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[Melodie]

Dante Ferretti
Vital Stats:
Birth Name:
Born: February 26, 1943
Birth Place: Macerata, Italy
Nationality: Italian

Biography
A noted art director who became established in the Italian film industry before branching out into European co-productions and eventually landing in Hollywood, Dante Ferretti designed four films for Pier Paolo Pasolini ("The Decameron" 1971; "The Canterbury Tales" 1972; "The Arabian Nights" 1974; and "Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom" 1975) and five for Federico Fellini ("Orchestra Rehearsal" 1978; "City of Women" 1980; "And the Ship Sails On" 1983; "Ginger and Fred" 1986; and "The Voice of the Moon" 1990). Ferretti moved effortlessly from the down and dirty realism of the former to the dreamy artifice of the latter. He also worked with other major names in Italian filmmaking including Elio Petri, Marco Bellocchio, Liliana Cavani and Luigi Comencini. Ferretti's later international credits include Jean-Jacques Annaud's 13th-century mystery "The Name of the Rose" (1986), Terry Gilliam's fantasy extravaganza "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1989), and Franco Zeffirelli's "Hamlet" (1990), the latter two earning him back-to-back Best Art Direction Oscar nominations.

"He comes from a tradition that combines a lavish imagination with attention to period detail," remarked director Martin Scorsese in The New York Times (November 27, 1994), "and those details can comment on the theme of the film". Ferretti did just that in his American debut, Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence" (1993), in which Daniel Day-Lewis' character is as overwhelmed by the oppressively opulent decor as by the propriety of his social circle. To achieve a stylized look of overripe elegance and baroque clutter for Neil Jordan's "Interview With the Vampire" (1994), Ferretti built sixty-five sets, thirty-four of them on the stages of Pinewood Studios, England, recreating six different periods from 1791 to the present as a backdrop for the film's toothsome shenanigans. Again, the two pictures earned him back-to-back Oscar nominations. After creating the harsh and garish look of Las Vegas in the 70s for Scorsese's "Casino" (1995), he reunited with the director to provide the authentic sets and costumes for "Kundun" (1997), the biography of the Dalai Lama. Ferretti's use of gold, saffron and maroon brought the story to vivid life, and he received Oscar nominations for both Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.

From the low-budget constraints of the Moroccan-based "Kundun", Ferretti segued to the overblown production values of Martin Brest's "Meet Joe Black" (1998), for which he was again in top form expressing the elegant, luxurious world of its wealthy characters. Unfortunately, its story of Death assuming human form (in the handsome guise of Brad Pitt) was just too contrived and wispy to support heavy emotional investment. Scorsese's EMT drama "Bringing out the Dead" (1999) kept him in NYC concentrating first on Hell's Kitchen exteriors before moving into a raw space in Bellevue Hospital to create the fictional Mercy Hospital's ER. Brooklyn's Bedford Armory also served as a soundstage for several key scenes, most notably the garish pink interior of "the Oasis", the apartment of a drug dealer. Ferretti collaborated that year with another design visionary, Julie Taymor, on her directorial debut, "Titus". Mixing disparate elements (i.e., ancient and modern locations in Rome, Art Deco settings, technology from the 30s and the future), they freed the film to exist outside of time in a world where motorcycles raced side-by-side with chariots. He then accepted Scorsese's challenge to recreate the mid-1800s Gotham of Boss Tweed for the director's "Gangs of New York" (2002).

http://www.hollywood.com/celebs/bio/celeb/1674620

[From a review of the movie, COLD MOUNTAIN - "Perhaps most telling, [director] Minghella decided against filming in the book's actual setting, concluding that North Carolina simply wasn't photogenic enough. Instead, he took his production halfway around the world to Romania, where legendary production designer Dante Ferretti built the movie's luminous little town from scratch.

http://u.redlandsdailyfacts.com/Stories/0,1413,217~24244~1864952,00.html

[Sally]

I went to see Cold Mountain last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a nice love story without being too mushy (although a woman behind me sobbed all the way through), a compelling statement on the futility and degradation of war and the scenery was soooo beautiful. It's a little known fact, though, that I played Nicole Kidman's bottom double for the love scenes! :shock: :o :P
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"Where are we REALLY going? Always home."

[pauline]

Hi Sally, I guess we will all have to go and see "Cold Mountain" now, we may never know your face but we will surely know your bottom :oops:
Ciao Pauline. :roll: :P :wink:
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pauline stracey