CARPET IN FILM
Its Award season, so lets talk film. Bare with me, you are still in the right place.
What if the world of your favourite film looked completely different? Would the story have the same impact? In the realm of film production design, every choice is an opportunity to weave another thread and add texture and form to the fabric of the story.
The art of a production designer is to use textures, colour theory, location, and objects to create a visual environment in which a film can seem authentic and believable to its audience. The eye of the production designer can easily be overlooked but it is there in the costumes and visual FX and of course, set design. Similar to the meticulous curation of scenes by production designers, we too craft our living spaces with intention. Our homes, and the way we choose to design them, exert a profound influence on both our visitors and ourselves. Just as a well-set scene enhances the performance of actors, our carefully styled living spaces contribute to the quality of our daily lives.
Interiors play a leading role in establishing an ideal visual setting and can often frame a scene with such dramatic affect that it is imprinted forever in the viewers subconscious. You might remember the wallpaper in Billy Elliot or some art from A Clockwork Orange, wall colours, furniture, ceiling details, windows, doors, the list goes on. However, when your expertise lies in carpet, it tends to be the element that catches your attention the most – at least, that's how it is for me, and I ask myself, what the production designer is telling me. Perhaps a colour can denote a change in narrative or mood. Stark monochrome or indulgent decadence can reveal opposing themes, morally and aesthetically. Period design helps set a time frame and pattern can heighten and reflect a story’s tension or drama. I reckon if I asked you to think of the most memorable carpet in film, if you’ve seen it – and perhaps even if you haven’t – youll tell me it’s the one from The Shining. You would recognise it straight away - that bold and large-scale geometric in contrasting and unsettling colours that screams midcentury modern design.
Now I feel I need to jump in here on a brief point regarding design origins, in the interests of giving credit where credit is due. In doing my research there appears to be 2 conflicting points of view regarding who the original designer is, but here is what I know. I have always believed that David Hicks, the hugely influential interior designer was the man behind the iconic carpet, but then there are others who attribute the design to Stanley Kubrick and his production designer Roy Walker. A chicken and egg situation. However I think both can be true. David Hicks definitely designed a small scale hexagonal design known as the Hicks’ Hexagon but I believe Kubrick and Walker perhaps scaled it up and coloured it to suit their vision, and, if I dug a little deeper, I could probably find some ancient artifact from Egypt with the same shapes etched into it. Anyway, just my theory, and Im digressing. The point is, that design, with its maze-like structure (no good ever came out of a maze) and served with a blood red centre, was almost a lead character in The Shining and will always send chills down my spine just as it was intended and that is pure production design genius. If you want to read more about the theories and symbolism regarding the Overlook Pattern/ Hicks Hexagon, follow the link.
Not all carpets or rugs that appear in films are as direct as that in The Shining, some are more nuanced, performing more of a cameo role, or supporting feature belonging to a bigger overall aesthetic. Just as we may use rugs in our homes to zone, compliment, create mood or sound proof, so too do many brilliant production designers work carpet into their sets to better help realise the director’s vision.
If you are stuck scratching your head for some other films with eye catching carpet then you need look no further than Wes Anderson, a master at presenting his characters without having to say too much, instead through styling and colour of both their clothing and interiors. Adam Stockhausen is one of a few production designers that Anderson has worked with and it is their pairing that I am particularly drawn to.
1 -The French Dispatch – featuring authentic furniture from the region, that rug adds to the palette Anderson was after
2 – The Grand Budapest Hotel – fun art nouveau hungarian, old aristocracy – sumptious red regal gothic to drab 60s brutalist
3 – moonrise kingdom – large circular plant fibre woven rug, practical and hardwearing
4 – The Shining – but this time room 237
5 – the great Gatsby – oozes art deco style and sophistication
