I9TH CENTURY STAGE DESIGN

I confess to liking the old-fashioned theatrical backdrops (above) of the 19th Century.

I think it was the sets in the old Melies films (above) that won me over. Look at the one above...bathing beauties, military men and a scientific space canon all sharing the same scene with the intriguing rooftop world of the big city. All those aspects of reality within one frame...what an interesting idea!

I also like the 19th Century style long shots in some of the old Fleischer cartoons. I like the idea that at odd times we're catapulted into a larger reality that gives us a different perspective on the story. Using ultra long shots only to establish a scene is a waste of a powerful tool. 

Old time theatrical backdrops had lots of balconies, windows, winding paths, caves and ledges. I guess the stage designers felt that was the way to get the most bang for their buck. That's okay...those old sets produced a surreality that reinforced the unnatural dialogue delivery and over-the-top stories of the day.

Someone who likes that old style doesn't have to slavishly copy the 19th Century. It's an idea that easily adapts to modern aesthetics. Here's a modern home that uses it. In houses like the one above you get a glimpse into multiple realities with just one glance, and there's plenty of hiding places, opportunity for unwelcome intruders to avoid detection, spying, sudden escapes, chases, athletic moves, dances and surprises.

Here's (above) a home design by Wally Wood that follows the same principal.

PICASSO THEATRE

The set design in "Rabbit of Seville" is great, but who did it? I'm guessing Maurice Noble designed it and Phil DeGaurd (spelled right?) painted it, but maybe I'm wrong. Anyway, whoever did it was obviously referencing Picasso.

[Thanks to Roberto who commented that Gribbroek was responsible.]

Even before Picasso some set designs looked like they were made of cardboard. They looked like blown-up versions of the little paper tabletop models designers liked to make. Picasso seems to have taken a like to that look and accentuated it rather than covered it up.

You see that in Picasso's theater sketches. The sets look like paper dollhouses.

I couldn't find any sketch that looked exactly like the one in the Jones cartoon, but I came up with some similar ones.

Geez, that chandelier looks obscene!

THE SET DESIGN FOR "THE SCARLET EMPRESS"

To prepare for this post I did a Google search for "The Scarlet Empress/set designer" and came up with nothing. I tried a bunch of variations and still came up with nothing, then it finally dawned on me (because I read it): there was no set designer. The director designed the sets. He also did the costumes, the props, the lighting, and the cinematography. I wouldn't be surprised if he collaborated without credit on the writing. Geez. Josef Von Sternberg...what a mench!

[Many thanks to Joel and Romed who found the proper designer credits and listed them in the comments. I still believe, though, that Von Sternberg played a big role in those areas].

Of course the film is remembered as a Marlena Dietrich vehicle, and it is...she's great in it...but this post is about the art direction. I like it, partly because I believe elements of it could easily be incorporated into present day American design. Well, maybe not the two-headed eagle throne (above)...that's here because it looks so cool.

I love traditional Russian architecture. The turrets look Islamic, the flamboyant towers seem to be influenced by India, Oriental Asia, and The Balkans. I even see a little gypsy in them. Of course lots of details are influenced by Western Europe, especially Germany and Scandinavia. What a delightful hodge-podge!

Like Sternberg I'm a big believer in the idea that the perfect interior for a large public building is...another building, like this gazebo (above).  It's a sort of a building within a building. I'll put up more examples below. 

Here's (above) the gazebo from another angle. Nice, huh? How do you like the lighting here? I wish current architects would plan the light fixtures in their houses so they're lit for drama, just like they are in Hollywood movies. Multiple pre-planned lighting possibilities should be hardwired into every new house. Shapes should be added to new buildings just because they cast great shadows.

Here's (above) a Russian cottage exterior influencing the design of a palace interior. This is actually a room inside the palace. It's the building within a building idea again.

Here's (above) a representation of the Devil. Compare it to the dramatic one of a knight below. I love the way the top of the Devil picture fades into the darkness of the ceiling.

This good vs. evil theme (above) and its stylized execution points to the greatness of the Russian soul. Russia suffered immensely in the conflict with Ghengis Kahn and the Mongolians and they believe that suffering gave them a depth that the rest of the world could benefit from.

Nice lighting! That dense, black cross is a powerful symbol. Look at the expressionist sculptures that hold up the candles.

The Czar is strangled to death behind the cross.

How do you like vertical struts (above) holding up the banisters? You can't see them very well here, but they're carved gnomes holding candles.

Here (above) Von Sternberg treats the wooden staircase as an actor and gives it the star treatment. That's what I'd do. Stairs aren't just a conveyance to another floor, they're a powerful romantic symbol which convey aspiration, mystery, and adventure. On the right kind of staircase you do some of your thinking, you propose marriage, you assimilate culture.  Stairs impress by their sheer volume and by their musical rhythms.

For me beautiful, prominent staircases are also a version of the house within a house idea. Von Sternberg's staircase really dominates, in fact it's probably more interesting than the rooms it leads to.

I'll wrap up with this fascinating interview (below) with Von Sternberg from the 60s. It's in two parts; this link only covers the first. They're both worth seeing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DX7sll9Gug

Here's (below) the entire film! Be sure to watch it in full screen.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xh2n6k_the-scarlet-empress_tv

SET DESIGN IN CHAPLIN's "THE RINK"

Hands down, my favorite silent comedy is Charlie Chaplin's "The RINK," It's not perfect; sometimes you can't follow what's happening and you could argue that it's a little longer than it needs to be, but I don't think the best comedies can ever be perfect. Drama can be perfect because it logically builds to a pre-determined climax. Comedy has to look spontaneous. You start out with a plan but if some deviation turns out to be funnier you do that instead. Some of the best comedies are all over the place.

There are so many things to say about this film! Just to isolate one, I love the way the restaurant is a long, narrow room like a boxcar that stretches away from camera. I like the idea that there's a big walking path that goes right down the middle. That way you get to see people do funny walks up to and away from camera. You also get to see people make their funny entrances into the room before they walk down to the tables.

I also like the way the center path divides the room in two. This suggests plenty of gags where people on one side of the path get mad because the waiter (Chaplin) is giving all his attention to the people on the other side. It gets a kind of rivalry going. And the line going crudely down the middle is just plain ignorant, a quality that all comedies should try to cultivate.

It seems to me that too many animation backgrounds lack this precious quality of ignorance. A good, ignorant background is more than just a backdrop. It suggests gags and even story ideas. A good background artist is a kind of co-writer.

STAGE DESIGN

This is too big a subject to cover in one post but I can still put up some pretty pictures. My interest in stage design comes from being blown away by the sets (or the influence of sets) in cartoons like "What's Opera, Doc?" and animated features like "Fantasia" and "Alice in Wonderland." The backdrop above is from "Guys and Dolls" (1950) but it also looks a lot like the street outside the stadium in "Baseball Bugs." Animation is full of theatrical influence.

Guys and Dolls was famous for its backdrops. Here's (above) a moody sketch of the sewer where the crap game took place. The designer made it seem immense, important and mysterious, like the interior of a cathedral.

I also like the sketches generated by theatrical costume designers. I say "sketches" because the real clothing seldom looks as good as the sketch it was derived from.

Set design went through a lot of drastic changes in the last 100 years. Here's a Russian design from the years immediately after the revolution. The chair in the middle gives us the scale. Russian modernists were incredibly inventive but their efforts came to an end almost overnight when Lenin decided that he preferred realism.

I'm not a fan of Hockney's swimming pool paintings but his stage design is interesting. Forget the simplistic vertical curtains in the design above. Look instead at the way he uses the orchestra pit as a set design element. He paints the floor white so the standing musicians in black look like sticks or spikes. In another picture (unseen) he blackens the floor so the black musicians are invisible then he puts bright red caps on them. In yet another one he underlights the musicians so they look like zombies. Nifty, huh?