"Time travel is my passion," declares set decorator Beatrice Brentnerová

Beatrice Brentnerová is the sole Czech Oscar nominee this year, recognised for her set decoration on Robert Eggers' Nosferatu. This fresh interpretation of the vampire classic was brought to life in the Czech Republic during spring 2023, with filming spanning nearly two months at Barrandov Studios and a dozen other locations, including Rožmitál pod Třemšínem, Milovice, the Prachov Rocks, Pernštejn Castle, Velká Amerika quarry, Libochovice Chateau, and Prague’s Invalidovna..

Beatrice shares her nomination with production designer Craig Lathrop. She sat down with Hedvika Petrželková of the Czech Film Commission just days before the Academy Awards.

What are you currently involved in?
I’m working on a contemporary American action-spy comedy series, as yet untitled, and even if it did have a title, I probably wouldn't be allowed to tell you. I'm enjoying it because I haven't done anything contemporary for a long time. It's an entirely different discipline but no more straightforward than historical subjects. Of course, some decorations are more straightforward to acquire, and you don't have to do as much research as with period films, but it has its specific challenges, just like period films.

How did Nosferatu’s historical setting complicate your work?
It was particularly complicated because we had to be precise about the period, year, and place. The film is set in a Hanseatic city in 1838, and it was incredible how specific and different this year is compared to, say, 1840. They differ in aesthetics and small technologies reflected in objects and furniture, producing textiles, porcelain, etc. That's why even two years can be important. We had to do meticulous historical research to find original period pieces, which was very interesting.

What was distinctive about 1838?
Lamps, for example, because their technology was developing every year, and with that, details like the wick or burner changed. It doesn't mean there weren't older lamps anywhere then. But we had interiors of two families, one of which was very wealthy and modern, furnishing their apartment with the trends of the time, so we had to have the most modern technologies and aesthetics. The second apartment belonged to the main character, who was from the middle class; the furnishings were supposed to be second-hand, but good quality and carefully chosen, albeit with a limited budget. All this was taken into account when creating the decorations. For the lamps, we made replicas; my excellent colleague Zuzana Ježková found a collector in Germany who had an incredible collection of period lamps and was willing to lend them to us. Some were very fragile, or we needed to electrify them for the camera, so we made replicas based on them.

We bought many things through auction houses, online auctions, bazaars, and antique shops. The furniture needed to be in good condition, so we often had to have it restored, which was also financially demanding. We borrowed interesting pieces from chateaus, some things we had to make, some textiles we wove ourselves, and we printed the carpets. We produced period lamps, glass shades, period door handles, and many other things, thanks to our excellent artisans. We also had Christmas decorations made – they weren't like the ones we know today, but just transparent glass ones, filled with wax and hand-painted. We found the Rautis company from Poniklá, which produces period decorations and had old molds available, so they made them for us.

Can you calculate or otherwise quantify how many items you used in the film, whether made or bought?
That’s hard to determine. Take your own apartment, where you live, and count the things you have there... In film, not only does the whole thing have to be conceived and put together conceptually, but every item has to be found somewhere, brought in, stored, aged, and reupholstered. It’s thousands of items... The team has to be big enough to handle it all.

What kind of team did you work with? How many people were there?
I had a fantastic team, probably the best I’ve ever worked with. Very talented people with incredible dedication and experience; I couldn’t have managed without them for everything - production, presentations, research on period furniture, props, textiles, etc., and the execution. I had excellent assistants – Jitka Šelepová, Kuba Vlček, Zuzanka Ježková, Adélka Kubínová, and Helena Lišková. I had great buyers who, thanks to their knowledge and contacts not only in the Czech Republic but also across Europe, could find rare period items. The entire workshop team was also excellent - painters, upholsterers, sewists, prop makers, carpenters, etc... The team was quite large, around forty people. Plus, we outsourced work.

You worked closely with Craig Lathrop, the production designer with whom you share the Oscar nomination. How was your work divided, and how did you collaborate? What kind of team did you work with? How many people were there?
Craig led the entire art department, aesthetics, and organisation. He first agreed with the director on each set's concept and colours, and we worked from there. I always consulted with him on the set itself regarding colours, wallpapers, carpets, and furniture. That was my responsibility. The decorations must support the story and complement the individual characters, so we needed to maintain the same aesthetic as the characters who occupied the apartments or exteriors. We all had a clear common language because we knew we had to be historically accurate. It was a lot, but the collaboration was very inspiring and enriching.

Were you on set during filming?
For the most part, I wasn’t there, just at the beginning when we handed over the sets. They then live their own lives and are cared for by the person in the position of stand-by art director. That’s a representative of the art department team who helps complete the sets directly on set, when things are moved according to the camera, or when additional requirements arise... Neither the architect nor I can be there because we’re working on other sets.

How long did your entire work on Nosferatu last?
We had about three and a half months of preparation, and then the filming lasted about two months. It was quite fast, considering the time it takes to produce things.

How long have you been doing this kind of work?
At least twenty-five years. I started as a stand-by art director on set, which I did for about two years, and it was a good grounding to learn to “read” the film, as we call it. You learn a lot of things very quickly on set. Then, I started creating sets myself. I was also an architect’s assistant and gradually specialised in set decoration. There isn’t an exact Czech equivalent for this position in translation, and when I started in film, the position of set decorator didn’t exist in our country at all - it came with foreign films.

Does your work comprise more foreign or Czech projects?
More on foreign ones. But recently, I worked with Henrich Boráros and Agnieszka Holland on a co-production, a primarily Czech film called Franz, about Franz Kafka. That was very interesting – it was also a period film in the entirely different world of old Prague. As for smaller or Czech projects, I’m open to anything, but more often, foreign ones come to me. I usually work on medium-sized projects, occasionally something bigger.

Which film that you worked on during your career do you remember most fondly?
Every project was engaging in some way, and I liked them all. One of the most interesting was definitely Snowpiercer, which I worked on with architect Ondřej Nekvasil. It was a dystopia that all took place on a train, which was a big challenge. You have to think about it differently and develop something that isn’t there - which can be pretty complicated. Fortunately, we weren’t that far from the present and could still draw from it. We were imagining what would happen to those things after many years when they lose their purpose. That was incredibly fun.

How do you choose projects? Who usually approaches you?
Usually, the producers or the production designer. It’s not like you have a deck of cards and throw them either left or right, but usually, it works out nicely that the projects follow each other. I’m probably already established in the field here in the Czech Republic, so nice projects come to me. I don’t have ambitions to do only big projects or to focus only on specific periods. On the contrary, I love to travel through time, so I enjoy making films from the 13^th, 15^th, 18^th, or even the 20^th century, that’s also interesting. But now I’m doing contemporary films and enjoying that very much too. I’ve worked with architect Marc Homes, with whom I’m working on the current project - A Small Light, an American series about Anne Frank. I like that period too. But I find something nice in every era; there’s always something to fall in love with.

Do you have a dream era that you’d like to work on but haven’t had the chance to yet?I’ve worked on almost everything, but I’d like to try the 1970s sometime. But as I say, I love immersing myself in any era—even the future, which I think is an excellent challenge because everything has to be invented.

Do you work mainly in the Czech Republic, or do you also go abroad?
I often travel with films shot here because some parts are shot abroad. For example, I’ve been to Austria and Amsterdam, and with The Wheel of Time, we were in Morocco. I travel a lot for my work, looking for furniture abroad, so I go to prop houses in Germany, France, England, Italy… But I haven’t yet had the chance to shoot an entire film abroad. It was also because I have a son and wanted to stay home until he was eighteen. Now that he’s of age, I can accept a project abroad.

An Oscar nomination is a big deal, so maybe offers from Hollywood will come now?
I’m not entirely sure... But Craig and I indeed have an excellent relationship, and he calls me regularly when he has an offer, which is very lovely. Working abroad would be an irreplaceable experience. Here, I’m surrounded by people I know, a market I know, but I know that it’s a bit different in every country. I would have to step out of my comfort zone, and that’s a challenge. Which is good - you shouldn’t rest on your laurels. You should enter uncharted waters and stir up those shifting sands.

What do you like to see at the cinema, what kind of films do you like?
I like historical films and also horrors. Not the ones with shooting and killing, but rather psychological ones, or those that have something new in them.

Do you have a professional affliction? Do you look at sets in films and think – They did this wrong, or They did this well...? So, are you looking forward to the Oscars?
Unfortunately, I do. You can tell when a film fully draws me into the story because I stop noticing it. But I’m tolerant because I know what the work entails and that it’s not easy. I understand, and I can perfectly imagine that they didn’t do something quite right in some scene, ran out of money, or did something at the last minute.

So, are you looking forward to the Oscars?
At first, I was very stressed – what dress to wear, filling out the ESTA, there’s a programme waiting for me that needs to be confirmed, a lot of emails around it… But now I’m in the phase where I’m starting to look forward to getting off this carousel for a few days and resting. My assistant Jitka Šelepová is going with me; I’m looking forward to seeing colleagues I like again, both the architect and the director, who are lovely.