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If you've read my thoughts on Decision to Leave, you might have realized I'm obsessed with wallpaper as set design. Indeed, one of these days, I might do a Top Ten best wall coverings in Park Chan-wook's filmography, for he remains the king of wallpaper cinema. Not that the Korean master is the only cineaste to dip their toes into these pools of scenographic goodness. Recently, one can think of the nauseating renovations in Zone of Interest, the autumnal florals in Killers of the Flower Moon, Priscilla's pretty pastels, and Cobweb's domestic nightmare.
Still, in 2023, one film utilized wallpaper like no other – Paul Schrader's Master Gardener, with sets designed by Ashley Fenton…
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Most of the narrative is set within the Gracewood Gardens estate, a sprawling Southern property under the control of dowager Norma, played by Sigourney Weaver in a superb supporting turn. By virtue of this setting, most of Fenton's genius is sublimated into manicured landscaping, the titular character's work offering an insight into his interiority. The flowers contrast with the gardener's spartan housing, where Schrader's Calvinist religiosity materializes in blank walls that encircle his guilt-ridden protagonist, trap-like but oddly comforting.
Because botanic and severity dominate the story, any aesthetic disruption feels earth-shattering. That's mainly manifest in two women. There's Quintessa Swindell's Maya in her psychedelic tie-dye with "No Bad Vibes" emblazoned across the body. And, of course, Norma, whose power spreads over the gardens like tendrils of control, erupting at its center in the form of an old plantation manor. If Gracewood is her kingdom, the house is her castle, every inch of architecture an extension of the woman, her barbed idiosyncrasies laid bare through décor.
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Specifically, Norma can be best defined by the clashing wallpapers separating the living and dining rooms. On the one hand, you have the geometric lines in pale shades around the long table, all Southern gentility and moneyed good taste. On the other, one finds the film's pièce de résistance. Soft color turns to the shadow of aquatic depths, and geometric abstraction gives way to a figurative motif. It's not vegetation, however, blocking the gardener's influence from entering the house. Instead, we find a flurry of jellyfish, their tentacles drawing gorgeous lines with a poison promise.
Aristocratic propriety coexists with the prick of a fragile, dangerous creature, beautiful to behold and just as likely to inflict pain. It's a matter of characterization exteriorized beyond just the actor, their costume, and display to the camera. Even if your conception of cinema reduces it to storytelling alone, that can include more than text and its performance. The spaces we inhabit tell our stories. In Norma's case, her house reveals to the viewer what deceitful dialogue won't. The wallpaper sings a siren song, seduces and dominates. It warns that the sting is coming.
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Master Gardener is already available to rent and purchase on numerous platforms. It hits Hulu on November 23.