Customer Reviews

Regular or Super - Views on Mies van der Rohe

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had two reactions to this DVD; the first was that it was badly made and failed to tell a coherent story while the second reaction was that the stories told by those who knew and worked with Mies were very interesting. Some of the interviews are fleshed out in the DVD's extras section, which sadly displays some really dreadful zooming in and out on the heads of the people being interviewed. In fact I found the personal stories in the extras far more interesting than the actual production, though the dreadful camera work obviously prevented their inclusion.
The DVD mainly concentrates on commercial/high rise buildings and although it gives some attention to the Riehl House, both Villa Tugendhat and the Farnsworth House are almost totally ignored (you do see a model of Tugendhat and a pan across the deck of Farnsworth, which appears to be a photograph. Given the proximity of the Farnsworth House to Chicago, where a great deal of this documentary was shot, its omission is surprising. What I found particularly annoying was the amount of time spent on a service station Mies designed shortly before his death. It is from this service station that the documentary takes its title (I'm lost as to the importance placed on this building by the director); for me this just went on and on and on and while nice to look at, it's really not that interesting a structure. Clearly, however, the director was quite fascinated by it.

They do say that great architecture needs a great client and Mies had some excellent clients who are given the recognition they rightly deserve, particularly Herbert Greenwald a Chicago developer with whom Mies had a close professional relationship.

Franz Schulze, who wrote an excellent biography on Mies, appears and has some pertinent things to say about Mies and his work as do his colleagues and other architects. Dirk Lohan, Mies's nephew and the restoration architect for the Farnsworth House, also appears and has some interesting insights into Mies the man.

I can't say I'd recommend this DVD as something you have to have in your collection and personally I think Schulze's book is the ultimate source for anybody interested in the work of Mies van der Rohe. For me poor camera work, bad direction and a lack of storytelling let this DVD down quite badly and it has many rough edges. The documentary appears to have been made (in a hurry) for French speaking Canadians so you'll have to change the language setting to English (if that is your native language) as the subtitles are incomplete and very badly done.

I loved the original jazz score in this 50 minute documentary. It seems to enhance the architecture on view. I was disappointed that nothing was said about the furniture designed by Van der Rohe, although several talking heads are sitting on his famous Barcelona chair! The film centers on a wonderful Montreal gas station designed shortly before his death, but there is plenty of attention paid to NYC's Seagram Building, perhaps his finest. Was there no footage at all of the architect himself? He never appears, except in stills. Watch this if you're interested in his fabulous architecture, but it could have been twice the length and better done.

A wonderful testament to the legacy of Mies van der rohe. I highly recommend it.