Few film-makers create worlds as shiny, sumptuous and seductive as Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin. From the Bollywood-infused bohemia of fin de siècle Paris in Moulin Rouge! to the decadent excesses of 1920s New York in The Great Gatsby, the Australian director and his production designer (and wife), have made unforgettable visual spectacles that have earned Martin two Oscars for her set decoration and costumes.
So what would it be like to step inside one of their luxuriant visions? We won’t have to wait long to find out. For the past six months the couple have been immersed in the glamour of 1940s Miami Beach researching the genesis of the city’s first luxury hotel, the Saxony, which opened in 1948. Long abandoned, the hotel