TheArt Directors Guild Film Society and American Cinemathequewill honor
Production Designer
ARTHUR MAX
with a screening of the Academy Award® winning film
“GLADIATOR”
(2000)
1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica
as the kick-off to this year’s screening series highlighting the work of renowned Production Designers and their creative colleagues. The screening series is sponsored by Variety. ARTHUR MAXwill be present after the screening to participate in a discussion to be moderated by Production Designer
JOHN MUTO
“GLADIATOR” is directed by RIDLEY SCOTT, MAX's longtime collaborator, and himself a former Art Director. The film stars RUSSELL CROWE and JOAQUIN PHOENIXand won five Academy Awards® in 2001, including Best Picture and Best Visual Effects for the integration of real sets with digital effects. Much of “Gladiator” was shot in Malta, where sections of Rome’s Coliseum were replicated for filming. MAX was honored by his peers that year with the Art Directors Guild Award for Best Production Design, for his work on "GLADIATOR".
A native New Yorker, MAX began his career as a stage lighting designer in the music industry following graduation from New York University in the late 1960s. His projects included work at BILL GRAHAM's famous music venue, The Fillmore East, in New York’s East Village, and the historic Woodstock Festival of 1969. During the following decade, he designed concert stages for such legendary musical artists as T-REX and PINK FLOYD.
After studying architecture in England, MAXwent on to do several architectural design projects in London. He entered the British film industry as an assistant to several English Production Designers, first for STUART CRAIG on HUGH HUDSON's “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes” and “Cal” (both 1984), then for ASSHETON GORTON on HUDSON’s“Revolution” (1985).
MAX began his affiliation with filmmaker SCOTT in the television commercial arena more than two decades ago, and continued that collaboration on many of SCOTT’s feature films, most recently on the upcoming “Robin Hood.” This film marks MAX’s seventh project for filmmaker SCOTT, a list of achievements which includes, “G.I. Jane" (2001); “Black Hawk Down" (2001); “Kingdom of Heaven” (2005); and "Body of Lies” (2008). MAX received an Academy Award® nomination and an Art Directors Guild nomination for his recreation of 1970's Harlem for "American Gangster" (2007). MAX also received two other Art Directors Guild nominations for “Black Hawk Down” (2001), and DAVID FINCHERS's "Panic Room" (2002).
