ATONEMENT Art Director NIALL MORONEY talks to ROSALIND MCCLINTOCK about dragging a dead horse and his losing battle with Keira Knightley.

If you ask people what they think of Atonement the movie, ‘beautiful’ tends to be the first word out. And they are right. It is beautiful, from the summery floral-upon-floral rooms of Tallis House to the bombed out dirtiness of Dunkirk. The film is predicted to pick up the award for Best Art Direction. Understandably Art Director Niall Moroney is excited to have been involved.

“I loved it. It was really hard work, but I really enjoyed it. Just having worked on Atonement will stand me in good stead. Everyone seems to agree, whether you like Keira or not, whether you like the film or not that it looks great. It just reflects on us at the end of the day and that’s just brilliant. So, whether it wins an Oscar or not there is going to be kudos involved for having worked on it.”

The story spans over a number of decades, each era has a very distinct feel to it from the sets, costumes and even the lighting.

“Seamus McGarvey the DOP just lit it beautifully. They had a very different approach to each section. In Stokesay Court – in the house – they actually had a Christian Dior stocking over the lens just to soften everything so you got that summery hazy feeling.”

Moroney worked mainly on the London and Dunkirk sets. To film period pieces in London is difficult and Director Joe Wright’s methods didn’t help matters. “Whenever Joe gets a location he always likes to go in and say ‘look I don’t know just how I’m going to shoot this yet, so I need to be able to see everything.’ So it meant the whole location was done out completely ‘period’.” While a visual effects budget handles any ‘Braveheart moments’, the 360 approach doesn’t help the budget. There are a number of ways to save money (McGarvey had obviously never heard of Razzamataz stockings). One of which includes a bit of a jumble sale of props for cast and crew. Can you imagine Knightley and Redgrave scrambling for the fringed lamp? Another is to recycle elements of the set. For example the windows from the St. Thomas’ Hospital set were used in the rubble for Dunkirk.

The scene at Dunkirk is one of the most horrifying and memorable. Shot in a single take, everyone involved was dressed in uniform, including Moroney who was in charge of removing the horses once they were killed.

“It was all done with no sound – the horses were trained to fall. But of course the real horses weren’t going to lie there. So what we had to do was take all the real horses out of the way and hide them around the corner. We then had fake bodies that we dragged down.”

So with a possible Oscar nomination and some screen-time how did he fair on the red carpet?

“I mean I knew it was going to be a red carpet, but you think it’ll just be Keira (Knightly) and James (MacAvoy). But because you’re ferried into Leicester square and there’s only one way to get in. Suddenly you end up at the end to this ‘red carpet’ and you’ve got to walk, which is a little disconcerting because everyone is there with cameras and they are all looking at you going ‘who are you?’. We happened to arrive at the same time as Keira. So Keira got all the attention and no one seemed to want a photograph of me – I don’t know why.”

Perhaps Knightley was just getting her own back? “Well, when we were doing Cecelia’s flat, which is D Stage next where we built the hospital. I went out the door when they were rehearsing and this girl was in front of me and she couldn’t get the door open. And I said ‘ah look I’ll do it, get out of the way.’ I pulled the door open and it was bloody Keira wasn’t it, in her dressing gown and I didn’t recognise her.” Knightley obviously didn’t take it to heart as Moroney got to spend a month in Paris working on her Chanel commercial. Moroney, however, may not be so forgiving “I don’t want to be misquoted now. If I read something about me and Keira Knightley… mind you she did bloody take my spot on the red carpet. She took all my glory. After all that I finally get to go to the premier and she turns up at the same time as me,” he laughs good-heartedly.

ATONEMENT opens in Cinemas on Boxing Day.

Be first to comment on this article

Write Comment
Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged.
Name:
Comment:
Code:*