Julie & Julia serves up two stories: that of Julia Child (Meryl Streep), who introduced America to French cuisine a half-century ago, and that of Julie Powell (Amy Adams), the modern-day amateur cook (and memoirist) who went through every recipe in Child’s seminal Mastering the Art of French Cooking. We spoke with the film’s production designer, Mark Ricker, about automobiles and kitchenware in postwar France and the importance of wainscoting.
DARRELL HARTMAN: How did you try to establish a kinship between Julia Child and her modern-day acolyte, Julie, through set design?
MARK RICKER: There’s a fluidity to the palette of the film. They were having the same experience, separated by time and distance, so we literally used the same can of paint for Julie’s kitchen in Queens and Julia’s Paris kitchen.
DH: Julia and her husband (Stanley Tucci) aren’t exactly loaded, but she’s got pretty grand digs in Paris.
MR: She does. Paul was a diplomat working at the American embassy. They rented two floors at the top of an old house right near the Seine, on rue de l’Université, from this old woman. It was chock full of stuff that Julia and Paul shoved away in a closet—essentially, a very grand small apartment.
DH: Very different from Julie’s pad, no?
MR: Except for the fact that they were both old environments that these people moved into. We wanted to show that neither was perfect. And we had similar texture for both. We took a mold from Julie Powell’s apartment—a stamped-tin, fleur-de-lys wainscot that was literally in her real apartment in Queens—and incorporated that into the set.
Overall view of Julie’s kitchen
Detail view of Julie’s kitchen
Julie and Eric in the dining room of Julie’s apartment in Queens
Julie in her Queen’s apartment
Overall view of Julia’s kitchen in Cambridge
Detail view of Julia’s kitchen in Cambridge
Julia in her kitchen in Cambridge
Overall view of Julia’s kitchen in Paris
Julia in her Paris kitchen
Detail view of Julia’s kitchen in Paris
Detail view of Julia’s kitchen in Paris
All photographs by Jonathan Wenk © 2009 Columbia TriStar Marketing Group, Inc.
DH: What were some key details of Julia’s Paris apartment?
MR: I had to incorporate that atrium window that connects the two wings. And the kitchen—it was well documented, and we used it as a blueprint for creating the set.
DH: What was her kitchen like?
MR: It was beautiful, but kind of rough and tumble—very low-ceilinged and just squirreled away at the top of this house, above a winding staircase. One element was this huge, ancient French cast-iron oven. We never really knew if it was still functioning. In photos, it looked like it was only used as a support for a countertop with a very small, modern French oven set up on top. There’s a famous picture of Julia just towering over it. And there was a dumb waiter that we built, but the sequence got cut.
DH: Not too many modern appliances in there, right?
MR: There wasn’t a fridge that I saw in any of the research. We assumed if she was cooling things it was in another little closet. As for the pots, we did vast research into what were period appropriate, and the colors: turquoise and burnt orange. And then we called Le Creuset.
DH: You just called it in?
MR: We were lucky. The stuff hasn’t changed since Mauviel copper was invented in the 19th century, so we were able to buy new products that were basically identical to the stuff Julia was cooking with. And the rest we bought in the Paris flea market and Zabar’s.
DH: The touring car Julia and Paul drive around France is a stunner. What is it?
MR: A 1947 wooded blue Buick station wagon. They called it “The Blue Flash.” We found it in France. It could have been Paul and Julia’s original car, as far as we knew.
DH: Julia is living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by the time her book is published. What was that kitchen like?
MR: In Cambridge, she got the counters raised for her height. So it was more comfortable for her to cook. And she’d learned to do what she was doing; she’d organized it all, outlined every item on the peg-board. That kitchen exists in the Smithsonian, so it was one we wanted to nail.
DH: Technologically speaking, this one is light years ahead of the Paris kitchen.
MR: Oh yeah, absolutely—appliances from the early 60’s. They were a lot more refined and streamlined than the old European stuff.
DH: You built a lot of kitchens for this movie.
MR: Around eleven.
DH: Has this job inspired you to do any work on your own kitchen?
MR: Well, I’m not really a cook. I mostly use my kitchen counter to collect mail, which is the great irony in all of this.
DH: Still, it must have been a useful experience?
MR: I know a lot of people who worked for Martha Stewart. When she was looking for people a few years ago to design the set of one of her shows, she just wanted to know: Where were the kitchens in their portfolios? Now I can say I have the kitchens.
Click here to read an archival interview with Julia Child.
