{"id":641340,"date":"2023-04-25T10:05:57","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T15:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/25\/beau-is-afraid-production-designer-fiona-crombie-doesnt-really-know-whats-in-the-attic-either\/"},"modified":"2023-04-25T10:05:57","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T15:05:57","slug":"beau-is-afraid-production-designer-fiona-crombie-doesnt-really-know-whats-in-the-attic-either","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/25\/beau-is-afraid-production-designer-fiona-crombie-doesnt-really-know-whats-in-the-attic-either\/","title":{"rendered":"Beau Is Afraid production designer Fiona Crombie doesn\u2019t really know what\u2019s in the attic, either"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The plot of A24\u2019s Beau Is Afraid<\/em><\/a> <\/em>is a rather straightforward one. But unlike some of director Ari Aster\u2019s other films, Beau Is Afraid <\/em>leaves many of the questions it poses very unanswered and made all the more perplexing by the way the story comes to a close. Even now, production designer Fiona Crombie doesn\u2019t entirely know what all was going through Aster\u2019s head when the ideas that inspired Beau Is Afraid <\/em>first came to him. But from the moment she first sat down to read the movie\u2019s script, she knew that whatever the film was going to end up being, she wanted to be a part of it.<\/p>\n

As a film that often feels something like a twisted and disturbing dream about a man who\u2019s deeply unwell, there are a variety of different ways to interpret Beau Is Afraid <\/em>and its depiction of a man struggling with the twin monsters of anxiety and an overbearing mother. At times, the film plays like an experimental, artful thriller about a man traveling through a war-torn world, while other scenes unfold like moments from a quiet drama, and you can never be quite sure which tone it\u2019s going to strike next.<\/p>\n

When we spoke with Crombie recently ahead of Beau Is Afraid<\/em>\u2019s wide release, she said that unpredictable quality was a big part of what drew her to the project. More than that, though, she also thinks not exactly knowing what\u2019s going to happen next in Beau Is Afraid <\/em>is a key part of experiencing the movie the way it should be.<\/p>\n

This post includes major spoilers for <\/em>Beau Is Afraid, so proceed with caution if you\u2019ve not yet seen it.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"Joaquin<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Joaquin Phoenix and Ari Aster.<\/em><\/figcaption>

Image: A24<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Early reactions to the film have been so polarized, and I\u2019m very curious to hear from you. As a filmgoer, how would you describe Beau Is Afraid<\/em>, and then how would you describe it from a production design perspective?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fiona Crombie<\/strong>: I always thought it would be polarizing. Always. I knew it on the page. The thing that I love about the film is that it\u2019s like nothing I\u2019d ever seen, it\u2019s like nothing I had ever read, and it\u2019s playing with form, you know? It\u2019s trying something intimate that I hadn\u2019t ever come across, which is why I wanted to be part of it. I want to work with people who are prepared to go out there and try something risky, and that\u2019s very much what Ari did. From a production design point of view, it was a gift because it\u2019s these very distinct episodes. Chapters with an episodic quality to them. So, I could present very complete worlds, and then you walk away; you leave them. I really relished doing that, like really building those worlds and then moving on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Describing it … I mean, I think it\u2019s really funny. To be really honest, I\u2019ve only seen a rough cut on my laptop, so I have yet to have the full experience, and I doubt that I\u2019ll ever have the full experience because, once you\u2019ve been inside it, there\u2019s no reveal. So I\u2019ll never be able to read or receive it the way that somebody that goes in not knowing [can].\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting to hear you describe the film\u2019s scenes as \u201cepisodic\u201d because that\u2019s exactly it \u2014 it feels like we\u2019re seeing chapters from Beau\u2019s life, but it all fits together so seamlessly. What were some of the larger feelings you wanted to define specific scenes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FC<\/strong>: Generally, I wanted to create a sense of place, for sure. Like, you should know where you are \u2014 not necessarily in a naturalistic way, or hopefully you\u2019re not going \u201coh, I\u2019ve been to a place just like that\u201d when we\u2019re looking at Beau\u2019s block. But I wanted people to have a real sense about where he is placed at any given moment, and obviously, there is real unease throughout the film. I think there\u2019s unease in the therapist\u2019s office, even with all of the kind of zen set dressing we did. I think what we kind of ended up doing was we sort of looked to push everything a percentage so that just starts to inch out of feeling naturalistic \u2014 it\u2019s very heightened.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Was there a specific moment where you wanted the off-ness of things to kick in?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FC<\/strong>: I don\u2019t know at what point in the film you clock that something\u2019s off. I came to the script completely cold, and I didn\u2019t know what I was getting. But I remember it was only when I got through the therapist bit and was getting into some of the apartment stuff where I went, \u201cOh, okay. This isn\u2019t your everyday movie.\u201d That put me to thinking maybe, with this film, when you\u2019re watching this unfold, it should be the same kind of feeling. You go through this therapist scene, and you\u2019re like, \u201cWell this is a bit\u2026 unusual,\u201d and then you get onto the street and you\u2019re like, \u201cOooh<\/em>. Now<\/em> I see.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Image: A24<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

There\u2019s this distinct vibrance and tidiness to the film\u2019s scenes set in Beau\u2019s past that contrast so sharply with the muteness and chaos of the present, especially on his block before he really sort of sets out on his adventure. What aspects of Beau\u2019s mental states were you trying to convey through the production design? Obviously, we get the sense that the movie is presenting us with this reality that\u2019s not necessarily grounded for us. But for Bo, it\u2019s all so real, right? Nothing exactly seems out of the ordinary for him. It\u2019s all just sort of something that he\u2019s very connected to.<\/strong><\/p>\n

FC<\/strong>: So, this is me speaking to my interpretation and not necessarily Ari\u2019s thinking. That scene, in my mind, speaks to how Mona\u2019s made everything around Beau as psychologically unbearable as possible so that he feels like he has to go home. His block\u2019s just the worst place. It\u2019s relentlessly aggressive like with the people on the street or, visually, with things he reads on the walls. It\u2019s just relentlessly aggressive, and he\u2019ll get to a point where he will go, \u201cI just can\u2019t cope. I\u2019ll just go home.\u201d That was what I was going for \u2014 how would you, as this very demented mother, force your child to come back to you?\u00a0<\/p>\n

What about the movie\u2019s scenes in the past? It\u2019s all so dreamlike, and there\u2019s this glowy quality to it that almost makes it seem fantastical in a way that\u2019s distinct from the present. Everything feels kind of like it\u2019s in its place and where it should be. But it\u2019s also obvious that Beau and Mona aren\u2019t in the healthiest kind of mental space on this cruise ship decked out with all of these bright oranges and yellows, with everyone around them leading these seemingly happy lives. What sort of ideas were you trying to convey about the world around Beau and Mona in the past?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FC<\/strong>: The way that we shot that, actually, was on a virtual production, so it immediately has this artificiality to it. It\u2019s almost kind of like a cartoon, and at one point, I was just like, \u201cHow is this going to work for us?\u201d But eventually, we realized that no, this is actually very good for us because it\u2019s a very distinct look that separates itself from the rest of the film, and it becomes this capsule memory space for Beau that is really vivid. In a way, these memories on that cruise ship are from one of the best times from his childhood. He had autonomy, he discovered Elaine, and very briefly, he had a singular experience for himself, and then obviously it all shifts.<\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

I was really blown away by the imaginativeness of the stage play and the words that Beau stumbles upon and becomes a part of. I wasn\u2019t expecting to see experimental theater come to life. What all went into making that sequence come together the way that it did?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

FC<\/strong>: One of the things about Ari, I think he secretly loves theater. He really wanted it to be practical and real, and so that was an actual \u2014 like we built the theater. It was all practical effects. The turning trees? I had model made them, actually, before I even went to Canada, and then I came up with this idea of how they would all turn to change the seasons and then little leaves or snowflakes would fall. All of that happened, and we had a team of eight theater technicians who came and rehearsed in that forest, so the whole thing was all done live in that location. I\u2019ve got a video on my phone somewhere of us rehearsing the whole thing. We could have cheated like a million different times and in different ways. There\u2019s so many ways you could have cut it to make things easier, but we didn\u2019t because it was like a little theater show, and we loved that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know that there\u2019s a right way to say this, but we have to talk about the penis monster in the attic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

FC<\/strong>: [laughing] Oh, yeah.<\/p>\n

Again, there\u2019s going to be a lot of debate about what certain things in the movie are and what they mean, so I\u2019m curious to hear from you \u2014 to your mind, what is the thing in the attic in both a literal and metaphorical sense?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FC<\/strong>: Gosh, I don\u2019t even know. I guess it\u2019s his greatest fear. I mean, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s his father, or at least I don\u2019t think it\u2019s only his father, if that makes sense. But it\u2019s like the thing that he\u2019s been made to be afraid of his entire life…. yeah, I guess that\u2019s what it is. You probably know that Ari drew the monster years ago, and he\u2019s had that drawing this whole time. I went along for this ride, and it was a long ride for me. I just went, \u201cOkay, cool. That\u2019s what you want? Let\u2019s go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Charles Pulliam-Moore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The plot of A24\u2019s Beau Is Afraid is a rather straightforward one. But unlike some of director Ari Aster\u2019s other films, Beau Is Afraid leaves many of the questions it poses very unanswered and made all the more perplexing by the way the story comes to a close. Even now, production designer Fiona Crombie doesn\u2019t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":641341,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36977,22874,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-641340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afraid","8":"category-production","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}