OVP: Best Art Direction (2006)
The Nominees Were...
John Myhre & Nancy Haigh, Dreamgirls
Jeannine Oppewall, Gretchen Rau, & Leslie E. Rollins, The Good Shepherd
Eugenio Caballero & Pilar Revuelta, Pan's Labyrinth
Rick Heinrichs & Cheryl Carasik, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Nathan Crowley & Julie Ochipinti, The Prestige
My Thoughts: All right, we are moving into the final visual category of 2006 (we'll begin with the aural categories next week), with Art Direction (aka Production Design if you go by modern nomenclature). This, like many of the other visual categories, is shockingly lacking in Best Picture nominees-none of these films, in fact, are cited for the top prize, despite at least one of the potential nominees (The Queen) having a lot of the trappings that one would expect here. We're going to start as therefore with an actor in one of the films here who is in one of the Best Picture nominees, Matt Damon, star of The Good Shepherd and The Departed.
Usually when a film receives only one tech nomination, it's because it's a standout in a major way in that category, enough so that I might favor it to some degree. After all, if the Academy randomly cited it here but nowhere else, it must have something special, right? That's not really the case with the expansive (exhausting) The Good Shepherd. The movie certainly has a lot of set design-we're spread over decades as the film attempts to make an all-encompassing experience about the creation of the CIA, but while that lends itself to changing styles in furniture, the actual set design isn't really all that interesting, even if it's authentic. Oppewall & Rau are both Oscar favorites...I kind of wonder if this was just a "check the name I like" citation.
The next two nominees have a similar problem to The Good Shepherd not in the sense that they're particularly bad, but because they're kind of dull for a category like this (and the Academy had much better options). Dreamgirls also does a lot of great period work, giving us the feeling of the evolving 1960's, but of all of these films, it's the movie that feels the most like it's a movie set, and not an interesting one. The sound stages feel interchangeable, as do the dressing rooms. There's too much uniformity in the approach here, and appears like they struggled to get beyond the stage beginnings of this musical. Again, it's not bad work (none of these nominations are embarrassments for the Academy), but if you're competing for an Oscar I expect you to hit home runs-this ain't one.
And neither is The Prestige. A similar trapping here (with more stages that feel like they're interchangeable), the movie isn't quite up to the snuff of some of Nolan's later work (specifically Inception and Dunkirk) in making the sets' iconography feel up to the magic that's happening onstage. This is a fantasy film, something that requires several suspensions of belief, and while we get one of those things (the lightbulbs popping up from the ground), that's the only scene in the movie that feels like it's able to compete with the best of this category.
Because if you're going to go up against Pan's Labyrinth, you need to come prepared to win, as few films can compare what Guillermo del Toro is creating here. The entire film is framable, as if it's fallen out of some demented 17th Century oil painting. Particularly of note is the Pale Man sequence, with a lush, engorged series of decadent plates set before our young heroine, ready for her to eat just one piece of food, but honestly everything about Pan's Labyrinth works. Even the outdoor sets, which are difficult to pull off (adorning nature is literally gilding the lily, and too many films falter in this arena), work beautifully as Pan feels like he's bringing a forest kingdom to our eyes. Splendid stuff.
Our final nomination is Pirates of the Caribbean. Here we have a movie that builds upon its predecessor, rather than a sequel that just does more-of-the-same. The best part of this movie is definitely the Flying Dutchman, an ornate, gaudy, barnacled monstrosity that feels like it's using every inch of the budget. In general, though, Pirates takes some of the best visual cues of the first film (the humid Caribbean cities, the lost island locales, & the personality-spiced (all are clearly distinguishable) ships), and just continually enhance them, giving us a really complete-looking action adventure. There's a reason this inspired so many homages in the years that followed-it's just that good.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Art Directors Guild in 2006 broke their nominees into Contemporary, Fantasy, and Period Film. Contemporary went to Casino Royale over Babel, The Da Vinci Code, The Departed, & The Queen, while Fantasy favored Pan's Labyrinth above Children of Men, Pirates, Superman Returns, and V for Vendetta. Period went to Curse of the Golden Flower, here above Dreamgirls, Flags of Our Fathers, The Prestige, and The Good Shepherd. Children of Men won Best Production Design at the BAFTA Awards, over Casino Royale, Marie Antoinette, Pan's Labyrinth, and Pirates. In terms of sixth place, I honestly have no idea. Golden Flower, The Queen, and Marie Antoinette all were up for Costume, the latter winning (there's usually much more overlap between these two categories), while Children of Men was obviously in the race. My gut says The Queen, since it was a Best Picture nominee, but this is anyone's guess, honestly.
Films I Would Have Nominated: There is no way I'm skipping Children of Men. There are few films that do what this movie does, recreating a current world and building onto it so subtly that it looks exactly like it's predicted the future, but one where we've stopped really caring about what actually happens. That it wasn't nominated is downright criminal.
Oscar’s Choice: Winning its third trophy (it'll be in three more ballots, but this is the last win), Pan's Labyrinth took it, I suspect by a pretty sizable margin without Children or Curse as an option for the Academy.
My Choice: The Academy made the right call-there's some weird misses here (we'll get to those in more detail in a few weeks when we discuss My Oscar Ballot), but Pan's is showing up for me too. I'd throw Pirates next, followed by The Prestige, Good Shepherd, and Dreamgirls.
Those are my thoughts-how about yours? Is everyone on the same page that this was Pan's Labyrinth's to win? How, exactly, did Children of Men not get cited here? And who do you think was in sixth place? Share your thoughts below!
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