Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1539634
was more. In addition to the Digital Museum, I used my grandfather's five thousand color slides from the 1940s onward as inspiration, and my stepmother's photos of my 1980s childhood home. These were crucial in shaping authentic 1980s settings. This felt authentic to the location's district—a posh area now home to embassies—and it shaped the film's 1930s design: a version of the house belonging to Gustav's great-grandparents, barely altered until the 1950s, when Gustav is born and lives there with his parents. The 1950s needed to feel like a statement of change—lighter, with subtler wallpapers, simpler furniture, elegant shapes, more space and less art. The 1960s brought another shift, though less by design changes than by use. Gustav's aunt and the housemaid—now in a romantic relationship —took over the home. They kept much of the 1930s and '50s furniture but rearranged it, mixing eras and adding a looser, more Bohemian energy. The house became a place of parties, visitors and books, filled with a sense of liberation and joy. By the 1980s, their story was drawing to a close. Illness and death crept in quietly, and their version of the living room is only glimpsed as three still shots—fragments of a life at its end. These sets, where they had to tell the story by themselves, were exciting to create with details giving depth to the stories not told explicitly. It's in this state that Gustav returns, now with his new wife and young daughters. In a renovation montage, he strips away the wall paneling, clears the clutter and paints everything white. It is a fresh start, but also a deliberate erasure. The house becomes a blank canvas— brighter, simpler, almost anonymous—yet still carrying the ghosts of what came before. Joachim is in many ways a "white wall" director, so convincing him to embrace the extroverted, pattern-heavy 1930s—grounded in older styles —took some work. I showed him extensive photographic references from the area, including one neighboring house with the exact wallpaper I wanted to reproduce. The real-world references made him more comfortable, and eventually he became excited by the bolder options, even A. GUSTAV PAINTING THE LIVING ROOM WHITE. FILM STILL. B. THEATER STAGE DESIGN MODEL. C. NORA PERFORMING ON STAGE. FILM STILL. D. GUSTAV'S PRESENT-DAY REHEARSALS IN THE FAMILY HOME. FILM STILL. E. NORA'S APARTMENT. SET PHOTO. F. TWINMOTION RENDER OF HOUSE SET ON SOUNDSTAGE. A B C