We were really careful in coming up with the look of Howard’s world to make assumptions about how old he was when he would’ve formed his taste, and what that kind of sensibility would’ve translated to by the time he was actually the age to get some money together. This was always the kind of guy who would say, “one of these days I’m gonna buy that Trinitron TV,” partially because it was the nicest thing he could think about when he was broke a few years prior, and partially because these design elements are inherently beautiful in their own lens. The consistency was one that Josh and Benny and I would discuss a lot, and draw a lot of inspiration from particular friends in New York we had as kids. We all grew up very middle class in New York, and there was a particular aspirational wealth aesthetic in the city 15 or 20 years ago that we were trying to tap into.
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Josh and Benny Safdie speak like their characters. The brothers tumble through their thoughts, stumbling over one another, beginning a new thought before finishing the former, one interesting fragment merging with an equally interesting and altogether unrelated fragment. During their Criterion Collection Closet Picks appearance, the brothers appear flush and short of breath, weaving back and forth, Josh putting an exclamation mark at the end of Benny’s sentence before starting his own paragraph. For their recent win at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the brothers each gave an acceptance speech at the same time, turning their moment into an overwhelming experience.
“What an honor —”
“We flew long distance —”
“— we wouldn’t be here without you —”
“— the longest was about 4,600 miles —”
The unfiltered and impulsive inform Uncut Gems, the newest and most polished of their works. In the picture, charismatic compulsive gambler and jeweler Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) makes enemies and friends in equal measure. His near-constant risks garner little reward but he never falters, his propulsive momentum and finesse creating a protective layer around his person. The audience of Uncut Gems begs for some relief but when relief comes, it is somehow more nightmarish than the whirlwind that preceded it. This brand of storytelling was recently summarized by the film’s co-editor and co-writer Ronald Bronstein. Bronstein said there’s “anxiety, all the time” with the Safdies, and they try hard not to bore an audience but, “at what point does someone who doesn’t want to bore you become a menace – an aggressive, hostile force you want to get away from?”
Uncut Gems has vacuumed up accolades, including three Independent Spirit awards and three National Board of Review awards (Sandler likened his Oscar snub to being “snubbed” in high school for Best Looking). As the film enjoys its success, production designer Sam Lisenco spoke with us about Howard’s taste, research into the Diamond District, and opals.
Sam Ankenbauer: Uncut Gems was in pre-production before Heaven Knows What, correct? I read that the Safdies met Arielle Holmes while scouting the Diamond District. Were you involved throughout the process? How did it change over time?
Sam Lisenco: I was involved since the very beginning, in one form or another. They had been throwing this idea around for so long that I had gone on to design films for other directors in the middle. The countless revisions of the script started to pile up, and I found it easier to just check in with the guys rather than keep on top of the film while it was being developed.
Josh had become so ingrained in the Diamond District by this point that everybody on the block knew him. It wasn’t until much later that I had access, as it’s such a closed-off world that it took Josh several years to get to the place where he could bring outsiders in.
Could you tell me about the opening sequence, filmed in O’Kiep, South Africa? What was the process of finding and dressing this location?
Unfortunately, I wasn’t available when they took a splinter unit to South Africa for the opening of the film. From my understanding there was a traditional film ranch there that provided kind of an all-in-one production support scenario and helped them find local crew. It was always in the script to begin the film with this kind of Indiana Jones adventure opening, and locking the location in was a high priority even before principal photography began on the main unit of the film. It wasn’t until several months later that the Safdie brothers were able to get down there with a super-small skeleton American crew to work with the South Africans.
How does one do research in the Diamond District?
Once the film was ready to go, and funding was in place, Josh kind of took us on a tourist trip to introduce us to a lot of the vendors he had befriended in the district. And for the first time, I was allowed to take tons of research photos of spaces, architectural details, and jewelry cases. It was a little bit of a touchy thing, but I started snapping away as much as I could, kind of half playing onlooker and half researcher, just trying my best to get a sense of what the world looked like. It was the first of a few visits, and pretty soon I knew my way around some of the buildings well enough to break off with my decorator and just start making notes of details, materials, and finishes.
What was the process of creation behind the titular black opal?
The opal in the film was actually a combination of a lot of chunks of real opal worked into a painted plaster matrix. It was really tough to get it to a place where the brothers were happy with it, and after tons of prototypes and models back and forth that weren’t quite magical enough, our producer, Sebo, had made some incredible opal contacts in Australia, and we literally put someone on a plane to go get large enough pieces to work into the final screen-used “rock.” Time was incredibly tight at this point, and there are absolutely shots in the film where the prop wasn’t even totally cured yet. We probably went through somewhere between 15 and 30 different versions of the rock before we settled on the final one.
How do you feel about Howard’s taste? In your opinion, does he have good taste, bad taste . . .
I think Howard has a fully formed sense of his own taste. And I think that any person, fictional or real, who projects a sense of self-awareness enough to have taste is better than no taste at all. There are definitely things about the look of his “style” that I find personally garish or over the top, but I think we gave him a sense of aesthetic integrity in the language of the movie that is consistent enough that it is beautiful in its own way. And some of the postmodern furniture in the film is absolutely, undeniably beautiful. But it’s a tricky period for design and very reactionary, and so I think a guttural feeling toward the look of the film is part of the experience.
There’s a garish quality to the design of Howard’s New York City apartment and his Long Island home. For instance, the Bearblocks covering his son’s room – the design tends to overwhelm, just like the characters. Could you tell me about designing Howard’s personal life?
We were really careful in coming up with the look of Howard’s world to make assumptions about how old he was when he would’ve formed his taste, and what that kind of sensibility would’ve translated to by the time he was actually the age to get some money together. This was always the kind of guy who would say, “one of these days I’m gonna buy that Trinitron TV,” partially because it was the nicest thing he could think about when he was broke a few years prior, and partially because these design elements are inherently beautiful in their own lens. The consistency was one that Josh and Benny and I would discuss a lot, and draw a lot of inspiration from particular friends in New York we had as kids. We all grew up very middle class in New York, and there was a particular aspirational wealth aesthetic in the city 15 or 20 years ago that we were trying to tap into.
Were Howard’s store and office based on real shops in the Diamond District, what with the mantrap and the unsteady glass countertops? I’ve read that Michael Graves was also an inspiration.
Individual details in the set were copied almost entirely from existing shops, down to wall cladding and floor tile styles. The big reflective ceiling piece was inspired from some postmodern design interior books we had been looking at together, and the jewelry cases were based in shape on a real case that Josh had snapped a photo of during one of his periods of research in the district. The language of everything was stuff that we were actually seeing in these spaces, and I think we pushed it a little toward kind of this slightly outmoded postmodern look with elements like the curved wall and the ceiling based on some architectural references like Michael Graves and Robert Venturi as it helped imply a little faux wealth that the look of the film needed.
How did the Furby necklaces come to be? What did Hasbro think, if anything?
The Furby necklace was in the earliest draft of the film, as far as I can remember. It was always an object that had been fetishized, even as the entirety of the film changed around it. It was one of the more consistent beats throughout the writing process, and probably one of the first jewelry pieces we needed to execute, based on the amount of time the stone setting took. To be completely honest, I believe legal took a fair use approach to the object and we avoided Hasbro at all cost! Cat Miller, the propmaster on the film, took an incredible lead on execution and really blew our socks off with the final product.
I’d like to know about the school play, what conversations were had about its design?
Ronnie Bronstein had written this kind of dybbuk villager school play, and we knew we wanted some very sort of traditional snowy forest scene. We built the pieces with some leftover lumber that we had in the construction shop. Eric Dean, the art director, sort of took charge on that build. I explained the kind of vibe, and I think I showed him the opening from A Serious Man, and he drew that funny little house on a napkin, which felt totally in the right vein.
Could you tell me about filming in Mohegan Sun?
The casino was incredibly helpful in giving us access and control to the spaces we needed, especially the sports book. It was shut down at that point of the year because I believe it was actually just for horse racing, and they allowed us to put our own screens up. The casino itself was open while we were shooting, and the winding shots through the casino floor were live. We were incredibly lucky that they were as amenable to photography as they were.
How was working with cinematographer Darius Khondji? Did he bring in a different style to the film? Did you still design for 360 degrees, like on Good Time?
Khondji is immensely talented, and incredibly driven. We often didn’t see eye to eye on the language and look of the film and butted heads, but I think in the end it was for the benefit of the final product. His language of cinematography, however, is wonderfully naturalistic, and a lot of the light sources came from on-screen lamp elements, which is always great for the art department, as it gives us a lot more control than we would normally have. It was a tense but rewarding experience.
Were scenes stolen like on previous Safdie productions?
Our footprint was too big on this film to really steal shots like we’ve done before. This was pretty “movie” compared to previous efforts. There were definitely times where deep background extras were real people, but between Sandler’s recognizability and the fact that we had trailers and things this time, I think there was definitely more of a responsibility on this film to control the environment and make an effort to make it feel as stolen as possible, in a way we haven’t had to before.
Do you happen to know the response of the Diamond District community?
There was definitely initial skepticism to us showing up and “exploiting” this very, very insular world, but I think that when we finally started shooting and Adam Sandler showed up, the block got a lot warmer. He’s a mega-watt star who has built an incredibly successful career not just on his talent, but also being a really nice guy, and I think the locals felt that, and everyone was pretty game for us to make the film. I’m not so sure of the reaction since its release, but I don’t think we were exploitative or demeaning, just trying our best to capture a portrait of this fictional character in a very real world. At least, I hope that’s what we did.
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All images provided courtesy of A24.
