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Anton Furst: Designer of the Batcave (March 7, 1990)01:35:04

After a brief introduction, Furst talks about his background, his interest in illustration, his experience at the Royal College of London, and his relationship to Bernard Tschumi. Furst explains his job is to document reality, distort it and chose a device to strengthen the idea. He explains how he worked in special effects for several famous films, but he tries to avoid using them on his own films. He talks about working with Stanley Kubrick, Tim Burton and Federico Fellini.

Furst presents his drawings for the film “The Company of Wolves,” and shows images of the final set designs. Furst describes the process involved in the art design for Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket.” He shows images of the final set designs built in London. Furst offers several anecdotes about Stanley Kubrick.

Furst discusses his design of Gotham City for the 1989 “Batman” directed by Tim Burton. He begins by explaining his inspirations. These influences include Hugh Ferriss’ Metropolis, Brutalism, Antonio Sant’Elia’s Futurist designs, and Shin Takamatsu’s locomotive-influenced buildings.

Furst describes his drawings of different parts of Gotham, pointing out his references. Furst also mentions architects such as Otto Wagner, Louis Sullivan and Antoni Gaudí as inspirations. He presents images of the final set design, explaining the process and the result. To finish the lecture he describes the design and construction of the “Batmobile.”

From the Media ArchiveMedia archive link