apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time


ColorTherapy in Film: St. Elmos Fire

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I first saw this film the summer after I graduated from high school and have always had a soft spot for it. Even at the tender age of 18, this movie made me aware of how production design informs plot and character. Now that Retro 80s is officially upon us, lets take a closer look at this movie for a few of its colors schemes.

This pink living room is so over-the-top its almost uninhabitable. Everything about this room screams, Look at me, I need attention, as does Moores characteran aspirational party girl trying too hard to compensate for her fathers lack of affection.

That said Im totally into it.

Ill probably never have a room as pink as this, but I love how everything comes togetherthe neon Billy Idol wall piece, the cement pylon table legs, the unexpected brown sofa laden with opulent pillows and that sickly Pepto-Bismol wall color. If this room or that wall color are overdone, its with flare and insight into character. As an asidenow that I look at it--that living room must be 150 feet across

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Moores bedroom is interesting too. I like the combination of wall color with drapes: a deep coral/brown red and light blue. The blue sheers are very soft and diaphanous in this shotall of Moores furniture has just been repossessed and the winds of change are blowing through.

This room is gut-colored compared to the living room, and reveals a somewhat less superficial side of her persona.

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Lastly, and I know this isnt a color issue per se, but Ive lusted after that Nike wall mural and all those glass blocks in Ally Sheedys loft for years.

Theres something about the photo that suggests the moment after a storm breaks where you know everything is going to be OK. But aside of that, its a billboard, and attaches Sheedy and Judd Nelson to the crass, cravenly ambitious consumer class that defined yuppie in the 80s.

I see this set and suddenly I want to be young and upwardly mobile too.

Can we take this information literally and make a few color recommendations? Possible matches: Benjamin Moore Baby Girl 2004-50; Rhubarb 2007-30.

- Mark Chamberlain, interior and decorative painter


Comments (27)

I love love love this film. Booga booga booga, ha ha ha.

posted by Kah on 2007-06-26 12:29:33
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Please, let's NOT revisit those 1980s colors just yet.

posted by MrGreen on 2007-06-26 12:33:26
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Hmm. Can I skip the 80's revival and just go straight back to 90's minimalism? Or do I have to wait my turn in the 20 year cycle?

posted by C* on 2007-06-26 12:38:21
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some other amazing color therapy is in Miami Vice, now airing on the Sleuth Channel. there's some great pastels and 80's design. check it out!

posted by sperle on 2007-06-26 12:48:32
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I love the color schemes in Lucas.

posted by Jon_B on 2007-06-26 12:54:00
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Not at all '80s, but I love Celine's apartment in "Before Sunset."

Have to think if there were any '80s films I loved. Maybe Veronica's room in "Heathers."

posted by Lady J on 2007-06-26 12:59:40
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Ah, Demi's fabulous decorator RON! I think Ally and Judd's loft was only about the third movie loft I coveted, the first being Jennifer Beals' in Flashdance and the second Glenn Close's in Fatal Attraction!


I long for the days when Rob Lowe played fake saxophone...

Becky

posted by becky on 2007-06-26 13:11:22
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Oh man, I could have gone another 20 years without seing those hideous pictures. Please don't post anything that ugly again...

posted by boomer on 2007-06-26 13:13:48
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Heh, I have a friend who described Demi's apartment as "just looking like the definition of credit card debt".

posted by Cuddles Kazinski on 2007-06-26 14:01:42
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YES:
Memphis
New Wave playfulness
Vans (the shoes)
Square Pegs
Haircut 100
Pee-Wee Herman
Animal Print Patterns
16 Candles
The English Beat
Keith Haring
Spy Magazine

NO:
Yuppies
Dynasty
Hair Bands
Peach-colored anything
Top Gun
Greed
Reagan
Shoulder Pads
Miami Vice
Cocaine
Phil Collins
Patrick Nagel
Neon or any reference to it

posted by BrooklynRob on 2007-06-26 14:14:38
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I was in the early grades of elementary school at the time this came out. I am eternally grateful I spent those years wearing a dull school uniform instead of neon spandex.

Please please please, no '80s revivals!

posted by Sydney on 2007-06-26 14:41:05
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I loved Teri's bedroom in " Just One of the Guys"

posted by labchick on 2007-06-26 14:42:18
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That whole vibe was on fire. I'm glad I was growing up then. The retro trend is so ridiculous now 'cause the college girls wearing it don't even understand. It lacks the full context of the 1980s environment. The politics, social issues, AND the accompanying pop culture that created the style.

There was only one time to watch Madonna strike out and blunder through all those taboos. It wasn't the '90s and it ain't now.

It's sad to see super young women walking around in the stuff I wore to grade/high school. Just sad.

posted by Lady J on 2007-06-26 15:39:31
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The '80s - Fascist Design for a Fascist Era.

posted by sunspot42 on 2007-06-26 16:19:55
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ah, the 80's....
the Nagles, the androgyny, the shoulderpads, the coke, the Miami Vice look....
still, what they lacked in style they made up in music!
Bring back black gummy bracelets,eyeliner for guys and, DYNASTY!!!

posted by chris_94131 on 2007-06-26 16:33:51
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FRANKIE SAYS RELAX

posted by AngieK on 2007-06-26 16:54:52
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You know all that modern neo Roccoco/Baroque crap and those stickers for walls etc. etc. etc. that we keep seeing? Well, they are going to look just as ridiculous, if not worse, than all that 80's shite. In fact, I think it is already over. You know when midwestern convention centers have picked up on it, it's already on life support.

posted by Kurt on 2007-06-26 17:25:48
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What a fun post. Thanks for the blast of nostalgia.

posted by Scout on 2007-06-26 20:03:53
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I was in junior high when this movie came out, and I was sure that when I was a "grown up" like the characters in this movie, I would have an apartment just like Jules. And at some point I would be dramatically shivering in a T shirt while the cool Georgetown air blew in. And then Rob Lowe would give some speech about St Elmo's fire that made no sense and then he would make a hair spray torch and it would be soooo awesome.

I miss 80s movies!

posted by NCB on 2007-06-26 20:04:52
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Ahhh...the 80's. When everyone looked like they were from New Jersey...

Maybe it's because I live in NYC, and so am obsessed by real estate, but I remember sitting through that whole movie thinking - how can they afford those apartments right out of school??

But then I often think that when I'm watching a movie or TV show and see characters with fabulous (huge) apartments when their characters shouldn't be able to afford them with the jobs they have (ie; Monica & Rachel, Carrie Bradshaw, basically every character with a Manhattan apartment).

I own 600 sf and consider myself lucky, but sometimes these huge apartments make me drool.

posted by GothamTomato on 2007-06-26 20:39:55
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Carrie Bradshaw had a rent-controlled apartment. Hadn't she been living there since the late '80s?

posted by Lady J on 2007-06-26 23:50:08
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One of those apartments in About Last Night was filmed inside and outside my highschool classmate's apartment.

Ahh, the 80s.

posted by nobugsonme on 2007-06-27 00:08:30
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How about Beetlejuice? To this day, I would still kind of love to do every surface of an entire room in granitone fleck paint.

posted by Bruised on 2007-06-27 01:27:45
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"It's sad to see super young women walking around in the stuff I wore to grade/high school. Just sad."

I agree - if you lived through this once you have no desire to do it again!

(I always preferred Pretty in Pink anyway...)

posted by Violetsrose on 2007-06-27 08:06:49
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"Carrie Bradshaw had a rent-controlled apartment. Hadn't she been living there since the late '80s?"



That was the story, but I moved to NYC in the early 80s and there were no rent controlled apartments to be found. The only people who had them had gotten here at least 10 years earlier.

Never believed it. I know that you have to suspend belief for drama, and it's a tiny point, but still...

posted by GothamTomato on 2007-06-27 08:54:49
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GothamTomato, I too always have the antennae out for characters living in apartments that should be wayyy out of their reach. At the same time, I think about how much fun it would be to, as the production designer, use a space to express who a character is. I hate St. Elmo's Fire, but those apartments did have a lot to say!

posted by greer on 2007-06-28 09:28:54
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