OVP: Best Art Direction (2003)
The Nominees Were...
Ben Van Os & Cecile Heideman, Girl with a Pearl Earring
Lilly Kilvert & Gretchen Rau, The Last Samurai
Grant Major, Dan Hennah, & Alan Lee, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
William Sandell & Robert Gould, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Jeannine Oppewall & Leslie Pope, Seabiscuit
My Thoughts: We are concluding our look at the (visual) technical awards today (we'll head into music later this week) with Art Direction (not yet Production Design), and the return of, well, the King. Though Return of the King was weirdly left out of our Cinematography list, it is back today, as are a pretty routine crew of nominations. There are years where Oscar loses all creativity beyond the same 7-8 films that he clearly adores, and that happened in 2003 (a more recent example of this is the glut of Joker/1917/Once Upon a Time in Hollywood citations that drowned 2019 into tedium). Of course, just cause a nomination is default doesn't make it bad, so let's look at what Oscar decided to go with.
Since Return of the King was skipped for Cinematography, Master and Commander was the only film to make it into all six visual categories. Here, I think the nomination is somewhere in the middle. The realism is there, for sure. You don't doubt we're on a ship, an oftentimes crowded one that feels the proper amount of regimented (but slightly filthy). It is, however, not a film that expands much beyond that. There are times I'm fine with this (think Gravity, which I nominated for my personal awards in 2013), but here I feel like doing one trick better-than-most is not enough to warrant inclusion in the five best achievements of the year.
Still, it's better than Seabiscuit. Unlike Master and Commander, Seabiscuit is not hampered down by being stuck at sea, and it's worth noting that of all of its technical achievements, Seabiscuit is arguably the best when it comes to its production design, recreating race tracks well, and making us feel like we're actually in a different era. But beyond-the-racetrack, the film feels false, and like it's not adding enough personality to its production design. When it comes to this category, I want period-specific realism, yes, but I also want character-driven touches where we learn more about the people onscreen through where they live (in the same way you learn more about someone by visiting their home).
This is why I'm such a fan of Girl with a Pearl Earring. The houses in this film feel period-specific, yes, but they're also lived-in. You understand more about Vermeer by the way he keeps his attic meticulous (for his painting), but other areas of the house feel overcrowded by ambiance and decor. I especially loved the kitchen, filled with pastel vegetables & giant copper pots, a combination of elegance and practicality. We talked on Monday about how strong the cinematography is here, but part of what makes the cinematography worth a damn is that every inch of this film has detailing that looks just like a Vermeer painting. It's superbly bedecked.
If you aren't going to give me a lot of character-building with your production design, I'd like to at least have some grandeur. This is what happens in The Last Samurai. The film itself is not playing with a lot of cards in terms of character development (though we do see some hints to Ken Watanabe's character in his private quarters tidiness), but we also get to see a totally reconstructed 19th Century Japan, totally beautiful and opulent. Particularly during the battle scenes, the film provides spanning detail to invest in the film's large scale look at a nation in transition.
We end with Return of the King (a movie it's difficult to shove into the middle of these recaps considering its importance to 2003), and for the last time, we have to point out at least some of the art direction here is borrowed from the previous films, particularly the homey Shire toward the end of the film. Still, this is a movie rich with details (the battle scenes here are also epic & insane), and we get to see the shining city of Gondor (complete with white tree), as well as the lit beacons, added to the iconography of Lord of the Rings. These are arguably some of the most signature moments in the series, so perhaps more than any other tech aspect, production design is the least dependent on the previous films to make a mark.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Art Directors Guild in 2003 was still only breaking out their nominees into two groups (Contemporary or Period/Fantasy), so we have just ten nominations here instead of our traditional 15. Period/Fantasy went to Return of the King over Girl with a Pearl Earring, Pirates of the Caribbean, Seabiscuit, and The Last Samurai, while Contemporary favored Mystic River against Kill Bill, Lost in Translation, Something's Gotta Give, and Under the Tuscan Sun (like Costume Design, Oscar is not a fan of contemporary design in this category). BAFTA went with Master and Commander for best Production Design over Big Fish, Cold Mountain, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and The Return of the King. For sixth place, considering how insular the nominations were in 2003, I have to assume it was something of a battle between Pirates and Cold Mountain, and considering its perch as a serious Best Picture contender I'm inclined to think it was the latter.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Master and Commander is not a bad nomination by any stretch of the imagination, but I wish Oscar had, well, stretched the imagination a little bit to include some different "at sea" films like Pirates of the Caribbean and Peter Pan, which gave us beautiful, memorable boats...but also worlds beyond them.
Oscar’s Choice: Return of the King doesn't fail in 2003, and as you already saw it nominated, it makes it once again into the winner's circle here, presumably over Master and Commander.
My Choice: Yeah, Return of the King deserves this trophy for sure-it's hard to compete when you're on this high of a curve. Girl with a Pearl Earring would've been a worthy winner, though, and gets my silver ahead of Last Samurai, Master and Commander, and Seabiscuit, respectively.
Those are my thoughts-how about yours? Is everyone backing Return of the King, or does someone want to abandon ship? Speaking of, what Master and Commander tech nomination are you most supportive of? And was it Pirates or Cold Mountain who was in sixth place? Share your thoughts below!
Also in 2003: Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2003
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