Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Santo Loquasto Designs on Screen and Stage


The ballet and opera designer Santo Loquasto was production designer for Woody Allen's 1992 film, Husbands and Wives, set in Manhattan. The dark-green wooden benches (above) in Central Park were made to serve Loquasto's palette of bruised, early-nineties colors. Juliette Lewis wore oversized woolen blazers and hugged them around herself like blankets. Woody Allen was consumed by his greatcoat.








Wine-stained reds combined with earthy greens (forest, arsenic, mud)  that one dissonant and singular combination dominated almost every frame. However, the colors suddenly turned hot for an instant (below) when Mia Farrow discovered the love interest that would allow her to escape from one boring marriage and start another. This was the actress's thirteenth and final film with Woody Allen. The scandal that caused their real-life split became public shortly before Husbands and Wives appeared in theaters.


Below, a few of Santo Loquasto's theater designs, for comparison.