Architecture and Film [Paperback]

Mark Lamster (Author, Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1568982070 | ISBN-13: 978-1568982076 | Publication Date: June 1, 2000 | Edition: 1

Architecture and Film looks at the ways architecture and architects are treated on screen and, conversely, how these depictions filter and shape the ways we understand the built environment. It also examines the significant effect that the film industry has had on the American public's perception of urban, suburban, and rural spaces. Contributors to this collection of essays come from a wide range of disciplines. Nancy Levinson from Harvard Design Magazine writes on how films from The Fountainhead to Jungle Fever have depicted architects. Eric Rosenberg from Tufts University looks at how architecture and spatial relations shape the Beatles films A Hard Day's Night, Help!, and Let It Be. Joseph Rosa, curator at the National Building Museum, discusses why modern domestic architecture in recent Hollywood films such as The Ice Storm, L.A. Confidential, and The Big Lebowski has become synonymous with unstable inhabitants. I.D. Magazine writer Peter Hall discusses the history of film titling, focusing on the groundbreaking work of Saul Bass and Maurice Binder. Editor Mark Lamster examines the anti-urbanism of the Star Wars trilogy. The collection also includes the voices of those from within the film industry, who are uniquely able to provide a "behind the scenes" perspective: film editor Bob Eisenhardt comments on the making of Concert of Wills, a documentary on the construction of the Getty Museum; and Robert Kraft focuses on his work as a location director for Diane Keaton's upcoming film about Los Angeles. Also included are interviews with David Rockwell, architect of numerous Planet Hollywood restaurants worldwide and designer of a new hall to host the Academy Awards ceremony; Kyle Kooper, who created title sequences for Seven and Mission Impossible; and motion picture art director Jan Roelfs, whose credits include Gattaca, Orlando, and Little Women.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (June 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568982070
• ISBN-13: 978-1568982076
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #360,509 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Buildings and Rooms makes sense, November 18, 2001

By 

Tosh Berman/TamTam Books - See all my reviews

This review is from: Architecture and Film (Paperback)

I didn't really notice cinema's similarity to architecture until I read Architecture and Film, edited by Mark Lamster, the senior editor at Princeton Architectural Press. What we have here is a collection of essays by film fanatics who also happen to be architectural critics or architects. There is not one film-studies scholar among the contributors; that alone is unusual for a collection of film essays.

The other big surprise is that the writers don't focus on architecturally striking films in the vein of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner or Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Instead they write about more obscure films, such as the hysterical Cary Grant film Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Robert Quine's Strangers When We Meet, and the campy film version of Ayn Rand's arguably campy novel The Fountainhead. All three films feature either an architect as a main character or the nature of architecture in a commercial world as a principle theme. The Fountainhead in particular is probably one of the most ridiculous films ever made about art and commerce. Such ideas aren't bad in and of themselves, but the fascistic and sexual overtones in Rand's book and film are so over the top that both come off as soft-porn pieces. But I like this film, as it brings up the question of architecture as an art form: Does it only serve its purpose as a structure of necessity?

The most unusual segment in the book is the essay by Eric Rosenberg: "Architecture and the films of the Beatles." In this short essay, Rosenberg comments on the nature of space and structures in keeping the Beatles isolated from the external world, with consideration to their fans. Other subjects covered include set directors, such as the great Ken Adam, who worked on all the early James Bond films, designed the fantastic war room in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, and also worked on Barry Lyndon. I found the essay on Adam particularly interesting because I am a big fan of his work. Adam talks about his disappointment in Barry Lyndon because a lot of the shots were based on paintings of that period; Adam preferred to use his own imagination for his set designs. In Dr. Strangelove, for example, he essentially used his mind's eye in building the war room. But fiction can greatly intrude upon fact -- when the newly elected President Ronald Reagan asked to see the government's war room, he was disappointed that it wasn't like the one used in Dr. Strangelove. As you see, films are better than real life. And so is the architecture in films

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars About importance of architectural props in film production, February 22, 2001

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Architecture and Film (Paperback)

This examination of the way architecture and architects have been portrayed on the screen provides fourteen essays which analyze selected productions. Their authors are set designers, architects, and film producers who use their backgrounds to analyze the presence and importance of architectural props in film production.