Architecture for the Screen: A Critical Study of Set Design in Hollywood's Golden Age

Most of us have never found ourselves trapped inside a burning skyscraper or entombed within an Egyptian pyramid--but we probably have some idea of what it would be like because of their portrayal on screen. The movies have overcome the constraints of time and place by bringing us images of diverse and otherwise unfamiliar settings. This work covers the many applications of art and architecture appearing in the movies produced in Hollywood from the very beginning until the fifties. The first chapters deal with the process of design, construction, physical characteristics and immediate functions of a wide variety of architectural sets. The remaining chapters examine the great number of styles shown in those movies and take the reader up to the final triumph of modernist architecture in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents Foreword: Architecture in the Movies and Elsewhere in History ( John F. Moffitt)      Preface to the English Edition: Ten Lessons About Architecture in the Movies      Preface to the First Edition (1986)      1. General Introduction Film Architecture and the Crisis of Modernism      From Shooting on Location to Filming in the Studios      The Architecture of Movie Theaters and Architecture in the Movies      Film Architecture vs. Ordinary Architecture      2. Set Design The First Advances in Art Direction      Architect vs. Director: Joseph Urban      The “Illustrators”: Anton Grot and William Cameron Menzies      Stage Designers and Painters: Wilfred Buckland and Ben Carré      Supervising Architects: Hans Dreier, Van Nest Polglase, and Cedric Gibbons      Other Art Directors      The Design Process      Background Research      Additional Aspects of Design      The Imaginary Client and the Viewing Customer: Scale Models      Working Conditions and the Studio Styles      3. Set Construction Techniques, Materials, and Architectural Machinery      Tricks of the Trade      The Impact of Sound      4. From Furniture to Artificial Landscapes Set Dressing and the Accessories Departments      Wardrobes vs. Sets      The Construction of Landscapes      Artificial Oceans and Creative Ship-Building      Heavenly Effects      5. Architecture and Desire: The Character of Film Constructions Six Distinctive Qualities      Color and Lighting      A Driving Functionalism      6. The Death and Resurrection of Sets Methods of Destruction: Fire, Burial, Abandonment      The Ruins of Hollywood      Architectural Metempsychosis: The Permanent Sets      Some Statistics      7. Architectural Styles from Antiquity Mesopotamia and Palestine      Egypt      Greco-Roman Architecture      8. From Medieval to Renaissance Architectural Styles Castles and Palaces      The Gothic of Terror      Church, Cloister, Street…      Examples from the Renaissance      9. The Provinces of Exoticism From Legendary Arabia to Contemporary Legend: Moorish Spain      An Archetypal Spain      India      Pan-Slavic Architecture and/or the Jungle      The Far East      Pre-Columbian America      10. From Colonial Baroque to Contemporary Eclecticism The “Spanish Style” and the Bourgeois Baroque      Did a Cinematic Neo-Classicism Exist?      “American” Architecture, Frontier to Urban      Other (Old World) Countries      11. Modern Architecture Conquers Hollywood The First Moderns: Urban, Rambova, et al.      Art Deco and Zigzag Geometrization      The Ocean Liner and “Streamline Moderne”      The International Style      Rationalist-Surrealist Architecture in Musicals      12. Epilogue Some Omnipresent Elements: Staircases, Bathrooms, Bedrooms      Partial Conclusions      Notes      Bibliography      Index     

About the Author :
Juan Antonio Ramírez, professor of art history at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain, is the author of several books on architectural history, modern art, and visual culture. The late John F. Moffitt authored, edited or translated numerous books about art history. He was an art history professor at New Mexico State University.

Review :
“fascinating...highly recommended”—Choice; “fascinating review of Hollywood set design”—C&RL News.