In Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, an Edward Hopper painting makes an appearance midway through the film. Although the protagonists, Julianne Moore’s Ingrid and Tilda Swinton’s Martha, move through a world of vibrant artworks and furnishings (Martha’s home has a green kitchen with an orange countertop!), this is the one burst of colour they remark upon. “We can lie in the sun like in the Hopper and catch the evening breeze,” says Martha. With those words, she puts the realist work in dialogue with both the idyllic setting they’ve retreated to — the stunning woods, cheerful birdsong and Joycean snow that captivate the women in a tale ostensibly about dying that turns out to be a celebration of being alive — and the film itself, whose every scene is a rich composition of hues as arresting as any Hopper canvas.

Released in 2024, and recipient of that year’s Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, the movie also stars a number of standout sofas by Roche Bobois reupholstered in striking hues. And so it was a natural fit — if a delightfully surprising one — that the French brand would embark on a collaboration with the Spanish auteur. Unveiled during Milan Design Week, the Cromática collection reimagines classic pieces in new colours and graphic treatments inspired by Almodóvar’s films: Sacha Lakic’s Bubble sofa now comes in apple green, peacock blue, sunflower yellow and a luscious red inspired by The Room Next Door, and the glossy Rondo china unit is clad in visuals taken from various movie posters, including the pistol stilettos of High Heels. Boldest of all is the El Deseo Lounge, a reinterpretation of Hans Hopfer’s Lounge modular sofa (itself a precursor to the Mah Jong system) upholstered in a patchwork of film references, among them the striking visage of Penélope Cruz, Almodóvar’s indelible muse. If you can’t live in Almodóvar’s world, you can recreate a piece of it in your home.