At Arakis, however, spice is the most important thing

Adorjan Portik is a successful architect who developed a patented concept of free-form ecological construction, a furniture designer and a very successful art director of blockbusters that are hitting the box office around the world. We mention only the most current ones: two movie sequels Dina (Dune, : Part One, 2021; Dune, : Part Two, 2024), based on the famous science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, whose first sequel was also awarded an Oscar for scenography.

A modest, realistic and witty fifty-year-old, originally from Romania, a fan of Yugoslav rock in the 1980s, he built his career in Hungary and Germany. He now lives between Berlin and Budapest.

"WEATHER" The story of the novel Dina Frank Herbert can be seen as a metaphor for the cyclical historical struggle for the current energy resource, was it coal, naphtha, gas or lithium today.

ADORJAN PORTIK: I believe that the novel is a classic, that it is timeless. It provided the basis for a certain genre of science fiction. On one level, it is satirical, it criticizes the historical assumptions of the world's greed. He explains that good and evil are the same, that power changes people. I don't want to spoil it, but the Atreides and Harkonnen families are the same, they overlap. The fable also depicts the situation of war conflicts between monarchies before the First World War, when, for example, the English Queen Victoria was the grandmother of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Russian Queen Alexandra Feodorovna Romanov. Although film is a visual art, the story is the most important.

What is more important? Dina's Arrakis, spice or a huge reserve of underground water?

Spice, the universe is fighting for him in this film. Water has a symbolic meaning, it preserves the fluid and energy of all ancestors.

Minimalism by Denis Villeneuve, the director Dine, it is also present in your previous work?

Denis Villeneuve really had very precise expectations from us. He experimented with different organizations of space. He is aware that architecture is space and not walls, which are only an indirect tool to create the composition of space. I watched the way he worked; in the evening he would walk around the set and plan the next days and steps, far ahead of us in every detail. I was only the art director, I did my best, I had specific suggestions, some of them were implemented, but always fitting into the concept of the director and set designer. When we entered the offices of the art sector, the corridors were already plastered with renderings of visual sets, even props. Of course, we developed the concepts into cinematic reality and it was really a very close collaboration.

The audience sees the film as a new reality, but he can hardly imagine the amount of work that went into making that reality seem plausible. Jer, after computer generated images, on canvas, the hand still has to hit the real table, in this case sand...

And there is also pur pena… (laughter) We work for the camera, for its eye, and it's all zeros and ones of machine language. How we made it happen, well, it's magic! Baron Vladimir Harkonen (character from Dine) is in a flying chair, it is real. Or do you think it's animated? Sometimes we use solid building materials, sometimes we interpret them to fit what looks better through the lens.

Violence is a constant of history., a localized world war is raging in our immediate vicinity, and the senselessness of violence is precisely the message of the box office hit film of which you are also the art director - Bullet speed?

I wouldn't call it a world war, I still refuse to call it that. I hope it doesn't become. Bullet speed has a satirical, humorous approach to violence. The film industry interprets reality, including real conflicts in the world, makes historical parallels, and Hollywood is far from a realistic and balanced commentary on reality. I'd rather look for that in European art and underground films, they're more honest. Hollywood has a filter based on a bunch of commercial reasons.

The action of the film is localized in the train, How challenging was that??

My involvement in the film was during the covid pandemic, I was in the Berlin team, I worked with set designer David Schoenemann. My task was to come up with the composition of the train, how we have to adjust them, what are the limitations of the scenes, how we manage the cars... When I handed over the project book, David went to Los Angeles and they filmed it. I am not allowed to work in the US as an art director.

Why, that's so unfair?

I'm not sure it's unfair. The union protects their art directors. That's the system. If I want to work there, I have to become a union member. It is fair legal representation and membership protection. In fact, in Europe it is much more like the Wild West, we have no such protection and are quite exposed to the will of the producers. But I really enjoyed that project, it was really a complex request. Of all the films I've contributed to, Bullet speed it surprised me the most, I didn't expect it to be so good, its modernity and wit, the perfect evolution of the story. And the work that we from the art sector did. I really enjoyed it.

The genre of science fiction is close to you, you were the art director for the series Endowment (Foundation, 2021) based on the famous work of Isaac Asimov?

It is a high-budget series, I was the art director of the first and second seasons. We started filming in Ireland, we really did a huge job, I'm talking about the size and the amount of sets. The problem is that I got covid and I got over it on my feet with a mask on my face. Filming then took place in a huge drafty hall of a former computer factory in Limerick. I know I was shaking on set and telling myself that if I could survive that, I could do anything. Unfortunately, one of us from the team did not survive. I mention this because making films requires sacrifice and working in cinematography can be very difficult. In addition to Ireland and Italy, we also filmed in Berlin, Prague, Malta, Lake Constance and many interesting places.

Otherwise, the SF genre follows me like a shadow. At one point I was afraid that I would never escape from him. Although, I mostly take the good that is offered to me and work on it. I Retribution, Robin Hood, dust bunny are exceptions, they are not from that genre. As for aesthetics, I'm sure that when someone calls me, they check what I've done and what I do in other artistic media.

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What are they Freeform buildings, I have seen several examples of free-form eco-buildings already built, but how to explain that hive?

I wrote and registered a patent on double curved surface self-supporting walls that can be well insulated. I managed to build several such buildings, but introducing a new product in Central and Eastern Europe is very difficult. One pedestrian bridge, one family house and one church were built according to my patented construction system. I designed a sports hall for 2.000 people that the clients did not pay for. It was a big blow for my architecture office, there are employees, benefits, taxes and other duties. That is why the development of that project is on hold for now. I believe in that patent, but I'm not sure I'll be able to use it in the near future.

You are most often mentioned on the Internet as a creator of chairs Chair Generations i SilentBox lampi, consumer products, not as a film art director?

My grandfather was a carpenter, from him I inherited a love for various materials. But I also went through academic education and in design I try to create a balance between those two knowledge and love. Scales are not important to me, it is not a bigger challenge for me to design a solitaire than a chair. Maybe I've gotten too old to get excited about a creative task… (laughter)

Your architectural and design work is based on respect for the planet, with strong lines and minimalism.

Good design is not based on the scale of the object you create, but on the consistency of every detail. So, from the details to the big picture. If you are able to be honest from the first to the hundred thousandth line, then you create consistent works that carry a personal stamp. And if it is a lamp with two lines or a shopping center with 200.000 lines.

Day 1 she won an Oscar for scenography, a series Endowment she was nominated for the Gilde art director award (ADG); is the material criterion more important than the artistic one?

I separate financial from artistic success. I'm not afraid of the size of the budget of the films I've worked on and their financial success, but I'm more interested in their artistic impact. And yet, the goal is to make a profit. The dreams of the director, the screenwriter, the art sector, all have to meet the producer's financial goals. I have met producers who love artistic ideas, let's hope they all become like that.