Architecture, put simply, is the design of our external environment. Whether in one of the worlds’ biggest cities or its smallest towns, the architecture of the places we live, work and play becomes the background setting for life’s varied experiences. An architect’s role is to manipulate these settings, using creativity and an extensive knowledge base to create different tectonic and spatial qualities: setting the tone for our personal life stories. In film production, the role of the architect becomes the responsibility of the set designer, and our personal stories are replaced with collective societal narratives.
Just as architecture employs built form to establish tone and represent notions of identity and place, set design utilizes the environment in which a story unfolds as a medium with which to convey mood and interpret the meaning within a particular narrative. Juhani Pallasmaa articulates his thoughts on the function of set design in his text, The Architecture of Image:
Cinematic architecture evokes and sustains specific mental states; the architecture of film is architecture of terror, anguish, suspense, boredom, alienation, melancholy, happiness or ecstasy, depending on the essence of the particular cinematic narrative and the director’s intention. Space and architectural imagery are the amplifiers of specific emotions.1 In earlier forms of storytelling, figures on cave walls, masks, and illustrations in novels were used to accomplish the same purpose: inciting in onlookers a common vision of a given narrative while amplifying its intended effect. Theatrical production, the closest relation in storytelling technology to the motion picture, eventually combined the techniques of illustration (backdrop), costume, props, and lighting to firmly establish the visual setting for their stories and thus create the field of set design. The advent of film not only continued the tradition of combining these elements in order in to create the atmosphere for their narratives, but brought with it an unprecedented freedom of expression; visual storytelling was no longer limited to the stage. Now, elaborate, numerous and massive sets can be constructed without worry of how to move them come scene change. Entire cities and their existing architecture serve as set pieces and backdrops. Animated films construct entirely new realities and bring worlds into life that can defy the laws of physics. The only limitation is our own imaginations.
This website seeks to explore the ways some filmmakers have made use of sets in their motion pictures to enhance and augment the stories being told. These films include: Kubrick’s The Shining, Tarkovsky’s Solaris, Natali’s Cube, Vertov’s The Man with the Movie Camera, Wenders’ Lisbon Story, the collaborative film Paris, Je T’aime, Kon’s Paprika, Waters’ The Wall, and Volkman’s Renaissance. The motion pictures have been split into three categories: set as character, city as set, and animated sets.
1 Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema.Helsinki: Rakennustieto Publishing, 2007. p. 7.