DEFINITION January 2022 – Newsletter

PRODUC T I ON . HOUSE OF GUCCI

Reaching new heights There is a 13-inch height difference between co-stars Lady Gaga and Adam Driver – but this is not the biggest in cinema history. One of the most notable was when Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger starred together in Twins , with 16 inches between them (but we’d be wrong if we didn’t note that this physical anomaly was essentially the plot of the movie).

modern apartment in Milan with a large terrace that we wrapped in green screen to emulate the Manhattan skyline; and then for the Gucci store, a big space in Rome. The interiors were a set design, but the exteriors had to be green screen – and this was quite tricky, because the original New York Gucci store was in an iconic location, on the corner of 57th Street and Fifth Avenue. For Times Square, which was the hardest to recreate, we went back to Milan, as it has more modern architecture than Rome.” The wilds of Gressoney, in the Italian Alps, doubled as the lavish St Moritz. It was there, in the little Italian ski resort, that Lady Gaga took refuge during last year’s winter lockdown. Wolski adds: “All the exteriors were shot in Gressoney, but

unfortunately doesn’t make it into the movie, but Wolski recalls shooting the scene with incredible nostalgia. “A lot of the cast and crew, including myself, remember being there; so we were all arguing about our own memories of how it should be depicted,” he laughs. Milan features as itself, as does Rome – but sometimes, the two double as each other and were used together to recreate New York. This required quite a bit of VFX work, particularly since The Big Apple looked very different in decades past, and plates had to be fashioned from a mixture of old and new footage. “There were three key New York locations: Patrizia and Maurizio’s apartment, the Gucci store and Times Square,” explains Wolski. “We found a

“We were inspired by William Klein, who took fashion photography in a whole new direction, capturing both the beautiful and grotesque”

ITALIAN PERSPECTIVE One of the locations – Rodolfo’s home – was shot in the stunning Villa Necchi Campiglio in Milan. As a museum, this art deco monument is open to visitors

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