Ken Adam

scottlukas

I'm brand new to this site and these forums. I've recently been re-discovering the Bond films through the new DVDs and I've found that I'm becoming a huge fan!

I'm especially amazed at the work done by Ken Adam. I was wondering if anyone had links to online images of his work, or better yet, contact information for this brilliant designer.

If anyone can help me, please let me know! Thanks, scott
scottlukaswilliams@hotmail.com

s96024

Google him.

PoorMansJB

s96024 wrote:

Google him.

Turns-up alot if text but not alot of images. I'm afraid the poster may have to head to a library or bookstore; there are several excellent--and heavily illustrated--books available on Adam but not a whole lot online ... not with pictures, at any rate.

Adam has homes in both London and Berlin; all the contact info I can provide.

scottlukas

Thanks for that.

s96024

Google images there are loads. Can't find a specific site which has all his work but there is alot there if you browse through all the sites.
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=ken+adam

PoorMansJB

s96024 wrote:

Google images there are loads. Can't find a specific site which has all his work but there is alot there if you browse through all the sites.
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=ken+adam

Googling Adam culls together many pictures of the man, but still not much of his work. Odd that no one has ever devoted a site to him ... or perhaps someone did and he nichts'd it.

bigzilcho

Welcome to AJB, scottlukas. Always good to see a fellow Canuck Bond fan.

Ken Adam? You are right in singling out his work. In his own way, Ken Adam has become the most well -known production designer in movie history.

As far as I'm concerned, Adam had a touch of madness in his work...and that single element has been missing from Peter Lamont's superb sets. (And other movies, for that matter.)

Proof? No one else, before or after Adam, would dare to build the volcano set in YOLT. Even Adam has said that he had major misgivings at the time it was being built.

So here's a tip of the hat to Ken Adam. The man (along with Maurice Binder) who gave us the "look" of Bond.


"Jettison cocoon!"

Double 0 Zero

I also love Adam's design for the War Room in Dr. Strangelove. You could imagine a SPECTRE meeting in that room.

scottlukas

I agree. That's one of the most spectacular sets ever designed! I think it would have been impossible to find a bad angle in that room.

John Drake

I've been working my way through the UE DVD's. On TSWLM and MR editions there's some wonderful on-set footage shot by Ken Adam. I found the images of Cubby and the team scouting locations and the behind-the-cenes footage to be quite touching. It's a pity Adam didn't continue his working relationship with Bond, but I guess he felt he had done enough.

Kirk James Kirk

Ken Adam is magnificent. So much so that I, someone who A). had no idea about production design and . really wouldn't have cared either way, actually admire such great productions in films now. His work on Dr. No, YOLT and TSWSLM is astonishing.

PoorMansJB

John Drake wrote:

On TSWLM and MR editions there's some wonderful on-set footage shot by Ken Adam.

Adam himself liked to shoot intriguing stills of the sets when no one is was about. When Adam's work was exhibited at the Serpentine Gallery in London a few years back, they sold (and I bought) several 11"x14" B&W prints of shots he had taken of the Liparus interior. The angles and lighting are quite avant garde; couple this with the fact that there are no people in any of the photos and the result is seriously Post Modern.

It's a pity Adam didn't continue his working relationship with Bond, but I guess he felt he had done enough.

My general uderstanding is that Adam finally demanded a paydate that measured up to his contribution over the years and EON, penny-pinchers that they are, declined. Can you imagine what GE (though I like the film as is) or TND could have been with Adam as the production designer?

Agent Sidewinder

I think Adam is *the* unsung hero of the Bond films. Just look at the inside of the space station in MR, for example. An eccentric but effective design that works superbly.

Barry Nelson

I believe one of the Bond DVD's has an "extra" with a feature on Adam's. Can't remember which one, but I do remember I enjoyed it.

taity

spy who loved me