Design on Film – The Dark Knight Legacy
July 26, 2008
This is the first installment of our new weekly series Design on Film, where we look at interior design as portrayed in some of our favorite cinematic adventures
A lot has changed in the past decade, but one thing’s still certain: people love Batman. The 1995 production Batman Forever was hot…when it came out.
A recent look at Bruce Wayne’s (Val Kilmer) Oliver’s People glasses and power ties sent me running back to Christian Bale and The Dark Knight. But not everything is dated; set director Elise ‘Cricket’ Rowland kept Bruce’s office spacious and sleek. Neutral color palettes are the smartest choice for an office, but all the gold shades were a little too glitzy for me. I think the light shades of Bruce’s office and corporate life were meant to contrast with the dark, cavernous bat world. This contrast in interior designs is subtle but important in setting the mood. It’s a little more obvious in the disparity between the ritzy, uptown sections of Gotham and the rundown back alleys: Wayne Enterprises’ ball versus Robin’s joyride and street brawl mishap. All the neon lighting used in the city, especially the glow stick creations that the city-people wore, reinforced the contrast between the uptown corporate and downtown worlds.
In Dark Night they made Gotham look more like normal Chicago, but the design inside Wayne’s inner sanctum had this wonderful minimalist-industrial look that I can’t resist (well done Peter Lando). Batman’s underground equipment room, where all the gadgets came to life, was simply an empty, fluorescent swathed garage. Usually, movie “equipment rooms” are plastered with clutter and animated thingamabobs (think Back to the Future or James Bond films) so the use of empty space in Dark Night was surprisingly effective.
Wayne interiors have this wonderful dark and sophisticated edge. To bad the outside view of Gotham looked so boring.
Have an opinion about our opinion? Let your voice be heard over at RealTalkDesign.com
Entry Filed under: Design on Film. Tags: Back to the Future, batman, Batman Forever, Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale, cinema, cricket, Dark Knight, Elise Rowland, equipment rooms, garage, Gotham, Interior Design, Interior design film, James Bond, Peter Lando, Real Talk Design, RealTalkDesign.com, val kilmer.
11 Comments Add your own
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
1. New Gadgets | Design on Film - The Dark Knight Legacy | July 26, 2008 at 4:36 am
[...] Original post by Real Talk Design [...]
2.
degahse | July 26, 2008 at 4:47 pm
As the king of an amoral universe, as a purveyor of unrestricted evil for fun, Ledger’s dastardly villain, attired as sort of a rotting Clarabell, has chosen his own damnation. He’s jumped into an abyss he has dug himself, and he wants to pull us along.
I m watched The Dark Knight Movies Here
http://www.80millionmoviesfree.com
3.
rgs | July 27, 2008 at 4:37 am
Speaking of the Dark Knight inerior design… in Bruce Wayne’s bedroom is a glass screen or panel system. this look interesting. any idea where I can find information about this system?
4.
riccardo conti | July 30, 2008 at 12:18 am
hi folks, thaks god someone is careful about those aspects of the movie: i’m gonna be crazy tryin’ to find out some information about the furnishing and interior design of Bruce Wayne’s attic. I’m from milano, and i have a good knowledge about forniture and design, but i have not recognized anyone of those stuff:; ok, the hi-fi sets are from B&O, but the lamps? and the armchairs?
please help me if you know!
ps. i’m trying to find some information about Lando’s work in internet but i have not find something interesting..
5.
realtalkdesign | July 30, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Riccardo, we have been stressing over the origin of some of the furnishings too. Someone might be able to help you at the forum over at http://www.realtalkdesign.com
As for Lando, he is a relatively unknown Canadian set decorator. Dark Knight was his first big break. There is an article about him here http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/arts/story.html?id=d8f754ef-a68f-4329-ab67-82762a5f5351
Other than that there really isn’t much about him that I could find, I’ll let you know if anything else turns up
6.
Loren West | July 31, 2008 at 3:53 pm
I’m with Riccardo, Wow “The Dark Knights” interior design is stunning! Please find out as many details regarding the furniture, designer Peter Lando and his design collaborators!
7.
realtalkdesign | July 31, 2008 at 8:43 pm
So we posed the question about interior design information for the Dark Knight over in the forum, you can access the thread here
http://www.realtalkdesign.com/index.php/topic,48.0.html
I’m sure someone on the forum will find something!
8.
riccardo conti | August 1, 2008 at 11:14 am
hi friends, hope we’ll find out more details about that furnishing, in the meantime i checked into the bests italian brands as; cassina, cappellini, B&B, Flos, and so on.. but i have not found those things,
i just see the same minimal lamps in this interior by Makoto Yamaguchi: http://www.ymgci.net/english/projects/fraser/index.html#
the pics are so tiny but if you take a careful look, u’ll recongnise the same lamps in the Wayne’s flat, but in the white version…
anyone knows them?
richi
9.
Cherry Wood | August 10, 2008 at 5:26 am
I was blown away by the lamps as well. Have never seen them, but would love to have a few. Any info?
10.
Cherry Wood | August 16, 2008 at 5:12 am
Just found out that it’s the Arne Jacobsen FJ Floor lamp, which Jacobsen designed in 1957. It can be sourced online through Hive Modern.
11.
riccardo conti | August 19, 2008 at 3:44 pm
GREAT! thanks to you cherry !