Categories One-By-One: Art Direction

[The Original BJ]

This is the category I think Benjamin Button will win above all. (I think Makeup/Visual Effects look pretty good, too, but those categories have enough strong competition an upset wouldn't stun me.)

And rightly so -- just as I thought, "My god, those clothes!" during much of The Duchess, I couldn't stop thinking "Wow, that's one amazing set after another" during Button's running time. Which isn't to detract from the other nominees -- all lovely to look at -- I just think the sheer scope of Button dwarfs everything in sight this year.

I would like to add, however, that this branch really just needs to get over themselves and start nominating animated films. How was WALL-E not one of the most imaginatively designed pictures of the year? From the dilapidated trash piles of Earth to the sleekly designed space ship, this film brought us richly detailed, original sets that certainly deserved recognition over the umpteenth nomination for 18th Century Mansion Designing 101.



Edited By The Original BJ on 1234735052

[Mister Tee]

Basically on target, dws. The only thing I'm not sure holds up is the Restoration analogy -- that film was pretty widely (at least among people I knew, and critics including Gene Siskel) viewed as among the most ravishing period recreations in memory. The only question was whether the film had been seen by enough people to take the prize. When it won for costumes (the first award that night) over Sense and Sensibility (which would have been a fully acceptable winner), I had no doubt art direction was in the bag, The Duchess' costumes certainly fall into that same overwhelming category, but the film's sets, while perfectly attractive and a could-be winner in a lesser year, don't have a Wow! factor to beat strong opposition.

In addition to all you cited about Button (glad to hear you mention the boat at sea, a truly striking image), I'd single out the way the film captured the colors of New Orleans. It's a town of singular dark shades -- hues that could be viewed as drab in another context but seem vivid in context. The brothel set, in particular, struck me as New Orleans to the core in that respect.

[Okri]

Yeah, there's not much to add here. Benjamin Button is the overwhelming frontrunner and everyone else is a distant second. I think the order you rank them is accurate as well, dws.



Edited By Okri on 1234636556

[Big Magilla]

There's a good reason art decoration of films set in 50s suburbia don't win. The furniture was horrible and uncomfortable and many AMPAS members probably grew up in homes where that furniture lasted into the 70s.

But I agree on Benjamin Button, a good case of more being more.

[dws1982]

The Art Director's Guild announces tonight. Overall they've been fairly hit-and-miss with their winners: 7 out of 12 of their winners went on to win the Oscar. Of course, given that they divide their nominees up into Period, Contemporary, and Fantasy categories (Period and Fantasy were a single category until a few years back, and there was only one feature film category for their first four years), they have a better chance to get it right than the Director's guild.

The Oscar Winner has never not been nominated by the Art Director's Guild in the twelve years they've been awarding.

First out will be Revolutionary Road. Not entirely because it was overlooked by the Art Director's Guild, but that certainly didn't help. It's just not well-liked, didn't make much money (not really a handicap here), and underperformed in general. Also, 1950's American Suburbia is not really exotic enough for the Academy. Many of them may have lived through that period, and may be impressed by the accuracy of the sets (or may find the sets anachronistic), but I can't find any precedent in recent Oscar history that would argue for Revolutionary Road. If it were a heavy Best Picture front runner, then it would have shot. I'd rate it least likely to win here, however.

The Dark Knight. There is precedent for this winning--Batman, and Dick Tracy. But those were heavily stylized films that embraced their comic book origins. The Dark Knight goes for a more realistic look overall, and has a lot of sets that are fairly standard modern sets. It has some impressive sets--I really liked the design of the building where Batman and the Joker had their final confrontation--but I think that of The Dark Knight's eight nominations, this is the least one they're likely to win.

The Duchess could be ruled out on the basis of no Art Director's Guild nomination, but I wouldn't be so quick to do so. It has the types of sets that often win here--big, period mansions, theatres, etc. I could see it doing like the now-forgotten Restoration did in 1995, winning its only two nominations in Art Direction and Costumes. I think it's in the hunt.

Changeling, like The Duchess, is the kind of film that does win here. It has a setting not portrayed often in films--1920's Los Angeles--and it has realistic, believable sets that blend in to the film very well. That the sets don't really call attention to themselves don't call attention to themselves is probably a handicap, since the Academy usually likes capital-S sets. If the Best Picture nominee in this category were Slumdog Millionaire or The Reader or Frost/Nixon, I might consider it as a possible winner.

But the Best Picture nominee here is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It has sets covering about ten decades, traveling the globe from New Orleans, to Russia, to New York, to Paris, to the mid-Atlantic on that tugboat. Benjamin Button may disappoint on Oscar night, but I can't imagine it losing here.

Will win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Should win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button



Edited By dws1982 on 1234645216