OVP: Best Production Design (2017)
The Nominees Were...
Sarah Greenwood & Katie Spencer, Beauty and the Beast
Dennis Gassner & Alessandra Querzola, Blade Runner 2049
Sarah Greenwood & Katie Spencer, Darkest Hour
Nathan Crowley & Gary Fettis, Dunkirk
Paul Denham Austerberry, Shane Vieau, & Jeffrey A. Melvin, The Shape of Water
My Thoughts: We are concluding our look at the visual categories today with Production Design, and five films that we've honestly talked about a lot already. One of the things I'm most excited about as we'll finish pretty much all of the 21st Century by the end of this year when it comes to the Oscars at TMROJ is that the 1980's & 90's seemed to be less beholden in these categories to always nominating the same 7-8 films in every category, so it doesn't feel like you totally exhausted all of your best content by the time you get through the visual categories. Alas, AMPAS in 2017 wasn't so creative...but at least here Oscar was putting together its best lineup of the six visual contests.
We'll start with Best Picture victor The Shape of Water. The film really takes place in three chapters, two of which totally work. We have the world of Eliza's job, which feels like its own alien creation, but has its charms and melds the mundane (the period restrooms, the endless offices) with the fantastic (a giant pit with the Creature from the Black Lagoon in its clutches). Then there's the best part of the movie, the world where Eliza resides, with romantic, moon-soaked building facades, and a rich home life in her apartment. The only part of Shape of Water that doesn't work for me is the silly, sometimes ludicrous world where we are bereft of Eliza, and which feels out-of-sync with the rest of the movie (specifically Michael Shannon's house). Overall, though, this is one of Shape's better aspects & something that I can get behind in its large nominations haul.
Blade Runner 2049 is one of two films on this list that has a known property to borrow from, but it handles it far better than Disney's princess tale. This is because the art directors find a way to meld the world of the original Blade Runner with more touches of our own. Nothing in Blade Runner feels like a gigantic leap from either the 1982 classic or from our modern, Apple-inspired designs. This isn't an easy feat, and kudos need to go out to the production team for pulling it off. Add in the little hints at what the world was once before (that rusted out bar instantly gives us story points that even the story can't bring), and you have a team that is doing a lot of heavy-lifting for the script.
Darkest Hour is much better-run in its script, but it also has a production team that clearly cares about the way it is presented. I love the claustrophobia of certain scenes in the movie-the way that the makeshift offices feel like they're being built on top of one another, a remarkable difference between the guarded grandeur of Parliament & Buckingham Palace. Darkest Hour is a movie that I genuinely enjoyed, much more than most, and a lot of that comes from the way that it makes every corner of the screen feel full-we get constant reminders of the home that is in place here, and why Churchill is so adamant to ensure it continues.
Dunkirk is about as close as we get to the recent trend in this category to highlight realistic space odysseys, as the movie is very much indebted to the planes of the sky. The rich detailing of the planes don't allow for a lot of personality quirks (other than photos or scratches on navigation panels), but that is less important for this movie when it comes to its story as the best parts of Dunkirk are about creating an almost immersive feel to the war. It's not documentarian, but more something you're experiencing alongside nameless figures firsthand onscreen. Alongside the planes are the carefully-constructed beaches where even a piece of scrap metal feels like a refuge from the waves...a place to hide as you flee from the enemy.
All of this leads to Beauty and the Beast, the one dud in this cavalcade of excellence. Beauty gets the chance to investigate Disney's best modern tale (from Disney's Renaissance, this is my favorite). But it does so in such a passionless, lifeless manner as to feel like you're walking not through the actual world of Belle & her Beast, but (at best), a theme park attraction version of it. Even that would be fun (there are few things as nostalgically powerful as Disneyland & DisneyWorld for true film fans) but on a two-dimensional set with lifeless performances, it all feels painfully boring...an adjective a story of enchantment shouldn't suffer from.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Art Directors Guild broke its nominations into Contemporary, Fantasy, & Period, so we have 15 nominees to peruse here. Contemporary gave their award to Logan against Downsizing, Get Out, Lady Bird, and Three Billboards, while Fantasy loved Blade Runner over Beauty and the Beast, The Last Jedi, War for the Planet of the Apes, and Wonder Woman. Period, Oscar's favorite, chose Shape of Water atop Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, Murder on the Orient Express, and The Post. The BAFTA's went with The Shape of Water as their victor and a carbon copy of what Oscar would eventually choose for the rest of the nominees. In terms of sixth place, my gut says that this was kind of a done deal (I called all five of these in my predictions), but the Costume & Makeup nominations for Victoria & Abdul show a strength for that film that might've gotten it a buy-in for Production Design if Beauty had faltered.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Honestly, this is a very good lineup, and most of these contenders will make it into my cut. But I cannot forgive the snub of the now-forgotten Wonderstruck, which is such a beautiful film from Todd Haynes, and will make you desperately want to visit a museum it's such a lovely ode to them.
Oscar’s Choice: The Shape of Water was able to finally get a victory, with maybe Blade Runner its closest competition?
My Choice: Like Cinematography (links below), this is a two-handed competition, but here I'm going to give Blade Runner the coin toss win, as it has a difficult challenge that I think goes under-appreciated, rather than crowning Darkest Hour's best attributes. Behind them both is Dunkirk, The Shape of Water, and Beauty and the Beast way in the back.
Those are my thoughts-how about yours? Are you standing with Oscar and his 1960's SciFi, or are you going thirty years into the future to the world of Decker? Which of the Disney Renaissance remakes do you think has had the best production design so far? And was it Victoria & Abdul who nearly missed in sixth place? Share your thoughts below!
Also in 2017: Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2017
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