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polygon
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Movie brickwork?
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Oct 24 04:39 UTC 2003 |
One of the inevitable effects of fatherhood is that you get to see a lot
of kid-oriented movies on video over and over and over again. Sometimes,
on the nth viewing of something, you notice details that you missed the
first n-1 times, when you were distracted by things like dialog and plot.
In the movie Mary Poppins, much of the action takes place in a house on
"Cherry Tree Lane", in a world that was probably constructed inside a
sound stage or on a back lot in Culver City.
On the whole, whoever built the scenery did a decent and nicely detailed
job of it, especially considering that, in 1964, the architecture of 1910
was regarded as vile and immoral.
One detail which startled me. When George Banks tears up his childrens'
plea for a sweet, rosy-cheeked nanny, and throws the pieces into the
fireplace, it can be seen that the blackened firebrick (lining the back of
the fireplace) is laid in Flemish Bond. (Or, I suppose, technically, the
plaster they actually used to build the sets was scored to resemble
Flemish Bond.)
This seems just too bizarre -- almost an architectural inside joke. But
maybe they were re-creating a real house, down to the brickwork details
inside the fireplace.
So my question -- have you ever seen the brickwork inside a fireplace done
in Flemish Bond? Why would anyone do this in real life?
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| 26 responses total. |
polygon
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response 1 of 26:
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Oct 24 04:41 UTC 2003 |
(I post this because, in earlier discussions, it turned out that quite
a few Grexers have deep interest and knowledge of how brickwork is done.
If you're not one of them, never mind, nothing to see here, just move
along.)
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other
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response 2 of 26:
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Oct 24 05:35 UTC 2003 |
The Officer Barbrady of architectural minutiae, eh? <grin>
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rcurl
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response 3 of 26:
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Oct 24 06:25 UTC 2003 |
I would not expect the interior of a real fireplace, in which fires are
built, to be laid in anything but running bond, and of course with
firebrick, not common clay bricks. The reason is to minimize joints and to
accomodate the expansion and contraction of heating cycles, which a bond
would not do as well. There is also no need for a bond as the firebrick
lining is not load-supporting and is usually just backed with ordinary
bricks. In addition, the firebrick is often laid on edge so as to use
fewer bricks.
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gull
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response 4 of 26:
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Oct 24 13:59 UTC 2003 |
Flemish bond does seem like an odd choice for a fireplace. Maybe the
set designer was looking at a brick wall when he did the fireplace,
instead of an actual fireplace. I have seen *some* things done in a
fireplace for decorative effect (curved rear corners, for example, made
with partial bricks.)
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scott
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response 5 of 26:
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Oct 24 16:54 UTC 2003 |
Perhaps they had a big piece of brick wall from a previous project, and turned
it into a fireplace for Mary Poppins.
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rcurl
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response 6 of 26:
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Oct 24 17:46 UTC 2003 |
I don't recall - was there a fire in the fireplace in the movie? That
wouldn't mean much one way or another, except that the "bricks" would
not have been composition (like roofing - often used as a cheap siding
in a brick pattern) if there was a fire. There is, however, brick "veneer"
made in large sections but only 2+ inches thick.
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jep
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response 7 of 26:
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Oct 24 17:56 UTC 2003 |
I wonder if the movie was filmed in a real house?
My son just asked me to get this movie on DVD. He and I rented it a
few years ago and watched it once, and he remembers it fondly.
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drew
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response 8 of 26:
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Oct 24 17:58 UTC 2003 |
There had to have been a fire - the guy expected the note to burn, no?
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mynxcat
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response 9 of 26:
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Oct 24 18:25 UTC 2003 |
Mary Poppins is one of my favorite movies. Who notices bricks in
fireplaces in movies?
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rcurl
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response 10 of 26:
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Oct 24 18:28 UTC 2003 |
Reread #1.
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gull
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response 11 of 26:
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Oct 24 18:56 UTC 2003 |
My little brother, for a while, was watching Dumbo three times a day every
day. Trust me, I had time to contemplate details of the animation and plot
of that movie that I never would have expected to notice. Heck, I couldn't
*stop* it...after a while it insinuates itself into your brain. Even now
songs from that movie pop into my head at odd moments.
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rcurl
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response 12 of 26:
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Oct 24 19:06 UTC 2003 |
I do that when the action gets boring: I look for inconsistencies in
the sets, dress, landscape, weather, time, etc.
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glenda
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response 13 of 26:
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Oct 24 19:44 UTC 2003 |
RE #11: Only three times a day. For a while STeve was considering getting
t-shirts and bumper stickers made saying "Dumbo is a drug" as Staci from age
2 to about 4 had to watch it almost continuously. All day, every day. With
Cinderlla and Hi Lili thrown in after every 2nd or 3rd run through of Dumbo.
Soon it became the three videos in a loop. Watch Dumbo, take tape out of
machine and put in tape with the other two on it, put Dumbo in re-wind machine
to have ready when other tape was done, switch, repeat.
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mcnally
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response 14 of 26:
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Oct 24 19:51 UTC 2003 |
My niece Elizabeth is a Dumboholic. Nobody's happy about it
(except Michael Eisner) but at least she's not freebaseing
Teletubby..
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other
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response 15 of 26:
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Oct 24 19:53 UTC 2003 |
<starts to wonder if he has big ears>
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tod
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response 16 of 26:
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Oct 24 20:58 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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scott
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response 17 of 26:
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Oct 24 22:11 UTC 2003 |
The other non-obvious answer might be that the set designers and builders,
at befitted Disney folks in those days, were extremely intelligent and
creative, and were sufficiently funded to put into the amount of detail they
felt appropriate.
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tod
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response 18 of 26:
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Oct 24 22:16 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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polygon
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response 19 of 26:
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Oct 25 02:29 UTC 2003 |
I don't believe fire was ever shown burning in that fireplace.
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michaela
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response 20 of 26:
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Oct 26 05:29 UTC 2003 |
They never lit a fire, but it was obviously used since they were covered in
soot after the scene with the chimney sweeps. :)
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rcurl
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response 21 of 26:
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Oct 26 06:42 UTC 2003 |
You can buy soot (carbon black).
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mynxcat
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response 22 of 26:
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Oct 26 09:03 UTC 2003 |
I doubt they were hiring chimney sweeps for soot that was bought :P
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tod
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response 23 of 26:
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Oct 26 13:13 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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md
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response 24 of 26:
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Oct 26 14:24 UTC 2003 |
A vaguely sick-making scene, that.
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