In the Making of NINE [10/10]

The production also headed an hour south to the seaside town of Anzio—the scene of the Allied Landings during WWII—where they shot in a former casino recalling the grandeur of the past, with spectacular terraces overlooking the sea. The building provided several important locations forNINE: it was the Roman baths for a scene between Guido Contini and a Cardinal; it was the busy location production office for ITALIA; it was the terrace restaurant where a complicated dinner party was filmed; and it was the entrance and lobby of the hotel spa where Guido seeks refuge to no avail.

Filming concluded in the hilltop village of Sutri, an hour outside Rome, where two long, cold night shoots with Daniel Day-Lewis and Nicole Kidman completed a sequence that started with the song “Unusual Way” performed on H Stage at Shepperton Studios back in England.

With production completed, much of the film’s most intense work still lay ahead as Rob Marshall collaborated with the editing team of Oscar® winner Claire Simpson (PLATOON, THE READER) and Emmy-nominated Wyatt Smith (TONY BENNETT: AN AMERICAN CLASSIC) in post production.

Suddenly, all the film’s many artistic elements came together as one seamless fabric. Sums up producer Platt: “Rob demands the best from everyone around him. He’s so meticulous and has an eye for every single detail. That same is true for John De Luca in the choreography, for Dion Beebe in his cinematography, for John Myhre’s sets, Colleen Atwood’s costumes and Simpson and Smith’s editing. And of course that feeling permeated the cast. Throughout, there was this symbiotic relationship where all of our colleagues were demanded to their best, wanted to do their best and did do their best because the level of the story was that good. As Guido Contini says, you never know what a film will become. The cameras, the actors, the designers, the editors all do their thing, but the magic really happens when you put it in front of an audience.”

THE END