I Am Love and Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino are two of the most beautiful films we’ve ever seen – sort of unsurprising as Guadagnino has his own interior design studio. Both films showcase an envy-inducing way of life in Italian houses – in the former everything is completely, impeccably glamorous in Milan, while in the latter you get more of a romantically dilapidated country house vibe. A special mention must also go to A Bigger Splash, in which Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes wind each other up (with disastrous results) in a very chic Italian holiday rental.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (plus anything else by Wes Anderson)
With his extraordinary eye for detail and immediately recognisable aesthetic, Wes Anderson is an undeniable master of interiors. Every film he creates is singularly beautiful and transportive, but The Grand Budapest Hotel with its sugar-coated vision of a grand mountain hotel in 1930s central Europe is one of the best. You might not want to take actual inspiration from the interiors (the crimson, pink and purple colour scheme is a tiny bit eye-watering) but they’re a wonder to behold.
It’s Complicated (plus anything else by Nancy Meyers)
Legendary writer and director Nancy Meyers has created some of most beautiful interiors that we’d genuinely want to move into, from the glorious Hamptons beach house of Something’s Gotta Give to the now-iconic sets of The Holiday, which have something to offer both to Americans dreaming of the English countryside and English viewers longing for some LA sunshine. And let’s not forget the perfect London townhouse and equally perfect Napa wine estate in The Parent Trap. If we could choose just one of her sets though, it would be Meryl Streep’s Spanish-style house in Santa Barbara in It’s Complicated. The plot has her renovating it to make it bigger and better, but in our eyes it cannot be improved. We’d quite happily take all of it, from the well-appointed kitchen to the thriving vegetable garden.
Gosford Park
Gosford Park. Photograph: Capitol Films/Allstar
Pre-Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes made this darker, seedier take on the upstairs, downstairs life of an English country house between the wars. Really it’s a murder mystery, which makes it particularly good, but a lot of the Downton ingredients are there, including scheming valets, difficult grandes dames, and plenty of social faux pas. Many of the interiors were filmed at Syon House in Chiswick, with Wrotham Park in Herefordshire providing the exterior shots. The servants’ quarters, meanwhile, were filmed at Ston Easton Park in Somerset – and how iconic they have become.
Marie Antoinette
Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette is the precursor to lots of TV shows with anachronistic attitudes and seriously sugary interiors, including Bridgerton. It’s a maximalist’s dream, packed with gilded palaces, formal French gardens and damask fabric galore. Famously it was actually shot at Versailles, so it’s as good a way as any to get a look inside the iconic palace’s interiors without actually going there.
Amélie
While we’re in France, who doesn’t love the romantic, super saturated portrayal of Paris in the classic film Amélie and the super-saturated portrayal of Paris. It’s such a unique representation of the city and its interiors – featuring classic bistros and parquet-floored Haussmann buildings – that everyone should see.
Paddington 2
If we’re thinking about mildly eccentric English interiors, few can beat those depicted in the already classic Paddington 2, and we’re thinking in particular of the house of Phoenix Buchanan, the film’s antagonist played by Hugh Grant. We would touch nothing except the gallery wall filled with photos of a young and brooding Grant: that can be removed. But the green conservatory is a design classic, with its multi-coloured stained glass panels, the leopard print occasional chair, and the yellow daybeds. It is a perfect room.
Nanny McPhee
Another classic to watch with the kids, the 2005 film Nanny McPhee has fascinating interiors you can never tire of. Much like the children, the rooms are utterly chaotic and borderline bonkers. The attic room is a particular stand out with its domed ceiling, Charleston-esque decorative painting and a window that we can only dream of replicating.
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