Here goes...
North by Northwest--Internationalist style high rises merging with period graphics during credits, UN interior footage, and imitation Wright house used for villain's hideaway atop Mt. Rushmore!
What a Way to Go!--Shrinks office and all the sets of the wealthy men she marries.
Five Easy Pieces--just a freaking great movie, from down and dirty Texas oil field scenes, to famous restaurant interior scene with Jack and the sandwich, to refined old house in Portland, Oregon
The Graduate--what LA and Berkley really looked and felt like. The way people dressed. The way homes looked. The Alpha. The music.
Harper--more LA.
Bullitt--The City, the car and McQueen's attire (basically, whenever men want to look cool without a tie, this is still the definitive look and he came up with it).
Nashville--American tacky--the way it really was.
Note:
Body Double--I know, its made by Brian de Palma in 1984, but its major set piece is the house on a pedestal up on Mulholland Drive by John Lautner. The definitive alienating Modernist House of all time. This movie was a great weird film no one saw. See it though, and you'll never forget it. It flopped because the star pulled out and de Palma had to make in a jam with forgettable Craig Wasson.
Any early film of David Kronenberg's...
Especially "Scanners." It is full of Modernist buildings in Canada. Gore galore, because its about technology that causes persons heads to explode, but if you like scifi as horrific art, the K-Man is still very hard to beat.
I hesitate to post this image, because it is ghastly, but better to be prepared for this film than to see it unprepared.
Orson Welles' The Trial used to be very hard to find...
It is a film adaptation of Kafka's The Trial torn out of Kafka time that combines modernism and old European architecture in endlessly disturbing juxtapositions of scale between Joseph K and his buildings. Many hate it, but it was Welles' greatest film IMHO and one of the most visually sophisticated movies of all time. Your eyes will never be the same and it doesn't give a damn about narrative structure for once.
Great suggestions so far, I...
Great suggestions so far, I for one am a big fan of those gritty & paranoid 70's thrillers like Night Moves, Friends of Eddie Coyle (heard it will finally see a DVD release by Criterion later this spring), Long Goodbye, Varrick, Cutter's Way etc..also anything by Cassavetes gets my vote..
THE BLUE GARDENIA (1953)
Just watched this on Turner Classic Movies.
The furnishings in Anne Baxter's apartment is typical, non-descript.
But in Raymond Burr's art studio, there is an Eames LCM chair, as well as what looked to be a DKW wire chair with bikini upholstery (don't recall the legs).
It seems that in 1953 studios had no problem showing high style up-to-date furnishings in artists studios or, in the case of 1953'as "EXECUTIVE SUITE", modern furnishings in William Holden and June Allyson's modern house and home drafting studio. The rest of the furnished sets in the film are non-modern, but classy.
Down With Love
Which I think someone posted already. Awesome set design, specifically arranged as to take a shot at the sexual politics of the day (the whole silly point of the movie) My favorite scene is David Hyde-Pierce as a beatnik.
Also current: "MadMen" the TV series.
On flickr there is an entire photo stream of a set from a BW movie. I can't remember the name of it but it features Noguchi/Eames/Saarinen in mass quantities.
All Night Long (1963)
Some sources date this as '61 or '62...UK film with a pre-"Danger Man" and "Prisoner" Patrick McGoohan. It's a modern re-telling of Othello set entirely in a jazz-filled party in an industrial bachelor pad loft. Real-life performances by Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, Johnny Dankworth and a few others keep the party going.
Not the world's best film, but excellent for ambiance and vibe.
http://www.amazon.com/All-Night-Long-Region-2/dp/B0000Z0IB6/ref=sr_1_2?i...
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