The life of ‘Napoleon’ production designer: Build beautiful sets and then torch them

“It’s all in horrible conditions of wind and rain, and it’s all got to be exquisitely beautiful, and then it’s all trampled upon by everyone and set on fire,” says production designer Arthur Max of the set for Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Moscow. Production designer Arthur Max used a replica of an 18th century French frigate — re-dressed and photographed multiple times — to create the look of several cannon-firing “tall ships.” Napoleon’s first big victory in Toulon In 1793, Napoleon successfully attacks the French seaport fortress that had been blockaded for months by the British navy. Scott’s initial concept was inspired by mountain lakes in Austria, but, Max says, “we ended up in a small valley outside of London that we’d also used in ‘Gladiator.’ Napoleon’s tent was set up in the pine forest on the same hilltop where we shot Marcus Aurelius’ camp.” The frozen lake portion of the sequence was filmed separately at an airfield near London. Max studied Rod Steiger’s 1970 “Waterloo” movie, then set out to find a plot of land in England that could stand in for Belgium’s legendarily bloody killing floor.