Ken Adam: The Art of Production Design

by Christopher Frayling

Go behind the curtain of one of the film world’s least understood art forms with the visual architect of 007 Who can forget the eloquence, sex appeal, and sheer luck of James Bond? The bombshells may vary, Bond might be played by Sean Connery or Roger Moore, but the style remains constant, an expectant suit of clothes simply waiting for the right actor to dive in and hoist his (shaken) martini in the air. Populated with international intrigue and riddled with gadgets, the world of Bond introduced a new kind of cinema, the look and feel of which was engineered by Ken Adam. The mastermind behind seven of the first eleven Bond films, including Dr. No , Adam has been lauded as one of the world’s greatest production designers. First recognized during the filming of Around the World in Eighty Days , he has managed to cultivate a rapt following in one of the cinema’s most underappreciated professions, and with it a reputation for grandly expressionistic sets, such as the war room in Dr. Strangelove and Blofeld’s volcanic headquarters in You Only Live Twice . In this career-spanning series of interviews with Christopher Frayling, Adam shares the inspiration behind his work—from rebuilding eighteenth-century galleons to designing Bond’s moonbuggy—in the process revealing little-known anecdotes of a life begun in Weimar Berlin and nearly ended in World War II, only to piece itself back together and revolutionize the medium of film in its color-saturated golden age.

Genres: Film

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 10, 2006

Reviews

[Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saving suicidal actresses, piloting fighter planes in the RAF during WWII, once nearly constructing a prototype mobile movie theater in addition to designing all the best villain bases in the James Bond series, the life of Ken Adam is something quite extraordinary to read. Presented in interview format, the book covers Adam's life from early childhood in Berlin through his stint in the RAF and later his incredible career in Hollywood. The book is fascinating to read for cinephiles as Adam relates many anecdotes of life on the Bond films and movie-making with cinema gods like Stanley Kubrick. The details in the interview go a long way to revealing all the hard work that a production designer accomplishes in the service to the movie-making process. Fascinating to read as well are the stories of the films that were never to be, such as a first Star Trek film by Philllip Kaufman. The list of movies that Adam dishes about are nearly all classics in some regard; ranging from The Crimson Pirate to Dr. Strangelove to Thunderball. There is some tantalizing insight into the methods of Kubrick, Robert Aldrich, and others. This book really is impossible to put down if you are any kind of die-hard movie buff. One comes away with a great deal of respect for Ken Adam and his contribution to the films he worked on. My only complaint would be that I wished the book had contained more images.

[Malcolm Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ken Adam had an extraordinary life.He is without doubt one of the greatest designers that the film world has ever known. It would have been good to have photos of the actual sets to compare with his designs.My only quibble is that the questions by Christopher Frayling can be a bit long winded.

[Filippo Ulivieri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una lunga intervista ad uno dei più grandi scenografi cinematografici di tutti i tempi, per ripercorrerne la vita e i geniali lavori. Ken Adam ha lavorato per i film della serie James Bond, Star Trek e innumerevoli altre opere, a cui ha donato la sua visionaria predilezione per le scenografie grandiose e stilizzate. Con Kubrick ha lavorato su Dr. Stranamore e Barry Lyndon, film che gli ha regalato un Oscar: il capitolo dedicato a Kubrick presenta con chiarezza la collaborazione tra lo scenografo e il regista e dà conto anche dell'estenuante lavoro per ricreare il '700 in Irlanda sotto le pressanti richieste di Kubrick, concluso con un crollo nervoso da parte di Adam. Con due foto scattate da Kubrick a Ken Adam e Terry Southern e due di Ken Adam a Kubrick, tutte inedite. E' presente anche il disegno per la war room di Stranamore.