For his first-ever feature-length film in English, legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar creates a powerhouse pairing, with Tilda Swinton and former Wallpaper* Design Awards judge Julianne Moore playing the two leads. But there is a third star, the beautiful brutalist house that forms the backdrop to the majority of the movie.
The Room Next Door tells the story of a journalist dying of cancer who calls on an old friend to be with her when she ends her life (in the room next door). The two have not seen each other in a long time, but shift from Manhattan to a rented modernist house in upstate New York to prepare for death. The location house, Casa Szoke, is actually in Spain, located on the southern slope of Monte Abantos, near El Escorial, an hour’s drive from Madrid. Designed by Madrid-based studio Aranguren + Gallegos, who took inspiration from Le Corbusier’s box-like creations, it consists of a series of interconnected angular volumes in glass and corten steel, which nestle in a pine forest landscape.
Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton in The Room Next Door
We talked to the film’s Israeli-born, New York-based production designer Inbal Weinberg, whose previous work includes Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of Suspiria. The sombre mood of the film, and the contemplative nature of its subject matter, was a guiding hand in the creation of the set design. ‘The connecting thread is Pedro's interest in elevated aesthetics,’ says Weinberg. ‘He has an innate sense of beauty and a particular appreciation for craft, which is apparent in every shot.’
The relocation to the upstate house marks the dawning of a new intimacy between the two women, with the site subtly setting the scene for the serious conversations to follow. ‘There's something about modernist homes that radiates calm, rationality, simplicity and appreciation for the environment. Specifically in our film, the idea of the space as a last respite, a place for both illness and healing, connected with the modernist sensitivity,’ says Weinberg. ‘With Casa Szoke, we appreciated the play between built volume, the human form, and nature. We liked the juxtaposition of linear planes and nature's curves, and the tension in the angular windows. The diagonal lines provided a sense of drama that highlighted the complex dynamics between the two characters, and the high stakes of their stay.’
Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in The Room Next Door
Weinberg emphasises the importance of focusing on the people that inhabit the spaces within the films, of imagining their worlds. ‘As a production designer, you're constantly moving between a wide array of projects, from gritty realistic dramas to opulent period pieces to superhero blockbusters. You can't go wrong if you concentrate on the characters, and let them dictate their environments. We paid close attention to every prop. Pedro is very discerning when it comes to details, and he made sure that every piece of art, book and decorative element was curated. We had a rich mood board of references, from homes of real people that we met in New York to designers' pieces fresh from the latest design magazines. Pedro always lent his personal taste (and artefacts) as a finishing touch.’
The Room Next Door is on general release from 25 October 2024, warnerbros.com
Book at odeon.co.uk
-
Willy Chavarria: ‘We’re still so stuck in fashion‘s old guard’As part of the August 2025 ‘Made in America’ issue of Wallpaper*, we invited three creative powerhouses to comment on the state of the States. Here, award-winning American fashion designer Willy Chavarria speaks on creative resilience, uniting with activist groups, and shaking up fashion’s old guard
-
Six Indian artists reframe the ladies compartment of a Mumbai local trainAn exhibition by Method (India) at Galerie Melike Bilir in Hamburg explores a gendered space
-
Frank Lloyd Wright’s The Fountainhead – a shining example of Usonian design – is now on the marketThis quintessential Wright home – built in a vibrant mid-century neighbourhood – was named after a novel inspired by the architect
-
The dynamic young gallerists reinvigorating America's art scene'Hugging has replaced air kissing' in this new wave of galleries with craft and community at their core
-
Meet the New York-based artists destabilising the boundaries of societyA new show in London presents seven young New York-based artists who are pushing against the borders between refined aesthetics and primal materiality
-
‘Her pictures looked like pictures everybody knew were the truth’: Diane Arbus at the ArmoryMatthieu Humery curates more than 400 of Arbus’ photographs at New York’s Park Avenue Armory – every picture she was known to have printed
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt was a jam-packed week for the Wallpaper* staff, entailing furniture, tech and music launches and lots of good food – from afternoon tea to omakase
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this weekThis week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took placeMarc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture
-
Ai Weiwei’s new public installation is coming soon to Four Freedoms State Park‘Camouflage’ by Ai Weiwei will launch the inaugural Art X Freedom project in September 2025, a new programme to investigate social justice and freedom
-
Leonard Baby's paintings reflect on his fundamentalist upbringing, a decade after he left the churchThe American artist considers depression and the suppressed queerness of his childhood in a series of intensely personal paintings, on show at Half Gallery, New York
