All language subtitles for 13 - Production Design

the production design for example of um

Good Fellas

is somewhat different of course

from the production designer

Raging Bull

and Raging Bull is a black and white

and takes place in the 40s and into the early 50s

I think that we very often

did tests on black and white film

of the black and white interiors

black and white clothes

that sort of thing

was a very different approach

but in Goodfellas

it was to be truthful to the time and place

um and but had to do costumes

and particularly production design

or the use of actual locations

and I just drew on memory

really a great deal

some of it is a heightened memory you know

but the Coppa Cabana

I could tell you

was quite accurate

I was there a lot

and that's what usually happen

I didn't go in the back way

but if we did get to sit at the ringside by the

by the dance floor

uh inevitably

when we thought we had great seats

inevitably there'd be a table that would come in

and be placed in front of you

and these wise guys would be sitting there

so you couldn't see anything but um

in any event

we just really had to be as truthful as possible to

the period but also what I remember

now when you take it to casino

which was an extension of good fellas in a way

goes to Las Vegas in the 70s

and we had to I feel

um give the impression

first of all

2 3 5 aspect ratio as opposed to um

1 8 5 I was wider screen

give the impression of a spectacle um

the spectacle like a Las Vegas show basically

you could say glitz

you could say theatrical

to certain extent

yes you know

but a lot of this is played out

against theatrical backgrounds I mean

one of the best films made about Las Vegas was in 59

I think or 60

was the Oceans 11

the original one

first half of the picture is like a time capsule

of Vegas at that time

in widescreen and color

what these places really look like

and shot on location here

we had to make

references so to speak

to certain places

uh we couldn't use names of the Stardust

um casino we had to make up another one

uh because there were certain technical uh

problems in terms of a lot of

some of the people still being alive

and not wanting any connection with it

the major element

that change in casino was to blast it open

and to make it like a sequence of fireworks

almost cross the screen

starting with the explosion in the car

and the Saul and Elaine Bass titles um

the idea was to make it a Vegas

a nightclub act really

and so we went that way

along with first time I worked with Bob Richardson

along with the lighting um

and the camera moves and that sort of thing

we had references for everything

I mean there were pictures

there was some motion pictures

not really a lot

but lots of stills

lots of use of color that we saw

costumes we knew um

the idea of um

the Tangier Hotel

which was really at the

supposed to be the Stardust or something

I'm not quite sure anymore

but in any of that

we knew that it had a certain tone or quality to it

for example

a palm tree would look a certain way

and one of the real hotels

we could take a palm tree and make it another way

Tangier with the tea

I believe became like a sword

and so all of these things

as long as it captured the spirit of Vegas of the 70s

that's what

that's what we're going for

and then I told him to open it up

to go even more

to go further

um the excess is what the film's about to you know

excess and control and power

so we have um uh

the idea was not to shy away from it to really

really uh uh

dive into it

and I use the word immerse

but you really do live and breathe it

when you're making that film

you know all the way through to finally

when it opened up

when it opened

and I remember going to Cinema One

I think it was on 59th Street

whatever on Third

Avenue introducing the film

saying hello to few people

walking home

locking the door

I lived two blocks away

went home alone

locked the door

leave me alone

that was it

it was the way you see that film there

the manic nature of it

and the splashing is of the whole thing

and the people that were involved in it and everything

I just you needed to be alone for a while afterwards

but in any event um

I thought we could really

in that particular film

open it up and make it more lush in a way

because that's part of the attraction

that's part of the attraction of that world

particularly the show scenes

the scenes of the show girls on stage

and that's all backstage and this sort of thing

so there's contrasted later

you know with the confrontations

for example

there's a wonderful scene

I think between Joe Pesci and Bob Dineer in the desert

there's nothing there

just the two of them in the desert arguing

and you feel

you feel the change again

the contrast builds

so that you see the people who really control things

the older Italian guys

in a place called back home

because we weren't allowed to

say Chicago

at that point

there was a technical issue

legal issue

so we just sit back home and um

you'd see that they

basically need to congregate and places that are pretty

you know modest

really on back of garages

you know they have a little

place where they can sit and have coffee and talk

yeah let the others

let the clowns and the jokers and the strong on guys

go to Vegas and make us money basically

so that again played um

I think really well against the flashiness of of Vegas

there was something about the

quality of Pasolini films that

had a sense of

just say a free quality to them

that didn't seem encumbered

by too much production design

yet they really had a sense of authenticity

Daniela Donato was the production designer and costumes

Pierre Tosi

all these people working together

and I really admired doing so much with so little

and uh for example

of Madea Maria Callous's necklaces wood

wooden pieces of wood

I believe um

all of this kind of thing for me

opened up another world

add to that the extreme

when one takes to the extreme

and that's Fellini Satyricon

where you do feel that

particularly in Satyricon

that it's science fiction but in reverse

it SCI fi in reverse and so um

in gangs of New York

particularly gangs of New York

I did intentionally create

as much as I could

with a sense of a naturalistic setting

but with that element of science fiction in reverse

and I must say that even in gangs

there are things that were not in the film

that do feel like science fiction

and that come from reality

that come from

historical records

but I wanted to take you into another world

and time so the

inspiration from the Italian filmmakers

enable me to do that

and so Dante for ready

for example

designing the Five points was understood

understood intrinsically what to do

and then we take it further

for example

the Satan Circus

I believe it was

build a butcher's club or bar

had a long bar you know

and we looked at it and design and I said

let's put a tree in the middle

because they're using they

they're working

and they're building these places that are you know

these are not

uh Strat of

this is not a strat of society

that has a construction and

that has a designed

that is sanctioned by the government or

or the city council

and this sort of thing

they just building as they go

it's almost like a shanty town on the way

so there's a tree in the middle

working around the tree

it's almost

if they're coming out of the earth

and they're trying to live in this

seemingly urban environment

it's all being created different from the

the towns in the west

where you'll see like in the cave and Mrs

Miller of wood

the wood is

is new it's clean

it's not worn it's not

it's not weathered because it is fresh

but New York

judging from the writing

um of the UK

judging from the historical accounts um

and first images

actual photographs of things in the 1870s I'd say

and being around some of the buildings

growing up downtown on the Lower East Side

some of the buildings were definitely from

the 18th century

it was one chicken market that I know that

the top floor

it's only two stories

but it wasn't even

it was like a

a hut in a way

and the shingled roof was collapsing

and I was the second floor

I don't know what was up there

and down below is this live chicken market

where you'd have to go and get the chickens

they kill them in front of you

and so um you know

it was very primal that way um

and these places were used and used and used

until they collapsed

basically you know

cause we're hardly any

newspaper reports about any of that stuff

prior to the Draft Riots in 1863 you know

it was just something that was

cut off and forgotten about you know

and so in a way

it was being built as it was living in it

but at the same time

it didn't appear in my mind to be as fresh

let's say as a western town that was being created

we had space

there was no space downtown

everything was on top of each other

so you know

you have the caverns below the city

that we were criticized for by some people

cause they took it too realistically

I said no no

you understand

growing up we knew of these tunnels under the city

we just did I guess

and one could say

well you're

you might as well talk about

the alligators in the sewers

but I must say

below those tenements

they are there now um

there are sellers and there are subsellers

and a lot of this was because of

people trying to get away from you know

scams that they were doing

or trying to get away from police

or rival gang members and that sort of thing

you go on one building and come out on

you go in the building on Elizabeth Street

and come out of Mulberry

and you get away

it just common sense

a lot of it's been closed off

and these things exist

so we took that and pushed it open

like the um

the old brewery

and the shot in which we slice the set in half

and you see all the compartments

you see all the different goings on

the various goings on in the

in that old brewery

number of films certainly reference there

including of course

you know the ladies man

Jerry Lewis

where he just splits the set

you pull back

uh it's an extraordinary moment

but we kept that idea and um uh

obviously when you see a place like that cut in half

and you see these different compartments

these different rooms and all this activity

it's not meant to be natural

it's not meant to be realistic

you could hopefully expect anything to happen

um in terms of the look of this picture

and behavior of the characters in the film um

and so we imply that the

tunnels were bigger or more intricate than

than one would think

but I do know it's the implication of people hiding out

people do things underground constantly

and it still goes on everywhere

and we just took that as a concept

and opened it made it

maybe slightly

eccentric in a way

I became involved in a project called New York New York

and right at the height of 75

76 where I was in Los Angeles

and right at the height of my

exuberance and love for the old Hollywood

which was being destroyed at that point

and an attempt to

retain some of it

or at least

how should I say

explore aspects of the old Hollywood

I decided to make that film in such a way

that the production design

the look of the picture

would be the codified look

of the studio cinema musicals um

from the 40s and 50s in Hollywood

meaning that

uh we knew that it was a code before

before Stanley Don and Gene Kelly did New York

New York it's a wonderful town

and they shot actually in New York

that opening sequence

before that

New York was usually codified

interior sets

curbs were always a foot high

and we knew that was not the real New York

but we accepted that as a real New York

we accepted the dream

the fantasy of that

I wanted to live in that world

so to speak

and put that again on the screen

and at the same time incorporate the new style

style of improvisatory um

development of the story

and prospatory work with the actors

and place the two together

particularly in a musical with the use of a

try to get with Lazlo Colbeck's a look up three Strip

Technicolor was very difficult at the time

I try to shoot it in one 3 3

but we had to resort to 1 6

6 for number technical reasons

but what was it like in those films

what were they trying to tell us

I always felt in the use of production design

and the glorification of the image

so to speak and

the implication of fantasy

and I always said

well what happens after the end

and they go off

and it's supposed to live happily ever after do they

and so I should have went against the whole

the whole idea of it by exploring that part of it

exploring um uh

whatever truth I could find at the time

and a love relationship

that had to do to very creative people um

and the UPS and downs of that

uh ultimately

ending on the reality that they don't get along um

which was the antithesis of the style I was showing

the style I was

I was I was presenting um

we even went as far as to shoot everything

with the 32 millimeter lens

to keep it um

in a sense of

you see it on television

it should look right

it should look like an old film

you know but um

I think stylization was

was really important in this codifying I mean

particularly in the style of acting

that was in the foreground

and when the time came to do the exterior Greenbrier uh

we decided to go all the way on that uh

the Boris had a way of designing things

where he would strip away the unnecessary um

and in this case the lines

the vertical lines of the trees

was what it was all about

and the fact that we know it's a backdrop all right

you're upset because I didn't come to you in person

and say goodbye

right right

which brings up another thing

you don't say goodbye to me

I say goodbye to you

in no way shape or form do you say goodbye to me

I say goodbye to you

really it's about the people

and when you look at the two of them

the coats they're wearing

all of this

ultimately is about the two of them

and in a sense

I think I may have been trying to get at

why was I so involved with these people

in the films that I saw when I was younger

knowing full well the background is fake

so why don't we just throw it right back at you and see

if you could go with it

um what does that mean

you know you can have someone on a stage

she or he

to bring a monologue

just on a stage in black and yet you see everything

what is that about

you know there is no set I say um

granted at times

I feel much more comfortable in a natural location

or more naturalistic sets

but I liked the abstract nature of it

cause I wanted to stay with the people

and had the spectacle around them that was abstract

you know um

you know this is something that

was an experiment in a sense

and it was a time we could experiment that way

it was amazing