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PEOPLE & ARTS A31
Jack Fisk rediscovers L. A. through Malick’s eyes
LINDSEY BAHR
AP Film Writer
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP)
— You might not know the
name Jack Fisk, but you
definitely know his work.
Whether it’s the private
bowling alley where Daniel
Plainview torments Eli Sun-
day in Paul Thomas Ander-
son’s “There Will Be Blood,”
the disarmingly simple Si-
lencio theater in David
Lynch’s “Mulholland Dr.,”
or a single Victorian home
perched on a hill of wheat
in Terrence Malick’s “Days
of Heaven,” Fisk has creat-
ed some of the most iconic
spaces seen on screen in
the past 40 years.
Fisk, 69, is a production
designer. It’s perhaps the
next moviemaking craft to
get the glow of celebrity
recognition, like the greats
of cinematography did
a few years ago. He has
been twice-nominated for
an Academy Award, most
recently for recreating the
world of 1820s fur trappers
in “The Revenant.” And
like cinematographer Em-
manuel “Chivo” Lubezki,
who he’s worked with on
six films, Fisk is one of the
most respected in the field.
His latest, “Knight of Cups”
(out Friday in limited re-
lease), reunites him with
Malick once more. Fisk
has worked on every one
of Malick’s films. They first
collaborated on the 1973
masterpiece “Badlands”
and they haven’t let up,
despite both taking nearly
two-decade breaks. “Bad-
lands” is also where Fisk
met his wife, actress Sissy
Spacek, with whom he
shares two daughters.
Fisk describes his job as be-
ing a second set of eyes
for the director. He’s is that
rare kind of low-key artist
who is a Jack of all trades.
“I got a lot of work be-
cause I was a one-man
band. I could design it,
build it, dress it and prop
it,” he said.
We’re sitting at a cafe
table on the sand at the
Annenberg Community
Beach House in Santa Mon-
ica, where he set a scene
with Cate Blanchett and
Christian Bale in “Knight of
Cups.” He’s pointing out
the Marion Davies Guest
In this Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016 photo, Jack Fisk poses for a portrait to promote the film, “Knight of He’s talking to Malick
Cups,” in Santa Monica, Calif. about future projects and
House on the public prop-
erty while picking on his
steak and eggs.
He liked the location be-
cause of its simplicity and
minimalism.
The film is an expression-
istic Los Angeles odyssey,
following a screenwriter
(Bale) who has lost his
words through a series of
relationships with the likes
of Blanchett, Natalie Port-
man, and Freida Pinto. It
takes the audience from
the fake streets of the War-
ner Bros. lot to the very real
skid row area of Downtown
and beyond — to the San-
ta Monica canyons, the
Malibu beaches, the unin-
viting steps of the powerful
Century City talent agency
CAA, the grotesquely opu-
lent mansions of Coldwa-
ter Canyon, the modernist
houses of the Hollywood
Hills, and even out to the
desert, whether it be the
serene periphery of Palm
Springs or the bacchanalia
of Las Vegas.
“It’s difficult making a Los
Angeles movie. So many
different things have shot
here,” Fisk said. He’s re-
sponsible for some of them,
including Lynch’s “Mulhol-
land Dr.”
“I was trying to do things
completely different,” said
Fisk. “David (Lynch) loves
Los Angeles but his entry
is more ‘Sunset Boulevard’
and it’s a moodier, darker
city. (‘Knight of Cups’) was
not. This was more advertis-
ing.”
Fisk knows the city but he
doesn’t live there perma-
nently. He lived in Los An-
geles for 12 years, having
moved to the coast in a
U-Haul with his friend David
Lynch in 1970. They shared
an apartment for a time
near the Sunset Strip night
club Whisky a Go Go, and
then he moved to a small
home in Santa Monica
with goats, chickens, and
a goose. The goose would
join him for his morning
walks to the pier for coffee. the Donald H. Fey Memori-
The Los Angeles that Bale’s
character inhabits isn’t
quite that quaint. It’s full
of excess — money and
beautiful people and dis-
tractions.
“It’s not a real world.
You’re driving down the
street and it’s a Bentley
and a Mercedes, a Ferrari.
You go to stores and a pair
of shoes is like $1000. I was nication school. Her father
down on Rodeo Drive to-
day and it’s crazy, but it’s
wonderful. For me, com-
ing here is almost like an
Friday 4 March 2016
Associated Press still has one more Malick
amusement park,” said
Fisk, who’s called a Virgin-
ia farm home for the past
three decades.
Temptation is a major
theme for Bale’s character
in the film and Fisk found
himself having to scout not
just locations of serene lux- “It just makes me want to
ury, but raucous Hollywood
nightclubs, too.
There was no script for
Tina Fey establishes Temple U.
scholarship in honor of dad
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Tina
Fey and her brother have
established a scholarship
at Philadelphia’s Temple
University in memory of
their late father.
The actress announced
al Scholarship on Wednes-
day night’s “The Tonight
Show.” Her father studied
journalism at Temple and
graduated in 1966.
Upper Darby native Fey
told “Tonight Show” host
Jimmy Fallon the scholar-
ship is targeted toward
veterans who attend Tem-
ple’s media and commu-
served in the Korean War
and died in October.
“Knight of Cups” either
and all Fisk had to work
with were identifiers like
“Cate’s house” and “doc-
tor’s office.”
“The thing with Terry is if
I say, ‘which do you like
better, this one, that one
or that one?’ He’ll say
‘let’s shoot them all,’” Fisk
laughed.
But Fisk and Malick don’t
have to spend much time
discussing and often times
Malick prefers to be sur-
prised.
“In 10 to 15 words Terry and
Jack can accomplish what
it would take anyone else
an hour to figure out,” said
producer Nicolas Gonda.
Fisk didn’t win the Acad-
emy Award on Sunday.
He laughed that he just
wanted one to match his
wife’s. “The books are fall-
ing down!” he said with a
smile.
film in post-production, but
for now, he’s mostly think-
ing about basements, hav-
ing just bought a house in
Austin, Texas, in between
his daughters’ homes.
“Knight of Cups,” he said
was reaffirming to his life
and his family.
hug them more,” Fisk said.
“I appreciate everything
that was real in my life.”q
In this image released by
Paramount Pictures, Tina Fey
portrays Kim Baker in a scene
from “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.”
Associated Press
Temple School of Media
and Communication Dean
David Boardman tells The
Philadelphia Inquirer the
fund has received some
sizable gifts, including from
Fallon. q