Art Directors: Ken Adam interviewed by James Delson Author(s): Ken Adam and James Delson Source: Film Comment, Vol. 18, No. 1 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1982), pp. 36-42 Published by: Film Society of Lincoln Center Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43452711 Accessed: 19-02-2020 15:28 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Film Society of Lincoln Center is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Film Comment This content downloaded from 86.9.45.239 on Wed, 19 Feb 2020 15:28:17 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms ■ I Klaus Adam. Born in Berlin, Ger- many February 1921. Educated Berlin: Le College Francais. Edinburgh: Craigend Park School. London: St. Pauls School. Studied 1937-39 London University: Bartlett School of Architec- ture, receiving articles with firm of archi- tects and civil engineers: C.W. Glover & Partners. Upon outbreak of Second World War, joined Pioneer Corps, trans- ferred in 1941 to the R.A.F. Trained as pilot in U.S., seconded to U.S.A.F. and returned to U.K. in 1943 as an R.A.F. fighter pilot. Served in England and on Don Giovanni. the Continent in the 609th W.R. Squad- ron until October 1946. ladio, and that imposed a style. My job between Palladio's time and Mozart's, aAfter his demobilization from the was to complete them in the style of this century later? R.A.F. in 1946, Ken Adam obtained his frame. Thus, Don Giovanni's house is I don't think of eras in terms of chro- first job in film, working as a draughts- the "Rotonda." For instance, I always nology or exactitude. Palladio is the man. re- After two years he moved up to added elements - like stairs - to create turn to classicism - a certain dream.The assistant art director. Hollywood was continuous spaces. The scene of the regularity and rigidity of Palladio go verymaking films cheaply in Europe in the Commander was shot in different well with Mozart's musical organization. late Forties and early Fifties, and Adam places, which required that there always One can always interpret - as long found as continuous employment because be links. I used spots of color to recall there is a correspondence between theof his facility in several languages and for this scene. style and the spirit. his superb craftsmanship, especially Besides, much of the set did not exist Which was the hardest set for you where de- ships were concerned. Captain in the original architecture, like signthe in your career? Horatio Hornblower (1951) led to The cemetery and the beginning of hell.To Oh, it's never the big complicated Crimson Pirate ( 1 95 1 ), The Master ofBal- express all these locales, I thought ofsets, a but rather a hotel room - as lantrae in (1953), and Helen of Troy , for glass factory where fire is the main Carné's ele- Drôle de drame - because of its which he designed the Greek war fleet ment. This fire was the symbol of impersonality.Don Into someone's room, I and supervised the draughting depart- Giovanni's entry into the flames.We can bring a kind of description of the ment under art director Edward Carrere. used a transformed glass factory from character, his tastes, his social level. But Upon completion of Helen of Troy, Murano, which was reconstructed. there are so few elements in a hotel Adam stayed on in Italy in 1955 to do So you saw the film's style as traveling room! pre-production budgeting for William Trauner's sketch for the kitchen in How to Steal a Million . and the set. 36 This content downloaded from 86.9.45.239 on Wed, 19 Feb 2020 15:28:17 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Wyler's Ben-Hur (released in 1959). Re- cess to reference material. I knew noth- approach. It was the first time I got men- turning to England, he struggled ing about rockets, so out of desperation I tioned by the critics, and, to my sur- through the next few years, supple- went to Victoria Station and found some prise, I got the first prize for art direction menting his income as a full art director science-fiction magazines. That night, at the Moscow Film Festival that year." by designing London's first coffee bars. while Bill Menzies went through a bot- After Sodom and Gomorrah (1963) Then Mike Frankovich, head of Co- tle of my Scotch, I did a vague charcoal with Robert Aldrich, Adam began work lumbia, U.K., introduced him to Mike sketch of a three-stage rocket, which in his longest and most profitable part- Todd, who was preparing Around The Todd was delighted with." Adam re- nership: the James Bond pictures he World in 80 Days. ceived his first Academy Award nomina- would design for Albert "Cubby" Broc- "Mike Todd was very impressive, tion for his work on the film. coli (and, at first, Harry Saltzman). Since enormously possessive, and incredibly Now he was a full art director, collabo- 1963 he has designed twenty completed frightening," Adam told FILM COM- rating with such directors as John Ford, pictures, including seven Bond films, MENT. "He had a suite in the Dorcester Jacques Tourneur, Jack Cardiff, and Ro- two for Stanley Kubrick (Dr. Stangelove where he conducted his business like a bert Aldrich. In 1959 he took his first and Barry Lyndon )> and five for Herbert king in his throne room, summoning credit as production designer on The Ross, including his latest, Pennies From people to meetings and dispensing or- Rough and the Smooth for Robert Siod- Heaven. ders at all hours and without warning. mak, and has retained the title ever The Bond films represent something One night, William Cameron Menzies since. At this point he abandoned his unique in contemporary film: the pro- [for whom David O. Selznick devised strict architectural training, casting aside gression of one production designer's the term "production designer" to de- his hard pencil for felt-tipped "flo- work in an ongoing series of increasingly scribe his work on Gone With the Wind] master" pen for his sketches. The stage popular films, growing from a tentative came to me, shaking all over. He had was being set for his break into the world talent into a protean artistry. Pennies just come from a press conference Todd of big budgets and creative freedom that from Heaven , like Barry Lyndon and Dr. had called to announce that he [Todd] would make his name synonymous with Strangelove before it, proves that Adam's had thought of the space satellite before imaginative opulence and superb crafts- work cannot be measured exclusively by Eisenhower. The press said, 'All right, manship. "I did a little picture called which mad genius' lair will rise out of Mr. Todd. Now give us documentary The Trials of Oscar Wilde in 1960," Adam structural steel to threaten world peace. proof.' So Todd had turned to Bill Men- recalled, "in which my set budget was Like Menzies and every other great pro- zies and said, 'Get Ken Adam to design £15,000 from an overall cost of duction designer, Adam is a collabora- me a rocket by tomorrow.' It happened £250,000. But because of the budget tive craftsman, facing self-doubt, to be a bank holiday; all the stores and limitations, I was forced to do a lot ofsuper-budgets, creative battles, and the libraries were closed, giving me no ac- stylization, rather more of a theatrical chance of colossal failure - and emerg- Ken Adam on the war room set for Dr. Strangelove. 37 This content downloaded from 86.9.45.239 on Wed, 19 Feb 2020 15:28:17 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms I had a lot of fun on Goldfinger. I was allowed to look at Fort Knox from the outside, though not on the inside. But I knew, more or less, what bank vaults looked like and how gold is stacked be- cause of weight problems, and I didn't want that sort of realism. I felt the audi- ence had to feel they were behind bars and would want to see stacks of gold behind that enormous grill. It was com- pletely unrealistic and impractical, but it paid off - we got a lot of mail from peo- ple all over the world asking how we were allowed to shoot in Fort Knox. How accurate was the laser? Bond's climb to the Penthouse sketch. Pretty accurate for that period. When the time came to create the laser unit, I ing remarkably unscathed as he enters when it worked it became more impor- rang up the two technical advisors I'd his 36th year in the film business. tant from film to film. used on Dr. No, and they okayed what I • Did you use existing reactor plans for was doing. We couldn't use it for real, so You've designed seven of Cubby your Broc- nuclear control room? the actual laser beam had to be added coli 's twelve James Bond pictures: That Dr.