Architect Movies
Architecture and urban environment play an essential role in many movies.
The visual aspects of the Movies exhibit fascinating possibilities - both to make use of existing architectual masterpieces and to present ficititous architecture. Many directors have visions for our surroundings and have made cities just like they want to - imaginary.
This list reveals good movies where the Architecture is vital for the storytelling. The list is work in progress. Feel free to comment. Suggestions on more appropriate movies are most appreciated.
(Rune Tondell - Urban Planner /Civil Engineer)
The visual aspects of the Movies exhibit fascinating possibilities - both to make use of existing architectual masterpieces and to present ficititous architecture. Many directors have visions for our surroundings and have made cities just like they want to - imaginary.
This list reveals good movies where the Architecture is vital for the storytelling. The list is work in progress. Feel free to comment. Suggestions on more appropriate movies are most appreciated.
(Rune Tondell - Urban Planner /Civil Engineer)
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- DirectorAlex GarlandStarsAlicia VikanderDomhnall GleesonOscar IsaacA young programmer is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid A.I.The movie make the use of two spectacular residences (a house in Valldal and Juvet Landscape Hotel) in Norway designed by Jensen & Skodvin Architects as the center of the events. The contrasts between raw nature and minimalist architecture parallel the tensions between human and artificial intelligence that is important for the story.
- DirectorSpike JonzeStarsJoaquin PhoenixAmy AdamsScarlett JohanssonIn a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.In the not too distant future, the skyline of Los Angeles will be full of high-rise towers. The air is clean and traffic nonexistent, with parks thriving on rooftops. 'Her' is both a movie about love in the future and how we might live there.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsHarrison FordRutger HauerSean YoungA blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.A fantastic designed vision of life and death, hybrids and the destruction of the world!
- DirectorJacques TatiStarsJacques TatiJean-Pierre ZolaAdrienne ServantieMonsieur Hulot visits the technology-driven world of his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, but he can't quite fit into the surroundings.Monsiour Hulot struggle with modern design in a modernistic house and garden
- DirectorTom FordStarsColin FirthJulianne MooreMatthew GoodeAn English professor, one year after the sudden death of his boyfriend, is unable to cope with his typical days in 1960s Los Angeles.Director Tom Ford’s background is in design. Main character George (Colin Firth) is a meticulous, precise and detail-oriented character. These qualities are reflected in his home as well, in its minimalism and modernism, designed by architect John Lautner
- DirectorJens LienStarsTrond FausaPetronella BarkerPer SchaanningIn a strange city where every person seems content beyond reason a new man arrives in town and stirs up trouble by asking too many questions.The bothersome man is a rare movie, delicate and estethic, funny, but with distance and people in a feel-less world. Visualized by modernist design.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsBrigitte HelmAlfred AbelGustav FröhlichIn a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.A vision from 1927 about year 2000. Metropolis shows a completely mechanized city, led by a tyrannic capitalist and driven by a class of slaves working below gorund. The movie have considerable architecture, dark, monumental and depressing.
- DirectorJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsTim RobbinsPaul NewmanJennifer Jason LeighA naive business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam.The Coen-brothers (and Sam Raimi) made an exeptional artifical city. Their metropol was a fantasy, based on New York from the 1930's, produced through models and with a plot from the 50's. A special designed city and interiours packed with references to architecture and design - the right setting for this tale.
- DirectorAndrew NiccolStarsEthan HawkeUma ThurmanJude LawA genetically inferior man assumes the identity of a superior one in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel.Director Andrew Niccol uses buidlings and interiour from architecture style brutalism to make this superb vision about genetic engineering look futuristic and unhumanistic.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsJeanne MoreauMarcello MastroianniMonica VittiA day in the life of an unfaithful married couple and their steadily deteriorating relationship.The alienation of modern society - and modernistic architecture.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny LloydA family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.Enjoy the interiour design of the Overlook Hotel, where the colour and design to reflect the mood of his characters. The hotel's labyrinthine layout and huge rooms provide an eerie atmosphere alone.
- DirectorJacques TatiStarsJacques TatiBarbara DennekRita MaidenMonsieur Hulot curiously wanders around a high-tech Paris, paralleling a trip with a group of American tourists. Meanwhile, a nightclub/restaurant prepares its opening night, but it's still under construction.Lovely and clumsy Mr. Hulot is confused by the city's glass, concrete and automation in Jaques Tati's satirical comedy. He left in trouble with modern technology, this time in the form of ultra-modern Paris. The film follows the Hulot through and the strings that arise in the face of the modern world with all its problems and flaws.
Play Time was Tati's most daring and ambitious movie. A whole city was created as a frame for the film. The film got good criticism , but became a flop among the audience. Much of the comedy in Play Time lies in the background and in the visual, which can be difficult to spot at first viewing, but Tati has a charm that can make the worst cynic to be spellbound. - DirectorStanley DonenStarsAudrey HepburnAlbert FinneyEleanor BronA couple in the south of France non-sequentially spin down the highways of infidelity in their troubled ten-year marriage.Mark Wallace (Albert Finney) is a a successful and wealthy (and hard working) architect. We follow him and his wife Joanna (Audrey Hepburn) on their travels through France, often related to building project for Marks client Maurice.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsTom CruiseColin FarrellSamantha MortonJohn works with the PreCrime police which stop crimes before they take place, with the help of three 'PreCogs' who can foresee crimes. Events ensue when John finds himself framed for a future murder.Washington 2054 is a future within predictions, a society both familiar and new, with great integration of infrastructere and cityscape.
- DirectorTerry GilliamStarsJonathan PryceKim GreistRobert De NiroA bureaucrat in a dystopic society becomes an enemy of the state as he pursues the woman of his dreams.Black comedy and a stunning vision of a superbureaucratic future, with small people in a orwell-ish society.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKeir DulleaGary LockwoodWilliam SylvesterAfter uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.Kubrick use architectural modernism to create a realistic 2001 future in 1968. Enjoy the furniture of great designers.
- DirectorPeter GreenawayStarsBrian DennehyChloe WebbLambert WilsonAn architect supervising an exhibition starts to have mysterious stomach pains while his life slowly falls apart.The architect Stourley Kracklite travels to Rome to make an exhibition for the 8th century's visionary architect Etienne Louis Boullée. A main character of the movie is Rome's architecture. Eight of Rome's greatest architectual masterpieces make a structure for the movie.
- DirectorGeorge LucasStarsMark HamillHarrison FordCarrie FisherLuke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a Wookiee and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire's world-destroying battle station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the mysterious Darth Vader.The Death Star! And the rest of the movie(s)! You don't doubt that this is architecture in a galaxy far far away...
- DirectorPaolo SorrentinoStarsToni ServilloCarlo VerdoneSabrina FerilliJep Gambardella has seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but after his 65th birthday and a shock from the past, Jep looks past the nightclubs and parties to find a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.Excellent movie with imposing Roman architecture
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMarcello MastroianniAnouk AiméeClaudia CardinaleA harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsEddie ConstantineAnna KarinaAkim TamiroffA U.S. secret agent is sent to the distant space city of Alphaville where he must find a missing person and free the city from its tyrannical ruler.A futuristic Paris in steel and glass - by selective use of filming locations.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsBritta BarnesPeter Gonzales FalconFiona FlorenceA fluid, unconnected and sometimes chaotic procession of scenes detailing the various people and events of life in Italy's capital, most of it based on director Federico Fellini's life.The main character of the movie is Rome itself
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsCary GrantEva Marie SaintJames MasonA New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and falls for a woman whose loyalties he begins to doubt.Urban architecture in NY and The house at Mount Rushmore!
- DirectorLuc BessonStarsBruce WillisMilla JovovichGary OldmanIn the colorful future, a cab driver unwittingly becomes the central figure in the search for a legendary cosmic weapon to keep Evil and Mr. Zorg at bay.A vision of Manhattan of 2259. Design assistance from Jean Paul Gaultier.
- DirectorSofia CoppolaStarsBill MurrayScarlett JohanssonGiovanni RibisiA faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.The contrasts between Japanese and American cultures, utilizing the city of Tokyo as a background.