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Victor J. Zolfo

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It may be Dry January for many — but never ones to

It may be Dry January for many — but never ones to follow the crowd, we’re taking a different route. Instead, let’s look at Mrs Robinson’s bar in The Graduate: a Film and Furniture favourite, and one of cinema’s great expressions of 1960s aspirational living.

Separated by glass walls and framed by lush greenery beyond, the bar is a drama in monochrome. White bar stools sit in crisp contrast to relaxed black leather armchairs with slender metal legs. It’s controlled, stylish, and faintly performative — a space designed to impress rather than to comfort.

The bar itself is dressed like a stage set for a professional drinker intent on making an impression. A black and white bar sign takes pride of place, joined by a black ice bucket, oversized decorative bottles, an ornate silver cocktail shaker, a black Bakelite telephone and, of course, zebra print — from cigarette lighter to throw. Every object reinforces the same message: sophistication edged with excess.

This is entirely in keeping with Mrs Robinson, played with cool, predatory assurance by Anne Bancroft, whose control of space mirrors her control of the men around her — not least Dustin Hoffman’s adrift Benjamin Braddock. Under the direction of Mike Nichols, whose work on The Graduate earned him the Academy Award for Best Director, interiors are never neutral; they sharpen character and mood.

Beyond the bar, the house continues this visual rhythm — black floors, stair rail and banister set against white walls, finished with a dramatic chandelier. Luxury, yes — but also carefully curated and emotionally cool.

A reminder that in The Graduate, interiors don’t just look good. They tell us exactly who these people are.

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January is an odd month. We’re told it’s a time fo $January is an odd month. We’re told it’s a time for reinvention — resolutions, fresh starts, personal transformation — and yet here in the Northern Hemisphere, we’re still deep in winter. The light is low, the days are short, and the body hasn’t quite caught up with the optimism of the calendar. There’s a quiet dissonance between the idea of change and the reality of stasis — a kind of existential disorientation. Talking of which… Few films capture that feeling of existential disorientation more unnervingly than Seconds (1966), directed by John Frankenheimer. Part psychological horror, part film noir, it’s a film obsessed with the promise — and the cost — of reinvention. Its visual language is as destabilising as its premise. Shot in stark black and white by legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe, Seconds is defined by extreme wide-angle and fisheye lenses that bend space, distort faces and make interiors feel actively hostile. Walls curve, rooms loom, corridors seem to press in, creating a fractured sense of self. The film follows a bored, middle-aged banker who submits himself to a mysterious organisation offering a “new life,” emerging reborn as a younger, freer version of himself — played by Rock Hudson, cast deliberately against type. The promise is liberation; the reality is alienation. Even as his identity shifts, the environments remain deeply unsettling. In Seconds, design and cinematography don’t just reflect psychological collapse — they help produce it. Which makes it a strangely perfect film for January. A reminder that transformation isn’t always clean or empowering — and that sometimes, the environments built to “fix” us are the very things that undo us. 🎬 💡 📧 Inspired? Join our 9000+ newsletter community to receive bi-weekly Film and Furniture inspiration and a FREE upgrade to our CLASSIC MEMBERSHIP—your pass to exciting giveaways and more! 🔗 Sign up via link in bio.$

🍿 Our most-read Film and Furniture website feature

🍿 Our most-read Film and Furniture website features of 2025 - Screen interiors you loved (counting down from No.5–No.1)

Furniture and interiors continue to do some of the quietest — and most powerful — storytelling in film.
Here are the Film and Furniture features you read most in 2025, counting down to No.1.

No.5 — The Substance
Directed by @coralie_fargeat, production designer Stanislas Reydellet created Elizabeth’s Los Angeles apartment as a vast, sparsely furnished space that reflects isolation and detachment, with deliberately out-of-time furniture reinforcing the film’s unsettling psychology.

No.4 — A Complete Unknown
Directed by @jamesmangold, and designed by François @audouy with set decoration by Regina Graves @reginamgee, Bob Dylan’s early-1960s New York apartment was meticulously recreated using original photographs, with period furniture and a portable record player anchoring the film’s sense of authenticity.

No.3 — Fantastic Four: First Steps
Directed by Matt Shakman, production designer @kasfarahani and set decortaor @jilleazis shaped the Baxter apartment as a warm, mid-century-inspired home within a glass skyscraper, complete with a sunken conversation pit and sculptural fireplace that prioritise liveability over spectacle.

No.2 — The Room Next Door
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar, Martha’s Manhattan apartment with production design by @inbaldada is anchored by a turquoise sofa with circular bolster arms and red piping — a piece that carries emotional weight in a space where colour and furniture shape the film’s most intimate scenes.

No.1 — The Brutalist
Directed by @@bradycorbet, production designer Judy Becker @filmdesigndissectionlab transformed Van Buren’s library from a dark Art Deco interior into a light-filled modernist space, complete with hinged plywood bookcases and a striking chaise with a built-in book stand — a defining moment in the film’s architectural language.

👀 Read the full 2025 Film and Furniture Round Up on the website
🎧 And don’t miss our Podcast Top 10 — the conversations that went deeper
🔗 Link in bio → Website Features

Wishing you a happy cinematic Christmas, whatever

Wishing you a happy cinematic Christmas, whatever you’re watching, with love from Film and Furniture 🎄🍿

🍿 Our most-read Film and Furniture website feature

🍿 Our most-read Film and Furniture website features of 2025 - Screen interiors you loved (Counting down from No.10–No.6)

Furniture and interiors continue to do some of the quietest — and most powerful — storytelling in film.
These were the F&F features you read most in 2025, counting down from No.10.

No.10 — Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Tim Burton’s return to the Deetz house revealed a dining room of muted greys and golds, where production designer @markscrutondesign and set decorator @DavidMorison1 used curved glass furniture and Apparatus lighting to blur refinement with the supernatural.

No.9 — The Phoenician Scheme
Directed by Wes Anderson, the grand entrance gallery — designed by Adam Stockhausen with set decoration by Anna Pinnock — draws on European palazzos and trompe l’oeil craftsmanship to define Korda’s meticulously controlled world.

No.8 — Wicked
Directed by @JonMChu, Nathan Crowley and @leesandales designed Shiz University as a blend of American grandeur, Moorish arches and Venetian courtyards, with Glinda and Elphaba’s dorm room anchoring the spectacle in a lived-in space.

No.7 — Conclave
Director @edwardberger and production designer @suziedav recreated the Vatican’s sacred interiors at Cinecittà Studios, using minimal, ceremonial furniture to reinforce ritual, power and secrecy.

No.6 — Dune: Part Two
Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Production Designer @patricevermette and Set Decorator @shanevieau looked to Carlo Scarpa’s architecture for the Imperial world of Kaitain, balancing brutalist weight with delicate detail to give the setting a timeless authority.

👉 Part 2 (No.5 → No.1) coming soon
👀 Read the full 2025 Film and Furniture Round Up on the website
🔗 Link in bio → Website Features

Join us as we explore one of cinema’s favourite li

Join us as we explore one of cinema’s favourite lighting families: Poul Henningsen’s PH lamps, where Danish precision meets quiet cinematic beauty.
Part of the @filmandfurniture and @hollowaysofludlow collaboration shining a light on unforgettable lighting and lamps in film — and how to bring these on-screen ideas into your own home.

Poul Henningsen’s mastery of glare-free light is unmatched, and his PH lamps for Louis Poulsen work their magic across genres.

✨ The PH Table Lamp
A fixture of elegant, focused interiors.
They appear wherever the narrative requires clarity, focus or understated elegance: in M’s office in Quantum of Solace, in ministerial interiors in Borgen, across the glossy sets of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and in Devon and Ricken’s mid-century haven in Severance. Its opaline glass diffusers create a gentle, even pool of light — ideal for reading, working or grounding a room with sophisticated calm.

✨ The PH Pendant Light
Refined, sculptural and quietly expressive.
A pastel PH5 adds charm and warmth to the Browns’ kitchen in Paddington, while a bold red version becomes a dramatic punctuation mark in the monochrome Rawlings kitchen in Widows. Designed to direct light downwards without harshness, it’s a dream above dining tables and kitchen islands.

DISCOVER MORE — WITH LINKS TO BUY — IN OUR LATEST FEATURE (LINK IN BIO)

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