It appears from trailers released in Europe that the upcoming Tron Legacy movie will use a modern house for the home of its protagonists, the Flynns. I'm not sure if the home was ever shown in the original Tron movie, I think not, which means that this is a current appropriation. No doubt the movie makers turn to the modern house to imbue their heroes with the sense of cool the audience will admire. Of course we all understand the cool guy lives in the modern house. America's home builders, do they get it? Hmmmm.. not so much.
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
surrogates movie has no substitute for the modern house
I just got around to watching last summers science fiction movie Surrogates. Its set in a near future where everything looks familiar, buildings, cars, yet the technology is clearly miles ahead of today. People stay home and go out in to the world via a robotic "surrogate" that they control from a virtual reality chair in their home. So while we get old and fat our robots remain vital and young. Whether or not that sounds good or bad to you, one thing that seems sure is that everybody in this near future lives in a cool modern home. Spoilers below if you have not watched the movie.
This is the apartment of a minor character in the movie. Quite unexpected when they enter from the hallway to reveal this soaring two story modern dwelling.
And here is the apartment of one of the main characters. I loved the look and feel of this place. Concrete waffle slab ceilings, and brick walls in the living room.
And later on a brief scene showed an exterior view of the home of one of the other main characters. A night scene but clearly a modern house.
In many scenes of this movie they went to great lengths to show us that cities and buildings were still the same familiar places. Yet the protagonists all had modern dwellings, and strangely enough the antagonist as it turns out lived in a traditional dwelling. Interesting. Clearly deliberate. The modern settings were used here to distinguish the roles of these characters just like bad cowboys had black hats and good cowboys had white hats. So you have to wonder why the good guys got the modern dwellings? Obviously the film makers know which kind of house will make the protagonist appear cool, progressive, informed, admirable. And they count on us understanding that as well. Since we all have this figured out so well, then when is the housing industry going to get the message. HELLO!!
This is the apartment of a minor character in the movie. Quite unexpected when they enter from the hallway to reveal this soaring two story modern dwelling.
And here is the apartment of one of the main characters. I loved the look and feel of this place. Concrete waffle slab ceilings, and brick walls in the living room.
And later on a brief scene showed an exterior view of the home of one of the other main characters. A night scene but clearly a modern house.
In many scenes of this movie they went to great lengths to show us that cities and buildings were still the same familiar places. Yet the protagonists all had modern dwellings, and strangely enough the antagonist as it turns out lived in a traditional dwelling. Interesting. Clearly deliberate. The modern settings were used here to distinguish the roles of these characters just like bad cowboys had black hats and good cowboys had white hats. So you have to wonder why the good guys got the modern dwellings? Obviously the film makers know which kind of house will make the protagonist appear cool, progressive, informed, admirable. And they count on us understanding that as well. Since we all have this figured out so well, then when is the housing industry going to get the message. HELLO!!
in The Lake House movie, even the old house is the modern house
This movie was called to our attention by reader Larry. He pointed out that the house featured in this movie, while not meant to be a new house was certainly modern. Not having seen the movie I was quite surprised by the house.
The house is at once old, and thoroughly modern. It appears to be an iron age structure - evoking some of the earliest iron framed structures from the industrial revolution such as the Crystal Palace in London. Yet, for a house it is a glass walled box, with an open floor plan, the perfect Meisian home as glass box - the international style from the late 40s.
Such a house would never had been made in the era it was presuming to be from, so we have to wonder why the film makers would put together such a hybrid structure to be the setting for this story? The fact that the house was old played a part in the narrative of the story. The one character an architect somehow acquired the home, or rented it from an older architect. But any old house would do for that. Why this strange hybrid. The house was meant to be the place of this temporal anomaly whereby the characters communicate across several years. In much the same way the house is an artifact at once in the industrial revolution era, and the idealized international style.
If it was just an old home, it would not have been a significant part of the story. But here the modern home speaks to the concept of the story, even if it is only a ghost of a modern home possessing a structure from an earlier era. Once again popular media leverages the modern home to signify the specialness of a place. They count on us understanding that distinction, as we all seem to do. We all know the modern house is unique, special, desirable. Yet the home building industry continues to ignore it. Isn't it time they woke up?
more vampire fever on the approach of new moon
New Moon, the next installment of the Twilight vampire movies is due out a matter of days. As the fever pitches more information about the home used in the movie as the residence of the Cullens is breaking on the internet. Apparently the home is now up for sale, and hi res photos of the house can be seen on the realtor's web site.
Well once again the modern house is leveraged to signify that the characters who live there in the movie are cool. Yet our home builders can't seem to get that message. Truth remains stranger than fiction.
see more at newmoonmovie.org
twilight new movie has new modern house
The Twilight vampire saga is currently filming a sequel, New Moon. If you recall the vampires in the first movie have a thing for modern houses. Fan espionage on the internet reveals that a new and different modern house may be standing in for the vampire's modern home in this second Twilight movie.
Images and a short video are posted at newmoonmovie.org.
Thanks to my daughter Lydia, our household's official Twilight modern house expert.
the mid-century modernist blog covers the incredibles
The original Mod House Media Watch covered the modern design of the house in the Incredibles animated feature. Today the great Mid-Century Modernists blog covers the same, but with many more screen captures from the movie. Go see what a super job the film makers did capturing the prototypical mid-century home. This is what life would look like if the principles caught on and we were still making houses like this today.
cullen house from twilight id'd
Previously we noted the use of the modern house in the Twilight movie. Today we strayed across more information about the actual house. It was designed by Skylab Architecture, an architecture firm from Portland Oregon, and you can see more photos of the house on their site. It is a flash site so unfortunately I can not link directly to the page, but it is identified as the Hoke Residence.
spy vibe covers modern design in the genre
I've been really enjoying web blog Spy Vibe and thought I would share it with you. They cover the world of design as presented in the Spy movie genre, and often have fantastic coverage of past movies and the period design captured in their set design. So if you love mid-century and pop modern interiors, especially the stuff of super villians and hip undercover men then you will really enjoy this site.
The top image is from the Captain Scarlet marionette program - which often had fantastic modern design. Below the swinging playboy penthouse of Our Man Flint features coconut chairs and a Jackson Pollack on the wall.
Pop sensibilites reign in The 10th Victim below. You should at least come out of the site with a great NetFlix list!
watchman movie goes mid-century mod
family in california wants mr. incredible's house
In an article appearing in the LA Times about a renovated ranch home the owners describe the house they were seaking as a Mr. Incredible House, referring to the modern ranch house that was the home of the characters in the animated movie The Incredibles. Interesting. Since america's home builders can't seem to get it together to offer such a cool looking home the owners had to hire designers and create their own.
We had covered the design of the Incredibles House in the original Mod House Media Watch, so we'll repost one of the images here.
A Mr. Incredibe House at the LA Times
A Mr. Incredibe House at the LA Times
iron man movie uses the modern house
Tony Stark, the genius multimillionaire industrialist in the movie Iron Man has an over the top modern house perched on a cliff side overlooking the ocean! The house is entirely a CG creation and there is not a real house, but they did build limited portions of the interior for scenes in the movie. Usually I don't go for this kind of design which I would call Rich guy modern, but this house was so over the top I just had to love it. Particularly the automation systems which practically made the house itself a sentient being! Not to mention that somewhere buried in the house was a fast prototyping manufacturing machine. Design a robot super suit, hit print, its there in the morning.
So, why does our friend Tony Stark have such a modern house? Why not a nice Georgian mansion like the Beverly Hillbillies? Rich guys like those, don't they? Here's why - because its cool. Simple as that. Now maybe America's home builders might like to sell some houses to people that might like a cool house someday. What do you think? You think they might get by making some cool product along with the rest of their boring product. No, I think we'll just make nothing but boring product..
House images from: Phil Saunders' Random Stuff Check it out for more and big high res images too.
twilight the movie leverages the modern house
The word is that the modern house will have a co-starring role in the teen vampire movie Twilight set to release later this month. Some photos of a modern house to be used as the home of a vampire family were posted on a fan forum in the spring, and other material published about the movie is already showing images of this modern house.
My daughter who is our resident Twilight expert, and who knows my passion for modern houses, brought this to my attention. I asked her if the house was described as modern in the book - she said no, but that it was supposed to be all white inside. So what's going on with this? Apparently the film makers believed that the modern house would add to the aura of the vampire characters, so they interpreted their house as an overtly modern home.
Once again it is an example of the media blatantly expressing the cultural value we've invested in the idea of a modern house. Now why can't America's builders wake up and catch on to this?
See more photos at the twilightmoms forum.
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