In advance of International Production Design Week, running October 17 through 26, 2025, we asked eight designers to discuss a single prop or piece of scenery from their work and its role in the world of the film. This feature was produced by Javier Irazuzta.
Late Fame (Kent Jones, 2025).
Back in November 2000, with the presidential election still in limbo, I arrived in New York City. I had been lured there by two of my closest friends, Pietro and Dominique. Our shared dream was to find the right city to do art together. With its vast appreciation of talent and its constant sense of renewal, New York quickly and deeply seduced me.
One day, Pietro found a beautiful piece of trash: a curved wooden door. He brought it home, along with more junk, and transformed it into a beautiful desk—his poem to the city. Before Pietro returned to Europe, I asked him if I could keep the desk. To this day, after several house moves and relationships, it is still with me.
Photograph courtesy of the author.
Recently, for the feature film Late Fame by Kent Jones, I had to create the apartment of an old poet who had been living in the West Village for the last 50 years. He had stopped writing years ago, but his desk was still there waiting for him. I designed the apartment to show the layers of time but also to show his curious mind and his ability to select and not to hoard the superfluous.
I decided early on that Pietro’s desk would be his, and I built the rest of the apartment around it. Willem Dafoe, who plays the old poet, came to set to see his apartment and walked around, touching things and giving wonderful notes. He went to the table and stood in front of it, leaned on it with all his weight, turned to look at me and nodded approvingly.
Drawing courtesy of the author.
Continue reading “The Prop and the Production Designer.”