OVP: Best Art Direction (1931-32)
The Nominees Were...
Lazare Meerson, A Nous la Liberte
Richard Day, Arrowsmith
Gordon Wiles, Transatlantic
My Thoughts: We are finishing off the visual categories (after only two categories-this year is going to come at you fast, my friends) with Art Direction, and again we have only three nominations. The fascinating thing about production design in the 1930's is it really is a crapshoot. There's less outdoors sequences, almost everything is a stage set, and while realism is important, originality isn't necessarily part of that conversation. Oftentimes Oscar was recognizing either newness, uniqueness, or Best Picture nominees (he always likes Best Picture nominees). This year we have three different films trying varying approaches, all at least a solid approach, if not all successful.
A Nous la Liberte holds a pretty grand distinction as the first non-English film to be nominated for an Academy Award. When that happens, you have to assume it's for a pretty good reason, and honestly...here it is. I don't know that I've seen somethign this esoteric this early in sound filmmaking, and the production design is the cornerstone of this indictment on capitalistic impulses (and the way they eat through men). It plays with the concepts of assembly lines, mess halls, and cavernous walls in a minimalist way, using the set design as a character (one of the first films to do this) to underscore how bleak the characters' existence is. The film clearly inspired Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (there would even be a lawsuit over it) if you want an idea of what we're looking at-it's really bold, using repetition & banality to make a point.
A Nous la Liberte's production design is so famous amongst cinephiles that people kind of throw out the actual Oscar winner in the process, but I do think that's unfair (and more a result of people having never heard of the winner than direct comparison). Transatlantic is quite impressive set design too, even if it was something that had been done before. The use of the cruise liner as a sort of metaphor for both constant luxury and being abandoned at sea is well-constructed, and the opening scenes, especially at the beginning, when we get a 7-minute guided look through the ship as passengers board, show the way that they have meticulously created this ship as an important visual component for the viewer.
Arrowsmith is our final nominee, and a better indication of what Art Direction meant to the Academy in the early 1930's than the inventive work of the the other two nominees. This isn't necessarily bad (I like the way that they put some untidiness into the film when the characters are a mess), but it's mostly about "more" than "best" with a series of different locations. Unlike the other two movies, nothing in this is memorable, and it all just sort of blends into the movie. It's not bad, but it's also not distinctive. You could show me pictures of the set here and I could never tell you this was from Arrowsmith, which is simply not the case with the other two films.
Other Precursor Contenders: As we already said, there was no such thing as a precursor in 1931-32, so we don't have other films that were in the conversation. I will say I'm surprised that Grand Hotel wasn't nominated (and I'm guessing it was close) given that it was the Best Picture winner, and the location (i.e. the set) is literally in the title of the film. Generally when the actual location of the film is in the title of a Best Picture winner (An American in Paris, On the Waterfront, Titanic), the film wins this category, much less gets nominated.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I mean, the Frankenstein castle would be up there amongst the most impressive film sets in the history of the movies. Even early on, Oscar clearly had a horror bias that it needed to get past.
Oscar’s Choice: I have no idea if it was a close race, but the giant drawing rooms & seafaring decks of Transatlantic took the prize.
My Choice: History is correct-A Nous la Liberte is something else, and deserved this prize even if the more conventional work on Transatlantic makes a worthy second place (Arrowsmith, take your bronze medal and leave the runway).
Those are my thoughts-how about yours? Are you with Oscar and his love of cruise ships, or would you like to fight the powers-that-be with me & my French brethren? Why do you think A Nous la Liberte was the first subtitled film to get onto Oscar's radar? And how did Grand Hotel miss for a category it feels so well-suited? Share your thoughts below!
Also in 1931-32: Cinematography, Previously in 1931-32
Past Best Art Direction Contests: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
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