Writer: Beatrice Minger
Director: Beatrice Minger and Christoph Schaub
A film that never takes a definitive stance, E.1027 – Eileen Gray and The House By The Sea, tells the story of the designer and architect through a variety of forms. Appropriately, we never stay in the same place for too long.
Directed by Beatrice Minger and Christoph Schaub, we shift from stagey reconstructions of events in Gray’s life, to more expected documentary elements. Contemporary footage of 1920’s Paris hedonism, photos of Gray’s early years in Ireland: an aristocratic background she came to reject.
The film traces Gray’s determination to strike out as an independent artist. One of the first female students at the Slade School of Art, Gray travelled to the continent to find her artistic voice. Early experimentation saw an interest in Japanese design. Her famous lacquer screens – a blend of solids and voids – were the beginning of a lifelong interest in interior design: furniture became a speciality.
In 1929, Gray bought a plot of land in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. Her modernist vision was ambitiously expressed in the house she designed. Putting the deeds in the name of her partner, Jean Badovici (a charismatic Axel Moustache), the film is at its best when it portrays the couple in situ: the clean lines and airy, restful vibe of E.1027 sing of Art Deco-era glamour. But the camera also notes the solitude that Gray wanted to hang onto. Beatrice Minger’s screenplay is careful to put Gray’s sensibilities at the forefront: her actualisation as an artist is the driving narrative force. Natalie Radmall-Quirke plays Gray with a cool, contemplative intelligence.
The decision to include theatrical scenes between Gray, Badovici and the famed architect, Le Corbusier (a brilliantly tetchy performance from Charles Morillon), is interesting but ultimately disjointed. It is here we are meant to concentrate on the fractious relationship between the three, which ended up with Le Corbusier covering Gray’s house with gaudy, ill-advised frescoes. There is also a sly dig at Le Corbusier’s reputation, reminding us that while Gray drove ambulances for the French army in World War One, Le Corbusier cosied up to the Nazis in World War Two. But as the film leans into Gray’s achievement in building E.1027, the house itself becomes an additional character, and the scenes where the camera explores the dialogue Gray creates between pattern and space, really emphasises what Gray was articulating, and what Le Corbusier failed to understand.
In the final scenes of the film, Minger steers us towards Gray’s contemporary reputation. We see Gray herself commenting on her “resurfacing” during the late 1960’s, when appreciation for her work began to build. Her work, featured at MOMA and the V&A, now commands sky-high prices: her Fauteuil aux Dragons armchair sold in 2009 for $31.3 million.
This is a film that is not afraid to experiment, and while not every instinct pays off, the decision to prioritise Gray’s artistic development over her personal relationships is absolutely the right one. E.1027 is not only a great introduction to the designer, it reaffirms the clarity of her vision.
E.1027 – Eileen Gray and The House By The Sea is released in UK and Irish cinemas on 16 May 2025.
