All Things Abbey

Multiply the phrase "highly anticipated" times ten and you have the euphoria centered around season three of the global phenomenon known as Downton Abbey. Premiering Sunday, January 6th at 9:00 PM/ET, look for fortunes lost, love triangles below the stairs, a possible wedding and pregnancy? and more squabbles over the proper ladle to use in the soup terrine as the fate of poor Mr. Bates hangs in the balance (no pun intended). 11 million viewers in over 100 countries and counting will no doubt be tuning in.

Perhaps the most exciting discovery is the arrival of veteran Oscar winning actress Shirley MacLaine (wonder who she channelled at the 400- year - old Highclere Castle?) who plays American socialite Martha Levinson and mother of Lady Cora (Elizabeth McGovern). MacLaine has already reported a "supernatural energy" from the effects of King Tut (who I always said died for tourism) whose tomb was once stored in the castle. At any rate, fireworks with viewer favorite Maggie Smith (Dowager Countess of Grantham) as the other rambunctious wise cracking mother in law.

MacLaine reported that the pictures actually
 fell off the wall of haunted Highclere

Shirley MacLaine makes her arrival to Downton
and with her, ushering in a new age (again, no pun intended)

Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley aka The Dowager

I caught up with production designer Donal Woods over the Christmas holiday who informed me they are hard at work on Season Four as we speak. (Fingers crossed that the media reports of  Dan Stevens (Mathew Crawley) not returning are untrue). For more on look of  the interiors  and my interview with Woods, see Designing Downton Abbey in Traditional Home .

And if the show leaves you wanting for more, get your fix on great posh period interiors from classics such as Remains of the Day and Gosford Park (two other films that dealt with the upstairs - downstairs theme of master and servant) to Howard's End, Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre in The Castles and Manors of Cinema's Greatest Period Films in Architectural Digest.

Production designer Stephen Altman used a historical consultant to make
 the period perfect interiors accurate yet comfortable and livable.

For a behind the scenes look at both the historical perspective and making of Downton Abbey, I highly recommend the illustrated book The Chronicles of Downton Abbey: A New Era (St. Martin's Press) with a foreword  by creator Julian Fellowes. Each character has their own chapter with lots of never before seen photographs -- its the perfect primer to the show and available here on Amazon.

Happy viewing and cheers to a wonderful 2013!

Photo Credits: Moviestore Collection Ltd./Alamy, Carnival Film and Television Ltd., St. Martin's Press,  USA Films.

A Look Back at Gosford Park

Before the intrigue, splendor and Sunday night "must see" addiction that is Downton Abbey, there was the film Gosford Park (2001). A story of the upper crust world of nobility and their servants in thirties England, the Robert Altman film was reminiscent of Upstairs/Downstairs with a little Agatha Christie thrown in for good measure.

Production designer Stephen Altman (and son of the director), created the authentic period interiors for the story of a group of wealthy Brits and one American who assemble for a shooting weekend at a country estate known as Gosford Park. The film's all-star cast includes Kristen Scott Thomas, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, and the late Alan Bates and was nominated for seven Oscars.

Upstairs cast....

and downstairs. 

Shot on location in the UK, it took two estates and a soundstage  to make up Gosford Park -- Wrotham Park, Syon House (upstairs) and Shepperton Studios (downstairs). Altman and set decorator Anna Pinnock took painstaking care to use colors and furnishings authentic to the period with red as the predominant color. Altman explains, "In houses like these, there are antiques from two or three hundred years before, so we just added in layers of modernity. We wanted to make sure it was comfortable and livable, since many of the stately homes we'd seen were like museums and didn't seem like homes."

Wrotham Park

Working on a period film requires extensive research and the ultimate set decorators dream. Altman hired as consultant a butler and cook who had been in domestic service in England in the thirties. From the proper table settings to the appropriate wardrobe for the staff, Altman and his team wanted to make sure they portrayed domestic life in a noble home in an accurate fashion. Rooms were designed for sewing, ironing, making jams and jellies, and even a “brushing room” was added, where guests would be “brushed down” and thus not carry any mud or dirt into the house. I guess it was the precursor to what we know now as the mud room:)

Party guests

Stephen Fry and Kristen Scott Thomas

Costume designer Jenny Beavan's satin gown for Kristen Scott Thomas

Ryan Phillipe as the valet 

The film has many parallels to Downtown Abbey - lots of great period interiors in an idyllic English estate, the wonderful Maggie Smith as scene stealer Constance, Countess of Trentham, devoted maids and mysterious handsome valets, and a classic study of the British class system. Catch it on DVD after Season Two of the PBS show is over and when a fix of all things Brit is in order.

Photo Credits: USA Films

Today is the Day!

"Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain."

-- The Wizard of Oz, 1939

I am proud to announce that my book debuts today! Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction (!t Books/Harper Collins, 2010) covers the evolving story of art direction from the silents to present day. Hundreds of images and renderings of every film style and genre -- many seen here for the first time -- are featured along with dozens of interviews with some of the cinema's top production designers, art directors and set decorators and written with the cooperation of the venerable Art Directors Guild.

My personal favorite sections are the behind the scenes stories along with Manhattan on Film, Italy on Film and the films from the forties and sixties. And of course Gone With the Wind, period sagas, fantasy films and the Big White Sets of the thirties. And the films of Nancy Meyers, my favorite designing director. It's all here from Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times and Ben Hur to Sunset Boulevard, North By Northwest and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House to Citizen Kane, The Graduate, Chinatown and  The Age of Innocence to Titanic, Pride and Prejudice, Somethings Gotta Give and Avatar. You get the picture.

You can see more of the book at my website or get a sneak peak at the Art Directors Guild site. The book is available at a bookstore near you (if there are still standing!), Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc. or if you would like to personalize a copy, you can email and purchase directly through me.

It's been a long and winding journey down the yellow brick road and I hope you enjoy it!

Photo Credits: Gosford Park/USA Films, MGM/Photofest/!t Books/Harper Collins

Color, Cinema Style

As with film design, color can instantly create a mood and evoke images ranging from happiness to drama. It is used to portray a character, serve as imagery (whenever you see orange/red in The Godfather, look for a murder to follow) or set the overall tone of the film.

Perhaps one of the main questions posed to any set decorator about a film set they have decorated is “what color paint did you use?” And inevitably I get the same question every time I write an article on film interiors. So here are a few of my favorite film sets and paint colors I would select:

Gosford Park /Age of Innocence/Pride and Prejudice: From cerise to crimson, red is a popular color in period interiors and a natural backdrop for almost every historical a.k.a. period a.k.a. costume drama on the screen. (Keira Knightley in Pride and Prejudice is seen above)

Panoramic shot of The Netherfield from Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Red played a dominant theme in Robert Altman's Gosford Park

A lipstick red was used as both a costume and accent color as well as design scheme for The Age of Innocence (1993). Seen here is Michelle Pfeiffer as Countess Olenska.

and a few coordinating paint colors...

Pratt and Lambert Vintage Claret and Deep Cerise

Valspar Premium Ultra Classic Red

Behr Licorice Stick SG-170

Ralph Lauren Paints Duke Red
Benjamin Moore Holly Berry, Ladybug and Currant Reds

Gone With the Wind (1939): Period appropriate historical colors abound for the interiors of both Tara and Twelve Oaks:

Pratt and Lambert's aptly named Scarlet O'Hara

Benjamin Moore's Historical Colors

Top Hat (1935): The film is a study in black and white contrast with shiny high gloss metallic surfaces and these paint colors would be right at home:

Ralph Lauren Metallica - Wadsworth Grey

Sherwin Williams Whitetail and Darkroom

Porter Paints Silver Feather

Photo Credits: RKO, USA Films, Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures and MGM

More next week!