dorkification of the architect

120
MARK No 26
long section
DORKIFICATION
MOVIES
HOLLYWOOD . USA
121
of the
Architect
In recent Hollywood films, the
architect sheds his Howard
Roark façade and becomes an
average Joe.
Text Katya Tylevich
(500) Days of Summer
Director: Marc Webb
Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2009
Although an architect by training,
Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)
writes copy for greeting cards. After
his relationship with Summer (Zooey
Deschanel) falls apart, he ultimately
realizes he wants to pursue a career
in architecture after all. In the closing shots of the movie, we see him
preparing for interviews.
ArchitectS in FILM
122
MARK No 26
Say you’re a starving actor in Hollywood. To
further simplify the situation, we’ll agree that
you’re male and hoping to snag a few best-actorin-a-leading-role statuettes before dying an
honourable movie-star death, after which your
soul ascends to a digitally remastered heaven
and lives on for time eternal in a box set of
‘classics’.
Okay. So one day the skies part, angels sing
and you’re typecast as an architect. Hallelujah,
you might think after fast-forwarding through
the past six decades of architects as portrayed
in American cinema. After all, the architect
had a strong, favourable presence on screen for
the latter half of the 20th century. This was a
role carried by such luminous Academy Award
winners as Paul Newman (The Towering Inferno,
1974, in which Newman plays a respectable,
sometimes half-naked, hero who rescues women
and children from a devastating fire); Gary
Cooper (The Fountainhead, 1949 – Cooper plays
Howard Roark, enough said); and Henry Fonda
(12 Angry Men, 1957, in which Fonda is the lone
juror to defend a wrongfully accused man).
There was a time when Hollywood could
select its architects, cowboys and war heroes
from the same line-up. And, until roughly 2006
the architect was, by and large, exempt from the
notion that the camera adds ten pounds to one’s
figure. On the contrary, to the actor playing an
architect the camera added only a disposable
income, sex appeal, confidence, conscience and
killer props. Blueprint as aphrodisiac? Yes and
yes. Where better to make cinematic love than
atop a drafting table?
In pre-2006 films, even those movie
architects doing bad, bad things (think of an
adulterous Kirk Douglas in Strangers When
We Meet, 1960) reek of irresistible architectpheromones (an adulterous Richard Gere in
Intersection, 1994). Their redeeming qualities
include but are not limited to: creative drive,
ambition, independence.
That architects have been portrayed in
horror films at curiously high rates for decades
(from The Black Cat, 1934, to White Noise,
2005) is a topic all its own, but there are no
coincidences in Hollywood. Architect as victim
of horror? Terrifying. Architect as unleasher of
horror? Even more chilling. All to demonstrate
that only in nightmarish fantasy should the
architect be depicted as either a dead-meat loser
or a freakish nut job, right?
In 1998, the Farrelly Brothers reinforced
this observation twofold in their gross-out satire
There’s Something About Mary, wherein two
antagonists played by Matt Dillon and Lee
Evans masquerade as architects in an attempt to
impress said Mary (Cameron Diaz). Needless to
say, they don’t get the girl. Duh. They’re not real
architects. Though not a horror film, Mary is a
satire and thus a fantasy, which relies on taking
a ‘given’ (that the architect is hunky, smart and
financially stable, of course) and flipping it on
its head. Therefore, Mary’s lampoon of the
architect is, in fact, fortification of his positive
reputation.
long section
MOVIES
Mark’s List of Movie Architects
A Single Man, Matthew Goode, 2010
(500) Days of Summer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt,
2009
It's Complicated, Steve Martin, 2009
Eloïse, Diana Gómez, 2009
Walled In, Pascal Greggory, 2009
Iago, Nicolas Vaporidis, 2009
Les regrets, Yvan Attal, 2009
Der Architekt, Josef Bierbichler, 2008
À l’aventure, Frédéric Aspisi, 2008
Body of Lies, Ali Suliman, 2008
The Coffin, Ananda Everingham, 2008
Paris, François Cluzet, 2008
Selfless, Josh Rengert, 2008
Baby Mama, Kevin Collins, 2008
Loft, Filip Peeters, 2008
Life in Flight, Patrick Wilson, 2008
Mamma Mía!, Pierce Brosnan, 2008
Musta jää, Martti Suosalo, 2007
One More Chance, Bea Alonzo, 2007
Proibido Proibir, Maria Flor, 2007
Puffball, Kelly Reilly, 2007
Sügisball, Juhan Ulfsak, 2007
Voce del verbo amore, Giorgio Pasotti, 2007
Wonderful Town, Anchalee Saisoontorn, 2007
Hunabkú, Raúl Taibo, 2007
Breaking and Entering, Jude Law, 2006
Something New, Simon Baker, 2006
The Namesake, Kal Penn, 2006
The Lake House, Keanu Reeves, 2006
Firewall, Virginia Madsen, 2006
The Architect, Anthony LaPaglia, 2006
Click, Adam Sandler, 2006
You, Me and Dupree, Matt Dillon, 2006
My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Luke Wilson, 2006
Fiddler's Walk, Sara Dylan, 2006
Irresistible, Sam Neill, 2006
The Last Kiss, Zach Braff, Casey Affleck, 2006
Copying Beethoven, Matthew Goode, 2006
You Am I, Andrius Bialobzeskis, 2006
Mne ne bolno, Inga Strelkova-Oboldina, 2006
La febbre, Fabio Volo, 2005
White Noise, Michael Keaton, 2005
Just Like Heaven, Mark Ruffalo, 2005
Travaux, on sait quand ça commence...,
Marcial Di Fonzo Bo, 2005
La Moustache, Vincent Lindon, 2005
La sagrada familia, Sergio Hernández, 2005
The Quiet, Martin Donovan, 2005
Tom White, Colin Friels, 2004
Welcome to Mooseport, Dennis Akayama,
2004
Agata e la tempesta, Emilio Solfrizzi, 2004
El habitante incierto, Andoni Gracia, 2004
The Stepford Wives, Roger Bart, 2004
The Butterfly Effect, Ashton Kutcher, 2004
Ausreisser, Peter Jordan, 2004
Der Untergang, Heino Ferch, 2004
Arisan!, Tora Sudiro, 2003
La felicità non costa niente, Mimmo Calopresti, 2003
El fondo del mar, Daniel Hendler, 2003
Love Actually, Liam Neeson, 2003
The Matrix Reloaded, Helmut Bakaitis, 2003
Rot und Blau, Hannelore Elsner, 2003
Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre, Jamel
Debbouze, 2002
Enough, Bill Campbell, 2002
L’ora di religione, Pietro de Silva, 2002
Cravate Club, Charles Berling, Edouard Baer,
2002
Musikk for bryllup og begravelser, Bjørn
Floberg, 2002
Oltre il confine, Anna Galiena, 2002
Eden, Thomas Jane, 2001
Bride of the Wind, Simon Verhoeven, 2001
In the Bedroom, Nick Stahl, 2001
Life As A House, Kevin Kline. 2001
En kort en lang, Mads Mikkelsen, 2001
Town & Country, Warren Beatty, 2001
Kept, Christian Oliver, 2001
La collezione invisibile, Alessandro Zama,
2000
Return to Me, David Duchovny, 2000
Siworae, Jung-Jae Lee, 2000
Love Actually, 2003.
HOLLYWOOD . USA
Looking good, starving actor! If you’re
cryogenically frozen in 1998, that is. For in 2006
the clouds rolled in, thunder clapped, and a
torrent of so-called ‘chick flicks’ and ‘airplane
movies’ rained on the architect’s parade.
Two summer blockbusters: Click and You,
Me and Dupree. Their release dates in June
and July of ’06 follow each other with eerie
proximity. (Fidel Castro relinquished power
immediately after this diptych went live. Think
about it.)
Let us begin with Click, in which Adam
Sandler plays ‘average nice guy’ Michael
Newman, who toils in a towering, corporate
architecture firm captained by a muscly armed,
womanizing cheese ball known as Ammer,
(played by David Hasselhoff – who else?).
Michael drives a ho-hum car, wears a boring
suit to work, gets his midnight pick-me-ups from
Twinkies and is an expert at compromising in
order to please the client. His greatest ambition
is to make partner at work – not so that he may
see his designs realized with integrity one day
but, presumably, so that he, like Ammer can live
the good life on easy street, jet-set, rake in the
big bucks, and engage in free time galore while
a team of miserable saps pulls the weight in the
office.
It’s still early in the film when we see
Michael slaving away on a must-win proposal.
His young children scamper up to Daddy with
some adorable design ideas (a room made of
pizza? Call an ambulance. I’ve OD’d on cute).
Michael, near breakdown, snaps at his progeny:
‘Life ain’t about being creative! It’s about
kissing ass, playing it safe, making your boss a lot
of money in hopes that one day he might throw
you a stinkin’ bone.’ Clearly, architecture makes
monsters of good men.
Click progresses, and we see that architecture
also makes good men morbidly obese (thanks to
a diet of junk food and lack of exercise), zombies
in the sack, and oblivious to the feelings and/or
needs of loved ones. The literal and figurative
gist of the film is that Michael, who chooses
career over family, fast-forwards through all the
good parts (friends, fam, health) in his mad dash
up the corporate ladder. Hence architecture
acts as stand-in for the proverbial soul-crushing,
mind-numbing American Job – a practice
fuelled by brown-nosers, compromisers and
those willing to exchange life for an office with a
nice Manhattan view.
Eew.
Where did the architect as uncompromising
individualist go? The tagline for this movie
might as well read: Life is what happens to you
while you’re busy designing commercial megacomplexes.
And me without a Zoloft.
Hark, a familiar voice: Matt Dillon! Perhaps
he comes armed with antidepressants via
remedial architect satire? Not quite. In You,
Me and Dupree – another one of those ‘PG-13
for Crude and Sexual Humour’ affairs – Dillon
plays Carl Peterson, a newlywed, and a suitwearing lead designer at his father-in-law’s »
ArchitectS in FILM
123
“Life ain’t
about
being
creative!
It’s about
kissing ass”
– Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) –
The favourite fictional
architect of
Sharon Johnston
(Johnston Marklee Architects, Los Angeles)
Our favourite is Doug Roberts in Towering
Inferno (1974), played by Paul Newman. We
should prefer Howard Roark (The Fountainhead),
who epitomizes the model of the heroic architect. Led by his muse or Pied Piper, he explodes
his buildings rather than having his stylistic
vision compromised. But he sits in an ivory tower,
and his stance of resistance is self-indulgent.
He romantically opts for complete destruction
versus taking others into consideration. He is not
Doug Roberts.
Roberts is a no-frills pragmatist. He is the
workingman’s architect who knows his buildings
intimately – from the electrical specifications to
the gauge of the water tanks. His contention
with the developer focuses not on superfluous
design preferences but on building standards
and human safety. On the brink of disaster, he is
in the middle of the action, rolling up his sleeves
and exploding the water tanks to douse the fire
and prevent complete destruction. In our theoryand marketing-saturated age, in which the role
of the architect has become more and more
marginalized as spokesperson and tastemaker,
Doug Roberts is the antihero. He lets his work
stand alone and, only as a last resort, steps up
to the plate to save the day. If we have to send
one fictional architect into the real world to
demythologize the Fountainheads, we would feel
most confident sending in Doug Roberts.
You, Me and Dupree
Directors: Anthony Russo and Joe
Russo
Universal Pictures, 2006
After architect Carl Peterson (Matt
Dillon) marries the daughter of his
boss, land developer Bob Thompson
(Michael Douglas), he’s given more
responsibility and a private office.
Thompson, who turns out to be moneyhungry and not much else, frustrates
the ideals of his son-in-law.
124
MARK No 26
The favourite fictional
architect of
Florian Schlüter
(Meixner Schlüter Wendt Architects,
Frankfurt)
Impressive female fictional architects are still few
and far between, so we concentrated on male
characters. Our spontaneous choice is Pierre
Bérard (Michel Piccoli) in Les choses de la vie,
followed by Doug Roberts (Paul Newman) in The
Towering Inferno. Immersed in the enthusiastic,
modernist, progressive atmosphere of the ’70s,
both characters already sense the imminent side
effects of growth and progress – in an era that
coincides with the first remarkable appearance of the Club of Rome. Newman portrays
the architect as a glamorous and heroic figure
travelling by helicopter between rural solitude
and urban density. His office on the 72nd floor
resembles a bachelor's pad, and Faye Dunaway
is there waiting for him in the adjacent bedroom.
Fascinating imagination. But in the end, sitting
on the ruins of his once glorious marvel, the
formerly omniscient architect is put to shame by
the fire-safety expert. Not so fascinating.
Pierre Bérard’s life as an architect is also
accompanied by sports cars, boats and beautiful
women. Although he struggles with his private
life, he enjoys the view of Romy Schneider as
he gets up in the morning; in his professional
role as architect, he credibly cuts the contractor down to size and gets his way. That's what
makes him our favourite. Beautiful women,
beautiful cars and high spirits, thanks to a neverending stream of commissions – those were
the good old days. What never diminishes is the
architect’s impact on the female sex. Statistics
show that 70 per cent of today's women would
like to be involved with an architect.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Director: Ivan Reitman
SE Productions Inc., 2006
Much to his surprise, a rather vacuous
architect, Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson),
finds himself in a relationship with
Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman), a supergirl who’s constantly ducking out to
save the world. When Saunders dumps
Jenny to pursue his former crush,
Hannah Lewis (Anna Faris), his ex uses
her superpowers to terrorize him in
all sorts of diabolical ways. Dismissal
is unavoidable.
long section
uber-development company. Michael Douglas
plays Bob Thompson – villain developer, in-law
from hell. Long story short: Carl has an idea.
We assume it’s good. Thompson brutalizes the
idea and invites Carl to buy a one-way ticket
on the ‘money train’ or get demoted. Towards
the end of the film, Carl opts for a return ticket
and delivers a climactic cry of the heart: ‘You
bastardized my project to a point where it’s
unrecognizable!’
Lest you think this is a happy ending for
architecture, Carl continues: ‘I don’t care about
this job!’ Oh.
He chooses family. He chooses friendship,
sanity, virility. Were this a ‘happily ever after’
with architecture Carl might, you know, open his
own practice or insist on his original design. No
dice. Again, architecture is treated as a J-O-B. A
In 2006, a
torrent
of chick
flicks and
airplane
movies
rained
on the
architect’s
parade
corporate, unsexy one, complete with a security
guard in the main lobby and a view of suburban
freeways from the windows, and it all but
obliterates ‘Carl as man’.
In the beginning of the film, Carl is a
chiselled but sensitive beer’n’buddies guys’
guy. Work gets to him. He succumbs to eating
Twinkies (what’s with the Twinkies?), gains
weight, grows paranoid. He becomes a bad
friend, a sloppy husband. I’m not being Freudian
when I say that The Developer literally attempts
to castrate our lead designer in this film.
Thompson suggests that Carl get a vasectomy.
In one scene, a frazzled Carl even stomps home
from the office holding an anatomically graphic
Vasectomy and You pamphlet directly against
his blueprints. I mean, I’m not being a perv
here. Even in the director’s commentary (yes, I
MOVIES
watched the director’s commentary), this point
is enunciated loudly and clearly: vasectomy =
Thompson testing Carl on a professional level.
Would this ever happen to Paul Newman, I ask
you?
And should I even mention that a third
PG-13er called My Super Ex-Girlfriend came
out in the summer of ’06 starring Luke Wilson as
Matt Saunders, another Bumbly Joe in Business
Casual, clocking in his nine-to-five over at
Architecture Inc., where the sexual-harassment
laws are strict, the clients are ripe for ass-kissing,
and the work is totally boring and secondary to
the plot? I think we’ve seen enough. Next!
The Last Kiss, an indie rom-dramady released in the autumn of that same
lamentable year, stars Zach Braff as Michael,
a man going on 30, suffering from a mad case
of the I’m-going-to-cheat-on-my-pregnantgirlfriend-with-a-barely-legal-college-studentbecause-I-have-cold-feet-and-I’m-afraid-it’s-alldownhill-from-here blues.
Ostensibly, Last Kiss – in which architecture
is actually portrayed as a ‘cool job’ and the office
is ‘chillaxed’ (no sexual-harassment forums, no
hair gel, no florescent lights) – could be antidote
to the ‘architect as corporate tool’ poison. But
remember, what plagues Michael is the fear
that his life is predictable, that it’s boring, finito,
inescapable. Architecture is the occupational
equivalent of a ball and chain. It’s a relatively
hip ball and chain, the one you’d settle for if you
had to, but there’s no edge to it, no excitement,
no mystery, no seductiveness.
Plus, Michael misses so many days of work
trying to mend his relationship with the mother
of his unborn child that it’s hard to imagine
he’ll have a job waiting for him when he finally
decides to return. In that respect, maybe we
should assume that he, too, chooses family over
career.
Ugh. Is it so démodé to love architecture
more than people these days? Unbelievable.
Kiss, btw, is a remake of the Italian original,
L’Ultimo Bacio (2001), in which the main
character is not an architect but an ad-agency
guy. So, it’s come to this. Architect and ad guy
are interchangeable.
In this context, I see the 2009 hipster film
(500) Days of Summer as a licking of the wounds
left by 2006. Summer is about unrequited love.
In it, Joseph Gordon-Lewitt plays Tom Hansen,
who writes copy for greeting cards, falls for a
girl and bares his soul. We learn that he studied
architecture (his true calling) but that ‘it didn’t
work out. I needed a job, and here we are.’
But Tom’s crush on architecture is enduring.
He even woos the object of his affection with
an architectural tour of downtown LA and
draws some sketches on her hand. The guy’s a
regular Casanova. Later we see a montage of a
heartbroken Tom sketching all over the walls of
his prewar apartment. That’s the spirit!
In Summer, the happy ending isn’t boy gets
girl (boy gets dumped), but boy quits plan-B
corporate job and pursues architecture after all.
In closing scenes, we watch Tom, all dolled up, »
Arlington Road, Tim Robbins, 1999
Alma mía, Pablo Echarri, 1999
At First Sight, Mira Sorvino, 1999
Heaven, Martin Donovan,1999
I diakritiki goiteia ton arsenikon, Natalia
Stylianou, 1999
Je veux tout, Elsa Zylberstein, 1999
Three to Tango, Matthew Perry, Oliver Platt,
John C. McGinley, Bob Balaban, 1999
Last Night, Don McKellar, 1998
Playing by Heart, Jon Stewart, 1998
Cube, David Hewlett, 1997
Fools Rush In, Matthew Perry, 1997
Living in Peril, Rob Lowe, 1997
The Ex, Nick Mancuso, 1997
Ji sor, Theresa Lee, 1997
‘Til There Was You, Dylan McDermott, 1997
Pequeno Dicionário Amoroso, Andrea
Beltrão, 1997
My Best Friend’s Wedding, Cameron Diaz, 1997
La terza luna, Roberto Citran, 1997
A Smile Like Yours, Jill Hennessy, 1997
Le affinità elettive, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, 1996
The Cable Guy, Matthew Broderick, 1996
Fear, Steve Walker, 1996
One Fine Day, Michelle Pfeiffer, 1996
Leneged Einayim Ma’araviyot, Eyal Schehter,
1996
Masoom, Naseeruddin Shah, 1996
It’s My Party, Eric Roberts, 1996
The Frighteners, Michael J. Fox, 1996
The Brady Bunch Movie, Gary Cole, 1995
Father of the Bride Part II, Kimberly Williams,
1995
Uomini uomini uomini, Christian de Sica, 1995
The Pallbearer, David Schwimmer, 1995
Losing Isaiah, David Strathairn, 1995
Adultère, mode d’emploi, Vincent Cassel,
Karin Viard, 1995
Mother’s Boys, Peter Gallagher, 1994
The River Wild, David Strathairn, 1994
Death Wish V: The Face of Death, Charles
Bronson, 1994
Todos los hombres sois iguales, Imanol
Arias, 1994
Intersection, Richard Gere, 1994
Dream Lover, James Spader, 1993
El pájaro de la felicidad, Lluis Homar, 1993
The Joy Luck Club, Michael Paul Chan, Lauren
Tom, 1993
Sleepless In Seattle, Tom Hanks, 1993
Indecent Proposal, Woody Harrelson, 1993
House of Cards, Kathleen Turner, 1993
Huevos de oro, Alberto Merelles, 1993
Fearless, Jeff Bridges, 1993
Eight Ball, Matthew Fargher, 1993
Après l’amour, Bernard Giraudeau, 1992
Archipiélago, Héctor Noguera, 1992
The Whole Truth, Dyan Kane, 1992
The HouseSitter, Steve Martin, 1992
Dark Horse, Ed Begley Jr., 1992
Husbands and Wives, Benno Schmidt, 1992
Jungle Fever, Wesley Snipes, 1991
Bugsy, Ray McKinnon, 1991
Der zynische Körper, John Erdman, 1991
Liebestraum, Kevin Anderson, 1991
Close My Eyes, Clive Owen, 1991
Shattered, Scott Getlin, 1991
Father of the Bride, Kimberly Williams, 1991
No me compliques la vida, Jorge de Juan, 1991
Cin cin, Marcello Mastroianni, 1991
Bird on a Wire, Jackson Davies, 1990
Die Architekten, Kurt Naumann, 1990
Back Stab, James Brolin, 1990
The Guardian, Brad Hall, 1990
L’amore necessario, Ben Kingsley, 1990
El anónimo… ¡vaya papelón!, Jorge de Juan,
1990
La condanna, Vittorio Mezzogiorno, 1990
Het Phoenix mysterie, Luc Boyer, 1990
Musikk for bryllup og begravelser, 2002.
Chimère, Wadecck Stanczak, 1989
Pension Sonnenschein, Ernst Stankovski, 1989
El costo de la vida, Rafael Sánchez Navarro,
1989
Annie, Arjun Raina, 1989
Adio, Rio, Filip Trifonov, 1989
HOLLYWOOD . USA
ArchitectS in FILM
125
126
MARK No 26
long section
MOVIES
The favourite fictional
architect of
Wies Sanders
(Managing director, Architecture Film
Festival Rotterdam)
It’s true that the architect is often portrayed as a
vain, unscrupulous ego-tripper. In the film Indecent Proposal, David Murphy (Woody Harrelson),
facing financial crisis, sells his wife to the first
man who comes along (Robert Redford). In The
Fountainhead, Howard Roark (Gary Cooper)
keeps on building misshapen architecture, driven
by his unfounded, individualistic urge to create.
It’s a wonder that the film is still so popular
among architects. That may be due to a lack of
alternatives, however, as I have yet to see a truly
interesting film that depicts the role and position
of an architect. Attempts in this direction quickly
deteriorate into frightful films in which an unscrupulous architect suddenly sees the light and
starts to design socially responsible buildings
(Anthony LaPaglia’s The Architect, for example).
So my favourites are more in the line of
documentaries and animated films. Numérobis
from Astérix & Obélix, Mission Cléopâtre and
Roberto the Insect Architect – these are my kind
of architects. Unsophisticatedly slaving away
to improve society with perfect piles of bricks.
And attractive structures, too; the pyramid that
Numérobis built is still standing! No unreliable
ego-trippers, but endearing idealists. Nor is it a
coincidence that they are depicted as very small
architects. My preference undoubtedly says more
about me than about fictional architects, but let's
face it, that's what films are for: recognition and
confrontation.
En toute innocence, Michel Serrault, 1988
La nuit Bengali, Hugh Grant, 1988
For Keeps?, Randall Batinkoff, 1988
Mystic Pizza, William R. Moses, 1988
Ich & Er, Griffin Dunne, 1988
Malaventura, Miguel Molina, 1988
Dark Tower, Jenny Agutter, 1987
Le diable a quatre, Normand Chovinard, 1987
Oci ciornie, Marcello Mastroianni, 1987
Three Men and a Baby, Tom Selleck, 1987
The Belly of an Architect, Brian Dennehy, 1987
P.I. Private Investigations, Clayton Rohner, 1987
The Bedroom Window, Steve Guttenberg, 1987
Death Wish IV: The Crackdown, Charles
Bronson, 1987
That’s Life!, Jack Lemmon, 1986
The Money Pit, Tom Hanks, 1986
Separate Vacations, David Naughton, 1986
Hannah and Her Sisters, Sam Waterston, 1986
Una tenera follia, Saverio Vallone, 1986
Death Wish 3, Charles Bronson, 1985
Trois hommes et un couffin, Roland Giraud,
1985
The Holcroft Covenant, Michael Caine, 1985
Electric Dreams, Lenny von Dohlen, 1984
Falling in Love, Robert De Niro, 1984
La biblia en pasta, Fernando Salas, 1984
Les nuits de la pleine lune, Tchéky Karyo, 1984
Love Streams, Seymour Cassel, 1984
Brotherly Love, Judd Hirsh, 1984
The Goodbye People, Martin Balsam, 1984
Breathless, Valérie Kaprisky, 1983
La vie est un roman, Vittorio Gassman, 1983
Empfänger unbekannt, Umran Ertok, 1983
Mani di fata, Renato Pozzeto, 1983
Tempest, John Cassavetes, 1982
Pares y nones, Antonio Resines, 1982
Borotalco, Angelo Infanti, 1982
Pengene eller livet, Dick Kaysø, 1982
Death Wish II, Charles Bronson, 1982
A Dangerous Summer, Tom Skerrit, 1982
Heatwave, Richard Moir, 1982
Hanky Panky, Gene Wilder, 1982
Zeitgenossen, Wolfram Berger, 1982
E tu vivrai nel terrore – L’aldilà, Michele
Mirabella, 1981
Spaghetti a mezzanotte, Teo Teocoli, 1981
Improper Channels, Alan Arkin, 1981
Dziecinne pytania, Wojciech Alaborski, 1981
Loophole, Martin Sheen, 1981
Lola, Armin Mueller-Stahl, 1981
Ragtime, Norman Mailer, 1981
Unser kurzes leben, Simone Frost, 1981
L’Amour des Femmes, Jean-Marc Bory, 1981
Señora de nadie, Rodolfo Ranni, 1981
It’s My Turn, Charles Grodin, 1980
Falling in Love Again, Elliott Gould, 1980
Foolin’ Around, Gary Busey, 1980
Middle Age Crazy, Bruce Dern, 1980
The Towering Inferno, 1974.
LEFT The Last Kiss
Director: Tony Goldwyn
Lakeshore Entertainment, 2006
Michael (Zach Braff) and his boyhood
friend, Chris (Casey Affleck), work at
the same architecture firm. Both are
having doubts about their personal
relationships. Is it too late to start
making different choices?
RIGHT The Lake House
Director: Alejandro Agresti
Warner Bros. Pictures, 2006
Architect Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves)
lives in a glass house on a lake in Chicago designed by his architect father.
By means of a time-travelling mailbox,
Alex corresponds with Kate Forster
(Sandra Bullock), a lonely doctor who
lives in the same house – at some time in
the future.
Pelnia, Tomasz Zaliwski, 1979
Thirst, Rod Mullinar, 1979
The Promise, Stephen Collins 1979
La femme qui pleure, Jacques Doillon, 1979
La familia, bien, gracias, Carlos Piñar, 1979
Cosi como sei, Marcello Mastroianni, 1978
The Legacy, Katharine Ross, 1978
Die gläserne Zelle, Helmut Griem, 1978
L’amour en question, Michel Auclair, 1978
Vaya par de gemelos, José María Guillén, 1978
Grazie signora p…, Hiram Keller, 1977
Baseynat, Kosta Tsonev, 1977
¿Qué es el otoño?, Alfredo Alcon, 1977
Kinara, Shriram Lagoo, 1977
Death Game, Seymour Cassel, 1977
Salon Kitty, Bekim Fehmiu, 1976
Les magiciens, Franco Nero, 1976
Amici miei, Gastone Moschin, 1975
Hennessy, Hugh Moxey, 1975
Le chat et la souris, Jean-Pierre Aumont, 1975
Largo retorno, Mark Rubens, 1975
La donna della domenica, Claudio Gora, 1975
Antonio Gaudí, una visión interrumpida, Jose
Luis López Vázquez, 1974
Death Wish, Charles Bronson, 1974
Earthquake, Charlton Heston, 1974
The Towering Inferno, Paul Newman, 1974
HOLLYWOOD . USA
ArchitectS in FILM
127
128
MARK No 26
long section
MOVIES
HOLLYWOOD . USA
ArchitectS in FILM
129
Wer stirbt schon gerne unter Palmen?,
Thomas Hunter, 1974
Schwarzwaldfahrt aus Liebeskummer, Roy
Black, 1974
Don’t Look Now, Donald Sutherland, 1973
A Name for Evil, Robert Culp, 1973
Alfredo, Alfredo, Dustin Hoffman, 1972
Zee & Co., Michael Caine, 1972
1776, Ken Howard, 1972
La ragazza dalla pelle di luna, Ugo Pagliai,
1972
La controfigura, Jean Sorel, 1971
Reazione a catena, Chris Avram, 1971
7 fois… par jour, Jean Coutu, 1971
Get Carter, Ben Aris, John Hussey, 1971
L’istruttoria è chiusa: dimentichi, Franco
Nero, 1971
Les choses de la vie, Michel Piccoli, 1970
The Buttercup Chain, Sven Bertil Taube, 1970
L’invasion, Michel Piccoli, 1970
Ondata di calore, Jean Seberg, 1970
Las secretas intenciones, Jean Louis Trintignant, 1970
Rebel Rousers, Cameron Mitchell, 1970
Is it so démodé to
love architecture
more than people
these days?
The favourite fictional
architect of
Arthur Wortmann
(Managing editor of Mark magazine,
Amsterdam)
Although as an architect he is a bit of a caricature, Peter (Bjørn Floberg) is fortunate in the
film in which he appears. Musikk for bryllup og
begravelser (Music for Weddings and Funerals,
2002), by Norwegian director Unni Straume, is
without question one of the better films in the
list presented here. Furthermore, the catalyst
that sets the plot in motion is purely architectural
by nature: specifications for a stairway.
The main character in the film is Sara (Lena
Endre), a writer who lives in the austere, modernist villa designed by her ex-husband, Peter. She
is trying to get over her divorce and the loss of
her only child, who died after an accident in the
house. One evening the architect turns up, unannounced. He returns to the scene of the disaster
to pay penance for his hazardous design. A bit
too melodramatic? Perhaps. But at least the
film is about architecture and doesn't pull any
punches when it comes to the consequences it
can have for life.
resiliently interview at various firms. Unlike the
confident hunk of yore, this budding architect
is neither financially nor emotionally secure.
He’s no archetypal hero or lady magnet, but
he still gives architecture a good name. And,
come on, this is a recession film. The young
would-be architect should be unemployed. It’s
called ‘realism’. The kid’ll be fine. Most likely
he’ll grow up to be as unassuming and affable
as Adam – please meet Adam – the architect
played by Steve Martin in the December ’09
Meryl Streep film It’s Complicated. Adam courts
Jane (Meryl’s character) and even ends up on
her ‘I like you’ list. I guess that’s worthy of a
‘Things are looking up!’
Kind of.
At one point in Complicated, Adam is
referred to as a ‘nerd’. That about sums it up.
He’s the respectable, reliable and cordial yin to
Alec Baldwin’s offbeat, horny, Porsche-driving,
adulterous yang. (Baldwin plays Jake, Streep’s
‘dynamic’ ex, who also fawns over her.) Adam
is a nice guy, and – for a change – architecture
buoys that adjective, as opposed to drowning it
in shame and saturated fats. Adam’s attentive
to his clients, but he’s not a kiss ass; we’re to
assume he’s creative and smart. No suit. He’s
more of a cardigan with Converse kind of guy.
But let’s put it this way: he’s not going to be
saving anyone from a fire, okay?
Where does that bring us? To the hypothesis
that Hollywood has gone from depicting the
architect as a man you bring home to mom
(wink, wink) to a man you bring home to mom
– if she’s the one looking for a date. Don’t get
me wrong. She can be a cool mom. She can
be Meryl, but it still means that Hollywood’s
architects are no longer a source of adventure,
intellectual suspense or even drama. Rather,
they’re on call for the somewhat derogatory safe
and/or feel-good roles. Why?
Why is art (if all of the above can be
considered art) imitating architecture in this
way? Is it because the hero slots are presently
taken by comic-book and CG characters? Is
it part of a larger trend in how thinking men,
employed men or simply men are portrayed
in popular film? (I don’t mention leading-
Don’t Look Now, 1973.
En passion, Erland Josephson, 1969
Szemüvegesek, István Bujtor, 1969
Il padre di famiglia, Nino Manfredi, Leslie
Caron, 1969
L’invitata, Michel Piccoli, 1969
The Model Shop, Gary Loockwood, 1969
The Hand of Night, William Sylvester, 1968
Bebel, Garota Propaganda, Geraldo Del Rey,
1968
Les biches, Jean Louis Trintignant, 1968
L’harem, Carroll Baker, 1967
Two for the Road, Albert Finney, 1967
Návrat straceného syna, Jan Kacer, 1967
Play Time, Georges Faye, 1967
Tuset Street, Patrick Bachau, 1967
Yovita, Daniel Olbrychski, 1967
Lekarstwo na milosc, Kalina Jedrusik, 1966
The Gentle Rain, Christopher George, 1966
Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, Neil McCallum,
1965
La familia y ... uno más, Carlos Piñar, 1965
Här börjar äventyret, Matti Oravisto, 1965
Un amore, Rossano Brazzi, 1965
Desarraigo, Yolanda Farr, 1965
The Agony and the Ecstasy, Harry Andrews,
1965
Nicht Versöhnt Oder Es hilft nur Gewalt, wo
Gewalt herrscht, Heinrich Hargesheimer,
Ulrich Hopmann, Joachim Weiler, 1965
The Brass Bottle, Tony Randall, 1964
Dis diefthyntis, Jenny Karesi, 1964
House of the Damned, Ronald Foster, 1963
Nine Miles to Noon, Renato Baldini, 1963
Zwei Whisky und ein Sofa, Maria Schell, 1963
Le meurtrier, Maurice Ronet, 1963
Rome Adventure, Troy Donahue, 1962
Canción de juventud, Julio Sanjuán, 1962
Bon Voyage!, Michael Callan, 1962
El último verano, Arturo Fernández, 1961
Vamos a contar mentiras, Jose Luis López
Vázquez, 1961
The World of Suzie Wong, William Holden,
1960
L’avventura, Gabriele Ferzetti, 1960
Strangers When We Meet, Kirk Douglas, 1960
Az elsö esztendö, Frigyes Bárány, 1960
Hiroshima mon amour, Eiji Okada, 1959
Der Tiger von Eschnapur, Paul Hubschmid,
1959
Sapphire, Paul Massie, 1959
Beat Girl, David Farrar, 1959
Ten Seconds to Hell, Jack Palance, 1959
Scampolo, Paul Hubschmid, 1958
Los italianos están locos, Folco Lulli, 1958
Stefanie, Carlos Thompson, 1958
12 Angry Men, Henry Fonda, 1957
A farewell to Arms, Rock Hudson, 1957
Banka, Masayuki Mori, 1957
Bayou, Peter Graves, 1957
Spanish Affair, Richard Kiley, 1956
Life as a House
Director: Irwin Winkler
Winkler Films, 2001
George Monroe (Kevin Kline) works
at an architecture firm building
models. When he’s fired from his job,
he destroys everything he’s ever made
and walks out of the building, where
he collapses on the pavement. When he
wakes up in the hospital, he’s told that
he has only a few months to live. Together with his rebellious son (Hayden
Christensen) and his ex-wife (Kristin
Scott Thomas), George spends his last
summer fulfilling a longtime wish to
tear down his father’s house and replace it with a house of his own design.
lady architects owing to the relative lack of
them in Hollywood movies.) Certainly, that
aforementioned line-up of cowboys and war
heroes has changed with time to include more
complex characters – thank God – but shouldn’t
it follow that we can now pick more complex
architects from that assortment as well?
Which leads me to conclude, starving actor,
that in Hollywood’s current climate of subtle
antiarchitecturism you might consider getting
a different on-screen job or a different agent.
Otherwise you run the risk of finishing last –
as nice guys (especially anxious, heartbroken
nice guys with clogged arteries and no time for
cardio) so famously do.
I thought I ordered a Zoloft. «
130
MARK No 26
long section
MOVIES
The favourite fictional
architect of
Giorgio Scianca
(Founder of www.archiworld.tv, Turin)
Best actor? Brian Dennehy. Best film? The Belly
of an Architect. Best director? Peter Greenaway.
‘If I’m given a second life, I would like to be an
architect,’ Greenaway told me two years ago in
an interview. Every architect knows his 1987
movie. But my reason for picking this one is the
country in which it was produced: Great Britain.
Not Hollywood or Bollywood, but Pinewood.
English movies are the best when it comes to
understanding and interpreting the profession of
the architect.
My second choice – but the first when it
comes to recent movies – is Dirty Filthy Love
(Adrian Shergold, 2004), made for TV. Michael
Sheen is Mark. Mark has lost his job as an architect, his wife and his home. Why? Because of his
‘bad habits’. Mark suffers from OCD (obsessivecompulsive disorder). Only the architecture of
the spiral staircase calms him down.
In my final selection – another TV movie,
New Town (Annie Griffin, 2009) – Duff Purves
and Mikko Pekkala (played by Mark Gatiss and
Max Bremer) are two Edinburgh architects intent
on moving up in their profession. Opportunity
comes when a property developer asks them to
convert a landmark Georgian church, St Cuthbert’s, into a high-end retail unit. Made for the
BBC, this is a fantastic and humorous piece of
good fiction.
The Ten Commandments, Vincent Price, 1956
Le amiche, Franco Fabrizi, 1955
Ensayo de un crimen, Rodolfo Landa, 1955
Land of the Pharahos, James Robertson
Justice, 1955
The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, Ray Milland, 1955
Witness to Murder, Barbara Stanwyck, 1954
Pasaporte para un ángel, Otto Sirgo, 1954
A Life at Stake, Douglass Dumbrille, 1954
The Moon Is Blue, William Holden, 1953
Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach, Hardy Kruger,
1953
Carnaval, Fernandel, 1953
The Second Woman, Robert Young, 1950
The Miniver story, Walter Pidgeon, 1950
The White Tower, Glenn Ford, 1950
Le Trésor de Cantenac, Georges Spanelli, 1950
HOLLYWOOD . USA
ArchitectS in FILM
To the architect, the
camera adds not
pounds but a disposable
income, sex appeal and
killer props
L’avventura, 1960.
The Fountainhead, Gary Cooper, 1949
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Cary
Grant, 1949
Les dernières vacances, Jean Lara, 1948
The Velvet Touch, Leo Genn, 1948
Secret Beyond the Door, Michael Redgreave,
1948
Sleep, My Love, Don Ameche, 1948
Blondie’s Lucky Day, Angelyn Orr, 1946
Dead Of Night, Mervyn Johns, 1945
Objective, Burma!, Errol Flynn, 1945
Rozina sebranec, Ladislav Bohac, 1945
The Seventh Cross, George McReady, 1944
Seven Doors to Death, Chick Chandler, 1944
Castillo de naipes, Raúl Cancio, 1943
The Lamp Still Burns, Rosamund John, 1943
Mrs. Miniver, Walter Pidgeon, 1942
Andreas Schlüter, Heinrich George, 1942
El viaje, Roberto Airaldi, 1942
Now, Voyager, Paul Henreid, 1942
El hombre que se quiso matar, Manuel Arbó,
1942
Day-Time Wife, Warren William, 1939
Hard to Get, Dick Powell, 1938
Der Tiger von Eschnapur, Hans Stüwe, 1938
Just Around the Corner, Charles Farrell, 1938
The Lady Objects, Lanny Ross, 1938
Secrets of an Actress, George Brent, 1938
Dead End, Joel McCrea, 1937
As Good as Married, John Boles, 1937
Jennifer Hale, Paul Blake, 1937
Woman Chases Man, Miriam Hopkins, 1937
The Cardinal, A. Bromley Davenport, 1936
Dangerous, Franchot Tone, 1935
Peter Ibbetson, Gary Cooper, 1935
The Black Cat, Boris Karloff, 1934
All Men Are Enemies, Hugh Williams, 1934
Ann Carver’s Profession, Gene Raymond, 1933
A Farewell to Arms, Gary Cooper, 1932
The Guilty Generation, Robert Young, 1931
Half Marriage, Morgan Farley, 1929
Cocoanuts, Oscar Shaw, 1929
The Law and the Man, Robert Ellis, 1928
Traffic in Hearts, Robert Frazer, 1924
Das Weib des Pharao, Albert Basserman, 1921
Das indische Grabmal, Olaf Fönss, 1921
Appearances, David Powell, 1921
The Law of Men, Donald MacDonald, 1919
Sources
www.imdb.com
www.archiworld.tv
www.35milimetros.org
Movies made for TV or video are not included
in the list.
131
Breaking and Entering
Director: Anthony Minghella
Miramax Films, 2006
Will Francis (Jude Law) is partner at
Green Effect, an architecture firm
that is attempting to breathe new life
into a run-down neighbourhood in the
King’s Cross area of London. When the
company’s new offices are burgled
on several occasions, Francis is confronted with dramatic changes in his
private life as well.