Background
She was born in Arizona to German Russian emigrant parents.
She was born in Arizona to German Russian emigrant parents.
She has shown versatility in creating sets for both lavish historical films and glossy contemporary fare. Her education abroad closed with two years as an apprentice at the famed Comédie Française. She started with the off-Broadway scene of 1960s New York at the Actors Studio and Louisiana MaMa as a seamstress, prop maker and scene painter.
1966 saw the real start of her career in design with an eight-year stay creating costumes and sets at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco under William Balliol
She also met future husband and fellow production designer Stuart Wurtzel. She has designed movies in a wide range of subjects, styles, and periods: from the low-budget, break-dancing musical Beat Street to the expensive plutonium-plant melodrama Silkwood.
Director Neil Burger, in his Digital Video Disc commentary for Limitless, singles out von Brandenstein for her excellent work on the film.