The Furniture: A Brief Tribute to Simone Signoret in a Brief Role

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is a series on Production Design. 

Thursday marks 100 years since the birth of iconic French actress Simone Signoret. But how to celebrate? By my count, she was in three films nominated for Best Production Design. One of them, Is Paris Burning?, I covered way back in 2016. Another, Ship of Fools, also nabbed Signoret her second nomination for Best Actress. Unfortunately, it’s something of a bloated and maudlin mess.

That leaves us with La Ronde, a film made shortly before Signoret really burst into international stardom. She’s barely in it, playing a Viennese sex worker who bookends the meandering narrative. Even so, it’s her movie star quality that makes the whole thing work - that and the magic of Jean d’Eaubonne’s Oscar-nominated production design, of course. The film is Max Ophüls’s adaptation of an Arthur Schnitzler play, a circular jaunt that slips from paramour to paramour...

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The Furniture: "The Andromeda Strain" and Designing Around an Invisible Terror

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is a series on Production Design. 

The Andromeda Strain is quite a potent movie these days. True, both Robert Wise’s film and the original Michael Crichton novel were primarily tapping into the anxiety of nuclear proliferation. But today, exactly 50 years since the film’s debut, it has become terrifyingly relevant for entirely different reasons.

The story begins with a satellite crash landing in New Mexico, bearing a mysterious extraterrestrial something that wipes out an entire town. A team of scientists is then brought to a top-secret underground facility in Nevada, codenamed “Wildfire,” to figure out what on earth is going on. It’s all about the fear of what we cannot see.

Which, of course, is a fascinating challenge for a design team...

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Art Director's Guild Nods: Mank, Mulan, Palm Springs, and more...

by Nathaniel R

Mank (in color on the actual set)

The Art Director's Guild have announced their nominations for the 2020 film year and 2021 ceremony which will be virtual on April 10th this year. As per usual the guild awards usually do a better job of showing us what the industry is actually watching and what's leading for Best Picture rather than what's happening in their own fields. Like Chicago 7 as one of the five very best Production designed Period films? Er okay Hollywood, but have you seen... Emma? Personal History of David Copperfield? First Cow? Shirley? Ammonite? This is not a knock on the talented designer but there just isn't as much to work with when you're doing courtrooms and offices.

But enough griping. Here are the nominees in their four categories after the jump and if Daniel has written a piece on this particular achievement in his column "The Furniture" it's linked...

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The Furniture: Giulietta Masina's House of Spirits

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is a series on Production Design. 

This week we mark the centennial of actress Giulietta Masina, which I consider an opportunity to do something a little different. The Furniture, as you might expect, is rarely a column about performance. I spend a lot of time trying to get screenshots without any actors present at all. Production design often works in support of performance, or in parallel, but rarely are they what you might call intertwined.

In the films of Federico Fellini, Masina’s husband and collaborator, design often threatens to overwhelm or absorb performance. Actors become moving props in his most extravagant productions, rotating like carousel horses around a central figure or two. And these protagonists are often ciphers of style themselves, particularly when they’re played by Marcello Mastroianni.

Not so with 1965's Juliet of the Spirits. Masina is the well from which the entire production springs...

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Nathaniel's Ballot: Editing, Makeup, Visual Effects, Production Design

by Nathaniel Rogers

Rooting for LOVE AND MONSTERS to get a visual fx Oscar nomination. Such a pleasantly fun surprise as mainstream movies go! It would have been a big sleeper hit in a normal theatrical year

Oscar balloting begins in 11 days so we'd like to finish our own Film Bitch Awards by then. Or at least the Oscar parallel portion. So in an effort to speed that up here are four categories. My take on the best in film editing, makeup & hairstyling, visual effects, and production design. Within these four categories there are surprisingly no repeat nominees. 

Fascinating read --The Root on Ma Rainey's Hair and Makeup20 slots = 20 different films with honors for And Then We Danced, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Emma, The Father, First Cow, Hillbilly Elegy, I Carry You With Me, Love and Monsters, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Mank, The Midnight Sky, Mulan, News of the World, Nomadland, Palm Springs, Personal History of David Copperfield, Possessor, Promising Young Woman, Tenet, and Welcome to Chechnya.

This was not intentional. I didn't notice till after hitting "publish". But it's as good an example of any of how I approach awards each year. Though I do believe in "spreading the wealth" it happens organically, since I genuinely only try to think about that specific category when I "vote". Do you also agonize over your own "best of" choices? It's a niche affliction but I've met many other film fans who do!