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15 movies worth watching in the quarantine

United Kingdom Architecture News - Apr 16, 2020 - 10:54   112572 views

15 movies worth watching in the quarantine

We are aware of that everyone is staying at home due to the global pandemic and all of you have shifted your regular work patterns to online. Working from your home can take most of your time, but adding some fun to your daily routine by watching a good movie is also unavoidable part of a self-isolation. 

We have picked up 15 movies that are worth watching to help on your movie selection and take you a historical journey to online movie climate.  

Although the 15 movies we selected are not directly related to architecture itself, they tell something more about their strong interior backdrops, styles and places they were shot. Enjoy the movies!


See the 15 movies in chronological order:


1. Parasite (2019)

Parasite is definitely a "must watch" movie which has won four Oscars at the Oscars 2020 for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film.

Directed by Bong Joon Ho, it is a good example of how a class discrimination is narrated with a dark-comedy. Greed, class discrimination and a mysterious interloper threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.



2. The Neighbors' Window (2019)

If you feel alone, and maybe you feel that much more in these days, this film can be a good example of how loneliness is reflected on the persona. The film, written & directed by four-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Marshall Curry, tells the story of Alli (Maria Dizzia), a mother of young children who has grown frustrated with her daily routine and husband (Greg Keller). 

But her life is shaken up when two free-spirited twenty-somethings move in across the street and she discovers that she can see into their apartment. 

3. Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood (2019)

Are you Quentin Tarantino lover? Are you fond of slow-motion pictures? The this film is perfect for you if you imagine yourself making a soft journey over Hollywood. 

The film won the Best Supporting Actor by Brad Pitt and Best Production Design at the 92nd Academy Awards. The film is shot In Los Angeles in 1969, aging TV star Rick Dalton and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth struggle to make their way around an industry and a city they hardly recognize anymore.

4. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) 

The film is based on the novel written by James Baldwin, Moonlight's director. If Beale Street Could Talk is directed by Academy Award winner Barry Jenkins. The film invites people to explore how we tell stories about Black people loving each other against the backdrop of racial injustice.

5. Roma (2018)

If you like black-white movies, Roma can satisfy you. Directed by Alfonso Cuarón, the 2-hour film looks at a tumultuous year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s.

Described Alfonso Cuaron’s black-and-white masterpiece, details, time, streets, crafting of scenes are narrated elegantly and the language of the film is described as "a closer version of the works of the great Italian neo-realists of the 1940s and ’50s such as Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini."

6. Black Panther (2018)

Black Panther, directed by Ryan Coogler, is a 2018 superhero film, based on the Marvel Comics superhero of the same name. It is a sequel to Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, and the eighteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as the sixth film of Phase Three. 

The film is described as "the purest expression of Afro-futurism," and a layered science fiction and fantasy that reflects the African diaspora - to hit cinemas around the world. It's about time."

7. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

The 2-hour film tells the story of the legendary British rock band Queen and lead singer Freddie Mercury, leading up to their famous performance at Live Aid (1985).

Directed by Bryan Singer, the film can be a good example of how to create a good movie set, with lines and style. Sometime details make an incredible movie. If you are a design lover, you will fall in love with the details and decor. 

8. Café Society (2016) 

Directed by acclaimed director Woody Allen, Woody Allen's new film "Cafe Society" takes you back to the Hollywood's Golden Age in the 1930s with much more disaturated, glamorous, but brighter backdrops. 

The film captures a specific era of Hollywood at that time after the term Cafe Society come to light in the 1930's-and that time is reflected in the film as diverging aesthetic by the supervision of production designer Santo Loquasto. 

9. The Architect (2016)

If you are not get bored of architects, here's a good example of how the architecture profession is satirized, an an in-depth look at the egocentric world of the architects. Entirely focusing on the ego-centric side of the architects, the film takes place in between drama and comedy. 

When a couple sets out to build their dream house, they enlist the services of a visionary modernist architect, whose soaring ideas are matched by only his ego. The woman is swept away by the uncompromising creative artist whose personality provides a stark contrast to her practical husband's. She is so taken she hardly notices the Architect is building HIS dream house.

10. Carol (2015)

Directed by Todd Haynes, the 1,5-hour film explores an intimate relationship between an aspiring photographer and an older woman in 1950s New York. 

A slow-motion masterpiece, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, set a glamorous movie set with a backdrop of 1950s New York, The film will expose you a full of snowy scenes, vivid colors, contrast interiors and warm interiors of many hotels Carol and Therese stay in during their road trip.  

11. Youth (2015)

Directed by Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, the 2-hours film is about living and breathing a resort. The film was mostly shot at Waldhaus Flims Grand Hotel & Spa, elaborating a specific but a very modern, architecturally minimal spa with a floaty manner.

The film is the director's second English language film, and stars Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel as best friends who reflect on their lives while holidaying in the Swiss Alps. It turns into a story of the eternal struggle between age and youth, the past and the future, life and death, commitment and betrayal. 

12. Ex Machina (2014)

Directed by Alex Garland, Ex Machina takes you to stunning movies sets, one of them is a special residence designed by Jensen & Skodvin Architects in Norwey's Valldal region and the other is the Juvet Landscape Hotel in northwestern Norway designed by the same architects. 

The 1,5-hour film tells the story of computer programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), winning a contest to spend a week visiting the remote estate of Nathan (Oscar Isaac), his company's reclusive CEO. But it is not a simple vacation, then her learns that he was selected to a ground-breaking experiment to interact with an android named Ava (Alicia Vikander) to see whether her A.I. is truly sentient or not.

A science-fiction movie set was produced by Mark Digby and he said "All the glass was challenging to shoot, but the beauty you get from reflections and being able to see through it gives you more depth and visual interest."

13. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

A roughly 1-hour comedy-drama, written and directed by Wes Anderson, elaborates the story of tragedy, war, fascism, nostalgia, friendship, and loyalty. It recounts the adventures of legendary concierge Gustave H. and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. 

The story involves the theft of a priceless painting; a raging battle for an enormous family fortune; and a desperate chase on motorcycles, trains, sleds, and skis - all against the back-drop of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent.

The film is very assertive in terms of its interiors and its exuberant color palette with textures, saturation, matte paintings, miniature effect techniques to create different perspectives of scenes, creating the illusion of size and grandeur. If you want to be in a fully pinkish world and want to be exposed to major miniature models, you should watch it!.

14. 12 Monkeys (1995) 

A 2-hour science-fiction movie, directed by Terry Gilliam, presents a real time travel throughout the story. The film stars Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt and Madeleine Stowe in lead roles. Although the story is set in a future, the film is searching the traces of a deadly virus in which has killed most living things on the planet. 

A deadly virus, released in the year 1996, also threatens other survivors living underground - a group known as the Army of the 12 Monkeys is believed to have released the virus.

15. Blade Runner (1982)

Directed by Ridley Scott, the 1,5-hour film can be a future classic with its "neo-noir cinema" techniques in which its visual style was influenced by the work of futurist Italian architect Antonio Sant'Elia.

The film takes place in a dystopian future Los Angeles of 2019, a blade runner pursue the traces of four robot replicants, which are also known synthetic humans, and decides to terminate them who stole a ship in space. 

The film draws highly stylistic backdrop sources, including futurist Italian architect Antonio Sant'Elia, 1980s Hong Kong, the industrial landscape of Scott's one-time home in northeast England, the French science fiction comics magazine Métal Hurlant and Edward Hopper's painting Nighthawks

Top image: The Grand Budapest Hotel, courtesy of Sunday Best