westsidestory

When Production Design Plays a Supporting Role
The visual environments of “West Side Story,” “The Humans” and “Nightmare Alley” feel as alive as the actors.

By Mekado Murphy

We’ve all seen films with production design that is so dynamic that the setting or look is often considered an additional character. That may bring to mind the heightened or outsize realities in the work of stylist auteurs like Tim Burton and Wes Anderson. But a handful of likely Oscar contenders have built intriguing design worlds by burrowing into working-class realities, particularly the blue-collar struggles of building and sustaining a life in an ever-changing America.

Those struggles can be seen in water-stained walls, amid the brick piles of a bulldozed neighborhood or on the tattered carnival tents of “The Humans,” “West Side Story” and “Nightmare Alley.” Below, we spoke to the production designers of those movies about how they created such solemn, living backdrops.
( Read more... )