Eileen Gray was a remarkable woman – an openly bisexual Irish furniture designer and architect who was a pioneer of the Modernist movement. She brought the same skills to her life that she did to her work, taking objects and ideas of great weight and making them float.
Director Mary McGuckian demonstrates the opposite skill in this low-budget period biopic, reducing Gray’s exploration of feminism, sexuality and power to a love triangle.
The story focuses on Gray’s completion of Villa E-1027, a sleek piece of architecture overlooking the French Riveria. Gray designed the villa for her lover Jean Badovici, but the building became the centre of a bitter rivalry, when legendary architect Le Corbusier replaced the white minimalist décor with garish, Picasso-lite murals.
As male ego, women’s authorship of their art and an emerging philosophy about life and design all converge, the raw material for a fascinating and sensual drama are apparent. However by focusing on the love/hate dynamic between Gray (Orla Brady), Badovici (Francesco Scianna) and Le Corbusier (Vincent Perez), the film seems to downplay the wider implications.
Risks are taken with the film’s design, as the theatrically staged and tightly choreographed conversations – complete with fourth wall-breaking monologues – echo the chilly elegance of the modernist sets. The problem is that the aesthetic and the interactions quickly feel stilted and claustrophobic. Cinematographer Stefan Von Bjorn’s camera lens seems permanently coated in Vaseline, perhaps a nod to Gray’s love of lacquer. However the effect comes across not as modern and assured, but as hazy and old-fashioned.

Rating: 2/5