Gorbo — 16 years ago(April 06, 2009 05:10 AM)

Principal photography on GREAT EXPECTATIONS began on July 8, 1996 in Sarasota, Florida. The primary set was a Venetian Gothic mansion, Ca d' Zan, on Sarasota Bay which served as the crumbling residence and estate of Ms. Dinsmoor. The imposing structure, once owned by circus magnate John Mable Ringling and his wife, was originally intended to combine architectural features drawn from two of Mrs. Ringling's favorite buildings - the facade of the Doge's Palace in Venice and the tower of the old Madison Square Garden in New York City, where the Ringling circus regularly appeared.
The structure impressed the filmmakers, especially Cuarn, who scouted the entire southeastern seaboard in search of a mansion and an authentic fishing village before choosing to film in Sarasota. "Ca d' Zan had a magical, larger-than life quality, because it was built by a circus family," he notes.
For production designer Tony Burrough, the biggest challenge was to transform Ca d' Zan and its perfectly manicured gardens into Ms. Dinsmoor's dilapidated residence, Paradiso Perduto (Paradise Lost). "It is the land that time forgot," explains Burrough, referring to what remains of a wedding party that never took place, and which launched the character's descent into madness. Inside the arched gateway were enormous party tents, ripped and tattered, a grand piano leaning precariously against a decaying bandstand, remnants of a wedding cake, overturned banquet tables and broken crystal - an elegant dinner for five hundred guests buried in twenty years of rot. The lawn covered with dead palm fronds and overgrown brush added to the forlorn feeling. The intricate design was very convincing. "You've really let this place go," griped a local tourist to one of the crew, unaware that a movie was being made.
If Paridiso Perduto represents the world of the very rich, then Cortez Island, a vintage fishing village on the Gulf of Mexico where young Finn is reared, speaks for the working class. "What's so beautiful about Cortez is that it still preserves an old style of living, though it's on the verge of changing," notes Cuarn, referring to Florida's recent ban of net fishing.
After five weeks of filming in Florida, production moved to New York City, where Finn becomes ensconced in the trendy and sophisticated art world and is eventually given a debut at the fictitious Thrall gallery. "New York was an ideal contrast to Florida because it has the best and the worst. It's the perfect picture of capitalism, of a society that starts to dehumanize. And more than that, it is the capital of perceptions," says Cuarn, himself a Soho resident.
Eventually Finn moves from his cramped room at the Carter Hotel to a huge loft on Astor Place, one of the film's key locations. "The loft represents Finn's ascent into the new class that he's enjoying," Cuarn explains, adding, "We tried to film primarily in huge spaces, not an easy thing to come by in New York."
"Without mercy, a man is not a human being." Sansho the Bailiff, 1954