Text by Christopher Cole
Production designer Cornelia Ott
has created a modern world devoid of privacy in “Passion,” director Brian De
Palma’s remake of the French film, “Love Crime.” The sly thriller, released in
2012, stars Noomi Rapace as a Creative Director at a Berlin ad agency who
worships her beautiful and assertive boss (Rachel McAdams). When McAdams’
character Christine steals credit for an innovative smart phone ad that
Rapace’s character Isabelle created, an intricate game of dominance and
submission occurs leading to violence. Cornelia Ott designs sets that reflect a
tech-savvy world where privacy is sacrificed to satisfy voyeuristic pleasures;
the irony is that the more access we have to information, the less access we
have to the truth.
Christine’s house is a clean space
full of white walls, columns, glass tables and chairs that evoke the minimalist look of
Apple stores: glass and open space; a large champagne-colored French sofa
anchors the room. The erotic paintings on the walls of Sapphic Grecian women and
the carved wood picture of a horse and its master reinforce the film’s theme of
dominance vs. submission. The basket of wood (for the mantel-less fireplace) and the
trees give the room a rustic element.
Isabelle’s apartment is a small
space, yet its minimalist look makes it look larger. The dominant color is
white reminiscent of vanilla ice cream, but the color orange plays a memorable
supporting role adding warmth to the space: the fruit bowl of orange/white
swirl pattern full of apples that rests atop a blond wood table in Isabelle's kitchen. The hallway
carpet outside Isabelle’s apartment is a similar orange that continues down a
spiraling staircase evoking the cinematic language of Alfred Hitchcock.
Inside the foyer of Dirk’s house
(visible from the street through a glass door), three African masks and a spear
hang on the wall, and when you see Dirk’s brick-walled bedroom, it’s clear that
the masks and spear symbolize masculinity. The bedroom is a little shop of humiliation:
in the open bathroom, a ceramic sculpture of a penis sits on the top of the
medicine cabinet and a life-size statue of a dog painted white looks up
dependent and submissive.
The workspaces are understandably
less warm than the living spaces. The glass desk is a feature of both Isabelle and
Christine’s offices, as are advertising posters, but Christine’s office again
contains small rustic details: Japanese bonsai trees and snake plants. Like
Christine’s house, her office filled with white furniture and white walls.
Christine’s penchant for rustic
reaches a high point in her bathroom: large tree branches hanging from the
ceilings create the atmosphere of a forest, anchored by a white bathtub. The
light, clean surfaces start to get dark and messy, as the plot thickens.
The rehearsal for a fashion show
that Christine takes Isabelle to is a lesson in symbolism. A screen projection
of a moving jellyfish on a ocean-blue backdrop represents duality: a jellyfish
is a predator with tentacles, but it 's also a weak, spineless person. The
catwalk is transparent as is the floor of lit squares; the chairs are glass and
bring to mind the feel of Cinderella’s glass slipper.
The cocktail party at the Bode
Museum is pure decadence: walls gilded in gold with marble columns and
scrollwork; a sweeping staircase with a gold gilded railing. The calla lilies in
vases are calm and elegant. Statues of nude Grecian women display watches in slots on their chests and stomach: the union of sex and
consumerism. It’s a luxurious space that is old-fashioned and baroque, a
departure from the film’s mostly simple, modern spaces.
All of the spaces share an
openness, spaces where there’s nowhere to hide, reflecting the film’s theme of
society’s loss of privacy.
