Movies Architects Should Watch For Inspiration.

Show It Better, is always in search of new architectural representation methods for all of your projects, but we know that architecture can’t always be the center of everything. This is why we take mental health matters seriously, so if you don’t know how to spot if you need a break, check out this article to see if you are on the road to burnout.

Apart from this, when we take breaks, we like doing different things and one of them is watching movies, ahhh, a perfect way to dive into a different world and just let your mind wander. So take a look at this list of movies to watch when you are on a break, but still get inspired by all of the amazing architecture, interior design, set production, color palette, etc.

1. Another Round

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There is something about Scandinavian interior design and architecture that just makes you feel like you are watching something from another world, literally. This is a different take on alcoholism but in a fancy type of way. Besides this whole plot, the movie takes place in Denmark, and throughout the movie, you can see how different their school’s architecture is from typical American movies. Also, there is something about each of the protagonist’s houses that just makes you pack your things and live there.

Maybe because “Part of the appeal lies in how aspirational this specific design style feels. The uncluttered nature and brightness evokes a sense of calm that so many people are missing from their daily lives”

“Scandinavian design is marked by a focus on clean, simple lines, minimalism, and functionality, the style tyle favors bright, airy spaces,Scandinavians also deeply value nature and spending time outdoors” Taken from: Aparment Therapy

2. Pain and Glory

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If you haven’t seen any of Pedro Almódovar’s movies, this is your sign to start now. In almost all of his movies, this Spanish filmmaker, loves to work with the same color palette. This movie is no different than others, not only the plot is crazy, but the color palette, the furniture, set design, makes you want to want more and more of the movie.

“Colour idealizes an object and gives it an artificial value I like. I believe this artifice in the objects, the walls, the décor, the clothes…that reveal and singles out the characters in my films. It also completely isolates what interests me most in my films: the story itself and the characters’ emotions.”
– Pedro Almodóvar, 1992., taken from: Amuse

3. Swallow

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This is not your typical thriller movie. This is the perfect example that if everything looks shiny, perfect, something is off. But anyways, besides the plot, we are here to see those shiny, perfect objects, and this is the right movie. Once you start watching this movie, you’ll see how the production designer decided to mix up different styles in the main home to reflect the main character’s personalities.

“There was a tension within the architecture of the house; the glass, cold steel, and white kitchen against the warmer woods, colored panels and stone textures” production designer Erin Magill, taken from The Credits

4. Lilya 4-Ever

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It’s safe to throw in some old school for the sake of brutalist architecture. I must say I have mixed feelings about this movie, it takes place in a crumbling part of Russia, in the former soviet union, where this girl just doesn’t know what else to do when her mother decides to abandon her.

The movie has an entirely cold color palette with a mix of brutalist architecture, that just gives you this sad, worrying feeling all the time.

5. Downsizing

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Who would have thought that Matt Damon would be staring in this type of comedy movie, that actually teaches you something about what is really going on with the world with climate change and overpopulation. Watching this movie makes you wish this could happen in real life since the world that they built for small people is much prettier than the one we have right now.

“Then, a little bit of inspiration was the ideal of a city of the Renaissance architects, where the urban plan is circle and the center is the square. Those are very repetitive themes through all the centuries of architectural history because every map the architect has tried to design, they’re all ideal cities.” Production Designer Stefania Cella, taken from: Deadline

6.Edward Scissorhands

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Who doesn’t remember this movie with Jhonny Depp starting as Edward? And all of the cute haircuts for dogs and trees haha. Rewatching this movie, with all of the colored houses, kind of reminds me of all the Florida vacation homes, or maybe this is just a throwback memory of this movie? Because I think vacation homes are not really like that..

“Burton heightens the disparity between Edward and his new surroundings by exaggerating his stark, gray interiors with the rows of houses, merrily painted in pastels. The “stereotypical 50’s suburb” is humorously presented, with its freshly mowed lawns..”Taken from: Designing for human behavior.

7. Gattaca

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We know that if we ever read that it is a dystopian type of movie, we know that the architecture is going to be good. This movie, just makes you think, what if it were to happen in real life? I can say that I’ve watched this movie many times, and most of them were before getting into this architecture world.

This movie “makes use of Wright’s Marin County Civic Center as a filming location for the offices of the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. The building’s barrel-vaulted glass roof, stucco walls, glazed partitions, and gold anodized grilles contribute heavily to the aesthetic fusion of mid-century modernism and space-age futurism that characterizes the film’s sets.” Taken from: Stirworld

8. I am love

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There is something about watching Tilda Swinton’s movies, she is such a great actress, in every role she has done. But, aside from that, this movie is just wow. It mostly takes place in Italy and the movie has some scenes, where there Is no need for dialogue, or even the appearance of actors, with the different shots of Milan’s architecture is just wow.

And the most important part, The Villa Necchi Campiglio, where most of the movie takes place. “it was built by Milanese architect Piero Portaluppi between 1932 and 1935, with later renovations by Tommaso Buzzi, and signifies the introduction of Rationalism into modern architecture.” Taken from: AnOther

9. Parasite

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We can say that we left the best for last, almost. Parasite, we did an Instagram post about this movie, you can see it here. When I first saw this movie, I can for sure say that it was a mix of feelings, I mean, I wanted to laugh, I felt sad, I felt angry, I don’t know, it is a weird movie.

The good part is that this movie also most of it, it takes place in a house, a beautiful house, that is actually a set designed for the movie. And the interesting part of the whole set was to portrait the different classes in society. So, as they all went to the basement, it meant that the “poorer you are the less sunlight you have”

10. Inception

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Ok, this movie you can either watch for inspiration or just to get lost in it for a while, because it is mind-blowing, in the sense that you might have to watch it a couple of times to understand. We also did an Instagram post explaining a little bit of the production design of the movie, and the architectural references.

“Christopher Nolan has stated that he was inspired by the works of Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher, who designed “impossible objects” and optical illusions. In a sequence that features the Penrose Steps, he explores the concept of Paradoxical Architecture.” Taken from: Interiors

Everything that goes on in our daily life works for our inspiration, I mean, you can be on your way home, and on the bus, you see some houses, or buildings, or even a person with a really cool outfit that has an extra color palette, and it just clicks, “hey this is what I’ve been looking for”, all of this works to get inspired.

Which movie worked for you when looking for inspiration?

References:

Still frames taken from:

film-grab.com

Movie reviews from:

www.intjournal.com

www.anothermag.com

www.stirworld.com

designingforhumanbehavior.wordpress.com

deadline.com

www.motionpictures.org

amuse.vice.com