Movies By Design© - Selections: Passover Easter and Ramadan - 2020

I love movies. 

Movies can transcend time and space. For a brief moment you could be anyone or go anywhere, at any time, past, present or future.  Alone – or with friends.

Since 2006, I’ve shown 70 movies at the Spoke Club. Since they had a great private screening room, it was a great way to hang out with friends and other like minded movie buffs.  I named this series Movies By Design © .

I wanted to show movies with great interiors. Movie interiors can be so inspiring. And, I’m all about ‘inspiring interiors’. Then I decided to broaden criteria to include other categories.  Usually they were movies that were over 20 years old, but primarily they had to be beautiful, memorable and movies that weren’t main stream. 

Alas, The Spoke Club, is undergoing renovations and with the world on pause, delayed even further.  However, I thought this would be a good time to share a few of my favourites for you to enjoy this this long weekend with your family and friends – together or virtually.

Sending you well wishes and sunshine.  Stop to see and smell the new spring flowers – it’s a beautiful world out there no matter where you live or work. 

When you watch them – let me know your favourite and why.

Happy Holidays 

Dolores

The Ten Commandments (1956) 

Director: Cecil B. DeMille  Stars: Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne De Carlo, Vincent Price and many more famous actors.  220min.  Note: Despite the length, you’ll be engrossed by the story.

Description: Moses, an Egyptian Prince, learns of his true heritage as a Hebrew and his divine mission as the deliverer of his people.

 This Biblical epic is a Passover and Easter yearly must see classic film. It’s one my favourite childhood memories of gathering around a TV set after the Easter feast. 

The Pharaoh’s  palaces are extraordinary. Alive with brightly painted hieroglyphs where the main colors were: red, yellow, black, brown, blue, green and white. Yellow and gold imitated the sand and the sun. Deep blue symbolized the Nile river.  Blue was the color of gods. Black symbolized buried life, white – purity, green — life.

 Maybe I won’t build one of these Egyptian interiors, but I can borrow some design details.  Are you game? Maybe you need your own throne room.

The Party (1968)  

Director: Blake Edwards  Stars: Peter Sellers, Claudine Longet, Nadia Boriosva

Description:  This is a silly, slapstick, improvisational funny movie with little or no dialogue. Peter Sellers at his best. (Note:  This might not be culturally appropriate by today’s 2020 standards (brown face).)  Hrundi V. Bakshi (Peter Sellers) is an accident-prone actor from India who has come to California, hoping to make a name for himself in Hollywood movies. It’s also a great parody of Hollywood society.

The Party takes place in the studio-head’s ultra Mid-Century modern Hollywood Hills home. A neutral color palette, glass walls, and an indoor water feature create seamless transition between the outside and the inside. The olive green Arne Jacobsen swan chair blends into the indoor/outdoor scheme.

It’s nice to see the styling and placement of true Mid-Century furnishings in their proper setting.  Today, we just experience bits and pieces taken out of original context.

The Wind Rises (2013) 

Director, Writer:, Art Director: Hayo Miyazaki  Animate by Japanese Studio Ghibli  Stars (voices): Joseph Gordon-Levitt, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Martin Sort  127min.

 Description: Jiro dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes inspired by famous Italian aeronautical designer Caproni.  Discover the magical world of Hayao Miyazaki, who blends artistic sweeping landscapes, rendered in watercolour and presented through animation.  It’s visually beautiful with very sophisticated storytelling. (Originally distributed by Walt Disney, available on DVD and now streamed thru HBO Max)

 There are over 1,000 hand painted watercolour paintings, scanned and stitched together by computer software.

If you want to see 76 year old Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s process see the documentary  The Kingdom of Dreams and Madnessshowing the development of two films The Wind Rises and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya. It’s entertaining and awe inspiring.

Dolores is an Interior Designer located in Toronto, Cananda. She loves creating unique and inspriing spaces that say WOW! Drop her an e-mail to say hello and let her know what you thought of this blog post.

Thank-you to all the photographers who have made this 3rd and final posting more lively with great illustrations and photos. For photo credits please click on the photo.  This will take you directly to the website from where the photo originated.

Disclaimer:   The views expressed on Spaces Custom Interiors Blog are solely those of the blog post author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the persons or organizations with which the author has described or is associated. 

Dolores Pian is a Master Interior Designer that crafts luxury residences, penthouses and purse parking.  Successful people seek her expertise to Design Reclaiming Time ©

 Because time is their truest luxury.

Drop her an e-mail to say hello and let her know what you thought of this blog post.

Dolores Pian’s blog posts are meant to inform and entertain. Please consult Dolores Pian directly if you need any specific information for your specific spaces.