CINEMA ALCHEMIST: DESIGNING STAR WARS & ALIEN - THE FILM CAREER OF ROGER CHRISTIAN
By Roger Christian
Published by TITAN BOOKS
Reviewed by Scott Weller
1975. From almost
dying of typhus during the location filming of the ambitious period
comedy/drama star-vehicle LUCKY LADY in Mexico, to coming back to the UK to
becoming part of a small early team of visionaries bringing to life an epic
space fantasy vision concocted by the then still relatively unknown filmmaker
George Lucas and producer Gary Kurtz- a project that he had wanted to make
since childhood dreaming, designed in a revolutionary “used universe” style the
likes of which had never been done before, Roger Christian, Set Decorator and
later acclaimed director, takes himself and us back in time in a way that
Doctor Who’s TARDIS never could, to a world on the cusp of STAR WARS (and
beyond), with his candid and revelatory CINEMA ALCHEMIST, out now in hardback
from TITAN BOOKS.
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| One of the original STAR WARS greatest behind the scenes contributors: Roger Christian. |
As the book
begins, Christian has already enjoyed a successful career as a film, commercials
and TV set decorator, very much the young rock star-type of the UK industry, but his talents are soon put to better, brighter use via a new wave of filmmakers coming out of the UK and Hollywood, involving him in the biggest and most iconic film productions ever conceived, of which he'd also be blessed with some of the best friends and contacts in the business that anyone could have, of which Christian’s
respect for production designer and trusted friend, the late John Barry, and
his comrades in Les Dilley and Norman Reynolds, is clear across the seventies
(and afterwards). This was a time when the impossible was (almost) becoming possible,
as his work on the at first named THE STAR WARS would soon prove, bringing to
life an incredible futuristic but believable reality with a set decorating budget
that was a meagre $200,000 dollars- the kind of fee today that wouldn’t even
pay for the catering on one of the TRANSFORMERS movies!
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| Christian with Les Dilley, John Barry, Bill Welch and Norman Reynolds at Elstree in 1976. |
Working from Lee
Studios in the project’s infancy, as it took its bold first steps, Lucas and
Christian bonded well in a shared visual cause, fighting further budget cuts,
and a shorter and shorter time frame pre- production window going into filming
for the following March 1976, hindered by a stingy and faithless FOX licking its
wounds from several flop films of the early seventies (including LUCKY LADY!),
of which sci-fi was then a dirty word in Hollywood, despite Alan Ladd, Jr.’s
true belief in the genius and talent of George Lucas, a man of true courage and
a respected director who equally respected and encouraged Christian, on a
project like STAR WARS that was lots of trial yet thankfully not error!
Ralph McQuarrie’s
conceptual paintings would also be an incredible and inspirational start
alongside the Journal of the Whills
script for Christian, Barry and company, as the race against time in constructing
the prototype for the most important make-or-break roles of the film beckoned,
namely the two droids in R2-D2 and C-3PO, which had to look believable in their
comic and dramatic scenes together, and in their interactions with others within
a variety of landscapes. The squat R2 would be the hardest to realize,
alongside the overall challenges of creating the shell/suits, and the right
look, as well as nailing down the casting of the actors vitally needed to
inhabit them. Christian’s early wooden prototype was instrument in telling FOX
and the rest of the crew that this ambitious film could be realized.
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| The original interior of the Millennium Falcon, as set decorated by Roger Christian. |
Equally important
and the touch paper for the ultimate look of STAR WARS was Christian’s finding and
using of old airplane scrap parts across the UK, sold cheaply but soon a rich
commodity, as part of the film’s memorable dressing, vitally needed and never
more successfully showcased than within the interior and exterior of the used Millennium Falcon pirate ship, a vehicle
littered with “greeblies” (a fun term created by Lucas). As well as the Falcon, the remaining list of challenges
and things to be created were a veritable mountain to be traversed for Christian,
mostly working alone until early 1976, his talent and enthusiasm ultimately
finding others who recognized his ideas for the movie, of which his quick and
cheaply made lightsaber prototype would soon become the stuff of modern
cinematic iconography.
Star Wars: ‘Designing The Lightsaber’ Bonus Clip | Official HD - YouTube
As things were
hectically progressing and the days of filming dawned, other problems awaited,
primarily the New Wave versus the Old Wave (notably led by cinematographer Gil Taylor and, to a smaller degree when reading the book, Peter Beale at FOX UK) at Tunisia and the studio-
grumbling personnel at the time not ready to accept George Lucas and his ideas for a film they
thought was just a kiddy flick, and not warranting such detail- never really
believing or knowing the story during the entire UK shoot, whilst Barry and
Christian tried to be the middle ground in diffusing the uneasiness whilst staying
true to their ideals in getting the vision George wanted up on the screen.
Christian vividly
recalls the first hectic and chaotic day of filming in the Nefta salt flats of
Tunisia with the Sandcrawler and Lars Homestead, as droids went wrong and a
unique back-up plan was initiated by him and John Barry, both of whom shared a
lack of faith in UK practical effects man John Stears’ too ambitious ideas for
the radio controlled droids, which ultimately worked but had problems early on.
It's clear reading the book that Christian regarded Stears as being very much a
part of the Old Wave.
In between the
rising problems during studio filming and its blurry last few weeks, Christian also
gives us some nice reminisces and observations about the cast, like Harrison
Ford, early on happy to be at work with the carpenters at Elstree, a clearly
insecure Carrie Fisher, and being impressed by Sir Alec Guinness in Tunisia.
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| Problems within the corridors of the Nostromo in ALIEN. Image: FOX. |
Completing the
experience that was STAR WARS, the intergalactic terrors of ALIEN soon arrived.
Christian’s skilled and thoughtful on-screen work for George Lucas finally
appeared in cinemas in May 1977 and was soon a quick influence on a young
Ridley Scott’s career path after his first successful period film in THE
DUELLISTS. Hiring Christian was a no brainer, though, like STAR WARS, his new
assignment had as equally little precious time for pre-production, and was on
an even bigger scale at Shepperton Studios. Thankfully, like Lucas before him,
Christian and Scott were to think on the same shorthand wavelength as creation
and set decoration commenced on the labyrinth once you’re in them its difficult
to get out of them, claustrophobic sets of the commercial towing vehicle, the Nostromo, soon turned killing ground
slaughterhouse for the most unusual and vicious Xenomorph life form ever
conceived in cinema-dom.
Helping to launch
Sigourney Weaver’s career with an important screen test as the gutsy heroine
Ripley, there’s many anecdotes and remembrances to savor from Christian, talking in the fullest
detail yet about the filming of the infamous “chest burster” - one of the
greatest scenes in film horror ever.
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| Modern movie art poster for Christian's directorial debut: BLACK ANGEL. Art by Mark Raats. |
In between such
two great space epics, Christian returns to Terra Firma with the on and off and
on again experiences of working with the zany and beloved Monty Python team for
their controversial but inspired LIFE OF BRIAN and Marty Feldman’s innovative
THE LAST REMAKE OF BEAU GESTE. Then he makes the bold leap of becoming a
feature film director in his own right, bringing to life the story that
literally came to being in his mindset via his aforementioned death’s door
experience in New Mexico five years earlier: the now cult classic, low budget
fantasy shot in the realms of an atmospheric Scotland: BLACK ANGEL, the cult
short film made with little money but loads of enthusiasm by Christian, with
the very best support from friends, getting the incredible advantage of being
seen in 400 UK cinemas in deliberate pairing opposite THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and
a final production much admired by the likes of Spielberg and Lucas, the latter
taking a gamble that soon paid off in supporting Christian’s debut, with BLACK
ANGEL perfectly complimenting and setting the tone for this dark new 1980 offering
to the STAR WARS saga. Many years later rediscovered and restored to become an
internet viewing hit, BLACK ANGEL is now on its way to becoming a major motion
picture experience in its own right, of which we wish Christian success on his
endeavours.
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| Back in Tunisia filming Pod Race footage for EPISODE I. |
Having won an
Academy Award for STAR WARS, Christian never forget the space epic roots that
truly put him in the map, returning uncredited to help Lucas on several
sequences for RETURN OF THE JEDI in 1982, and vitally helping to bring the new
Prequel saga to life with EPISODE I in 1997, as second unit director. Sadly,
his book recollection experiences on the latter are way, way too brief.
Rounding things out, and only available in the printed edition, is a nice selection of rare colour and black and white photos (and early concept drawings/blueprints), mostly linked to Christian and his work STAR WARS, though the caption
for a colour image of Luke’s Landspeeder is incorrect- it was taken at
ILM (as Paul Huston can be seen in the shot) presumably for January 1977's additional shooting in Death Valley, California, and not at Elstree.
A few other little
editorial errors here and there also fall through the cracks (for STAR WARS there was no cantina band in the UK filming- all of it was done later by ILM in the US), but this is
nonetheless an indispensable book for fans of set design, decoration and the
STAR WARS and ALIEN films in general. CINEMA ALCHEMIST is the ultimate book for any budding enthusiast wanting to know why,
how and where the incredible props and set decorations came to be on two of the
greatest films of all time, and Christian should be applauded for his
incredible memory, particularly in dispelling many of the behind the scenes modern
myths that have been expounded over the years about the making of the original
STAR WARS in later interviews, magazines and blog pieces.
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| Christian and friend... |
The kind of comfortable to read memoir/book
where you’ll learn more within its pages than attending three years of studying at film school, a
key to Christian’s success hasn’t just been luck, he clearly had to get his
head down and get on with things for the most part, finding a way, sometimes simple, sometimes difficult, to get things
done. At its heart, Christian’s mantra of “if you want to do it, you have to go
for it” shines through, of which a certain green Jedi Master would no doubt be proud…
AFICIONADO RATING:
Perhaps it still needed some mild editing here and there, but CINEMA
ALCHEMIST’s meticulous, often unprecedented detail makes it a terrific
companion to J.W. Rinzler’s Making of
Star Wars book from 2007, as well as other ALIEN related materials. 4 out of 5
