I went to see Pedro Almodóvar’s latest movie in the cinema, Broken Embraces (Los Abrazos Rotas), this past weekend. Besides being amazed by his ability to tell a story and Penelope Cruz’s beauty, it delights me to report I spotted two chairs by Charles Rennie Mackintosh!
The Hill House Chair, as seen in the master bedroom, Helensburgh, Scotland
The chair, as seen in the image above,was designed to go in the master bedroom of The Hill House, built for Walter Blackie and his family in 1903. Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed the chair and the house. Walter Blackie was a book publisher in Glasgow, Scotland. Many of the books he published were fairy tales. So, The Hill House, very fittingly, has a subtle theme of roses and Sleeping Beauty. The lattice-shape of the back of the chair fits both in dimension and theme the stencils on the walls of roses growing on trellises.
Ernesto Martel and Lena in their dining room
The Hill House Chair, as seen in the movie with red seat
I was unable to find a still from the movie that included the Hill House Chair. It was the customary black, however, it had a red upholstered seat. There are two in Ernesto Martel’s dining room and they are visible in the scene pictured above.
This is my first post in my new category of “Double Takes” where I plan to document quick views of famous design in movies and not get into the history, philosophy or interpretation of it all.
Although I do have to say, besides having a chair meant for a bedroom in a dining room, there is an interesting layer here with the theme of this chair. As this chair was meant to evoke the feeling of a trellis where Sleeping Beauty’s roses might grow around her and cage her in with their thorns, so does Ernesto Martel to Lena in Broken Embraces.1
Upstaged by Design 