A delicious array of architectural treats, offered in celebration of the RIBA's 175th year, looks at architects, architecture, cities and therefore me and you: the real, the imagined, the oblique, the dream and, sometimes, the nightmare.
Introduction by Joni Tyler
In film, architecture, and dreams, everything can happen; everything is possible and probable (to borrow from Strindberg's preface to A Dream Play). We can use the endless visual and metephorical possibilites available to us to record, invent or re-order the architecture of our inner life, or our external built environment. On the other hand, film has also documented and captured our collective built past, and communities, places, and ways of life lost forever.
The Western world's moviemaking capital itself becomes the star of both Model Shop and Los Angeles Plays Itself. Sunrise, Murnau's first Hollywood studio production, offers an expressionist take on the urban/rural schism.
Antonioni's training as an architect is fundamental to his vision in the Rome of L'eclisse.
The Tativille cityscape in Playtime has become the reality in hundreds of cities around the world. On separate continents, Guy Maddin (My Winnipeg) and Terence Davies (Of Time and the City) explore psycho-geographic memories, dreams and reflections.
The architect as the creator of his own destiny features in the fictional (The Fountainhead) the real (Sketches of Frank Gehry) and the metaphorical (Citizen Kane). As a counterpoint to these, the hapless Mr Simms in Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House helps turn dream into comedic nightmare for poor Cary Grant.
Finally, the Brasilian example of Curitiba, through an enlightened architect mayor, is an exemplar for our ambitions for sustainable communities.
At the end of the Royal Institute of British Architects' 175th year, these films will also help spur us into making tough decisions on what needs to happen next. Architecture, cities and citizens are facing great challenges: economic hardship, the need to combat climate change and the need to develop truly sustainable cities and neighbourhoods.
Architecture will always impact on and shape our lives and dreams. Through the collective consciousness that cinema makes possible, we can think about, celebrate, rue and plan our built past, built future, and built dreams.
November calendar (PDF)