The cinema has always been a great source for inspiration for decor ideas. From futuristic visions to historical recreations to complete fantasy, the movies are often our visual muse, inspiring us to create our homes to embody what we see ourselves to be and hope to become. And even more importantly, the movies sometime open our eyes to bold, daring, or just plain wild decor possibilities we might have never considered until cinema's charms have convinced us otherwise.
Below, in no particular order, are ten of my favourite films which wowed and wooed me with their decor/design. Feel free to throw in your two cents of which films have inspired your interior design sense.
I'll never forget seeing About Last Night for the first time when I was still a teenager. I loved Demi Moore painting the kitchen cabinets and splatter painting the sofa, making the apartment her own. Many movies since then have stuck with me, coming to mind right now are Under the Tuscan Sun seeing Sandra Oh's lavender kitchen, I know the house was supposed to inspire me, right, and Alisha Silverstone's room colors in Blast From the Past. I'm sure there's tons more.
Lauren Bacall's 2 storey apartment in Dark Passage
Clifton Webb's (Waldo Lydecker) apartment in Laura - made 1946 but ahead of its time except for the tacky frilly lampshades.
Bette Davis' in Deception.
Any movie made in Paris - even the empty one in Charade is fabulous - those wardrobes!!
The kid's apartment in Diva.
Three of my favorite abodes come from three forgettable movies.
Dorian Grey's home in League of Extrordinary Gentlemen.
The library from Hellboy, where Professor Broom is killed.
Sir August de Wynter's estate in The Avengers.
And then of course there's almost any house from any B&W film made before 1959, including Xanadu from Citizen Kane, and the "big old house" from Sunset Boulevard/Rebel Without a Cause.
My office had a client who used a room seen in Seabiscuit as the inspiration for the library in his new house.
Though a fun way to get design ideas, it's not as convenient to refer to as a pile of magazine clippings....
There's a great NY apartment in the Sydney Poitier film "For the Love of Ivy." The livingroom is a beautiful sunken masterpiece. I wish I could find an image...
How about every single environment in 'The Incredibles'?
I totally agree about the "Incredibles!" I watched the movie a second time just focusing on the backgrounds.
"les parapluies de cherbourg" and "modesty blaise" (specifically the op art wallpaper in the villain's house in the latter)...
Down with Love
The Royal Tenenbaums
Contempt rules.
Henry & June also has amazing color combos.
A similar topic was discussed on OT #25 on the NY site over a year ago; and many of the same movies were mentioned! Check it out:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/open-threads/open-thread-25-002830
Additional cinema inspirations for me:
Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?
L'Avventura
Le Nottti di Cabiria
Danger:Diabolik/Modesty Blaise/Barbarella
American Gigolo
In the Mood for Love (natch!)
A Summer Place
Auntie Mame
Gonin (the villain's waterfront apartment)
Oldboy (the villain's highrise apartment)
P.S. Ever notice that the villains in action movies alway have the flash pads?
Um, how about Troy McClure's space age-y pad on 'The Simpsons' and Quagmire's mid-century/tiki-styled bachelor pad on 'Family Guy'?
a new add for me: lucky number slevin. amazing art direction, very french and bold. josh hartnett is easy on the eyes as well.
omg, danger:diabolik! after watching that movie, all i wanted was a round rotating bed. i ALMOST went DIY with the sutlan sandane. oh ikea!
Ingrid bergmans apt in the film 'Indiscreet'(1958) with Cary Grant is FABULOUS -use of color and the space itself is AMAZING! Talk about use of technicolor...such a glamorous apartment with a totally practical kitchen
I am so excited about all the recommendations. I've been envious of the Kitchen's Celluloid Pantry!
I recommend 2 movies whose interiors are both stunning but couldn't be more different from each other. Bergman's Persona, with it's beautiful minimalist beach house, and Demi's Umbrellas of Cherbourg with its vibrant colors, patterns, and textures.
Also, appropriate to Apartment Therapy, the opening scene of An American in Paris is a hilarious take on small studio living.
How did Gods and Monsters not get mentioned yet?!
Campbell Scott's apartment in Dying Young, Juliet Binoche's apartment in Damage.
oops, didn't realise Umbrellas was already mentioned. Anyhoo, it's perfect in light of the color contest. Also, Catherine Deneuve's outfits are fantastic!
and speaking of Juliette Binoche, the interiors in Blue are totally awesome.
For us folks who like to collect, I would like to add the apartment in "The 40 Year Old Virgin". Laugh, but us nerds were in awe of his character's organizational and display skills (because Steve Austin's boss deserves a proper space).
How about "Le Samourai?" Some over the top 60s mod, and even Alain Delon's monochromatic dive apartment in the opening shot?
Favorite *exotic* cinematic inspiration: Summer Lovers (Peter Gallagher and Daryl Hannah's hillside summer rental house in Santorini. Minimal, rustic, and oceanfront!)
Yes to the Incredibles! My ex-boyfriend and I used to watch that all the time and wish we could just hand someone a ton of cash to recreate that house for real.
sparky! Danger:Diabolik's rotating, round bed, right? And the mod glass shower stalls with the geometric, plexi "privacy" panels! "Deep, deep, down..." That movie made me want to re-do everything in mid-'60s Pierre Cardin op-art modernism. And buy a wig.
[PS Love your "kain tayo" blog.]
My vote goes to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's house in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith". I remember literally drooling during every interior scene--and not at the actors. (Well, at them too...)
Mon Oncle was a parody, actually a vicious satire, of modernist architecture and interior decoration.
just in case you were wondering. or thinking about dropping its name at a dinner party.
But we must include so all of the interiors from Antonioni's BLOW UP - see it - the style is super cool.
Another film with great interiors is Suspiria. It's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember real nice art nouveau touches.
What a great post! I second Bleu and add Double Life of Veronique (which is being released, finally! on DVD by Criterion in November). Pretty much everything by Kieslowski is a masterpiece of color and mood.
Woody Allen and his enormous city brownstones and townhomes.
Monsoon Wedding with its wonderful art and color.
And maybe I'm a geek in this, but I don't think you can beat the hobbit hole for sheer coziness and tea kettle hominess. I do tend to gravitate towards those green and gold colors.
each film i see has design inspiration for me, not just for my own home or work, but for my visual vocabulary. for modern design lovers i suggest walter matthau's apartment in, a new leaf, for a layered detailed look kate & leopold. a movie doesn't have to be a classic or an award winner to be inspiring, i always thought this movie set idea would make a great book,
deb, even, paris when it sizzles, looked great but the movie fizzled. great list enrique, thank you.
don't forget funny face, professor flostra's duplex apt.
One film apartment that had me drooling recently was Cleo's apartment in Agnes Varda's Cleo from 5 to 7. Totally stark & amazing displays of objects. Still has me inspired!
Yet another Juliette Binoche film, Cache. Beautiful home with an Apartment Therapy Kitchen Contest worthy kitchen.
Rear Window is a great one for apartments.. a few good color combinations, and the voyeurism familiar to dwellers of SoCal courts or NY apartment buildings.
great topic and great suggestions in the thread! I'll have to bookmark this for my netflix list.
oh, and also a lot of Almodovar movies.. I just saw Live Flesh recently and there is an amazing loft apartment with a lot of colorful furniture on wheels. I can't remember specifically, but I think there were some AT contest-worthy color combos in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.
minipanda: Forget the kitchen, let's talk about the dining room lined with floor to ceiling bookshelves in Cache!
bess: Great call on the the early Almodovar's. I especially liked the interiors in Matador. (Heads up: Sony is reissuing all of the early Almodovar films on DVD this fall. Finally.)
patrick/Robin/and all the other Francophiles and romantics: Speaking of Paris, be sure to catch "Paris... Je'taime" when it gets a domestic theatrical release sometime next year. I was lucky enough to catch a technical screening of the film (a digital print at a digital theatre) a few weeks back. There's never been a sweeter film about Paris, the city of love. Trust me on this.
I could play this game for hours...
Getting home and looking at my DVD collections, I want to add a few more:
Alfie (the slick remake with Jude Law): Alfie's bachelor crash pad.
Casino: the gauche Vegas home and Sharon Stone with a fall and hooker furs--love it!
Fight Club: the decrepit Tyler Durden house not the IKEA-inspired apartment. (gregory and I discussed offline.)
The Fifth Element/Logan's Run: futuristic pod living.
La Mujer de mi Hermano: Mexican MoCo.
Indochine: Catherine Denueve's colonial plantation.
Mulholland Drive/'Til There Was You: the archetypal L.A. courtyard apartment.
Body Double: John Lautner's Chemosphere! (Charlie's Angels features a faux Chemosphere.)
A Summer Place: Frank Lloyd Wright-ish beach house.
The Parent Trap (original with Hayley Mills): Brian Keith's California ranch house on steroids.
Shoot. 2 more. And that's it, I promise.
American Psycho: the Patrick Bateman apartment.
9 1/2 Weeks: Mickey Rourke's austere, minimal pad.
The houses in the Ice Storm are responsible for my obsession with New Caanan, Ct.
I also love Maude's traincar house in Harold and Maude.
recently my favorite 'over-the-top'decor comes from the 70's erotica classic "The Lickerish Quartet". i NEED that library. so Mondrian! so overtly suggestive! so 1974!
This will sound crzazy, but my tastes run more towards psychedelic Victorian shag chic (I grew up in San Francisco and Marin County in the 1970s): Nanny McPhee
i am so impressed that you mentioned SurviveStyle5+ -- completely appropriate and awesome!
The saturated interior colors in the loft in SHALLOW GRAVE always stick with me as being brash, gutsy and bold. Great movie too!
Enrique - Hurrah! I'm happy you mentioned The Parent Trap (my favorite film of all time). When I moved to California, that was the sort of house I imagined myself in. :) Speaking of classic Disney live action, the Candleshoe estate was pretty great, too!
Oh my God Enrique: THE PARENT TRAP! My favorite movie of all time! How could I forget? I am going to have to watch it tonight. (yes, I own it)
"The nerve of her, coming here with YOUR FACE!"
Oh and Brazil. Forgot Brazil. Yeah.
What about Bertolucci's "The Dreamers"? I love that old-fashioned Parisian bathroom. And after watching it, I wanted to paint all of my bookshelves and hallways steely grey.
A double vote for Patrick Bateman's apartment in AMERICAN PSYCHO. The detail is just unreal, no corner has been overlooked.
What about Wayne mansion in Batman Begins - specifically Bruce Waynes childhood bedroom. That Art Deco bed is covetous!
agreed on Down with Love. So So movie but great decor.
#1!
"The Best of Everything" (Joan Crawford, supporting role): 50's jazzy swish
othr random pics:
more recently,
"Carnage" (spare Euro, rich colors, common touches like 6 bobble head dogs on a shelf)
the two gentle "johns" apts (not the psycho's!)
"Mysterious Skin" (one Mapplethorpian, anothr w/ a tree motif)
classics:
"XYZ" (restrained mod, Liz Taylor + Burton)
Star Wars.3, Revenge of the Sith
AUNTIE MAME!
ps, love this re-ocurring thread + Enrique's expertise.
just have to add Jennifer Jason Leigh's Mid C/kind of organic style home in "The Anniversary Party" ("who did yr home!?"..."I did" answers Leigh's character, sounding bored but vaguely defiant)
speaking of parody, Parker Posey's character's LA hills house in Scream 2, or 3? (overdone, or packed, w/ iconic "it" pieces)
this is the best post ever! what about: the interiors of the recent "Gabrielle" with Isabel Hupert, The Royal Tenenbaum's (Margot's wallpaper a la Gino's with the zebras!), what a list I could come up with if I could think right now!
The house in practical magic - fabulous!!
And Vertigo. The restaurant. Kim Novak's apartment. Though I guess we can't all have green lights shining garishly into our apartments.
I have always loved Olive Oyls house from Popeye
Amelie, of course...also just saw Lucky Number Slevin-verrrrry stylin' decor and amazing cropping of the shots. Surprised I even noticed with Josh Hartnett (oooh, my favorite) in a towel. Ohhhh, the voice, the nose, the skin, the eyebrows...oops, never mind,- I digress.
Also the Powerpuff Girls Movie (the interior of the professor's house is shown, mod furniture & all- unlike the cartoon on TV). Hard Candy (creepy movie but the colors!)
On the subject of forgettable films with awesome sets: The vampires' cave in The Lost Boys, and the old broom factory in Blair Witch 2.
cool! So its not just me who is ever so tempted to paint her bedroom red because of Amelie :)
I have always loved Pillow Talk, both for Doris Day's very cute apartment and for the before and after of Rock Hudson's bachelor pad.
i loved Meg Ryan's apartment in 'Prelude to a Kiss".
For those of us who like to live in a different part of the last century, Steve Buscemi's apartment in Ghost World is inspiring in a funhouse kind of way.
the devine colours of 8 Women and Frida. the gorgeous house of Cole Porter/Kevin Kline in De-lovely.
Don't forget the loft in 'Diva'. Blue, blue,bleu.
McCauliflower, I am still obsessed with painting my bedroom like Amelie's. That whole movie was inspiring to me.
Some others:
Diane Keaton's Hamptons home in As Good as it Gets
Brigit Fonda's Venice apt. in Point of No Return
Of COURSE, Auntie Mame...my fav movie ever.
I know it's not a movie, but I loved loved loved Carrie's apt. in Sex and the City
anything by Tarkovsky has gorgeous, meticulous interiors.
original russian Solaris and The Sacrifice especially.
The old and abandoned appartment in "Last Tango in Paris". The potential was screaming!
Elizabeth Hurley's character house in "Permanent Midnight"-grown up and sleek...
Oh, and my all time favorite; Annie Hall's place...
I saw "Down with love" mentioned somewhere here, but I did not see "Men in Black", where my favourate Saarinen Tulip series are used with the aim to create a futuristic atmosphere. Also some Arne Jacobsen's furniture.
As Good as it Gets
Sex & the City
PS I love you
My Fair Lady
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O and can't forget the Chateau in A Good Year
O and the Villa in Under the Tuscan Sun
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So lame, but, probably Hugh Grant's apt in About A Boy.
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ok, don't yell at me, but harry potter. how about sabrina...
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forgetting Fellini films was a serious oversight, Juliet of the Spirits.
Satyricon, for color inspiration, especially.
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"Jules" (Demi Moore) pink 80's pad in "About Last NIght"
The nursery in Peter Pan (always loved those huge windows)
"Iona's" (Annie Potts) apartment in "Pretty in Pink"
Henry Hill's Girlfriend's apratment in "Good Fellas"
Brenda's (first) house in "Six Feet Under"
Marie Antoinette's Summer House in Sofia Coppola's version
"Ray's" (Steve Martin) LA house in "Shopgirl"
The grand apartment of Tom and Nicole in "Eyes Wide Shut"
The Brooklyn brownstone in "The Squid and the Whale"
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