Gilding the Prisoner's Cage

Source: The Daily Beast
Date:   November 15, 2009
Author: Jace Lacob
URL:=20=20=20=20=20
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-14/gilding-the-priso=
ners-cage/


Gilding the Prisoner's Cage
---------------------------
Michael Pickwoad, the production designer behind AMC's highly stylized
update of The Prisoner, takes The Daily Beast behind the scenes.

In the topsy-turvy world of The Prisoner, the inhabitants of The Village
find themselves trapped in a Kafka-esque prison that strips away their
individuality and assigns them numbers rather than names. On the surface,
it's an idyllic place, but beneath that pleasant facade, it's a locus
for a seething paranoia where everyone is watching each other.

In offering a reimagining of the British cult classic The Prisoner,
production designer Michael Pickwoad (ITV's Lost in Austen) had his work
cut out for him. Although only 17 episodes, the original Prisoner remains,
40 years later, an enduring and enigmatic small-screen masterpiece of
fear and suspense.

But while the production team sought to create a unique visual style that
would allow this Prisoner to stand on its own, there are elements of that
legacy that rather sneakily crept into AMC's update. 'The odd references
are intended to sort of signify that there=92s some connection,' said
Pickwoad of some of the cheeky allusions to Patrick McGoohan's 1960s
Prisoner.

AMC's Prisoner, much of which was shot over 18 weeks on location in
sweltering Swakopmund, Namibia, unfolds in two locations. 'There's the
present-day New York and then there's this other place, The Village,'
Pickwoad said. 'One made an attempt to have an unreal reality or a real
unreality... One moment it's very friendly and the next moment it's very
worrying. It's a bit like a dream, something that seems very nice that
suddenly puts you in a situation that's very threatening. You have some
knowledge of it but you can=92t quite place it.'

Adding to that feeling of overwhelming unease are some of the
production's locations, including the vintage A-frame houses that
comprise The Village itself, which weren't constructed for The Prisoner
but actually exist. They serve to underpin the surreal sensation of The
Village and will, Pickwoad hopes, serve as iconic images for the
reimagined Prisoner.

'Those pink, triangular houses are very much a symbol for strangeness,'
said Pickwoad. 'When I first saw them, I couldn't quite believe that
they existed. Until you realize that if you went to Northern Germany,
you'd probably see a lot of them... Swakopmund itself... looked like
something out of a color chart.'

Ultimately, the world of The Prisoner is a place where the past,
present, and future manage to commingle, both within the confines of
the narrative and in our own memories of the original series.

'Yes, that=92s the fun of it and the challenge of it,' said Pickwoad,
laughing. 'I hope that people who watched the first one will want to
tune in again.'

--------
(c) 2009 The Daily Beast



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