to work within the dingy atmosphere Leigh sets Mr. Turner in, but Davis and Watts bring out the natural beauty of
the world and splash color sparingly but effectively where they can.
The bevy of paintings covering the walls of almost all the
interiors would be enough to impress, but the organized chaos of Turner’s
workspace and the plush serenity of his seaside escape are a study in contrast,
bringing out both sides of the enigmatic painter at the center of the story.
Add to that the brilliant period details in all corners of the film, and you
have a deserving winner in any other year.
Into the Woods – Much of what makes Into the Woods the movie it is boils down to the woods. Production
designer Dennis Gassner, a five-time nominee and the only previous winner in
the group, and set decorator Pinnock do an excellent job of creating a dark,
foreboding place in which to set this off-kilter story. Branches twist and turn
and grab and pull, creating an immersive, tactile sensation for the viewer. One
can imagine walking through and collecting the little cuts and scratches that
accompany a walk through the forest.
The whole design has a “fairytales after dark” feel to it,
which perfectly matches the tone of the film. When Prince Charming travels into
the village to find Cinderella, it feels as though we are stepping into the
storybooks of our collective childhood but long after their prime. Years of neglect have left
the streets and homes in disrepair. For an audience that was maybe craving a
sweet shot of nostalgia, the world Pinnock and Gassner create is a harsh dose
of reality but still cloaked in the memories of a fairytale world.
The Imitation Game – For a movie that underwhelmed in so many
regards, one thing in The Imitation Game stood out clearly from its first appearance on screen: the
Turing Machine. Like the hotel in The Grand
Budapest Hotel, the Turing Machine becomes a character in the film, such
that it even has a name, Christopher. For inventor Alan Turing (Benedict
Cumberbatch), it is the closest relationship he has, much closer than with any
of his flesh and blood coworkers.
It falls to production designer Maria Djurkovic and set decorator Tatiana
Macdonald, both first-time nominees, to make that relationship believable. They
succeed brilliantly, fudging the history a bit to create an impressive machine
that moves, thinks, and even seems to feel – a fine metaphor for the film’s
depiction of Turing. In addition, Macdonald does a great job filling the
workspaces of the characters with meaningful clutter. This is definitely the look
of an office in which we imagine math geniuses might work.
Interstellar – Prestige space films tend to be nominated in
this category because the art directors’ branch just cannot seem to help itself
when it comes to the big flashing displays and important-looking knobs that
make up the consuls of movie space shuttles. It seems to me an odd tendency. I
think we are at a point of cultural awareness where we all know what the
insides of spaceships look like. When Stanley Kubrick’s crew rebuilt the
cockpit of an Air Force bomber from a magazine picture for Dr. Strangelove, it was innovative, exciting, and cool. This is a
bit old hat by now.
More generally, the whole color palette of the film seems to
range from sleepy to blah, as it often does in Christopher Nolan’s films.
Production designer Nathan Crowley has done six Nolan films now and has earned
nominations for half of them, including this one, while set decorator Gary
Fettis has had a strong run of collaborations with Clint Eastwood recently,
including this year’s American Sniper.
As anyone working at this level, Crowley and Fettis are clearly talented
craftsmen, but Nolan does them no favors in Interstellar,
and their work simply is not allowed to shine through.
The final analysis
Despite solid work in most respects from the rest of the
nominees, when it comes to the win, there is The Grand Budapest Hotel, and there is everything else. Even
Anderson’s detractors – among whom I count myself – can agree the production
design of his films is always lush, vibrant, and full of life. That has never
been truer than it is here. If any another pair walks up on stage on Oscar
night, it will be downright shocking. Probably only Into the Woods could mount any sort of challenge, but really, there
is no challenger.
Will win: The
Grand Budapest Hotel
Should win: The
Grand Budapest Hotel
Wish it had been here:
Birdman
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