Paola Comencini – Set Designer It's a very psychological film. The stage design is simple, the film is shot in the characters' houses. All in all there are four houses, they are realistic but not hyper-realistic. There's an element of very light reality, very vague which seemed beautiful to us.
We are now finishing the film in that house built as a theatre, which on the other hand is completely unreal since things are seen through memories and dreams. Therefore, each character can remember it in a different way, therefore small changes are essential. Actually the house is never seen as a real one since it is never lit with the usual sun or moon light. It's a rather oppressing and nightmarish house. We studied a lot this environment.
We made all the reconstructions in a rather small flat, we did not need such a large theatre ; but since we have flood water that gets into the house, we needed a swimming pool. We will fill the deeper part of the house which is still very small in order to make flood water effects. In the other part of the house, which will remain dry, there will be other flood water effects, as if a big torrent is running through the house. We therefore used a theatre in order to make the right impression.