How do you actually look at interior design? Where can you experience new trends, looks and vibes? How many of us have actually spent time in a luxury showroom, visited a friend's ridiculously stylish apartment, or been invited to a luxurious mansion or Italian meal for the weekend? Palazzi?
Well, this is FT, so some of us may think so, but most of the time, consciously or not, we encounter the interiors that affect us the most. I think it's movies or TV. We discover domestic design vicariously through the screen.
After all, these fictional interiors are as carefully curated as a furniture showroom or an expertly designed penthouse. Because it plays an important role in visual storytelling. The sets not only build the story, but the physical spaces and rooms reveal aspects of the characters even before they appear on screen. The pictures, the books, the paintings on the walls, the type of desk and what is placed on that desk all subtly build a backstory.
The design of individual items and interiors positions us in terms of time, taste, class and money. Remember Holly Golightly's apartment? Breakfast at Tiffany'sa spare modern interior with a cut-out bathtub for the sofa, stacked with suitcases and boxes for furniture, as if to suggest that everything is ready to move, this is a woman without roots. , I'm still struggling to define who I am.
Or capture the shadowy interior of Vito Corleone's study in the film's opening scene. godfatherBig desks, film noir blinds, darkness in the middle of a bright day, the fusion of family and work at home and in the office.
I was particularly offended by the constant use of modernist interiors and furniture in movies as codes for evil. A black leather Mies van der Rohe chair, a Le Corbusier lounger, and a modern Los Angeles home all seem to hint at something sinister. “Maybe we all have a little bit of a yearning for a Bond villain's lair,” says the founder of Film and Furniture, which helps movie fans identify and buy what they've seen on screen. Paula Benson says. “Those rooms look very nice.”
Like Benson, I also scrutinize every detail in my films, and she admits that constantly checking out the props could ruin the movie: “People hate watching with me because I'm always stopping to look at the details. I watch everything twice: first the furniture, then the film.”
Sonya Krauss, a London-based film and television designer, says these details are deeply considered. “What we do is not interior design,” she says. “When I design a set for a character's house, I like to think of myself as that character.'' So is it similar to how the method works in design? “Yes, I think so. I haven't thought about where to put it, but where should I put it?
Among Kraus' projects was a dark drama series for the BBC. taboo, Starring Tom Hardy. “This man returned to his father's house and inherited it, so he was living with something that was not his, something that already had a character,” she says. “The best thing anyone can say to us is, 'Where did you find that place?'” When we actually built everything in the studio. Hardy continued to trace the surface with his finger and asked if it was real. ”
Set decorator and production buyer who has worked on large-scale productions including those of Judy Ducker and Martin Scorsese. Hugo, He says the most difficult films to get right are those set in the recent past, “because we remember what things looked like.”
“What I worked on was Diana Although it was possible to watch movies and decorate appropriately, it was technically difficult to obtain a suitable cell phone or beige computer. ”
Her touch is important because most of us live by mixing the old and the new—rarely buying everything at once—and as a result our interiors are rarely entirely outdated, but rather hybrid. Wes Anderson's production designer, Adam Stockhausen, nailed this mix: The Grand Budapest Hotela golden fin de siècle interior somewhere in Central Europe, but with the obvious 1970s addition of orange and brown. Stockhausen suggests that these distinctive colours were inspired by small props such as metal ashtrays; the tiniest items can characterise an entire set.
There was nothing random about Stanley Kubrick's set. “He wasn't the kind of director who would pick something out of a prop store,” Benson says. “He wouldn't have used what other managers used.”
If our most immersive interior design experiences come from movies and television, how does that impact us as viewers and consumers?
When Benson saw Kubrick's work shining, she was fascinated by the geometric patterned carpet that appears in a shot of young Danny (Jack Nicholson's writer's son) playing in the hallways of the Overlook Hotel. After visiting Kubrick's archives, she eventually realized that the carpet had been designed by interior designer David Hicks. Hicks was deeply involved in the 1970s London scene, working for aristocrats, boutiques, and bohemians, and Kubrick would have been well aware of his work. So while the carpet may have been a little out of place in the Rocky Mountains, where the exteriors are set, the interiors were shot at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, just beyond the north end of London and near Kubrick's home.
People may recognize and admire the film's work, but do they really buy them? Who owns a Kubrick carpet (the pattern is actually called the Hicks hexagon)? who is?
“Oh, you'd be surprised,” says Benson, who sells an officially licensed version of the carpet. “People have it as a statement in their homes and hotels. A lot of it seems to be making its way into home theaters.” (A double homage, isn't it?) Perhaps this is some kind of code, a conversation piece. mosquito? “It's important. There's a real loyalty to Kubrick, and people want to solidify their love for his movies with something real. They may not be consciously watching the movies. not. [interiors] Inspiration, that connection may be subconscious, but it's still there. ”
Not just carpets.kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey Influences included Olivier Mourg's low-slung Gin chair, the still-futuristic-looking pieces featured in the Hilton space station scene, and cutlery designed by Arne Jacobsen, “which still looks great,” says Benson. say.
From historical dramas to science fiction attempts to predict the future, movies inevitably reflect and enhance the present. This industry has the resources to take advantage of the best and latest designs, with production designers, set dressers, and prop consultants who are most knowledgeable about modern trends and the coolest new things. And those images spread and amplify the trend. But are set designers and prop buyers themselves taste makers? Can they change the way our lives look?
Benson says mad men It had a big impact. “I was already interested in midcentury modern, but this series took it even further, with the Florence Knoll sofa and the large table lamp… Scandinavian noir,” she says. Borgen and bridge Hans Wegner dining chairs and Poulsen lamps reminded me of how beautiful Scandinavian design can be. ”
She might also have pointed to Tom Ford's atmospherically painted, slightly darker version of the era. single manIn this movie, Colin Firth, who was left behind by his family, commits suicide in a world that is exquisitely expressed in the shadow of modernism cast by the John Lautner-designed Schaefer Mansion in Los Angeles, where the movie was filmed. To plan.
Mr. Ducker talks about adapting Agatha Christie into a feature-length TV animation Poirot The works she worked on (1989-2013) “definitely increased the popularity of Art Deco. Deco specialty dealers told us that this series has been a boon to them.”
“Sometimes you can see the influence in fashion, for example. peaky blinders Although it has had a huge influence on menswear, I also game of thrones “We reintroduced the Gothic,” she says.She also mentions the TV series bridgerton: “It's not for me, but I think it's more of a campy, over-the-top version of Georgian influence. It's all pastel wallpaper.” Its colorful aesthetic is inspired by Wes Anderson. There may also be an influence. His obsessive visual sense permeates his films and permeates outward. The color of the candy is of Grand Budapest Hotel You can now find it in East London patisseries and Brooklyn gelaterias.
Anderson and Stockhausen are relatively rare examples of direct influence. Usually it's more subtle. Many architects are inspired by movies, but most of the time it happens unconsciously. Architect Adam Richards unusually attributes elements of his Sussex home, Nythurst Farm, to a specific film.Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, a bleak, apocalyptic vision of a toxic landscape may not seem like the most welcoming inspiration for home interiors. Still, “Our main kitchen space is modeled very closely on the interior. stalker“This house embodies the journey, and it's a destination and a space about faith and doubt,” Richards says. Pointing to a scene in which a hallucinatory post-industrial space symbolizes a kind of heaven.
I visited the amazing warehouse of one of Britain's leading prop shops in west London, which I don't want to give its name here. These places are often described as Aladdin's Cave, but they were much more than the kitschy cocktails that label suggested. This was a museum, and the room was full of strangely familiar pieces, including Renaissance pieces, Rococo furniture, and a bust of Joaquin Phoenix. Gladiator Or the slightly dusty and noisy couch where Marilyn Monroe lies. prince and showgirl.
This treasure trove is filled with the dreams of designers. salt burn or call me by your name, big, old and beautiful, louche decadence embodied in a collection of objects that assemble an ideal lifestyle in a palace or mansion. They represent a kind of stagnation, an inherited sense of grandeur that threatens to come to a messy end.
But perhaps more important than the grand gestures are the small things, such as personal items or artifacts used in intensely emotional scenes. Some of the household items sold on the Film and Furniture website include: blade runner: The square, slightly constricted glass designed by architect Cini Boeri in 1973 and used by Ridley Scott in what became the ultimate dark science fiction classic. It is still manufactured by Arnolfo di Cambio and is a best seller on Benson's site. After all, why wouldn't a depressed dystopian guy want to drink from the same glass as an AI assassin?
Benson not only examines movie classics to consider designs that will appeal to viewers about their homes, but also the need to predict the next movie or TV series that could change our tastes in home decor. there is. So which set is she currently dealing with? She has her eye on Netflix's recent film adaptation. Ripley: “It's pretty slow, so we have a lot of time to look at the details, but we noticed a nice desk set and writing utensils, which is something we don't do anymore.”
Perhaps next time we will all yearn for an inkwell, a fountain pen, blotter paper and a leather-covered writing desk. We will create our own characters, just like we do in the movies.
Edwin Heathcote is the FT's architecture and design critic
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