Italian Paolo and Vittorio Taviani won the Berlinale’s Golden Bear on Saturday for their black and white drama “Caesar Must Die.”

The semi-documentary pic centers on inmates of the Rebibbia maximum security prison in Rome who stage Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.”

The Taviani brothers said the film was neither a documentary film nor a feature film, but rather something new, and a real look at prisoners serving life sentences.

The fest’s international jury spread prizes far and wide, with the Silver Bear Jury Grand Prix going to Bence Fliegauf’s Hungarian pic “Just the Wind,” which offers a stark look at racially motivated violence.

German helmer Christian Petzold picked up the Silver Bear for best director for his East German drama “Barbara,” about an East German doctor who is harshly reprimanded for wanting to leave the GDR.

Rachel Mwanza took the actress Silver Bear for “War Witch,” about a girl soldier trying to survive in an African civil war. The Silver Bear for best actor went to Mikkel Boe Folsgaard for Nikolaj Arcel’s “A Royal Affair,” which also picked up the Silver Bear for Best Script for Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg.

Cinematographer Lutz Reitemeier won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Achievement for his work in Wang Quan’an’s Chinese drama “White Deer Plain.”

Miguel Gomes’ Portuguese black and white drama “Tabu” nabbed the Alfred Bauer Prize, which is awarded to works of “particular innovation.”

“I don’t quite understand winning a prize for innovation because I set out to make an old-fashioned film,” quipped Gomes as he accepted the award.

The jury awarded a Special Mention Silver Bear to Ursula Meier’s Swiss drama “Sister,” about a poor boy who steals from wealthy tourists at Swiss ski resort in order to survive.

Boudewijn Koole’s Dutch Generation Kplus screener “Kauwboy,” about a young boy who adopts a motherless baby bird, won the Best First Feature Award. Emin Alper’s “Beyond the Hill,” a Turkish-Greek drama that unspooled in Forum, took First Feature Special Mention.

Complete list of winners:

Golden Bear for Best Film

‘Caesar Must Die,’ by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani

Silver Bear, The Jury Grand Prix

‘Just the Wind,’ by Bence Fliegauf

Silver Bear, Best Director

Christian Petzold for ‘Barbara’

Silver Bear, Best Actress

Rachel Mwanza for ‘War Witch’

Silver Bear, Best Actor

Mikkel Boe Folsgaard for ‘A Royal Affair’

Silver Bear, Outstanding Artistic Achievement

Lutz Reitemeier, cinematographer, for ‘White Deer Plain’

Silver Bear, Best Script

Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg for ‘A Royal Affair’

Alfred Bauer Prize

‘Tabu,’ by Miguel Gomes

Special Prize Silver Bear

‘Sister,’ by Ursula Meier

Best First Feature Award

‘Kauwboy,’ by Boudewijn Koole

Best First Feature Award Special Mention

‘Beyond the Hill,’ by Emin Alper

International Short Films

Golden Bear

‘Rafa,’ by Joao Salaviza

Silver Bear

‘The Great Rabbit,’ by Atsushi Wada

Special Mention

‘Licuri Surf,’ by Guile Martins

Generation Kplus

Crystal Bear for Best Film

‘Arcadia,’ by Olivia Silver

Special Mention

‘Just Pretended to Hear,’ by Kaori Imaizumi

Crystal Bear for Best Short Film

‘Julian,’ by Matthew Moore

Special Mention

‘Bino,’ by Billie Pleffer

Generation 14plus

Crystal Bear for Best Film

‘Night of Silence,’ by Reis Celik

Special Mention

‘The Crown Jewels,’ by Ella Lemhagen

Crystal Bear for Best Short Film

‘Meathead,’ by Sam Holst

Special Mention

’663114,’ by Isamu Hirabayashi

International Jury Generation Kplus

Grand Prix Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk for Best Film

‘Kauwboy,’ by Boudewijn Koole

Special Mention

‘Gattu,’ by Rajan Khosa

Teddy Awards

Best Feature Film

‘Keep the Lights On,’ by Ira Sachs

Best Documentary Film

‘Call Me Kuchu,’ by Malika Zouhali-Worrall, Katherine Fairfax Wright

Best Short Film

‘Loxoro,’ by Claudia Llosa

Teddy Jury Award

‘Jaures,’ by Vincent Dieutre

Made in Germany — Perskpektive Fellowship

Annekatrin Hendel for ‘Disco’

Dialogue en Perspektive

‘This Ain’t California,’ by Marten Persiel

Columbia

Otto Preminger’s “Anatomy of a Murder” was nominated for the Best Picture and other Oscars in 1959. An interracial court drama, the film was based on the 1958 best seller by Robert Traver, pen name of Justice John D. Voelker, of the Michigan Supreme Court.

Among other distinctions, “Anatomy of Murder” contains one of the longest trial scenes in film history, over an hour, in which James Stewart’s small-town lawyer defends a white army lieutenant, accused of killing a black tavern owner for allegedly raping his wife.
A sign on the highway greets the passengers: “Welcome to Iron City, Michigan. We’re a Lovely Town.” But this is immediately contradicted by alerting us that a vicious murder has been committed. Army lieutenant Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzara) claims he killed Barney Quill, a black tavern bartender because he had allegedly beaten and raped his wife Laura (Lee Remick). Laura substantiates her husband’s testimony and a lie detector bears her out. However, a medical examination by the police surgeon shows no evidence of rape, and that only her face was bruised.
Laura persuades Paul Biegler (Jimmie Stewart), a former prosecuting attorney, to defend her husband, even though he lacks ambition and his past record leaves a lot to be desired. Ever since Paul was beaten out of the office of prosecuting attorney, he hasn’t been “worth salt for peanuts,” as his assistant says. “Man gets beat for an office he’s held for a long time, he feels his community has deserted him, the finger of scorn is pointed.” “None but the lonely heart shall know my anguish,” says Paul. It’s been a year since Paul was skinned at the polls, and Parnell wonders how long he is going “to skulk like this.”
Parnell feels that Paul, “an honest-to-God lawyer,” ought to be at the office, “ready for clients, not fishing or playing that rootity taoo jazz.” Biegler is anything but a typical lawyer of a small town or big city. An unassuming man wearing an old hunting jacket, open shirt, and a battered hat, he is first seen carrying a collapsed fly rod, a knapsack and a trout basket. He is content to making modest living, running some abstracts, “divorce Jane Doe from John Doe once in a while, or threaten a few dead beats.” In the evening, he likes to drink rye whiskey and to read.
Though middle-aged, Biegler is single. A loner, his close friends are Parnell McCarthy (Arthur O’Connel), his assistant, who knows a lot about the law when he is sober, and his secretary Aida (Eve Arden), a dour and cynical, but good-hearted woman. When Paul asks Aida to cancel his appointments for the day, she quick to reply, “What appointments People think you’ve migrated to the woods.”
Aida has not been paid for a long time. From his last case’s pay, Paul bought a few necessities (like a new outboard motor). “Wish I could be classed as a necessity.” She is tired of seeing an empty refrigerator; “If that freezer gets many more fish, it’ll swim up-stream and spawn–all by itself.” Suspicious, she asks Paul not to let the lieutenant pay with “Purple Hearts.” “Professional soldiers never have a dime,” she explains,” “I was married to one.” Unfortunately, she turns out to be right.
A loser, Parnell is a kindred soul. He might have been a great lawyer, which is one reason why he hates to see Biegler’s “talent pushed aside by lesser men.” “I look at you and see myself–30 years ago–with the same love for the smell of the old brown books in a dusty office.” “I am just a humble country lawyer, trying to do the best he can against Claude Dancer (George C. Scott), a brilliant prosecutor from the Big City of Lansing. Biegler is not provincial, though he has never lived outside of Michigan.
Manion, a war hero who has seen “plenty of action in Korea” and “plenty of decorations,” is disillusioned. Having been married before, his first wife left him on charged cruelty (he liked eating crackers in bed), but the truth was she had found another man while he was fighting in Korea. Laura has also been married; her ex-husband was in Manion’s outfit. They live in Thunder Bay Amusement Arcade, a place surrounded by soldiers and tourists in Bermuda shorts.
There is sexual tension between Biegler and Laura, particularly when he sees her dressed in high heels, tight ankle length Capri pants, and a thin clinging jersey sweater. Morally and sexually loose, she may–or may not–have illicit affairs with other men. In fact, the prosecutor is able to demonstrate that the likeable bartender was actually encouraged by Laura into intercourse.
Biegler appears to be easy-going, but when challenged, he could be harsh as nails. Using an old case, in which a man had been acquitted because of his acting on “irresistible impulse,” what helps Biegler is the testimony of Mary Pilant (Kathryn Crosby), the bartender’s illegitimate daughters who tells the juror about her father’s questionable moral character. However, Biegler, the jury (and the audience), have doubts until the very end. Ambivalent toward his client until the end, Biegler tries to remember Aida’s acerbic remark: “You don’t have to love him–just defend him!”
Moral ambiguity, a far cry from Capra’s small-town lawyers, prevails in the court proceedings. The issues are not clear-cut, and the characters are not black-and-white. The bartender’s victim is actually a well-liked man, whereas the defendant is an arrogant man with a nasty temper. Biegler and the prosecutor are motivated by their need to win, using similar strategies. Neither cares about justice per se. Biegler shows–but doesn’t exercises–sexual interest in Laura. By standards of the l950s, the Manion’s marriage is non-conformist: There are no children from either marriage and there is no or apology about it.
Preminger shot most of the film on location, choosing for his sordid tale black-and-white cinematography, and Duke Ellington’s jazz score neither comforts nor stirs the “right” emotions.
The movie features one of the longest trial scenes in court dramas, close to 90 minutes, in which Preminger displays his distinctive mise-en-scene: Objective camera, with long takes and fluid tracking shots, thus failing to tell the viewers where to look at any given moment. In most court dramas, conventional stylistic devices, such as close ups at crucial, revelatory moments and background music, suggest who the hero or villain might be and what the viewers should feel toward them.
Symmetry and alternation are used as structuring principles. The narrative begins on the open highway at night, and ends on the open highway during the day. Driving to Thunder Bay Tourist Park, to collect his fee, Biegler gets a note from Manion: “So sorry, but I had to leave suddenly. I was seized by an irresistible impulse.” Paul lifts out of the oiled drum a red slipper with a spike heel; the heel had been broken and dangles from its joint. “Never saw a gin drinker you could trust,” says Parnell. Biegler then drops the red slipper on top of the bottles and says, “Partner, let’s go see our first client, Mrs. Mary Pilant.”
Anatomy of Murder ends in a cynical, unconventional way for a Hollywood court drama. Driving away, the only item that remains of Biegler’s case is Laura’s red slipper lying among the empty bottles in the garbage.

Cast

Paul Biegler (Jimmie Stewart)

Lt. Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzara)

Laura Manion (Lee Remick)

Maida (Eve Arden)

Parnell McCarthy (Arthur O’Connell)

Mary Pilant (Kathryn Crosby)

Joseph N. Welch (Judge Weaver)

Mitch Lodwick (Brooks West)

Claude Dancer (George C. Scott)

Alphonse Paquette (Murray Hamilton)

Credits

Black-and white

Running time: 160 Minutes

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/george-clooney-oscars-brad-pitt-stacy-keibler-descendants-290676

Sunday’s Super Bowl victory by the Giants over the Patriots on NBC drew a whopping 111.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen estimates, edging ahead of last year’s big game to become television’s most-watched telecast on record.

NBC also very successfully launched the second season of “The Voice,” which garnered 37.6 million with its special post-game premiere.

The game beat out viewership numbers for last year’s Green Bay-Pittsburgh Super Bowl on Fox in both adults 18-49 rating (40.5 vs. 39.9) and total viewers (111.3 million vs. 111.0 million). And compared to the previous Super Bowl pitting the Giants against the Patriots in 2008 on Fox, Sunday’s game outperformed it by 8% in 18-49 (40.5 vs. 37.5) and by 12% in total viewers (111.3 million vs. 97.4 million).

The household score for Sunday’s game (47.0 rating/71 share) grew 2% from last year’s 46.0/69 and is the best since the 1996 Super Bowl between Dallas and Pittsburgh (46.0/68 on NBC).

In Nielsen’s metered markets, the Giants’ 21-17 victory registered a 47.8 household rating/71 share – down a tick from last year’s 47.9/71 for Green Bay-Pittsburgh on Fox, which tied as the best ever for a Super Bowl. It did a 49.7/74 in New York, the second best for an NFL game in the country’s biggest market, and a 56.7/81 in Boston, the best ever for any football game. The overnight rating peaked with a 51.8/73 from 9:30 to 10 p.m. ET, when Eli Manning led the Giants to the game-winning touchdown in the closing minute.

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20419951_20567021,00.html

“Titanic,” the 1997 Oscar winner, was at the time the most expensive Best Picture, with a budget north of $200 million.  But not to worry: The James Cameron disaster epic more than recoup its expense, going on to become one of the two most commercially profitable works in film history (making $600 million in the U.S. alone); the other being James Cameron’s 2009 “Avatar.”

But the budget of the Best Picture winners varies, just like their artistic quality and ultimate commercial appeal.

Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” the 2003 Oscar winner was made for about $100 million and grossed globally over $1 billion.

But many Oscar winners in recent years have been made for relatively small budgets:

“American Beauty,” in 1999, for $15 million.

“A Beautiful Mind,” in 2001, for

“Shakespeare in Love,” in 1998

“Chicago,” in 2002, for $45 million.

“The Departed,” in 2006

“No Country for Old Men,” in 2007, for  $25 million

“Slumdog Millionaire,” in 2008, for

“The Hurt Locker,” in 2009

“THe King’s Speech,” in 2010

Starting this calendar, Anthology inaugurates an ongoing series called FROM THE PEN OF… to spotlight that brutally neglected figure most often forgotten in the filmmaking process, namely the screenwriter. Famously devalued by cinephiles more prone to celebrating auteurs and actors, screenwriters are rarely honored with the likes of critical studies or repertory retrospectives.

While a few classic Hollywood scribes continue to earn attention (Ben Hecht, Preston Sturges, Dalton Trumbo, etc.), most have never received their fair share of credit or acknowledgment. This is particularly true of screenwriters who emerged hot on the heels of the demise of the studio system in the 1960s. While audiences may associate theworks they penned more closely with particular directors, a closer study reveals that the sensibility and ingenuity of particular screenwriters shines through in each of these films.

Over the next several calendars Anthology will focus on some of the most interesting, talented, and unheralded screenwriters from the last 50 years, connecting the dots between terrific, seemingly disparate films that, unbeknownst to many,just happen to have issued from the pen of a single, often unheralded scribe!

To start the series off in high style, we have selected a number of smile-inducing, seriously quirky movies scripted by writer-director John Sayles. Though thefilms he’s both written and directed have won numerous awards and wide acclaim, Sayles toiled for many years as a screenwriter on other director’s projects before launching his own distinguished directorial career. We are happy to call attention to this partially obscured body of work, and also to present a handful of films, selected by Sayles, that he considers shining examples of the craft of screenwriting.

To be screened:

Joe Dante: THE HOWLING

1981, 91 minutes, 35mm. Screenplay by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless, based on a novel by Gary Brandner. With Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, and Slim Pickens.

“A popular Los Angeles TV reporter is given doctor’s orders to visit a remote consciousness-raising retreat called ‘The Colony’ after a traumatic incident with a serial killer. The bizarre behavior of the residents begins to make sense once the reporter discovers that she is staying amidst a community ofwerewolves! THE HOWLING is not only a great werewolf movie, but also a witty and knowing commentary on the genre itself. The film is as full of impressive werewolf transformation scenes as of social satire, which is no surprise given that the special effects were done by Rob Bottin (THE THING) and the screenplay was written by John Sayles.”

THE WEXNER CENTER

Thursday, February 23 at 7:00 and Wednesday, February 29 at 9:15.

Bill Forsyth BREAKING IN

1989, 94 minutes, 35mm. Screenplay by John Sayles. With Burt Reynolds and Casey Siemaszko.

The second American film by Scottish director Bill Forsyth (GREGORY’S GIRL, LOCAL HERO) portrays the relationship that ensues when professional thief Burt Reynolds and the younger, inexperienced Casey Siemaszko break into the same house. Reynolds decides to take the amateur crook under his wing, and the result is a charming, unexpectedly affecting comedy.

“A subtle, masterly film, a series of life lessons which never ducks the moral ironies, no less precious for their simplicity.” –TIME OUT

Friday, February 24 at 7:30 and Sunday, February 26 at 9:00.

John Sayles in person following the screening on Friday, February 24!

Joe Dante: PIRANHA

1978, 94 minutes, 35mm. Screenplay by John Sayles. With Kevin McCarthy, Keenan Wynn,Dick Miller, and Barbara Steele. Print courtesy of the Joe Dante and Jon Davison Collection at the Academy Film Archive.

“A massive horde of genetically modified piranhas with a taste for human blood is unintentionally released into the waters of a summer resort named Lost River Lake. Do-gooder Maggie teams with Paul, the town drunk, to rid the lake of the razor-toothed menaces before it’s too late! This 1978 cult classic offers more than its fair share of blood, guts, and body parts. But don’t let thedismembered limbs fool you – this campy gorefest is also a smart, thinly-veiled critique of America’s military-industrial complex.” –BLOCK CINEMA

Saturday, February 25 at 7:15 and Tuesday, February 28 at 9:15.

Lewis Teague: ALLIGATOR

1980, 91 minutes, 35mm. Screenplay by John Sayles. With Robert Forster.

“A very funny meditation on the old ‘what happens when you flush the goldfish down the john?’ nightmare. It is also a formula film that simultaneously demonstrates the specific requirements of the formula while sending them up with good humor. Lewis Teague, the director, and John Sayles, who wrote the screenplay, know exactly what they’re doing. … Though ALLIGATOR is done straight, not as parody, it never for a minute loses its sense of humor.” –Vincent Canby, NEW YORK TIMES

Saturday, February 25 at 9:30 and Tuesday, February 28 at 7:15.

Jimmy T. Murakami: BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS

1980, 104 minutes, 16mm. Screenplay by John Sayles. With Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, John Saxon, and George Peppard.

This Roger Corman-produced mash-up of STAR WARS and THE SEVEN SAMURAI finds seven intergalactic mercenaries teaming up to defend a peaceful planet from the evil tyrant Sador (Saxon). The film’s charming modesty belies the heavy duty talent behind the scenes, including James Cameron (who was responsible for the artdirection), composer James Horner (TITANIC), production assistant Gale Ann Hurd (producer of ALIENS), and of course, John Sayles, who contributed the witty, memorable screenplay.

–Sunday, February 26 at 6:45 and Thursday, March 1 at 9:15.

SELECTED BY JOHN SAYLES:

Michael Ritchie: THE CANDIDATE

1972, 110 minutes, 35mm. Screenplay by Jeremy Larner. With Robert Redford, Peter Boyle, and Melvyn Douglas.

Left-wing lawyer Bill McKay (Redford), enlisted by a politico (Boyle) to run for the Senate, agrees on the condition that he can say exactly what he thinks. Hishonesty captivates the electorate, but as he inches up in the polls the corrupting forces of the American political process come into play. Released the fateful year of Richard Nixon’s reelection, the film garnered numerous accolades including the Oscar for Best Screenplay (screenwriter Larner thanked the “politicians of our time” for inspiration).

“THECANDIDATE managed to garner real followers, if not votes, for its imaginarycandidates. Indeed, it was thanks to THE CANDIDATE’s satire of image politics that a good-looking if dimwitted law student named Dan Quayle decided to follow his electoral destiny.” –J. Hoberman, VILLAGE VOICE

–Thursday, February 23 at 9:00, Sunday, February 26 at 2:00, and Wednesday, February 29 at 7:00.

Martin Ritt

HOMBRE

1967, 111 minutes, 35mm. Screenplay by Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank Jr., based on a novel by Elmore Leonard. With Paul Newman, Fredric March, and Richard Boone. Archival print courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

“Don’t try towolf it down crudely, the way you do with slapdash Western barbecues. Savor it for its fine ingredients. Let it slowly subdue your appetite. Dwell on its peppery pungence, its blood-red juiciness, its spicy surprises and the warmtaste it leaves in your mouth – or, if you insist on being literal, in the pit of your emotions and your mind. For this is a first-rate cooking of a western recipe – not a great Western film nor a creation, but an excellent putting of heat to a fine selected blend.” –Bosley Crowther, NEW YORK TIMES

–Saturday, February 25 at 2:15 and Monday, February 27 at 9:15.

Martin Ritt

NORMA RAE

1979, 110 minutes, 35mm. Screenplay by Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank Jr. With Sally Field, Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman, and Pat Hingle.

The screenwriting team of Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank Jr. collaborated repeatedly with director Martin Ritt, working together on, among other films, HOMBRE (also included here), THE LONG HOT SUMMER, THE SOUND AND THE FURY, and HUD. Perhaps their most beloved film, though, was NORMA RAE, with Sally Field as a North Carolina cotton mill worker who fights to unionize her factory. Based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton, it’s genuinely stirring without lapsing into easy sentimentality.

–Saturday, February 25 at 4:45 and Monday, February 27 at 6:45.

Michael Ritchie

SMILE

1975, 113 minutes, 35mm. Screenplay by Jerry Belson. With Bruce Dern.

“This 1975 satire about a ‘Young American Miss’ beauty pageant and the middle-class mentality of small-town southern California is Michael Ritchie’s best feature, though it hasn’t won anything like the reputation it deserves. … Screenwriter Jerry Belson supplies an unexpected amount of pain and even horror as well as comic nuance.” –Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER

–Sunday, February 26 at 4:15 and Thursday, March 1 at 6:45.

**

The ‘less is more’ mandate Watkins employed in the look of the film itself also translated to his vision for the Woman in Black.  “Her look needed to leave room for the audience members’ interpretation,” says Watkins.

The approach was informed by the character beneath the veil – the woman who became the ghost, and what she experienced that made her so vengeful.

Costume designer Keith Madden (who also worked with Watkins previously on Eden Lake) spent quite a bit of time researching mourning dresses to find the right look.  “In the Victorian time, if a woman lost someone close to her she’d look like a bride of grief.  She’d appear heavily veiled, dressed all in black.  One of the key points we decided on early in the planning stages was that we didn’t want the audience to see any flesh.  So all of the vulnerable parts, like the wrists from glove to sleeve and the back of the neck, were covered.  And the fabric is very gutsy – giving her a strong silhouette.  The focus needed to be on the face, what little you could see of it.”

In the final design, her face is camouflaged by a black veil which falls in such a way that it appears to form cracks in her skin.  This effect was a happy accident of experimentation.  “It was all about playing around with fabric because at the time we weren’t sure just how much of her face we wanted to reveal.  I masked it by placing a sheer layer of fabric very close to her skin.  When we tied the ribbon under her chin, the fabric fell like daggers or tears.  Combined with the make-up, it worked very well.”

For hair and make-up designer Jeremy Woodhead (Ninja Assassin, V for Vendetta), working on a character as complex and dark as the Woman in Black was “great fun.”

“It’s character work as opposed to vanity make-up,” says Woodhead.  “I was able to create a look in a process where make-up is actually important to define the character.”

Woodhead explains the philosophy behind the look.  “She’s a ghost, but we didn’t want to fall into the clichés that come with a spectral being.  She’s desiccated, her skin withered and dried, eaten away over time, but it was important to not make her a monster.  She is somebody who was deeply wronged but she was once beautiful too.”

Transforming Liz White into the character each day was not a quick process.  The make-up application alone took over two hours. 

White found the costume and make-up helped transform her emotionally into the character.  “As soon as the transformation was complete, I immediately felt detached from everyone around me on set.  It was incredibly hard to look people straight in the eyes, and vice versa.”

One of the ways the Woman’s peculiar presence manifests in the film is in blink-and-you-miss-it appearances early on, out of a window or through a doorway. Watkins shot several alternate takes featuring the Woman in this fashion to allow for plenty of room for experimentation in the edit.

“I wanted to make a refined, subtle ghost story,” he explains. “I didn’t want anything that went ‘boo’.”

For Watkins, crafting a modern period film was an intriguing contradiction and one he wanted to use to his visual advantage.  “When people ask me what the time period is in which the film is set, I’m very evasive.  I see this film in a way akin to a Tim Burton film.  It’s a story about a guy who gets on a train and lands in this other world of sorts.”

At the center of this ‘other world’ is a house that becomes a key character in the film.  Eel Marsh House – the former home of Kipps’ deceased client, and the location where he discovers the Woman in Black – was an important focus of the production’s location and production design.

“We scouted all over the country to find the right exterior location,” notes Watkins.  “We ultimately found this beautiful house in Peterborough which has a wonderful gothic sense without being too caricature.”

“It’s a very brooding house and seems to have a lot of mystery around it which is very cool,” adds Oakes.

Production designer Kave Quinn, whose past films include Layer Cake and Trainspotting, found it perfectly spooky: “It almost has eyes. It’s a Jacobean building with a gable at the front which gives it an incredible evil look.”

In defining the look of Eel Marsh House, Watkins was keen not to play to ghost house stereotypes. “I wanted it to have this sense of decay, but I didn’t want it to be a monochromatic cliché,” he says.

With Quinn, he sought instead to make use of a rich color palette, resulting in a decidedly more highly saturated look than convention would suggest. “We have these kinds of bruised colors,” continues Watkins. “The colors of decay and death: purples, blacks and rich, deep crimsons. I really wanted the sense of the beauty of the house to come through. At the same time, it’s a haunted house, it has to have nooks and crannies and crevices and dark spaces.”

Quinn sat down with Watkins to fine tune her designs for the interior which were based on a rough blueprint of the exterior (interior sets were then built on stages). “I gathered together loads of research materials on things like staircases and panelling,” says Quinn.

“Kave did wonders as a production designer,” compliments Watkins. “She really understood what I was trying to get at. We designed long corridors so I could have real depth in the frame in the Polanski sense of looking through doorways and half seeing things.”

Watkins continues – “A ghost story is what you can’t quite see – what’s in the corners of the frame and in the margins.  That was something we built into the production design.  If there are blanks for the audience members’ imaginations to fill in, what they will dream up will almost always be scarier than anything we could show so we carefully designed the sets so it’s more about what you half see.  There are moments when we look out a window and wonder ‘Is there something out there?’ because there’s just a glimpse.  That’s terrifying and creepy, and creates a growing sense of danger.”

With Eel Marsh House’s exterior and interior fleshed out, the next order of business was to find a location for the village of Crythin Gifford.  The search proved challenging. “Being that it’s the 21^st Century, obviously anywhere we’d find would be full of cars and road signs and newer buildings that would need covering up,” explains Quinn. “We wanted to try and find somewhere that had almost been untouched by time.  The village we found, Halton Gill, is right in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales (an upland area of Northern England). It hasn’t been over-developed, so all the houses are original from something like 400 years ago.”

“It is important that the village conveys a sense of isolation,” says Oakes.  “With Halton Gill, we could play in terms of build and design in a way we couldn’t really do anywhere else.”

Other key locations include Bluebell Railway in Sussex, which served as the railway location for the scenes bookending Kipps’ journey, and a remote marshland.

“Bluebell Railway was selected because the story requires working steam locomotives but we also had the need for more than one station and Bluebell enables us to travel from station A to station B,” notes Jackson.

The marshland leading up to Eel Marsh House is one of the more bleak images in the film.  The marshland they found had the perfect look and feel, reinforced by the real-life dangers associated with the shooting location.  “One of the locals told us that at a certain time of day the tide rises above your head within 10 minutes and if you go 10 paces out into the marsh you can lose your footing and be sucked under,” recalls Watkins.  “That was quite chilling to hear and we used that bit of info in the film.” 

Aside from choosing the right locations, much of the film’s atmosphere rested with lighting.  “It’s as much about the lighting as anything,” notes Watkins.

Cinematographer Tim Maurice-Jones (Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) says that the primary direction he got from Watkins to define the look of the film was one simple word: “contrast.” “We tried to light the sets with a single source of light only,” explains Maurice-Jones. “A lot of films will use a key light to light the face, a fill light to light any shadow that’s left, and a backlight to pick them out against the background. We tried to use light and shade to achieve that sense of contrast with just one light.”

Finally, the look of the film owes a great deal to the editorial process as editor Jon Harris explains.  “James is great at coming up with ideas for things to pop in just to make it a little creepier,” says Harris.  “It’s a very back-and-forth process between us. We’ll put things together and see what works and then if he’s still on the same set he can add something to it, or apply the idea to another scene.”

He continues: “We tried to achieve something akin to peripheral vision. Although I don’t believe in ghosts, whenever I go into an old house I find things moving in my peripheral vision. We’ve been talking a lot about how to achieve that on film, because you can try to make the audience look at one thing, but they’ll look wherever they want to.”

Watkins describes his relationship with Harris as incredibly collaborative. The pair worked together on Watkins’ feature debut, Eden Lake, as well as Harris’ directorial debut The Descent: Part 2, which Watkins co-wrote. “Jon was a big part of the constructing of the film pre-edit,” he reveals. “He shot Second Unit and was very much a part of the script collaboration process with me and Jane.”