A good life, by design

For more than two decades, Italian-born production designer Dante Ferretti and set decorator Francesca LoSchiavo have had the closest of collaborations, both off-screen and on. Married for 25 years and the parents of two grown children, they’ve worked together on many Oscar-nominated films so it’s not surprising that they often complete each other’s sentences.

Ferretti, one of the most in-demand, visually imaginative production designers in cinema today, got his start working with such masters of Italian cinema as Pier Paolo Pasolini and Federico Fellini. He has been nominated for six Oscars for his work on Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York,” “Kundun” and “The Age of Innocence”; Neil Jordan’s “Interview With the Vampire”; Franco Zeffirelli’s “Hamlet”; and Terry Gilliam’s “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.” LoSchiavo has shared nominations with her husband on all but “Age of Innocence.”

Their latest collaboration is Anthony Minghella’s epic adaptation of Charles Frazier’s novel “Cold Mountain.” Ferretti and LoSchiavo transformed the Transylvania area of Romania into Civil War-era North Carolina. The couple, who live in Miami when they aren’t on a set, have just completed work on “The Aviator,” Scorsese’s Howard Hughes biopic.

Ferretti will also receive the Career Achievement Award for Production Design at the upcoming Palm Springs International Film Festival.On exhibit through Jan. 19 at the Camelot Theatre in Palm Springs is an exhibit of Ferretti’s mixed-media assemblage production designs for “Gangs of New York.”

The couple recently talked about their lives, both real and reel, in a suite at the Beverly Hilton, their home base while making “The Aviator.”

Meeting

Dante Ferretti: It was on vacation in Sardinia. It is this fantastic place.

Francesca LoSchiavo: We met in a house that belonged to a friend of Dante’s.

DF: We discovered that we lived in Rome on streets next to each other. It was unbelievable. It was destiny.

Arriving in Hollywood

DF: I worked in Hollywood for movies that were never made. I came here the first time to design a movie in 1990 and after six months, they turned it down because it was too expensive. Then I came here to prepare “Evita.” It was with Madonna, but the director was Glenn Gordon Caron. I did prepare this movie, but they always turned it down after six or seven weeks [because of the expense], and then I went to New York to do “Age of Innocence.”

Sharing the same aesthetic

FL: It would be impossible to work together [if we didn’t].

DF: When you are husband and wife, you have to have the same feeling for the life to live together, and then if you have the same feeling or the same tastes or the same way to work together....

FL: When I met Dante I didn’t work in the movies, but I enjoyed so much the movies. I worked in interior design and when I met Dante, we tried to do something together. There is no difficult moment working together because when we start a new project, Dante starts to make all the sketches and I can see the vision of the movie and then I start my job.

How they collaborate

FL: We have to pay attention to what the director wants. I do huge research. I had one person that worked in New York all the time for me to give me all the information I needed for [“Gangs of New York”]. You have to be very accurate.

DF: Everything has to be blended. In the beginning, we always have to talk with the costume designer to make only one world, one vision. This is very important. The director is the most important. When we work with Martin -- this is my sixth movie with him and her third -- he says, “This is the look that I want to see in the movie.” Then he gives us freedom, but we use our freedom to do what he likes to see. It’s very specific.

FL: I liked it very much working with Fellini because Fellini was pure fantasy, absolutely. He was a magician every time. I started to work with Martin -- it was with “Kundun.” He is really so passionate about every detail. Every day Martin with this camera he can create

DF: ... a world. In “Kundun” we built everything from scratch. We shot the movie in Morocco. We even build a soundstage in Morocco in 42 days. It was 150 feet by 120 feet.

FL: It was a huge stage. Our job is more difficult [when you start from scratch], but it gives you more satisfaction.

DF: When you re-create a world you have to have a lot of information and research. We always try to live in the period. When I make something from 100 or 200 years ago, I like to be an architect or a designer of that period. I want to find one spot for myself in the reality of which was three or four centuries ago.

Why they don’t work in Italy

DF: At this moment, you know, it is difficult to work in Italy with the Italian production.... People don’t call us anymore, they don’t have too much money. In one way I am sorry. We grew up with the fantastic Italian cinema. But we like to work here. I love American movies. When I was young, I wanted to be in Hollywood.

FL: Me too!