Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction - Hardcover

"[Designs on Film] traces the art of building pretend worlds. Starting back in the pre-talkie years, and moving through Hollywood's golden age and the epic-crazy '60s, right up to contemporary Hollywood, the book is packed with insider tidbits about the wildly inventive-and improvisational-business of movie-making." -- Wall Street Journal "Whitlock makes a major contribution to movie literature by saluting undersung production designers, set decorators and art directors." -- Los Angeles Times "An amazing glimpse into art direction." -- The New Yorker "This lush book of pictures and drawings showcases big-screen glamour over the decades, from the opulence of Cleopatra to the more modern majesty of Batman. -- Entertainment Weekly "A compendium of images celebrating iconic interiors and architecture...[Whitlock] sifted through decades of archival photographs to assemble this rare glimpse into the world of Hollywood art direction and set design. " -- Dwell

Who can forget the over-the-top, white-on-white, high gloss interiors through which Fred Astaire danced in Top Hat? The stark modernist high-rise architecture, inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, in the adaptation of Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead"? The lavish, opulent drawing rooms of Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence"? Through the use of interior design - called production design in the film industry - movies can transport us to new worlds of luxury, highlight the ornament of the everyday, offer a vision of the future, or evoke the realities of a distant era. In "Designs on Film", journalist and interior designer Cathy Whitlock illuminates the role of art direction and production design in the creation of the most memorable moments in film history. Through a lush collection of rare archival photographs, Whitlock narrates the evolving story of art direction - from the massive Roman architecture of "Ben Hur", to the infamous Dakota apartment in "Rosemary's Baby", to the digital CGI enhanced city of Gotham in "Batman Begins". With behind-the-scenes stories of how sets are imagined, drawn, built, and decorated, and features on the most notable designers, "Designs on Film" is a must have for film lovers and movie buffs - or anyone who wants to lift the curtain on movie magic to better understand how art direction and set design allow us to truly loose ourselves in the diverse worlds showcased on the big screen.