Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Best Art Direction: Serious Film's 2011 Ballot



Just like with Oscar ballots I'm weighting these with #1 as my top choice and so on down the list.


1. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Maria Djurkovic


Working wonders with the mundane. Great color palette of browns, grays and steel blues. Underlines the drabness of this world without being boring itself. That orange soundproof room was the most meorable set of the year .


2. Hugo - Dante Ferretti


More than any other element, Hugo is its art direction. Ferretti's work is an embarrassment of riches, from the toy shop to the inner world of the train station, and most of all to the recreation of Melies's dream factory. Ranked second to Tinker only because I'm a sucker for subtlety.

3. A Dangerous Method - James McAteer



Method would earn a spot on this list based solely on all the great gadgets in the lie detector scene. McAteer's work lent fantastic texture and personality to an otherwise dry story.

4. Submarine - Sarah Pasquali

Proving that contemporary can be as vivid as period pieces in this category, Pasquali's cluttered tacky bric-a-brack sets the mood perfectly for this melancholy coming-of-age tale.


5. Hanna - Niall Moroney


More great modern work, a few steps removed from reality. Moroney transforms an action movie into a Grimm fairy tale.


More Worthy Films

Midnight in Paris's creation of its title city in various time periods justifies all that talk of gooey nostalgia. Tree of Life made suburbia in the 1950's as ethereal as the rest of the film's cosmic leaps. The Skin I Live In crafted a horror film out of brightness and color instead of darkness and shadow. The Artist wasn't as flashy in its nostalgia as Hugo but it was executed with panache just the same. Jane Eyre inbued the same old Victorian furniture with gothic atmosphere. Meek's Cutoff nailed every detail within its limited world and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo made the interiors as chilly and forbidding as the snow-covered exteriors.


Posted by Michael Cusumano at 8:00 PM
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1 comment:

  1. Great to see "Hanna" in your top 5. It really should've been recognized more this year. The soundtrack is great also, I would say even stronger than "The Artist".

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