By ops@our-hometown.com | on June 09, 2022

MOVIES DON’T HAPPEN without magic.

By the time a director yells “ACTION!,” someone else has already yelled “ABRACADABRA.” A new exhibition acknowledges the illusion artists behind Hollywood’s most beloved backdrops.

If filmmaking elements were credited in order of appearance, like actors, backdrops would roll first.

Without them, Gene Kelly couldn’t have danced the streets of Paris.

The first things that strike us about this and some 20 other painted sceneries making up “Art of the Hollywood Backdrop: Cinema’s Creative Legacy,” at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, are their monumental size and photorealism. The odd thing is that until now, we knew very little about the highly skilled professionals who worked nonstop to craft them. It turns out they never got screen credit.

“It is a belated honor, but very well deserved,” said Irvin Lippman, the Boca Museum’s executive director.

On view through Jan. 22 at Boca Raton Museum of Art, the exhibition finally recognizes the obscure craftsmen whose job was so critical to moviegoers’ suspension of disbelief. Occupying the entire first floor of the museum, this is the first show of its kind to give unprecedented face-to-face access to precious backings of corridors, decadent staircases, and panoramic vistas — some of which were designed almost a century ago. Do not expect to be virtually transported inside them; this is not an immersive exhibition in the manner we have come to expect. Interactive video reels created specifically for this occasion elaborate on the story behind each scene. Sound effects from the original movies set the ambience in the galleries and aid our memories.

“The Sound of Music,” 20th Century Fox (1965). View from von Trapps’ back terrace, with backdrop, 30 feet by 15 feet.

The picturesque mountains of Salzburg are unmistakably a trait of the 1965 musical drama “The Sound of Music.” The giant canvas here portraying them through a convent window and in impressionistic style makes for a charming setting, but they don’t look exactly as we imagined. The spell is somewhat broken, the power of suggestion not as strong. Something similar happens with the adjacent romantic vista of the von Trapp family’s back terrace. Both canvases are stunning, but the magic of moviemaking is in the sum of the parts, not a singular discipline. Divorcing backdrops from the rest of the cinematic elements inevitably invites closer scrutiny. It serves us well to remember that scenic backdrops such as these — loaned by the Texas Performing Arts Hollywood Backdrop Collection — were never meant to be seen by the naked eye without first passing through the camera lens and, later, a screen.

A backdrop of Paris at night from an unknown film.

“Up close, many appear very painterly, but when you see them through the camera’s eye, the realism is striking,” Mr. Lippman said.

Kelly might have sung the title number in “Singin’ in the Rain,” but the acrobatic comedic relief provided by Donald O’Connor in “Make’ Em Laugh” is brilliant and unforgettable. Ironically, that scene places O’Connor’s character (Cosmo) backstage with movie set workers and surrounded by stage props. A 1952 backdrop on loan from the Motion Picture Academy in Los Angeles depicts the long hallway that witnesses a chaotic dance between O’Connor and a cloth dummy. After unleashing a long sequence of clownish and wrestling moves, the agile actor goes through a blank wall. Much like the movie footage, the exhibition includes a floral carpet and a green couch in front of the hallway backdrop. Viewers are welcomed to sit on the couch, but should refrain from recreating the entire routine; it is said to have put Kelly’s co-star on bed rest for three days.

The early 1930s saw studio productions move indoors to control sound quality, which meant recreating exteriors and natural settings was more important than ever. To make the impossible possible, Hollywood regularly enlisted a team of highly skilled artists for its productions. A space is dedicated to the tools and handpainted techniques they employed to blend the colors and convey the desired optical effect. Their process didn’t just involve drawing skills, rollers, sponges, spray guns, and scaffolds, but required knowledge of nature, composition, light, and architecture. It also demanded stamina and a sense of urgency.

Regrettably, studio executives’ paranoia over intellectual property and techniques developed in-house led to a culture of secrecy that is partially to blame for the anonymity these artists saw. “Art of the Hollywood Backdrop” finally redirects the spotlight toward them.

Mr. Lippman’s favorite is the grand staircase backdrop housed in the back gallery and initially attributed to an unknown film.

“Fortunately, one of our visitors recognized it as being used in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Marnie’,” he said.

That makes it the third Hitchcock backdrop featured in the exhibition, along with the commanding Mount Rushmore backdrop and the Marie Antoinette tapestry, both of which were used in the 1959 thriller “North by Northwest.”

Aside from the inherent beauty and nostalgia of a show of this nature, the message (to young designers in particular) is that mastery doesn’t happen magically, but through discipline and repetition.

On the second floor, within view of that majestic Mount Rushmore backdrop, we discover more motion pictures. Only this time, they share the plane with modern artworks. That’s how E.T., our favorite extraterrestrial, appears side by side with an untitled figure by Jean-Michel Basquiat, and the “Psycho” shower scene (with Marli Renfro, body double for Janet Leigh) is tethered to Franz Kline’s equally dramatic “Lehigh V Span.”

Meant to complement its first-floor counterpart, “Bonnie Lautenberg: Art Meets Hollywood” is clearly made of a different fabric, literally. The exhibition running through Aug. 21 forces pieces that can easily stand on their own into an unlikely union where color and birth year are the only commonalities. Ms. Lautenberg has an intuitive process involving images that talk to each other. She plays matchmaker to the symbiotic relationships.

That rationale is evident in a print depicting Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1” from 1932 atop a still of Greta Garbo as a ballerina in “Grand Hotel.” The exposed petals and the layers of tulle dressing up the dancer clearly reference each other. Despite resulting from two different disciplines, both images convey softness and vulnerability. They are not necessarily identical. For instance, Garbo’s bare legs are the stems O’Keeffe keeps out of view.

There’s a clear dominant figure in each pair; one image that speaks louder and exerts its influence over the other. But the power of each frame remains in the connection shared by both.

It’s easy to see why the colorful, playful quality of Keith Haring’s figurines makes for a perfect companion to the 1988 film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” Both are the product of light-spirited creativity that sparks instant joy upon looking at them. Similarly, the arched eyebrows sported by Diego Rivera’s protagonist in “Portrait of Linda Christian” finds a twin in Lauren Bacall, here pictured in the 1947 feature “Dark Passage.”

Ms. Lautenberg takes a less literal approach combining a bedroom scene from “The Graduate” and “Modern Painting with Sun Rays” by Roy Lichtenstein. Judging by the actors’ expressions and Lichtenstein’s bright sun, this spells out either a glorious start or the epic end to a day.

The part-time Palm Beach resident, who launched her photography career while married to the late New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, gets top marks for detecting connections we can only see in hindsight. ¦

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