Francois Penz & Maureen Thomas (eds).
Cinema and Architecture: Melies, Mallet-stevens, Multimedia
London: British Film Institute Publishing, 1997.
ISBN: 0-85170-578-2
212pp
AU $49.95
Uploaded 21 December 1998
The British film institute’s publication of Cinema and Architecture caught my eye, some time before I was asked to review it. As an architect, I have always been intrigued, if the truth be told, envious of the potential of cinema, its capacity to create and manipulate, if only momentarily, spatio-temporal relations without having to set them in stone. Both cinema and architecture rely upon the primacy of vision and the representation of ideas. In Australia in particular, images often provide our only access to architecture outside the realms of our own limited history and means. Both mediums also allow for an immersion into an other space and time, whether physically or psychically, whether existing or proposed or delightfully impossible.
Cinema and Architecture is the result of a symposium jointly organised by the Department of Architecture, Cambridge and the National film and television school, U.K., celebrating the centenary of cinema. The publication marks out a series of points, charted from varying perspectives, in the vast and nebulous terrain that both cinema and architecture occupy. Broken down into three sections, this collection of essays focuses on the city as subject or backdrop in a range of films. The first section, ‘Early images of the city’, reflects upon architecture and film as part of a larger project otherwise known as Modernism. The second section focuses on the relationship of filmmakers to cities, Scorsese, Allen, Antonioni and Tati, to name but a few, and the generative processes of film and architecture. The final section ‘The virtual city’ considers new technologies and their application in the creation of cinematic or real cities and information networks. Composed of papers from practitioners and academics alike, the result is a rather uneven publication and largely without any driving direction within, it must be said, the broadest of parameters. However despite these limitations, there are number of entries worth considering.
Helmut Weihsmann’s ‘The city in twilight: charting the genre of the ‘City film’ 1900 – 1930′ is of particular interest, focusing on the manifestations of Modernism in the city and the emergence of cinema, in a period dominated by the avant-garde. At this time the city embodied the very essence of modernity, a logical conclusion of the machine age and the period of enlightenment. The camera not only documented the city’s life-force, but generated and discovered visions of its own. Weihsmann offers an in depth critique of the city as the subject of a range of filmic genres and styles. Not content to simply analyse the films he also contends with how they inform, read and render their versions of the city.
‘The space between: photography, acrchitecture and the presence of absence’ by Ian Wiblin in the second section tentatively negotiates the menage a trois generated by the proximity of these disciplines. More descriptive than analytical, it peruses the topic through a series of visual associations, setting up an analogous relationship between built form and photography, exploring the portrayal and use of architectural space by various filmmakers, and concentrates in particular on the films of Michelangelo Antonioni.
Finally, the personal almost confessional tone of Zbig Rybczynski’s ‘Looking to the future – imagining the truth’ renders it as a distilled form of diary. Strangely didactic in parts, it records his personal journey from painter to photographer to filmmaker to digital technologist in his quest for the ultimate in visual expression.
The large number of stills and plates included in Cinema and Architecture provides one of its most intriguing aspects . At first glance the images are enigmatic, and the desire to locate them in the context of their films, to know their stories, to find out what happens, before and after, to satiate curiosity beyond the limited wistfulness that photography offers and the confines of the discussion dictate, is compelling. While many of the films discussed are shot in black and white, the lack of colour stills is disappointing, especially when the ability to feast on sumptuous colour is so often avoided or unrealised in the architectural project.
As the papers themselves vary in thematics and scopes of interest, the filmography represents the opportunity to ground the publication and provide the basis of a valuable resource. However on closer inspection, the inclusion of films such as Sam Pekinpah’s The Wild Bunch and the Coen Brothers Miller’s Crossing seem strangely out of place in terms of an architectural or at the very least, urban commentary. As such the filmography simply corresponds to the films discussed by the various participants, rather than acting as a well researched entity in itself. The inclusion of a rounded bibliography would have further augmented the publication’s existence as a quality resource.
The disparate approaches and interests contained in Cinema and Architecture make it a difficult book to locate. As such, it can only operate as a gateway to various points of departure in the study of the relationship between film and architecture, rather than existing as a cohesive study in itself. Disappointing as this is, it is hoped that the publication at least serves as a springboard for further discussion, research, and collaboration.
Peta Carlin