Gardens have always played an important role in literature and movies. Directors love them because they're visually compelling backdrops flooded with natural light, and writers love them for all the deep-rooted associations they call forth. Here are 10 of our favorites from film.
- The Great Gatsby: Cool and calm on West Egg.
- The Godfather: An unforgettable scene with an orange.
- Pan's Labyrinth: A very creepy garden with an even creepier faun.
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Amazing fight scenes among the trees.
- Atonement: A hot, humid, and sexy garden scene.
- Much Ado About Nothing: An Italian villa with incredible views.
- A Room With a View: Well-manicured English gardens and wild Italian meadows.
- Pride and Prejudice: Really any Jane Austen movie would fit the bill.
- Marie Antoinette: The splendor of Versaille.
- The Secret Garden: An abandoned garden returns to life.
This list is just a beginning...add your favorite film gardens in the comments.
All photos via IMDB except 5 (Britannica) and 6 (Insite)
Tina Wilson's Striking Style 
30 DIY Projects for the 3-Day Weekend
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Hose Jockey Wall Mount
20 Scrumptious Brunch Recipes 
Magic One-Ingredient Ice Cream 5 Ways: Peanut Butter, Nutella, and More
Comments (22)
That Gatsby still of Robert Redford and Mia Farrow is beautiful.
Yes, these are beautiful. My favorite movie garden, though, is the overgrown Florida set of Great Expectations (the Ethan Hawke/Gwyneth Paltrow one).
I used to watch the movie "Green Card" over and over JUST for the greenhouse scenes. I loved Andie MacDowell's apartment!!
I like that zen garden that Eli Cash and Chas Tenenbaum fall into at the end of The Royal Tenenbaums.
Being There.
Excuse me, but the only movie garden worth anything is the one Faye Dunaway destroyed in Mommie Dearest. The end.
Greenfingers - it's a movie about gardeners!
And don't forget the gorgeous gardens in Barry Lyndon & Last Year at Marienbad, both of which used the immaculate geometry of perfectly clipped parterres as a visual metaphor for society's constrictive rules of behaviour: "Look, but don't touch!"
Let's not forget about Grey Gardens.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073076/
Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour: Somewhere In Time.
Beautiful! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081534/
Please don't forget "Under the Tuscan Sun"!
Enchanted April
Italian, lush and lovely.
The side garden in Howard's End. A moonlight garden, I believe, a concept with which I've always been enamored.
The estate of Filoli, which was featured in the 1978 Warren Beatty film, "Heaven Can Wait", was also the estate used as the Carrington residence for the 1980's series "Dynasty" as well as the exteriors of the house for the 1997 Michael Douglas film, "The Game".
The house has amazing gardens which are open to the public for tours.
http://www.filoli.org/
Another great garden is that of Castle Alnwick (pronouced "Annick") - The home of the Duke of Northumberland in England. The castle and gardens have a long history in films and television - but most recently the exteriors were used for the 1998 film "Elizabeth", the Harry Potter films to stand in for the grounds of the Hogwarts School and in the new film "Robin Hood".
Alnwick Castle is also open to the public.
http://www.alnwickcastle.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alnwick_Castle
"Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour: Somewhere In Time."
That was filmed at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan...
http://www.grandhotel.com/
...which is also renowned for having the world's longest covered wooden porch - and it's interiors which were redone by Carleton Varney, the President of Dorothy Draper & Co. Inc., the oldest interior design firm in the United States.
I loved the little tomato garden in the Godfather. Also, the vineyard is "A Good Year".
Great expectations!
I second Great Expectations! and more recently saw a british film, Cracks
http://www.daemonsmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/cracks_movie-500x267.jpg <--- movie still.
Except that picture is of Helena Bonham Carter from Howard's End, not A Room with a View.
Heavenly Creatures.
Definitely Great Expectations!
not a movie, but The Tudors series on showtime has some of the most amazing gardens. Ahh to be one of Henry VIII's gardeners would have been fabulous!