|
|
In "Silver Linings Playbook," Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper) comes back home to live with his parents. Production designer Judy Becker asked Italian American friends about the homes they grew up in. "Flocked wallpaper and paintings of the Last Supper came up," she said, "but I didn't want the rooms to be cliche." Instead, she used ornate 1970s decor. The sofa, purchased at a Salvation Army store, was recovered in a plaid wool by Osborne & Little. (The Weinstein Co.)
"Silver Linings Playbook," which moves from limited release to about 2,500 theaters this weekend, earned eight Academy Award nominations, including nods for actors Bradley Cooper, Golden Globe winner Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro and Jacki Weaver. But for us, one of the best characters was the house created by production designer Judy Becker.
Set in the Philadelphia suburbs, director David O. Russell's film largely unfolds in the house of Patrizio and Dolores Solitano (De Niro and Weaver), whose style Becker amusingly describes as "Italian American decorative opulence and a slight gaudiness."
"The idea is that they were together for at least 40 years and decorated their house in the 1970s as a young couple," Becker said.
Though much of the house does indeed look hilariously frozen in time, Becker's interiors also nod to a piece of decorating that is experiencing a new wave of popularity: vintage metal wall sculpture, particularly work in the style of C. Jere.
As L.A. at Home has reported previously, the name C. Jere represents the somewhat illogical combination of Kurt Freiler and Jerry Fels, founders of a firm called Artisan House that in the 1960s and '70s had factories in the San Fernando Valley. Artisan House released decorative metal wall sculptures signed C. Jere that were popular at the time and sold through a Manhattan showroom called Raymor.
But as tastes shifted in the 1980s and 1990s, many of these spangly pieces were considered dated kitsch and eventually landed in thrift shops. Only in the last few years has the renaissance for C. Jere sculptures peaked. Signed originals sell for more than $5,000 from dealers of vintage decor. Jonathan Adler sells newly manufactured reproductions of C. Jere designs for $995 to $1,995.
"I have become obsessed with C. Jere," Becker said. "They're beautiful and really well-designed. Some were a bit kitschy, like owls and fish, but the abstracts are gorgeous."
To emulate the spirit of the sculptures, Becker took a vintage plaster wall relief found in a Philadelphia-area thrift shop, painted it gold and hung it above the Solitano living room sofa. It's hung against wallpaper from Second Hand Rose.
In the couple's boudoir, set decorator Heather Loeffler worked with a metal fabricator to create a leafy, C. Jere-esque branch that hangs above the bed.
In a key scene, the Solitanos' son Pat (Cooper) meets Tiffany (Lawrence) at a dinner hosted by her sister Veronica (Julia Stiles). That house has a more contemporary ginkgo branch metal hanging sculpture, found at Busybee Homestore & Design Center in Philadelphia.
Whereas some of the wall sculptures in the Solitano house are so old they're cool again, the ones in Veronica's house look like "the new money version of that old school of decorating, which somehow just isn't as hip," said Becker, who added that she found her “Silver Linings” inspiration in the interiors in “Saturday Night Fever” and the rooms captured in photographs by Diane Arbus and Chauncey Hare.
Now Becker is prepping for Russell's next film — one set in the late ’70s and early ’80s.
“I'm looking at Brutalist architecture and Pace Collection furniture from that era,” she said, “which is having a moment right now.”
