This happens right as Darby is taking the elevator down and the floors are ticking off, and she’s being like: “Wait, okay, this is one floor, two floor, three floor. Okay, we’re 10 stories underground.” The doors part, and she sees this image. We wanted to create the feeling of a feudal underground. It’s the moment you realize that what you thought was a boutique luxury hotel has actually been a fortress, and that Andy sees himself as a king. Charlotte and I literally went through, I think, 47 different ideas for chandeliers, looking for that one chandelier that would fit with the space and feel clean and modern, but also give you King Arthur vibes.
Christensen: This particular shot, it’s almost like three rooms in one room, in one shot. It’s so true what you’re saying, Brit, when the set was going up and it was all just in the work lights when they were painting it—we were like, “How on earth do we get these crazy amazing ideas of the sunlight and the beam?”
Marling: The set is only dynamic if it’s lit properly, because it’s actually all a wash in one color. So, when the set was just up under work lights, you would look at it and be like, “Oh, is this going to work?” We kept having in our mind the idea of Escher’s drawings and the feelings of staircases that go down but go up—it’s almost like a surrealist, cubist form. The way that Charlotte achieved that that’s so impressive is just constantly thinking of where to send light that carves out the architecture, so that even though it’s a wash of one color, which is supposed to be stone, you can feel it actually this is a labyrinth that goes on forever. If you just follow the staircases and follow the tunnels, it leads to all kinds of places, which I think is an achievement of lighting.
Christensen: This shot, more than any in any movie I’ve made that I can think of right now, is the closest to painting. Even the little stripes of light in the staircase—if they weren’t there, you’re not seeing that that space in the middle actually is lowered. How do we create the depth? The little wall lights that I call coffee lights. Brit, what do they call them?
Marling: I call them coffee lights too now, because of Charlotte. [Laughs] But they are sconces.
The Isolation