Federico Babina, the mastermind behind ARCHI-PIX (Parts One and Two) has come up with a fun new series - ARCHICINE - representing iconic works of architecture that have played protagonists on film. We've rounded up all the illustrations -check them out after the break!
In this interesting article for the Financial Times, Edwin Heathcote dissects two Hollywood homes that are infamous as the homes of slick movie bad guys. The Lovell Health House designed by Richard Neutra appeared in LA Confidential as the home of pornographer and pimp Pierce Patchett; the Sheats Goldstein Residence appeared in The Big Lebowski - again as the home of a pornographer - and was designed by none other than "Hollywood's favourite architect" John Lautner. Heathcote probes the two architects' design influences and ideas, and of course offers an explanation as to why ""bad guys always seem to get the best houses". You can read the full article here.
This week we revisit a classic, a masterpiece by Jacques Tati. In the movie, Tati depicts modernism's problematic impact on the city and the way in which people interact within it.
The movie's carefully considered environment shows characteristics of the modernist movement at that time: repetition and regularity (the result of industrialisation) are represented from the smallest objects in the interiors to the larger scale of the city's urban plan. Enjoy this great movie and let us know your thoughts about Tati's take on modernism.
The Fall is a very visually powerful film. It is the result of a tremendous effort from its director Tarsem Singh, who travelled around the world in order to find the right locations for each scene. It is not only about the diversity of these spaces, but also the way that Singh is able to put all those elements together as part of a massive surrealistic world.
What if a movie is filmed in such a minimal way that your only reference is a plan view drawn on the floor. Then you would need to imagine all the missing information in a kind of mental extrusion of physicality. This is the way chosen by the Danish director Lars von Trier to represent a parable occurring in a fictional settlement in Colorado.
By the acclaimed director Jia Zhangke, 24 City cannot be considered a documentary, since actors perform in most of the scenes; however, this Chinese film realistically shows the dissociation between the rapid urban development and a population that seems to be victimized by globalisation.
The film is focused on the workers at Factory 420, a complex designed and deployed by the government for military purposes and used as a factory for producing and repairing mechanical elements for the army. This whole area became a city in itself, housing generations of factory workers. When the space is converted to 24 City, a complex to accomodate hundreds of luxury apartments, the entire site is demolished. 24 City tells the workers' stories in the midst of this transformation.
How should we consider these kinds of mono-functional cities and what could/should be their futures? Let us know in the comments below.
You have to admit it, Hollywood really seems to have a thing for John Lautner; his designs are continuously cropping up in tv-shows, films, cartoons, music videos and even video games. The occasional despondent college professor aside, his exuberant mansions are usually typecast as the bachelor-pads of various flamboyant psycho-paths, pornographers or drug-smugglers. Curbed Los Angeles have compiled this excellent video of the various Lautner-featuring scenes, so we thought that we'd take a closer look at some of his buildings, which tend to pop up in all manner of unexpected places.
Read more about Hollywood's love affair with Lautner after the break...
As we've mentioned before, Irish designer Eileen Gray was undoubtedly one of the most influential, and most overlooked, designers of the 20th century. However, a new Kickstarter campaign aims to put that right once and for all. The campaign is seeking funds to help renovate Gray's seminal house, E-1027, for the production of a feature film about the architect.
Cloud Altas is the adaptation of David Mitchell's novel by the same name. It follows six different story-lines, each taking place in a different time period, ranging over hundred of years (from our past to future). Each era gets a careful development of space, and, as usual, the Watchowski Brothers show their unique way of imagining the city of the future.
In fact, the story lines were filmed separately: while Tom Tykwer was working on those stories that take place in the 1930's and 1970's, the Watchowski Brothers were filming all the futuristic ones (which take place in the year 2321). Several famous buildings were utilised - let us know if you recognise any of them. Enjoy and as always, comment!
Underground is the condensed version of a 5-hour series (originally broadcast on Serbian television in the 90′s) which takes place in Yugoslavia, showing the country from the beginning of WWII through the Yugoslav Wars. This theatrical version, directed by Emir Kusturica, considered one of the master filmmakers of our time, utilises symbolic elements that require a strong knowledge of story to fully understand, and ends with a memorable finale, with the characters dancing on a floating island that separates them from the continent. This is an extraordinary film that we invite you to enjoy and comment on.
Last week, our latest featured film showed New York in the ’60s - this time we move to the future, about 200 years from now. This film, directed and co-written by Luc Besson, shows a New York City with flying cars and technological systems applied all around the human environment.
Enjoy and let us know your thoughts of how our cities will look in the next century!
Our latest movie in our Films & Architecture series is another ’60s classic, this time by the master filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. In North by Northwest we see a New York in the heyday of its architectural glory, with one scene taking place at a newly constructed United Nations building. In fact, the last scene takes place in a “house” that, under Hitchcock’s instructions, was meant to seem designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (in reality, the house was just another set design). The film shows a variety of urban spaces, and puts special emphasis on the contrast between the densities of urban and rural realms.
As always, enjoy and comment!
The Cell, by Tarse Singh, is a visually powerful film in which every set is carefully prepared in terms of color, composition and atmosphere. Ranging from subtle scenes to really baroque ones, the film is loaded with surrealist, sophisticated imagery that helps the viewer experience the story with the characters.
As usual we invite you to enjoy these films, let us know your comments, and propose more for the list!
From Tim Burton’s steamy, gothic megalopolis to Christopher Nolan’s cold, Miesian jungle, Gotham’s malice has always been manifested in its architecture. Writer Chip Kidd and artist David Taylor have pulled this nefarious background character to the forefront in the tale of Batman Vs. Mega-starchitect, entitled Batman: Death by Design
Read more about Batman : Death by Design after the break...
This week we will recommend you a really surrealistic film. ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, directed by Michael Gondry is a movie that takes place in a future where medicine technics allow people to modify and delete some memories. These changes are reflected in the space perception of the characters. The scenes morph and human scale is shrunk, buildings disappear and daylight turns into absolut darkness in seconds.
Enjoy the movie and let us know your comments. Do you think architecture can be described through memories? Any ideas about our memories and space perception?
In collaboration with Carlo Ponti, Jean-Luc Godard, one of the main representatives of the 60′s French film movement La Nouvelle Vague, adapted the Alberto Moravia novel Il disprezzo (A Ghost at Noon), written almost 10 years before, into Contempt. The result is a film where each scene is a composition in terms of colour, proportion, and contrast. And as an extra gift for us architects, most of the story takes place in and around the Villa Malaparte in Capri island, a stunning house on a rocky coast.
We invite you to enjoy this classic and let us know your ideas about the movie, this amazing house and the relationship with the surrounding landscape. More after the break.
This week we’re going to spotlight one of our greatest contemporary filmmakers, Tim Burton. In the 1989 film Batman, Burton generates a whole gothic environment, full of art deco and art nouveau buildings within Gotham City. Locations were inspired by urban spaces from New York City, Los Angeles, West London, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Tokyo, to Hong Kong (even though Gotham City was a well-known nickname for New York City, before Batman was ever written).
If you didn’t check out our article on Architecture & Batman, do so now – and let us know which Director you think does Gotham best in the comments below…
