All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 Easy Street Ball Turns Into a Dove
There is an extremely haunting quality to writer and director Jane Campion's new film The Power of the Dog. It doesn't come from anything supernatural, and any grisly moments are well within the boundaries of what would have been a reality on any Montana ranch in 1925. The eeriness, instead, comes from the sheer amount of the story that is left up to the viewer's own inference. Based on the 1968 book by Thomas Savage, the cinematic version strips away many details, leaving much of the work to be done by the actors—Jesse Plemons as rancher George Burbank, Kirsten Dunst as his new bride Rose Gordon, Kodi Smit-McPhee as her son Peter Gordon, and Benedict Cumberbatch as George's mysterious brother Phil Burbank, who oscillates between angry and downright sinister throughout the first few acts.
The sets and the lingering of the camera provide important clues about what's really going on between all of the players. Production designer Grant Major built the Burbank ranch from the ground up on location in Campion's native New Zealand, which, thanks to its remoteness, was perhaps more convincing than present-day Montana would have been, complete with open land and impossibly beautiful mountains. "Montana is as rich a character as the lead four principals in this psychodrama of love and loss and revenge and all in an era where so much is in flux," said Cumberbatch of the majestic setting. The work of photojournalist Evelyn Cameron and the Ken Burns documentary series The West served as inspiration.
The inside of the house that brothers George and Phil share stands in dark contrast to the breathtaking landscape. Modeled after Theodore Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill, it is quite masculine, with lots of dark wood on the walls and furniture, and taxidermy mounted above the fireplace. There's a certain emptiness to the house, and, even though it is so large, the men share a room in the beginning. "The parents had left the house and left the two boys in charge of the cattle ranch. And they were living in the same bedroom. I mean, there's sort of an atrophy in their relationship," Major says. "Its almost like there's no future in this sort of day-to-day life."
When George marries Rose and brings her there to live with them, things change a bit. The newlyweds take over another bedroom and George brings a piano into the living room for her to play. But Rose is certainly not empowered to do any redecorating. Phil is still a dominant presence in the home, and he is openly hostile towards her. We see him retreat to the barn more and more, where he has the saddle of his late mentor Bronco Henry on display, shrine-like, and he passes the time braiding rawhide ropes or whittling miniature furniture pieces—which were specially made for the film by Terence Turner. This viewer was struck by the latter hobby as an early sign of a softer side within the mean, jealous cowboy.
Courtesy of Netflix
"There's no lack of vintage cars in New Zealand," Major says. Here, they are parked outside Red Mill, the restaurant where viewers first meet Rose.
"One of [Campion's] real gifts is making invisible emotions visible," producer Tanya Seghatchian said. Major echoes this and explains how the sets contributed. "The inside of the barn to me is the inside of the soul of Phil Burbank. It's got this hard, masculine strength to it, but it's also got these delicate areas." This is fitting symbolism. Without giving away any spoilers, Phil's tough-as-nails exterior does begin to crack by the end of the film, and one intimate scene where another character joins him in the barn—his soul—is perhaps the most telling and pivotal.
Source: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/the-power-of-the-dog-set-design
0 Response to "All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 Easy Street Ball Turns Into a Dove"
Post a Comment