Wednesday, April 15, 2009

If you could live...

...in a house from the movies, which one would it be? And the inverse: which movie house would you never set foot in, unless major renovations and evictions took place first?

52 comments:

Fox said...

Part 1: the mansion in Eyes Wide Shut.

Part 2: the house in The People Under the Stairs.

Fabrizzio said...

I would live in Howards End, especially if I got to live there with Emma Thompson. There are quite a few houses I would refuse to go in, the Bates mansion, the Sunset Boulevard house, the igloo in [safe] (if you consider that a house) SWEENEY TODD'S ATTIC THINGY ooh boy. that's probably the scariest. Or is that not a house either? Oh I would totally live in the Toy Story house! Or Wall-e's little....flat?

Ben said...

I've always coveted Clarissa's (Meryl Streep) apartment in The Hours. And I wouldn't want Ed Harris's apartment, same movie.

Walter L. Hollmann said...

I would definitely live at Gosford Park, if just for the secret passage in the library. Awesome.

I would never, ever set foot in any establishment in Trainspotting. Squalor just ain't my bag.

goldend said...

Kevin McCallister's house (Home Alone).

Deborah said...

I want to live on the Starship Enterprise.

Okay, has to be a house? The mansion from Rocky Horror.

For scummy tenements that are unlivable, there's Marsha Mason's place in Cinderella Liberty.

Alex Constantin said...

First that came: Tara :D perfect!

2nd: Gosford Park

Guy Lodge said...

Ever since I first saw "The Ice Storm," Janey Carvey's glassy Philip Johnson-style lair has been my dream house. I'm concerned about what that says about me.

On the opposite end of the scale, I remember watching "The Family Stone" and thinking that home was pretty much my worst nightmare -- both for its chintzy, soulless decor and its truly ghastly inhabitants.

Chris Na Taraja said...

I'm torn between the Von Trapp Family house in Austia from THE SOUND OF MUSIC, or Tilda Swintons house on the lake in THE DEEP END. Then again, as a New Yorker, I've also always wanted Tom hanks place in BIG.

the places i might visit, but wouldn't want to live, Dracula's Castle, the Bate motel and house, and Cathy Bates winter retreat from MISERY.

I haven't quite decided if I would like to Live in the house in BEETLEJUICE. Maybe after I die.

FrenchGirl said...

i couldn't live in "Psycho" house!
i would live in "laurel canyon" house!

Julie said...

The house on the lake in What Lies Beneath. I would also like Michelle Pfieffer's face, if possible.

The Pretentious Know it All said...

I would love to live in Doris Day's home from "Pillow Talk." Very cozy/fun. Especially if Rock Hudson barges in periodically and carries me off like a neanderthal.

I would not want to live in the Jarrett house from "Ordinary People." All the central heating in the world can't protect you from the frigidness that is Mary Tyler Moore.
(edited to add: May reconsider if Conrad cruises the halls in his underwear...and very often).

Paul Outlaw said...

I would live in one of the two Vickers homes (in town or the summer place near Loon Lake) in A Place in the Sun...or Villa Arpel from Mon Oncle.Must to avoid: the Dogville domiciles.

RobUK said...

I know it's television, so cheating, but I'd move right into Lily's Once & Again house, and never set foot in that Running With Scissors house.

Eric Arvin said...

I'd love to live in the villa in Enchanted April...

Jude Law's home in The Wisdom of Crocodiles left me a bit cold, so that would be a 'no.'

Dimi said...

I guess Hogwarts doesn't really qualify as simply a "house" but pretty much an entire new dimension. Off the top of my head, I'd want to live in the Tenenbaum house. So much love!

I probably wouldn't want to live in the house that Alex DeLarge soothes with his rendition of "Singin' in the Rain" in A Clockwork Orange. That wouldn't turn out well.

nothingiswritten said...

I love rambling houses cluttered with books, knickknacks, family photos, and memories, so I'd go with either the house from Rachel Getting Married (musicians included) or the Vuillard house from A Christmas Tale (wolf in the basement included).

I'd avoid any house from the suburban hell of Edward Scissorhands. The Inventor's mansion, though, I like, even with the hole in the roof.

adelutza said...

I've really loved Olivia's house in The Station AgentOn the other hand I would really think twice to live in Psycho house

Fernando Moss said...

I would like to live in Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer's house in "The Soty of Us". Love that stairs.

I think I'd never step into the Monster House... what if it eats me?

Fernando Moss said...

*The Story of Us

Cory Rivard said...

a) I've always wanted to know what it was like to hang from the ceiling/ sink through the floor via carpet... so, "The Money Pit".

b) The House of Sand & Fog. Too many loose nails.

NATHANIEL R said...

Fox ---ewww. aren't both parts 1 & parts 2 equally creepy establishments?

Fabrizzio -- rooming with Emma? Amen. What a plus.

Ben -- hmmm, i remember her kitchen but that's it. must rewatch.

walter --in this we are alike (the anti-squalor part)

guy -LOL

Julie -- but what would Michelle Pfeiffer do without her face?

P_T_D said...

Delta House!

OK, maybe not. But better there than Omega House.

Although both beat out the (original) Texas Chainsaw Massacre house, which features what might be the scariest door in film history.

lylee said...

1. The house in "The Lake House," esp. if it means I can begin a love correspondence with Keanu Reeves. (seriously though, the house was gorgeous, though maybe not very livable)

2. Any dwelling in any horror movie, though the one that gave me nightmares as a kid was from the original "Amityville Horror."

Scott said...

I'd go with something sumptuous in New York - say the Valmont house in Cruel Intentions, one of the apartments in Metropolitan, or hey RZ's hotel room in Down With Love.

As to where I'd avoid - no question, the house in The Haunting (the original of course).

Ben said...

Inara's shuttle in Serenity, if that can be called a house.

Wouldn't want to live in any of those lakeside holiday homes in Funny Games where it would only be a matter of time before a pair of white-gloved killers came asking for eggs.

Iggy said...

Just because I'm feeling Montgomery Clift-y lately and because of the open elevator indoors, I'd choose the Venables house in Suddenly Last Summer.

Pedro said...

I would like to live in Tara from Gone With the Wind or the Von Trapp family house from The Sound of Music.

I wouldn't live (you wouldn't even caught me dead in the neighborhood) in the house from The Amityville Horror or from The Exorcist (I am terrified of ghosts or the devil).

Pedro

Yokozuna said...

I'd love to live in Pee-Wee Herman's house from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. What a chick magnet that pad would be.

Big Ralph's place in Blast Of Silence is the only movie home I've ever seen that actually smaller than the one I live in, so that's a no.

jimmy said...

i would love to live in the house that diane keaton owns in "Something's Gotta Give." I love that house....my dream house. I also liked her house in "Father of the Bride". I also liked barbara stanwyk's house in "Christmas in Connecticut." I would not like to live in the Heath's trailor from "Brokeback". yuck. sad and dreary.

Murtada said...

Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) house in The Talented Mr Ripley. Southern Italy, gorgeous, sun, beach.... it's not only my dream house but my dream life.

Would not want to live in Marla's (Helena Bonham Carter) apt in The Fight Club. Hideous, and looks like it would be very cold.

seasondays said...

part one: MATCH POINT jonathan rhys meyer's london loft
part two: BROKEBACK MOUNTIAN heath ledger's trailer [unless heath ledger was still living in there]

Wayne B. said...

seasondays - same movie I was thinking about, except I like the parents' country estate more.
For part one I would like to live in the Bennett home of "Pride & Prejudice" (05 version). I like big countryside houses with that down-home feel. :)
Part two I would never set foot in Buffalo Bill's (The Silence of the Lambs) creepy house with its labyrinth basement. *shudders*

Julia said...

I love Diane Keaton's house in Something's Gotta Give, and Lara Croft's mansion in Tomb Raider.

Victor S said...

The Elephant of Moulin Rouge!! Cant think of a more spectacular, spectacular place to live!!

Derreck said...

Part 1: The Rich Mansion from "Richie Rich". Giant and opulent with a regal style.

Part 2: The house from "The Others". Dusty, little to no light (on account of the children) and then that little pesky problem with the ghosts,

Anonymous said...

The Addams' Family House

Uncle Gustav said...

1) The artist's Tuscany digs in Stealing Beauty.

2) The RKO house in Celine & Julie Go Boating -- but only if Ms. Berto has the magic candy.

NATHANIEL R said...

Victor S -- it still breaks my heart that that set was destroyed. *SOB*

Kamila said...

I would love to live on Virginia Woolf's house in "The Hours".

I would never live on a horror movie house.

Julienne said...

Bilbo's house

Anonymous said...

The giant log cabin from Legends of the Fall

NATHANIEL R said...

aracir -- are you short or will you have to stoop like Gandalf?

adri said...

I love the house in "Practical Magic" (exorcisms completed, of course).

Nancy Meyers always serves up some pretty desirable residences, "Something's Gotta Give" as others have mentioned (Architectural Digest told how parts of that set has actually been duplicated and built by people who wanted "that house"), and the LA house and English country cottage of "The Holiday".

In Audrey Hepburn movies, I like the Larrabee estate on Long Island in "Sabrina", and the Parisian house she shares with her art forger father in "How to Steal A MIllion".

Great suggestions, Eric Arvin, for "Enchanted April" and Dimi, for "The Royal Tenebaums".

Anonymous said...

its gay - but Diane Keating's house in the Hampton in Something's Gotta Give. As an aussie its my idea of American classic decorating. Of course is Keanu came with it I wouldn't mind at all...

Where not to live - may the house in Running with Scissors. I understand they make you eat dog food there...

Bryan said...

I'd live in Norma Desmond's place after they'd carted her off, and I'd do the renovations myself, keeping and even enhancing the creepy gothic thing, then inviting all my friends over. Think of the crazy parties you could have! And maybe creepy Max could stay.

Kurtis O said...

Would live in: The mansion from "Clue: The Movie."

Would totally avoid: Roseanne's tacky pad in "She-Devil."

Derreck said...

Part 1: The Rich Mansion from "Richie Rich". Giant and opulent with a regal style.

Edit: It's called the Biltmore Estate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Biltmore_Estate.jpg.

lovely.

Part 2: The house from "The Others". Dusty, little to no sunlight (on account of the children) and then that little pesky problem with the ghosts.

Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Palacio_de_Los_Hornillos_-_Cantabria.jpg

it's quite nice in this pic though.

Brodie said...

I'd love to live in Mia Farrow's gorgeous renovated apartment in Rosemary's Baby (if Ruth Gordon was in Dubrovnik of course), and I wouldn't set foot in Millie Lameroux' flat in 3 Women because she's SOOOOO ANNOYING!

Rick Schoen said...

I would live in Professor Henry Higgins house in My Fair Lady.

I wouldn't live in Norman Bates house in Psycho.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone ever seen a movie called, "Big Eden"? It came out several years ago and is about a gay man who has to return to the small Montana town he grew up in... anyway, I want to live in his father's log cabin on the lake. That said, I would also happily take any of the apartments in "Talented Mr. Ripley".

I would refuse to live with Katherine Hepburn in that crazy big house in "Suddenly, Last Summer".

LaDeeDuh said...

Saw 'Coraline' today, so I'd have to say the 'Pink Palace'. I know, I know, 'Other Mother', and all, but still, what a gorgeous landscape around that house. (Not to mention that 'tunnel of neverending subtext' :D )

I wouldn't set foot in the 'Sunset Boulevard' manse, unless promised a glimpse of Norma Desmond herself, or at least the chance to narrate my own demise.