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Sabine Hake locates the important change in a reprioritisation of the
designer’s role. She argues that sometime during the early 1930s, film
credits exchanged the term ‘film architect’ (Filmarchitekt) for that of
‘set design’ (Ausstattung). Far from being a minor terminological
change, the implicit return to theatrical traditions announced a major
shift from the highly symbolic functions of public spaces to the largely
decorative function of private space as an extension of the individual.
Berthomé suggests that the
fragmentation of the sector, exacerbated by the dissolution of the major
companies meant that individual studio styles did not develop in France
as in the United States, and that this resulted in a nationally specific
model of practice: that of the collaborative director/designer team as
exemplified by the professional partnerships of René Clair and Lazare
Meerson, Jean Renoir and Eugène Lourié and Marcel Carné and Alexandre
Trauner.
Writing in 1937, art director L.
P. Williams noted that British art departments were organised along the
lines of an architect’s office, ‘numbering among its permanent staff
architectural draughtsmen, quantity surveyors, sculptors and painters,
and including a comprehensive reference and periodical library, an
architectural model-making department and printing plant'.
Synopsis
European cinema between World Wars I
and II was renowned for its remarkable attention to detail and visual
effects in set design. Visionary designers such as Vincent Korda and
Alfred Junge extended their influence across national film industries in
Paris, London, and Berlin, transforming the studio system into one of
permeable artistic communities. For the first time, Film Architecture
and the Transnational Imagination provides a comparative study of
European film set design in the late 1920s and 1930s. Based on a wealth
of drawings, film stills, and archival documents from the period, this
volume illuminates the emerging significance of transnational artistic
collaboration in light of developments in Britain, France, and Germany.
A comprehensive analysis of the practices, styles, and function of
interwar cinematic production design, Film Architecture and the
Transnational Imagination offers new insight into the period’s
remarkable achievements and influence on subsequent generations.
——amazon.com
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About the authors
Tim Bergfelder, professor
of Film at the University of Southampton whose research focuses on
historical developments in European cinema, and on transnational
connections in world cinema.
Sue Harris, Associate Editor of
the UK journal French Cultural Studies, and a regular reviewer for the BFI’s
Sight & Sound magazine. She serves on the editorial boards of Studies in
French Cinema and Open Screens.
Sarah Street, professor of
Film and Foundation Chair of Drama,
Department of Film and Television, University of Bristol.
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Acknowledgements
1 Introduction: Understanding and Interpreting Set Design in
Cinema
The Invisible
Set
Design, Film Narrative and Beyond
Journeys into the Haptic: Film and Architecture
Travelling to/through the Cinema of the 1930s
2 European Set Design in the 1920s and 1930s:
Cultural Contexts and Professional Practices
Germany
The Metaphysics of Decor: Kracauer and Eisner's Legacy
Eclecticism and Adaptability: Professional Backgrounds and Training
Patterns among German Set Designers
From Wagner to Reinhardt: Staging the Gesamtkunstwerk
From Metaphysics to Studio Reality: Contexts, Strategies, and Practices
of Set Design in German Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s
Conceptions of Space and Narrative in Hollywood and Germany
Approaches to Set Design in Weimar Film: Painting versus Architecture
France
New Agendas in French Design in the 1920s
Enter Lazare Meerson
The Emigre Eye on France
Production Contexts: The Transition to Sound in French Cinema
Working Practices in French Studios in the 1930s |
Set as
Performance in French Cinema
Great Britain
Looking to the Continent: Design Practices in Britain
Adapting the Concept of 'Total Design' for British Cinema
Professional Backgrounds and Expertise: The Rise of the
'Architect-Designer' in Britain
Working Practices in Britain: Sketches, Designs and Drawings
Designers in the Context of the British Studio System
Conclusion
3 Imagining
Space in Late Weimar Cinema
Past, Future, and Present - The
Changing Settings of Weimar Cinema
The Composite City: Narrative and Set
Design in ASPHALT
ANGST: Lifestyle Design and Suburban Melodrama
Underworld UK: Andrei Andreiev and the Imaginary London in DIE BUCHSE
DER PANDORA and DIE 3-GROSCHENOPER
Stardom, Genre, and Space: Brigitte Helm in DIE WUNDERBARE LUGE DER NINA
PETROWNA
Instabilities of Genre and Space: Exotic Iconography in DIE HERRIN
VON ATLANTIS/THE MISTRESS OF ATLANTIS/L'ATLANTIDE
4 French
Cinema in the 1930s: Space, Place, and National Identity
Paris and the
Challenge to Popular Memory
The Set as Star: Fantasies of Place and Space
The Set and the Star: Josephine Baker on Screen
Beyond France to Europe and the Colonies: Voyages of Discovery
Journeys in Time: The Historic Film
Build them High! The Project-Specific Set
Conclusion |
5 Set
Design, Style, and Genre in 1930s British Cinema
Designing the
Past
Tudor England: THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VHI and FIRE OVER
ENGLAND
Revolutionary France in THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL and THE RETURN OF THE
SCARLET PIMPERNEL
17th Century Flanders in LA KERMESSE HEROIQUE and Holland in REMBRANDT
Designing Russia in THE RISE OF CATHERINE THE GREAT and KNIGHT WITHOUT
ARMOUR
Transforming the Restrictive Domestic Space in
KNIGHT WITHOUT ARMOUR
The Hyperbolic/Ornate Historical Interior Space:
THE SCARLET EMPRESS and THE RISE OF CATHERINE THE GREAT
Conclusions on 'Designing Russia'
Designing the Future
Alfred Junge and Art Deco
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index of
Film Titles
Index of
Names and Subjects |
