the new ‘heroes’ of this year’s silver screen
The upcoming fall season promises a lineup of new blockbusters where architects take on the lead character. We’re talking about Megalopolis, The Brutalist, and E.1027, three exciting storylines starring big names like Adam Driver and Adrien Brody. In Megalopolis, Cesar Catilina is a controversial architect intent on creating a utopian city, but his obsession leads to personal and social conflicts. The Brutalist follows László Toth, a Hungarian architect navigating poverty and prejudice in America, as he seeks to maintain his artistic integrity while succumbing to the demands of powerful patrons. Conversely, E.1027 centers on Eileen Gray, an Irish architect challenging gender norms in her pursuit of recognition in a male-dominated field, emphasizing a more personal struggle for artistic expression.
While all three characters share an unwavering passion for architecture and innovation, their individual realities trigger different responses to societal pressures—Catilina’s political struggles, László’s immigrant experience, and Eileen’s fight against patriarchy. In this feature, designboom highlights and offers tribute to cinematography centered around the art and life of architecture through love, tragedy, and unrest. We round up the latest titles and dug up some classics from the archives. Enjoy!
image: still, Megalopolis (2024) Official Trailer | courtesy Lionsgate Movies
ARCHITECTS AS PROTAGONISTS IN FILMS
MEGALOPOLIS (2024) BY FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
Signed by American film director Francis Ford Coppola, MEGALOPOLIS is a Roman epic set in an imagined Modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina (played by Adam Driver), a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (played by Giancarlo Esposito), who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (played by Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties.
image: still, Megalopolis (2024) Official Trailer | courtesy Lionsgate Movies
THE BRUTALIST (2024) STARRING ADRIEN BRODY
Hitting the screen in December 2024, The Brutalist tells the story of visionary architect László Toth, arriving in America after escaping post-war Europe in 1947 to rebuild his life and work alongside his wife Erzsébet after being forced apart during wartime by shifting borders and regimes. On his own in a strange new country, László settles in Pennsylvania and witnesses the birth of modern America. At some point, he crosses paths with the wealthy and prominent industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren, who recognizes his talent for building, only to be sucked into the consequences of power and legacy. The movie stars Adrien Brody as László Toth, Felicity Jones as Erzsébet Toth, and Guy Pearce as Harrison Lee Van Buren.
image courtesy A24 Films
E.1027 – EILEEN GRAY AND THE HOUSE BY THE SEA (2024)
In the 1930s Parisian art scene, a love triangle and artistic rivalry unfold in a stylish docufiction starring Natalie Radmall-Quirke as Eileen Gray, the iconic Irish artist and architect. Gray’s modernist masterpiece, E.1027, a house on the Riviera, embodies her unique vision, blending design with nature. The Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier becomes obsessed with the house, overshadowing Gray’s work. The film explores how male colleagues overshadowed her contributions despite her groundbreaking achievements. It celebrates her legacy through striking visuals inspired by her design sensibilities. The movie is set to be released on November 28, 2024.
image courtesy IMDb
CLASSICS: PETER GREENAWAY’S THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT (1987)
Directed by Peter Greenaway, The Belly of an Architect tells the story of Stourley Kracklite (played by Brian Dennehy), a meticulous and obsessive architect who journeys from America to Rome with his younger wife, Louisa (played by Chloe Webb), to curate an exhibition honoring 18th-century architect Etienne-Louis Boullée. During the trip, the couple conceives a long-desired child. Still, Stourley’s growing fixation on Louisa’s pregnancy, suspicions of her infidelity, and his own worsening abdominal pain drive him to the brink, spiraling into a dangerous obsession.
image courtesy IMDb
CLASSICS: THE FOUNTAINHEAD (1949) STARRING GARY COOPER
America’s earliest star, Gary Cooper, brought the ‘architect’ to life in The Fountainhead, a classic black-and-white movie directed by King Vidor. The film is adapted from Ayn Rand’s bestselling 1943 novel, with Rand also penning the screenplay. It centers on Howard Roark, a fiercely independent architect who refuses to compromise his artistic vision, even if it means enduring obscurity. Roark battles against the conservative architectural establishment to design modern buildings. His relationships with those who support or oppose him add layers of romantic drama and philosophical depth. Roark symbolizes Rand’s ideal of the human spirit, with his journey reflecting the broader conflict between individualism and collectivism.
image courtesy IMDb
ARCHITECTure AS a PROTAGONIST IN FILMS
COLUMBUS (2017) BY KOGONADA
This critically acclaimed production takes the audience on a path of meditation on love, loss, and architecture. Envisioned by South Korean director Kogonada as his debut film, Columbus stars John Cho as Jin Lee, the son of a renowned architecture scholar, and Haley Lu Richardson as Casey, a recent high school graduate and library worker. Casey lives with her mother, a recovering addict, in a little-known Midwestern town haunted by the promise of modernism. Jin, a visitor from the other side of the world, attends to his estranged, dying father. The movie traces the blossoming of their friendship, finding respite in one another and the architecture surrounding them — including the North Christian Church and Irwin Conference Center designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen.
image courtesy IMDb
HIGH-RISE (2015) STARRING TOM HIDDLESTON
When we think of architecture as the protagonist’, we cannot skip High-Rise, a dystopian thriller that weaves the aesthetics of brutalism with an unsettling narrative. The movie stars Tom Hiddleston as Dr. Robert Laign, Jeremy Irons as Anthony Royal, Elisabeth Moss as Helen Wilder, Luke Evans as Richard Wilder, and Sienna Miller as Charlotte Melville. Set in a 40-story luxury tower built by Royal in 1975 on the outskirts of London, the film follows residents enjoying modern conveniences, gradually isolating themselves from the outside world. As the building’s infrastructure fails, tensions rise, plunging the tower into chaos.
image: still, HIGH-RISE – Official Trailer | courtesy StudiocanalUK
EX MACCHINA (2014) STARRING OSCAR ISAAC AND ALICIA VIKANDER
Directed by Alex Garland, Ex Machina follows programmer Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), who spends a week at the private estate of Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), his internet firm’s CEO. He soon finds out he was selected to participate in a Turing test to evaluate the consciousness of Ava (Alicia Vikander), a highly advanced robot. As the test progresses, it becomes clear that Ava is far more self-aware and manipulative than Caleb or her creator, Nathan, initially anticipated. Throughout the movie, architecture takes center stage- from Bateman’s all-glass minimalist residence to the underground laboratory, which showcases technological aesthetics that emphasize the story’s focus on AI and machinic relations.
image courtesy IMDb
PARASITE (2019) BY BONG JOON HO
This award-winning South Korean black comedy, envisioned by filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, tells the story of the financially struggling Kim family who lives in a semi-basement flat in Seoul and devise a plan to infiltrate the wealthy Park family after receiving a scholar’s rock from university student Min-hyuk, symbolizing wealth. Throughout the movie, architecture is central to the film’s exploration of social class dynamics and the relationships between characters. The most obvious one is the illustration of contrasting spaces: the semi-basement flat symbolizes poverty and marginalization, being dark and cramped. In contrast, the Park family’s modern home represents wealth, comfort, and privilege, with spacious designs and natural light echoing high status.
image courtesy IMDb
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S INCEPTION (2010)
Probably the most iconic ode to architecture of the last two decades is director Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending masterpiece, Inception — starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, a skilled thief who specializes in extracting information by penetrating the subconscious of his targets. He is presented with an opportunity to have his criminal record expunged in exchange for planting an idea into a target’s subconscious. In the process, he recruits a young architecture graduate, Ariadne (Elliot Page), who helps him construct the blueprints of the dream. — from bending Haussmanian architecture in Paris to forging top-secret brutalist facilities in the snowy highlands.
image courtesy IMDb