E.1207: Eileen Gray And The House By The Sea

Irish designer Eileen Gray built a refuge on the Côte d’Azur in 1929. Her first house is a discrete, avant-garde masterpiece. She names it E.1027, a cryptic marriage of her initials and those of Jean Badovici, with whom she built it. Upon discovering the house, Swiss-French architect, designer, and painter Le Corbusier becomes intrigued and obsessed.

Without Gray’s permission, he later covers the walls with murals and publishes photos of them. Gray describes these paintings as vandalism and demands restitution. He ignores her wishes and instead builds his famous Le Cabanon directly behind E.1027, which dominates the site’s narrative to this day.

E.1027 is a cinematic journey into the mind of Eileen Gray. A story about the power of female expression, and men’s desire to control it.

This film is part of the Melbourne Design Week Film Festival curated by Spiro Economopoulos.