Customer Reviews

Caligari's cabinet and other grand illusions: A history of film design

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Caligari's Cabinet and Other Grand Illusions was a wonderful reference towards production design, both in terms of theory and practice. I will admit though, that I did have some initial criticisms over the book.

First off, I was obviously impressed by the author's research and knowledge, but there were parts that I wished had been expanded. Barsacq's section on `Period' films not only could have used more examples, but I wish that he had better articulated the importance of period films, or the metaphors that period films communicate, rather than a basic overview of them, as he presented it. I was also disappointed with Barsacq's rather elitist attitude towards American films, as he rarely seemed to compliment any design in American films. I thought it was a mistake to end such a book by speaking of his disappointment in the latest American blockbuster films, like Earthquake and The Towering Inferno, instead of choosing to end the book by celebrating his favorite new developments in design, instead.

Lastly, I am confused a bit by Barsacq's opinion upon the role of the production designer. Throughout the book, Barsacq heavily compliments directors who served as their own designers, within a capacity that seemed to dictate their vision to others, rather than to colloborate with a group. Books like Screen Deco and Designing Dreams seemed to celebrate the idea of working within teams of creative people, whereas Barsacq seems to promote the idea of individualism behind production design.

However, what worked in this book was Barsacq's terrific outlining of the role of a production designer, and how he/she is to work in concert with a producer and director. I appreciate that, in addition to the pictures of various film sets, Barsacq also showed off pictures of architectural layouts in chapter 9. Such layouts reminded me of the projects we have taken on in our own production design class - ultimately, production design involves a ton of hard work, as no set can be created until it is completely outlined through all forms of layout, and Barsacq captured that fact extremely well, both through illustration and his words that described the production design process.

The book is concluded by a section on set construction, as well as a chapter on special effects. Both sections were insightful because they explained the role of the designer, in contrast to the director and producer, when all parties are collaborating upon a set.

Although, I would refer back to one of my above criticisms here - Barsacq goes at length to explain the designer to director relationship, yet in so many of his reviews film reviews, it often seemed that his favorite films were designed by people who served both as director and designer, upon the same set. Therefore, I wish that Barsacq had better articulated an opinion towards what he prefers, or what seems to make a better movie - movies that are driven by visionary directors who set the course of creativity, or collaborators who rely upon others for their best ideas.

Overall though, this book combines both a great analysis of production design, in addition to a wonderful description of the design process, in itself. I plan to reference this book, quite often, in the future.