One evening in the early 1990s Markku Perälä is sitting at a bar. He meets with with Aki Kaurismäki and starts drinking with him. When the bar closes, Markku invites Aki over to his place. When Aki sees Markku's apartment, he asks: “Would you like to work as a production designer?” Markku says yes.
Markku Perälä is an artist who sees beauty in places others don’t. For almost twenty years he and his colleague Jukka Salmi have created those peculiarly beautiful sets for Aki Kaurismäki’s films, where time has stopped and left the space and its objects to play their own quiet tune. Pätilä has found perfect sets from deserted factories, empty apartment buildings, private houses, and one demolished theatre in France. Sometimes, like in the case of the Man Without the Past, everything was built from scratch.
"It’s about having a similar sense of humor. Production design is not solo work, and it’s not separate from the story. Rather, it is framing the story in a way that brings out its beauty. Every detail matters."
It’s not uncommon that directors expect production design to be completed in four weeks. “That’s pretty intensive”, Markku sighs. "Ten weeks would be ideal".
Every production design requires background work during which one needs to get all possible information on the subject and see what kinds of objects would complement the story. "Museums, old magazines and product catalogs are great resources, and so are Taschen’s decennial design books", ” Markku explains and hands out an Anttila’s product catalog from 1959-1960. “This has everything from curtains hangers to soaps.”
Markku creates worlds that look and feel real. Helsingin Sanomat wrote that the Man Without the Past had been filmed in a real container village for homeless people. The truth was, however, that seven men built that village from scratch in four weeks.
At the moment Markku is making a movie about the life of Olavi Virta, the king of Finnish tango. “For those sets we need all kinds of things from 1930s to1960s.”
Markku Perälä is an artist who sees beauty in places others don’t. For almost twenty years he and his colleague Jukka Salmi have created those peculiarly beautiful sets for Aki Kaurismäki’s films, where time has stopped and left the space and its objects to play their own quiet tune. Pätilä has found perfect sets from deserted factories, empty apartment buildings, private houses, and one demolished theatre in France. Sometimes, like in the case of the Man Without the Past, everything was built from scratch.
"It’s about having a similar sense of humor. Production design is not solo work, and it’s not separate from the story. Rather, it is framing the story in a way that brings out its beauty. Every detail matters."
It’s not uncommon that directors expect production design to be completed in four weeks. “That’s pretty intensive”, Markku sighs. "Ten weeks would be ideal".
Every production design requires background work during which one needs to get all possible information on the subject and see what kinds of objects would complement the story. "Museums, old magazines and product catalogs are great resources, and so are Taschen’s decennial design books", ” Markku explains and hands out an Anttila’s product catalog from 1959-1960. “This has everything from curtains hangers to soaps.”
Markku creates worlds that look and feel real. Helsingin Sanomat wrote that the Man Without the Past had been filmed in a real container village for homeless people. The truth was, however, that seven men built that village from scratch in four weeks.
At the moment Markku is making a movie about the life of Olavi Virta, the king of Finnish tango. “For those sets we need all kinds of things from 1930s to1960s.”
Image: Markku Pätilä, more images on Thinglink
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