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Five Designers on Design in Film
By all measures, Jonathan Adler defines chic. Becoming a potter after graduating from Brown University in 1988 with a degree in semiotics, Adler put together a design empire, one fabulous piece after another. His signature pottery collection has grown to include designs for bedding, bath accessories, furniture, rugs, pillows and lighting as well. Following his company motto, "If your heirs won't fight over it, we won't make it," Adler has opened seven company-operated stores nationwide, as well as being available in over 1,000 retail locations as well as online at JonathanAdler.com. As a designer, Adler has worked on a range of residential and commercial projects, including the recently completed Parker Palm Springs Hotel. To millions of turned out viewers, he's known as the snappy judge on the Bravo Series Top Design.
We asked Adler to judge for himself the movies with his top designs.
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Boom!
Boom! is a terrible, horrible, almost unwatchable movie, but the interiors are camp, bananas, SUBLIME. Liz Taylor's Amalfi Coast complex is truly incredible. The weird juxtapositions of stuff — Roman ruins mixed with modern furniture in a rustic seaside palazzo — are as surreal and insane as the goings on in the movie. I am obsessed with the dreamy surrealism of Capri — it's my favorite place on earth — and if I'm feeling the need for a mini-Capri holiday, I just pop Boom! in the DVD player and I'm transported. P.S. If you go to Capri you must stay at the Scalinatella hotel. It costs squillions of dollars but it's well worth it.
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X, Y, and Zee
Liz Taylor (again), Michael Caine, swinging 60s London, gorgeous modernist interior. The opening credits with the freaky-ass slow motion ping-pong scene made me realize just how essential ping pong is in life's rich tapestry. I bought a ping pong table for our living room immediately after seeing it and now my bloke and I play ping pong every night to unwind. So should you. The sets perfectly capture that British ability to mix modernism with antiques and create a kind of GoGo Baronial style that's uniquely English.
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Safe
I don't even know how to begin to describe the majesty of this movie. The sofa, the fruit plate, the aerobics outfits, the baby shower guests, it's just all great. The moderate 1980s San Fernando Valley interiors are perfection. Haunting.
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Pillow Talk
For moi this is the ultimate Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie. Doris Day plays an interior designer and her apartment couldn't be more chic. I particularly love her color scheme — it's mostly grey and white but with pops of jewel tones. I often think about that palette when I design. It's just right. Rock Hudson's masculine bachelor pad ain't so bad either.
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A New Leaf
Elaine May, Walter Matthau, deluxe suburban New York interiors. I want to live on Walter Matthau's estate with its oriental rugs and Chesterfield sofas and priceless antiquities mixed with Pop Art and mod lighting. I know, I know, all I ever prattle on about is gorgeous antiques mixed with modern bits, but at least I stand for something.
Pillow Talk (top) and the lobby of the Parker Palm Springs Hotel designed by Jonathan Adler
Photo: Nikolas Koenig