The stark world of a dungeon-like prison, where torture of political prisoners is commonplace, is juxtaposed with a gay inmate’s spectacular technicolor reminisces and fantasies about his favorite Hollywood movie and its star, a glamorous diva of the silver screen...
Set Decorator Andrew Baseman SDSA, Production Designer Scott Chambliss and their teams bring us the two intertwined worlds of KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, as reimagined by Director Bill Condon. Stunning!
David Smith SDSA, for SETDECOR, discusses elements of the film and filmmaking process with Set Decorator Andrew Baseman SDSA.
We know you will enjoy!
Karen Burg, Editor
Argentine prison filled with political prisoners and others who have been arbitrarily imprisoned. Tonatiuh as Molina, Diego Luna as Valentin. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
SETDECOR/David Smith SDSA: I spoke with Scott briefly at an event at the Motion Picture Academy. From what I understand, the movie was actually done very quickly, that you did most of the musical numbers in New York and then the Prison set in Uruguay. Is that correct?
Set Decorator Andrew Baseman SDSA: Scott was incredible to work with, I’m glad you got to speak with him. We actually shot quite a bit in Uruguay, not only the Prison. We also did Molina’s Aunt's Apartment, where he has the argument with his mother, as well as the Warden's Office, Molina's Apartment and the Hospital Corridor. And there were many more scenes shot there that were cut.
The Prison itself was sort of a ruin. It was an old prison in Uruguay that had fallen into disrepair that we helped renovate, so we could shoot it as a nefarious Argentine prison. There was an existing wooden bench in the prison yard, but that was all. I brought in mismatched metal pieces, we had rocks and debris...and there were stacks of cinder blocks that they were “making”, as if that were one of the slave labor activities they had to do.
We also had the Prison Cell as a built set. The wooden-beaded curtain is a call back to the crystal-beaded curtain that appears in one of the big dance numbers, ‘Gimme Love’, and in Molina’s apartment. It was scripted to be crystal as well, but the wooden one was more appropriate for the cell, and the actor made good use of it. You would hear the clunk of the beads as the curtain was opened and closed. It was quite effective.
Argentine prison, Molina’s and Valentin’s cell. Molina’s beaded curtain is a wooden replica of the beautiful crystal one in his apartment. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
SD/DS: I love the beads. I also love the cloth curtain hung to hide the toilet, that it had two or three rings on one side and then the other was held up with clothespins.
AB: Well, we didn't really plan that. It was just that once we got to Uruguay, we could look at, “What would he have?” It would just be wire and clothespins. The fabric was folded over the wire. It wasn't like it was hemmed for a rod, it was very makeshift. Before Molina moves into the cell, it was all gray and no color. There was no curtain to hide the toilet. He brings these things...the color, the texture, the floral prints.
Those curtains are actually faded bed sheets that we found at local thrift shops. It was really important to have local pieces. I said to my crew, “I really depend on you. I don't want to do anything that's inauthentic. So please let me know...” The story takes place in Argentina in the 1980s, and there are some differences between the cultures of the two countries, so it was important to define correctly. Some of those details had to be more specific, like when he comes in with the bags of groceries or things that his mother brought, those bags are all specific to places in Buenos Aires, rather than Uruguay.
I had a fantastic team, one of the best teams I've worked with anywhere in the world. They were working on it for maybe six weeks before we got there. So, it all turned out very well for me, because the team in place did a great job in starting to find things. There are no prop houses down there and only a couple of antique shops, but they were able to scrounge around and find what we needed. When I arrived, they showed me all the options, and then I got to go out with them. And I can't say enough good things about them. I was very fortunate.
SD/DS: So, shooting the major numbers first...it was like doing a Hollywood musical and then doing a very somber story of an incarceration.
AB: Yes, it was like a movie with a split personality, and the Hollywood numbers were as lavish as we could afford. This was a low budget movie, and we did not have a lot of time. So the musical numbers...except for one...were each shot in one day, whereas other musicals will spend two weeks doing a musical number. Bill is an incredible director/writer. He knows how to get what he wants, and how to shoot it in the allotted time. It really worked out.
SD/DS: So, if the musical numbers were each done in one day, for the most part--and they're all huge--did you have several stages? Did you build one and then move to another stage?
AB: Yes, we shot in "beautiful" Kearny, New Jersey, next to a prison on the edge of a waterway where bodies have been dumped, I'm sure.
There's so much work in New Jersey now that “stages” are popping up that are actually warehouses, they're not really stages. So, we were in a large warehouse that held our offices and four sets crammed into that one space! And then, as we shot one of the sets, we would tear it down, and in a few days, put up another set. So we continuously had four there.
The Village set was an entire stage elsewhere, and on the other end of the stage was the Jungle with the Spider Woman's lair. Unfortunately, you don't see a lot of the village, which had nooks and shops, a village square...
And then there was a third stage where we shot the Hospital room, the scene where the Spider Woman appears in his delusion...and we also created a large Photo darkroom set, much larger than any normal darkroom, for a dance sequence there.
SD/DS: Let's go through set by set...
The first that we see is the 1940s diva arriving at her glamorous bedroom suite, and it's such an incredible musical number.
Aurora's Bedroom...
Aurora’s Bedroom Suite. Jennifer Lopez as the actress Luna playing the role of Aurora in the movie-within-a-movie within the film! Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
AB: Yes, it’s Aurora's Bedroom. That's the opening number of the movie-within-the movie...1940s style and Technicolor...remember, this is his memories of the movies, so they have that heightened aspect, like the tufted blue wall.
SD/DS: Obviously, you’re buying a ton of fabric and doing a lot of fabrication for this movie. So did you have somebody working specifically to source and buy fabric?
AB: I had two assistants and two buyers. I have a lot of sample books in my personal collection, and I have some good resources here in the NY area, some of our SDSA business members. So, I was able to find the fabric pretty quickly.
Aurora’s Bedroom Suite. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
SD/DS: Which came first, the wall color or the fabric?
AB: Wall color. Bill and Scott worked very closely choosing the colors. And there’s no question, it is shocking to go from the prison cell to this. The first thing you see is the Blue and the Technicolor.
We purposely made it look like a Hollywood musical of the ‘40s and ‘50s. Bill is a huge fan and has a font of knowledge of musicals, and Scott and I both love musicals. We were the right people to tackle this movie!
Aurora’s Bedroom Suite. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
SD/DS: I’m so glad I saw it in a theater, as it should be seen. I went away from it thinking, “Did they actually do it in Technicolor?” It was great. I love the movie.
From the first moments after I saw it, I started telling everybody how much I liked it and that they should go see it. I also love the original film.
AB: I liken it to CABARET...the Broadway CABARET to the movie CABARET...and also the Broadway version of CHICAGO to the movie CHICAGO that Bill also wrote the screenplay for...they are very different, and you can appreciate them both.
Bill went to the source material for this. He didn’t just take the Broadway musical script that Terrence McNally wrote. He went back to the book.
And it is like CABARET, where the action within the movie...the movie-within-movie...comments on the action in their real life. So, it goes much deeper, and I think it's really successful.
Aurora’s Bedroom Suite, Vanity. Set Decorator Andrew Baseman SDSA has placed little easter eggs on the vanity, including a compact with a spider web pattern and a hair receiver box with a spider web decoration. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
SD/DS: Andy, these are huge sets! Nothing is a throw away. Where did you source some of the furniture for this?
AB: Newel was very generous with us, because they have the best quality, of course.
So, I got quite a few things from them, especially for the sophisticated sets.
Aurora’s Bedroom Suite. Reverse of first photo, this doorway leads into the bathroom. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
The headboard, I found in Connecticut...The bedside tables are brand new. The vanity was rented from a place in Connecticut. It’s like a Hollywood Regency 1940s piece. I couldn't believe I found that, because it's so perfect. The pleated stool I got from John Koch Antiques. So it's a whole range, and from all over.
Luckily, most of the ivory colored pieces matched. I had to paint just a couple, but other than that, they all just really blended together nicely. And then, again in keeping with the palette of Technicolor, we brought in the oranges for the bath as a counterpoint to the bedroom’s blues.
Aurora’s Bedroom Suite, Bathroom. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
SD/DS: Then you have the Nightclub...
AB: Yes, the Nightclub is where she makes her entrance in the gold dress, and they dance. There's a beautiful chandelier above them, and we had shiny brass chairs.
SD/DS: And how many of those great chairs were you able to rent?
AB: I think we had about 80 of the brass chairs for that set. Although, they cut a lot of them to accommodate the dancing, there were a lot more tables and chairs, and they just cut many of them, as happens, to support the dancing. That’s to be expected.
The Nightclub. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
SD/DS: Well, when I first saw this, I looked at the brass chairs, and I thought, “OMG, those are fantastic!” But I had no idea that you could actually find 80! So, they were from a rental house?
AB: Yes, from a party rental place. You’re right, they were fantastic, very lightweight. They're like hollow brass. They look heavy, but they're not. And, yeah, I was amazed. You know, we have some really nice upscale party rental places out here. So, that was a good find.
SD/DS: Then, were the screens always supposed to be a light source as well?
AB: Yes, Scott designed those, and had them made.
SD/DS: Excellent. Those are really terrific. I also like all of the lamps in this movie, and I love the scale of the lamps. I think you did them a little bit smaller than you probably would have for a contemporary set, and I thought it was a style that went through the movie very nicely.
AB: Thank you. I love lamps!
[Editor’s note: We’re with you, Andy, we LOVE lamps!]
The Supper Club...
The Supper Club. Seated: Tonatiuh as Kendall Nesbitt, the masculine iteration in Molina’s fantastical retelling of the movie...Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
SD/DS: Not only do we have the Nightclub, but also there is the Supper Club, an entirely different look...again, distinctive chairs, these with a cutout.
AB: I had those made/altered. I bought chairs and had them cut out the back, and there's also a little brass handle on the top. That's my favorite part.
I had little enameled badges made of that chair to give out as gifts at the end of the shoot, because we love those chairs so much. The chairs did end up at a prop house, because I think we made 80 of those as well. That was a big expenditure. I didn't have a lot of money in the budget, but I had to have those chairs. You do see them in the movie. And, you know, since I was able to rent the other chairs for the for the Nightclub. I had to make these.
Palace Hotel Suite...
Palace Hotel Suite. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
SD/DS: Then we have the Palace Hotel Suite...the masculine counterpoint to Aurora’s Bedroom.
AB: You know, I look at these pictures now, it's like, I don't know how we did it. I also really love the colors of the bedroom. I think they are so stunning.
SD/DS: I agree, and I love the colors of the rug, it kind of looks like a version of a ‘40s Chinese rug.
AB: It is! Definitely period, and it was big, a room-sized rug. And, interestingly, it was the last piece I found. The colors matched the room, the size, the period. It was a find!
I also had a table full of beautiful Tiffany inspired iridescent glass that you didn't really see.
The Spider Woman. Jennifer Lopez as Ingrid Luna, the diva who stars the “original” THE KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
SD/DS: Well, something we definitely see is The Spider Woman and web with the greens and arch...
AB: That was built at the end of the Village, and we had a greensman and a greens team, who did these live plants. And then we had the purposely artificial arch that she stands under.
SD/DS: And that takes us to the Jungle Hut...
AB: Yes, that is where we learn about the origin of the Spider Woman. The village elder
tells her the story of the Spider Woman and how she gets her victims...
[Editor’s note: For photos of the Jungle Hut, click on the SHOW MORE PHOTOS button below.]
We did the set for the Jungle Hut at one end of the large stage where we built the extensive Village set.
SD/DS: I loved the Village, because, again, it looked like a Hollywood set from the ‘40s, this time a full exterior, complete with cobblestones!
AB: It was a large build. The town square with the store at one corner, arches on another, and leading through the arches, there were more tables and chairs, and two shops on the other side...next to the to the bar, there was a hat shop, and then there was a cigar store.
SD/DS: And you had an incredible fountain, filled with flowers. One of my comments about this is that all throughout the movie, the plants and the flowers are terrific, and they bring so much to each set. But especially here, you know, it's very colorful. It just looks really terrific.
[Editor’s note: For photos of the Village and the transformation into the sexy musical number “Gimme Love”, click on the SHOW MORE PHOTOS button below!]
SD/DS: And I noticed at one point there's also an arrangement with some gladiolus in one of the sets, and I thought “Absolutely!” because gladiolus are so distinctive of the time.
AB: I’m glad you caught that. The flowers are mostly in the Village sets and in the two suites, in the Palace Hotel suite and in Aurora’s. One of my former assistants, Amanda Finnegan, was my PA, and then I trained her to be a buyer and then an assistant...and now she's a florist, a floral designer! So she did all the flowers. I showed her the research, and said, “This is going to be tricky, because I want these to purposely look a little fake, they've got to be artificial. The look is 1940s based, this is what they would have been in MGM musicals at the time, right? So, I had a lot of fun with her and the flowers. I'll tell her you said that, because she'll be so pleased.
SD/DS: Please do, because they're really terrific. And even in the hotel room, that incredible tree that looks kind of like a Coleus leaf, it's just fantastic.
And then we have the finale... a bare stage. A big, empty space with the incredible blue curtain!
AB: Yes, there are many, many sheer blue curtains that reveal different parts. We worked with Paul Kelly, who was one of the assistants on the original PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, with that set with a sea of curtains. That became his specialty. So he came on in the art department to work with a fabricator to make these curtains, and we are so lucky that he did, because this was very tricky.
It was one of the last sets we shot, but also this was a call back to of all the sets. It originally was going to be more detailed with hanging chandeliers, and then it is going to become really stylized. It went through so many transformations, and ultimately it just became, like a big empty space with a partial staircase. And that finale is so strong, how he's climbing the stairs to her at the top.
[Editor’s note: We have no photos of the finale, it’s a MUST SEE in the theater on the big screen!]
SD/DS: And final notes about your process and your teams.
AB: Well, as I’ve said, Scott was so incredible to work with, and we had fantastic teams on both sides of the Equator! As I mentioned, the team in Uruguay had to start hunting for set elements before we even got there, while we were finishing the Hollywood-style musical numbers in NJ/NY. Special recognition should go to Veronica Carriquiry, Assistant Set Decorator, Uruguay and Maite Zugarramurdi, Art Director, Uruguay.
My crew in NY were equally fabulous. A fun note: I had two teams of an assistant and a buyer: Team Supper Club and Team Jungle Hut. One team did all of the glamorous sets, and one did the more earthy sets. It was great fun for me going back and forth from the really glamorous ones to the earthy ones, and I didn't just like the pretty sets, I liked all of them. We were stepping into 1940s style film sets – it was truly fabulous!
My great crew included: Assistant Set Decorators: Roxanne Kratt & Lindsay Stephen - Set Dec Buyers: Molly Ramsay & Caroline B. Scott [Asst Set Decorator] - Set Dec Coordinator: Mallory Gabbard - Leadperson: Peter Scheck - Set Dec PA: Peter Kringdon and Greens Coordinator: Mike Thompson. They're invaluable.
SD/DS: And when you were looking, shopping, choosing, commissioning, I know it was moving fast. Did the fun and the enjoyment override the pressure of the pace and the need to produce?
AB: Oh, absolutely. As far as losing sleep over my work, those days are over,
SD/DS: Yeah, at our point, you don't have the fear of not being able to do something right.
AB: Not anymore. It's a great feeling. I love shopping in general...shopping for antiques, and especially, these kinds of antiques.
It doesn't matter what job I'm on, I try to use as many antiques or vintage as possible.
For this production, for instance, it was such an enjoyable search to find little things with spider webs or those sorts of details and period pieces for the vanity. And my assistants loved it, too, it was just so much fun.
We had a good time.
Editor’s note:
Set Decorator Andrew Baseman SDSA would like to acknowledge some of his long-time resources who provided outstanding appropriate pieces for this film, as they always do, particularly SDSA Business members City Knickerbocker, Eclectic Encore Props,
Fennick Studio Props and Newel Props.
...And for additional photos not yet seen, Click on the SHOW MORE PHOTOS below!
