Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson

I just recently saw the new film, Moonrise Kingdom, and felt like it was a worthy movie worth reviewing and reading up on. Hence, I stumbled across this review by Brian Juergens and felt like I wanted to share his review because it was written so well….. I must say, that this is a must see movie. A great new Wes Anderson film, with a surreal sense of style and ambiance. As two starcrossed storybook lovers venture off hand in hand to escape the dull and drearly lives they lead on the small island of New Pensance, which leads to a man hunt full of comical humor and a sense of enlightenment through a tale of trying to escape from some of the basic impriosonments that the film portrays of the 1960’s. Wes Anderson adds a quirky and unique spin on a simple story that has turned into a delicately planned film full of common sense, misory, and a blunt sense of humor. Its as if instagram was developed from this film. Anyways…. read this review below and see that I have added in links to references throughout the post:

A mint-condition vintage rucksack packed to bursting with well-curated nostalgia, Wes Anderson‘s Moonrise Kingdom might be his most Wes Andersony film yet. A sidewalk chalk mural of Push-Up orange, lemonade yellow and verdant green, it might also be the summer’s most perfect summer movie. After all, scout camps, sailboats, and first love are just as good a summertime recipe as marshmallows, chocolate bars, and graham crackers.

Moonrise Kingdom is a kooky and surprisingly heartfelt pleasure. Anderson’s proudly odd and slyly affecting bedtime story about two unhappy, mismatched children who devise an elaborate long-distance plot to run away from home reads like the stuff of the most wonderfully twisted children’s tales. And like many of those tales, Kingdom has a way of distracting you with its elaborate compositions and inspired design so that it can sneak behind you to yank at the rug beneath your feet. Sure – like all of Anderson’s films, the movie looks great, it’s peppered with beloved and familiar faces, and it celebrates the twee, the outcast, and the beautifully broken. But unlike some of his gorgeous-but-tedious previous efforts, underneath Kingdom’s impossibly thick sailing sweater lies a very real and beating heart.

Moonrise‘s simple story is this: Sam (Jared Gilman), a young, bespectacled orphan, goes AWOL from Camp Ivanhoe in the summer of 1965 to run away with his first love, the moody Suzy (Kara Hayward). Suzy lives in a storybook house at the opposite end of the island populated with adorable moppet siblings who spend rainy days listening to Benjamin Britten and ignoring their parents, married attorneys Walt (Bill Murray) and Laura (Frances McDormand) Bishop.

When Sam’s troop leader, Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton, in rare nice-guy mode), discovers that Sam has gone missing, he and the remaining troops put their patch-proven skills to work in order to track him down. Over at the Bishop house, mom and pop enlist the help of sad-sack cop Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis) to find their daughter. As the lovers-on-the-run make their way towards their rendezvous, a parka-swathed narrator (Bob Balaban) warns us that a major storm is coming that could wipe out the entire island.

Once Sam and Suzy find one another, the film’s central coming-of-age story kicks in, with lots of awkward politeness and clumsy attempts at romance tucked into the ravishingly beautiful inlet that the kids decide to call their new home. Much of the charm of this part of the tale comes from the fact that the kids are awkward adults trapped in tiny bodies – they listen to French pop music, speak in stilted, formal cadences and read aloud to one another like dowager aunts.

It’s kind of like The Blue Lagoon as retold by a middle school 4H club.

On the flipside of these children who act like adults are the actual adults, who act like children. Temper tantrums (including one hilariously tossed shoe), passive aggression, and finger-pointing are the name of the game until an ominous call from Social Services (that’s the character’s name as well as her title, for all we know) indicates that the awkward and rather hapless Sam may be sent to a juvenile facility once he’s found. The fact that the film’s true villain is played by the luminous Tilda Swinton in a spectacularly unflattering royal blue skirt suit and not one, but TWO wigs, makes it all the more delicious.

And all the while, the unexpected storm brews, both off the coast and between the adults as they try to locate their kids. I’ve heard lots of viewers going on about the star-crossed tween lovers in Kingdom, which is fine – they’re cute, in a fetal hipster kind of way. But for me the real story at the heart of Kingdom is that of the parents. I can’t speak too much about it without stealing the film’s wonderfully bittersweet core, but for me, in the end the adults stole the show. Willis, in particular, is wonderfully guileless as the island’s well-meaning, lovesick authority figure, and any Frances McDormand is good Frances McDormand, as far as I’m concerned.

Also on proud display is Anderson’s uncanny knack for creating striking and uniquely Andersonian imagery. It’s evident how much care went into the designs for each raccoon patch, utility knife, canoe, and invented storybook that pepper the film like so many long-forgotten treasures. Anderson can manufacture nostalgia like no other filmmaker can – and while everything in Kingdom is a fabrication, it has the tug of actual memory. I could see how some viewers might not go for his mechanically precise camera movements and shots framed with impossible symmetry, but it’s hard to argue the fanatical care with which he composes his images.

Here he curates his vision with unbridled enthusiasm, handling the film almost more as one would an animated movie – in fact, you can catch glimpses of his last film, The Fantastic Mr. Fox all over the place, from the posture of Suzy the first time we see her (shoulders hunched and head cocked ever so slightly, her chin the mirror of a fox’s pointed muzzle) to the film’s centerpiece, a gloriously crafted production of Britten’s “Noye’s Fludd” opera for children, which overflows with cleverly composed animal costumes and hand-hewn stagecraft.

I’m a devoted fan of Anderson’s first film, Rushmore (and was happy to see Jason Schwartzman appear in Kingdom as the rather fey senior member of another troop), but haven’t been terribly impressed by anything he has done since. Kingdom is the first film where I feel he completely embraces his talents as a visual artist while also managing to spin an entertaining and emotionally resonant yarn. It’s a clever little film, a beautiful work of art, and a touching tale that will stay with you long after the brilliant closing credits (stay and listen – they’re marvelous). While summer at the moviehouse these days means spectacle and supepowers, I think Kingdom might be the season’s quiet, bespectacled hero.

reference:
http://www.afterelton.com/content/2012/07/review-moonrise-kingdom?page=1%2C0

 

the INTERNATIONAL

Cameron and I chose the film, the international as our last movie to watch a critique. We chose it because we had heard that ‘architecture’ was said to act as a character in the film.  Directed by Tom Tykwer in 2009 this movie takes place in 4 prominent cities. Berlin, New York, Milan and Istanbul. The film tells the story of two Interpol agents and how they work together against one of the most powerful banks in the world, the IBBC [Int.  The movie begins in Berlin which is the location of the IBBC headquarters.  This high and mighty banking company is always portrayed through clean, crisp and very modern architecture.  Straight lines, monotone environments and buildings so so large in scale.  The Hauptbanhof Central Station Berlin, the Federal Police Dept. of Berlin, The Sony Sky Garden, the Galaries Lafayette [Berlin], VW Autostat [Wolfsburg] and several other buildings stage the environments in which the IBBC runs it business through.  As the agents begin to diminish the power of the IBBC, the location and environments change. For example, in the huge important fight scene which takes place in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum  in New York, the two different parties meet and as this building starts out as super modern and elegant, it becomes completely destroyed.  Another place where the IBBC is diminished in the film is when one of the head leaders is questioned and ambushed by the Interpol members the meeting takes place in a dark and dirty basement of a highrise building. This is a metaphor portrayed through place that as the bank is going under. The story wraps up in Istanbul, which a completely different setting.  Here the characters are seen in a chase through the Grand Brazar which is full of chaos, color and excitement.  In the end the leaders of the IBBC are brought down to their death, however the plot is somewhat left hanging in the fact that someone else will just take over the company.  This language is shown at Zaha Hadid’s Phaeno Science Centre [Wolfsburg] which is superimposed on the shores of Lake Garda.  As a concrete structure this building shows the strength of the IBBC and how powerful it is in the world of ‘The International’. Overall this movie is a worthwhile film and the architecture in it is amazing.  The camera shots and how the use of architecture as a character in the film definitely added to the excitement of the film.

Other recongnizable buildings seen in the film are: Treptower in Berlin, Daneil Liebsking’s Jewish Museum, Milan Centrale Station, Pirelli Tower in Milan, The Sultan Ahmend [Blue] Mosque, the Bosphorus, Basilica Cistern and the Suleymaniye.

week 14_ Media and McLuhans Reel World

“In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium – that is, of any extension of ourselves – result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.” (McLuhan 7)

In the reading, Chapter One: The Medium is the Message, and Chapter twenty-nine: Movies: The Reel World,  M. MuLuhan reveals his thoughts on how the role of media effects our lives.  McuLuhan begins by distinguishing this idea that uses “light” as a representation of media.  The light bulb clearly demonstrates this concept in that the medium affects the society in which it plays a role not by the content delivered over the medium, but by the characteristics of the medium itself. The light bulb is described as having no content, yet this “light” can expose itself in several different mediums. This idea of light as the metaphor can be looked at in different levels. First, as MuLuhan describes; second, through a deeper meaning.  Light can also be translated into knowledge.  Knowledge definitely relates back to what the chapter is saying.

The term “message” from MuLuhan denotes the effect each medium has on the human sensorium by taking note of the “effects” of numerous forms of mediums presented.  This idea that the “message” being unimportant to its viewers it a bit frightening and the level of control the head of the media industries could affect our very thoughts and actions.  This makes me think more on how the media can change our views and have different effects on people.  Media seems to be a play on us all.

By playing on words and utilizing the term “massage,” McLuhan suggests that modern audiences have found current media to be soothing, enjoyable, and relaxing; however, the pleasure we find in new media is deceiving, as the changes between society and technology are incongruent and are perpetuating an Age of Anxiety.

All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered. (p. 21)

That is another way of getting a view of the film medium as a monster as for consumer goods.  In America this major aspect of film is merely subliminal.

The 2001 movie Josie and the Pussycats described a long lasting plot whereby the U.S. government was controlling trends by inserting subliminal messages in popular music. Furthermore, towards the end of the film, a government agent shuts down the operation, saying that subliminal advertising works better in films. The words “Josie and the Pussycats is the best movie ever” are then spoken rapidly in voice-over and displayed quickly on screen, with the words “Join the Army” in smaller letters below it.

In the 2005 science fiction movie Serenity, the Alliance uses subliminal messages broadly disseminated in commercials and other video to cause River Tam to go berserk. It only works on River because she was subjected to Alliance training and conditioning.

Perhaps it is true that as we perceive the media, we are absorbing the message presented, but it is all depends on what level of knowledge we are at on the topic.  The more knowledgeable about a subject presented we are, the stronger the “light” needs to be to get past our minds and break the barrier of deception and trickery. “Only the hand that erases can write the true thing,” McLuhan quotes Meister Eckhardt as saying. McLuhan erases preconceptions of media being relatively insignificant, and demonstrates how the media affect the way each of us sees the world in which we live.

McLuhan, M. (1994). “Chapter One: The Medium is the Message, and Chapter Twenty-Nine: Movies: The Reel World.’ In Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Cambridge, Mass.: New York.

Week 13_The City in Film

Film makers have quite a powerful tool with the use of how they portray a city or place in a film.  Images that I have seen in the movies and in real life can be totally different.  Films have the ability to twist the truth and depict a city how the director wants. Or even push the image of a city further by montaging shots, scenes and clips together all to come up with the perfect shot, in the perfect setting. This may lead a traveler to have certain expectation about a city.  Director T. Andersen’ s L.A. Plays Itself discusses the role of LA as a setting in film. I really liked learning about the the history of Los Angeles interpreted and documented through the history of the film industry through a locals perspective. Film and the media industries have formed the city of Los Angeles, or lack of.  LA is hard to identify and distinguish with because of this. It is unlike New York, Seattle or Paris, which all have distinct qualities to them that builds up the character of each place in the film. I think there are both good and bad points in the fact that film can distort the identity of a city. Movies can make the most of travel destinations and encourage people to want to visit, it is just unfortunate how personal experiences once we are in that city can totally change.

LA Plays Itself (2003) Dir. T Andersen
Bruno, G. (2002) “Chapter One: Site seeing: The city and film noir” In Atlas of Emotions: Journeys in art, architecture and film. 15-54.
Mennel, B (2008). “Chapter Six: Utopia and dystopia: Fantastic and virutal cities.” Cities and Cinema. 46-60.

Week 12_Flims About Architects

The way that the media portrays people in their jobs isn’t always correct it seems. There are always things about that character and the way they go about their profession that film in particular doesn’t always do a good job in showing. I guess that filmmakers and writers make just being stereotypical; as is the same for architects and their profession.  Architects use to be seen and portrayed more as a sophisticated character type in society but now they are just seen as ordinary people.  The architects portrayed in the movies always seems to be standing over a drafting table with a t-square, which is not the case at all nowadays. Architects are most commonly seen with their eyes glued to their computer screens while sipping coffee. This makes me wonder if the perception of the word architect hasn’t really evolved as the reality of it has.

Nancy Levinson wrote in her article Tall Buildings, Tall Tales, “anyone who spends time in the field can easily observe that architecture possesses that ill-defined and diaphanous quality known as “social cachet” which makes people assume that architecture is an “interesting” thing to do and architects interesting people to know…” (Levinson, 26)  Then I just have to ask myself, do I actually know what an architect does? I am sure that the transition between architecture school and being a real world architect are pretty different worlds in themselves, as I have been told. I believe that architecture school is only a small part to learning the profession.

The fictional movies about architects have a skewed and unrealistic picture about how the profession actually functions and how it can serve the public. In Citizen Architect, Samuel “Sambo” Mockbee was a man of great skill, but still his architectural firm was portrayed as unsuccessful. For Mockbee, the measure of success was not counted by how much money he made or how many monumental buildings he had designed, but in reaching out to others.  In the Fountainhead we discover one man’s process of transforming an initial sketch into a monumental and worthy structure. I like this film, as it brings up the question of architecture as an art form.

I wonder, if architecture is such a great support to film and “movies have always best reflected the dream life of architects, and the nervous characterizations of recent years mirror the unease that now accompanies the designing life” (47), is there something missing in architecture. If movies can amaze the general public, shouldn’t architecture too? My professor, Jack Smith, always is talking about the three levels of architecture, which can also be associated with comfort as well. The physical, intellectual [reason] and the spiritual. Good architecture has the capabilities to relinquish its poetics, which is most difficult, but can touch us ‘spiritually’ and emotionally. I feel as if through movie pictures and cinematography it is much easily in a way to control these emotions, but when the film directors are able to reach such capacity a great film is produced.

References:
My Architect (2003). dir N Kahn
Sketches of Frank Gehry (2005) dir. S Pollock
Citizen Architect (2010) dir. Sam Douglas
Levinson, Nancy. (2000). “Tall Buildings, Tall Tales: On Architects in the Movies.” In Architecture and Film, ed. Lamster, M. Princeton Architectural Press: New York. 11-48.

On a side note, here is a link to a site that lists out fictional architects in the movies: http://www.archdaily.com/33366/fictional-architects-in-movies/

week 11_ Blade Runner’s Architectural Legacy

In Blade Runner, the visions of the future are represented in decay and loss as the result of postmodernism.  It takes place in the future in Los Angeles that looks very much like New York, Hong Kong, or Tokyo. An instance in film where the image of the city has been transformed and the portrayal of place becomes difficult to distinguish exactly where it is actually set.

The world of Blade Runner lacks defining characteristics or history.  The replicants are all in search of a history and the idea of remembrance. “Those aren’t your memories, they’re somebody else’s. Thus the possibilities of our current situation as heightened in Blade Runner urges us to closely consider our present day mechanism of identity construction, how corporate-driven media continues to construct them, and how, or if, architecture engages with this process.” (Fortin p. 104)  A primary part of our history is only documented through what larger media corporations decide to document and save.  This just adds to the fact that media is driving the world and is much more powerful than we know.  This production of history defeats the understanding of place and time.  This relates to the ‘replicants’ in that they have no inherent history but created, implanted history.

“The loss of history enacts a desire for historicity, an (impossible) return to it.  Postmodernism, particularly in art and architecture, proclaim such a return to history as one of its goals. It is, however, the instanctiation of a new form of historicity.  It is an eclectic one, a historical pastiche.  Pastiche is ultimately a redemption of history, which implies the transformation and reinterpretation in tension between loss and desire.   It retraces history, deconstructing its order, uniqueness, specificity, and diachrony.”  (Bruno p. 74)

Benjamin, Andrew. At Home with Replicants: The Architecture of Blade Runner.
Bruno, Giuliana. Ramble City: Postmodernism and “Blade Runner.” MIT Press 1987.
Fortin, David. Architecture and Science-Fiction Film: Phillip K. Dick and the Spectacle of Home. Ashgate Publishing Company 2011.

Week 10_Behind the screen w/ Bill Rea_ art director

Bill Rea, a former Art Director, but current professor of architecture spoke to the class about the world of movie making and its relation to architecture. He spoke about the ‘best job in the world’ that yet he wouldn’t go back to. I thought it was somewhat inspiring to know that over 80% of film and art directors have an architecture background, and that all the skills and things we are learning in school set us up to be very good set designers and to work in the film industry. Bill had worked on a number of feature films such as True Lies, Titanic, Ali and several others, some he pointed out seemed somewhat of an embarrassment, but others that he was very proud of or really enjoyed working on. He was subtle about it, but was honest in the fact that more of the world has seen his work than the great works of some of the most famous architects. We watched the first seven scenes of the movie. Bill broke down the scenes, showing us how they composed each scene. In the opening 30 second shot, it was amazing to know the amount of meshing and word that was put into developing that single shot. It was composed of a chateau in Rhode island, Lake Tahoe with a build in dock that was filmed in a studio and the Swiss Alps. It was also interesting to hear about how everything in a shot has to be designed and approved by the director, from invitations to clipboards. The level of detail probably exceeds that of architecture and beyond that a film requires sets be built to work with camera angles. The presentation was extremely interesting because it allowed for an understanding of film that we couldn’t have learned from anyone else. Bill wrapped making sure that we are aware of the time an sacrifice that is put into working in the film industry and if we were ever thinking of pursuing that route to consult with him first. I have an uncle that works in film down in LA and is trying to get me down there to work on films, so with the enthusiasm that Bill had about his world and how is passion for film still stands out, it makes me want to someday explore the possibilities of what my imagination could bring down to LA and the world of film.

Week 9_Montage and Architecture

What does montage have to do with architecture? Is it not the technique used in cinema to piece a film together, or in photography to combine different images within a single frame? Architecture, we know, consists of assembling materials and elements; but does it involve any type of visual or spatial montage? As Anthony Vidler put it succinctly, “for Eisenstein, architecture itself embodies the principles of montage.”

Eisenstein was a pionee in the use of montage, a technique of film editing.  He argued that montage was the essence of the cinema and he continued to reiterate that is his writings and films.  He believed that editng could be used for more than just expounding a scene or moment, through a ‘linkage’ of related images.  He developed what he called “methods of montage”:

1. Metric
2. Rhythmic
3. Tonal
4. Overtonal
5. Intellectual

In Yve-Alain Bois’ book on montage and architecture he focuses on the famous editor, Eisenstein.  Eisenstein is trying to get us to understand the critical potential of montage as a space of dialectic imagination that unites architecture with other disciplines and media.  He focus on these art forms and particularly cinema.  Eisenstein states that ‘cinema is: so many corporations. Such and such turnovers, of capital, so and so many stars, such and such dreams’.

Architect is simply montage at a complex state.  Bringing together materials, developing creative spaces and evoking emotions are all difficult problems to solve.  By coordinating elements such as comfort, structure and light an architect has the tools of montaging together a good building.  I think this idea of montage when applied to architecture can be reviewed on a number of scales.  It can be focused toward the different levels of comfort; physical, intellectual and spiritual.  All which are in a hierarchal order, but when composed together have the abilities to create a great space.  Another scale in which to look at montage in architecture could be through materiality.  Frank Lloyd Wright for example focused on primarily raw materials.  Stone, wood and the sand and clay that binds them together.  The location and practicality are what drove these materially choices, but then however turn out to be wonderful elements when montaged together in their natural surroundings.

Yves-Alain Bois proposed that Eisenstein’s ‘strategy of the double movement’ was based on the notion of cinematism, that is, “a new category … that would enable him to disclose a fundamental level of articulation in images, unspecific to any medium in particular and independent of the ‘substance of expression’.”(Bois 112-113). This concept is crucial for understanding Eisenstein’s wide-ranging interest in the visual arts and architecture—which he focused on, as it were, through the camera lens. Bois also noticed that Choisy already suggested a mode of ‘peripatetic vision’ and, accordingly, anticipated a cinematic perception of architecture:

Choisy was the first to … attempt to retrace in its slightest details the aesthetic motivation of the apparent disorder in the placement of buildings on the Acropolis and to link it precisely to the variable point of view of a mobile spectator (Bois 114).

In the understanding our cinema helps to understand all the other arts and their methods, one can realize how important the visual experience is.  Seeing is believing one may say with this concept, and this is in fact where the idea of montage comes into act.  Montage is the art or process of composing pictures by the superimposition or juxtaposition of miscellaneous elements, such as other pictures or photographs.  By exploring the range of cultural practices, which have incorporated techniques of montage over the last century, we can begin to understand how the two work hand in hand.

Anthony Vidler, Warped Space: art, architecture, and anxiety in modern culture, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001, p. 119.

Bois, Yves-Alain. “Introduction” to Eisenstein’s “Montage and Architecture,”Assemblage, 10 (1989): pp. 110-131.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13264820701553096#tabModule

Week 8_Midterm Paper_the things we miss

“Fast vs slow.
What do I know about moving fast?
It has negative connotations for me, and for a lot of other people.
My aversion to working fast is so much about an aversion to being rushed, being behind, being overburdened.
Slowing down seems like the right thing to do, as in, the right answer.
There’s the idea that our lives move too fast for us to enjoy our work, our play, our relationships” (Maryann Devine)

Strangely, a nihilist once said: “our greatest strength is our greatest weakness”.  To me this means don’t be a victim of your own success.  From a design point of view this means to not dwell on your process too much, but to focus on the outcome and finished results.  This philosophy was originally applied to population issues, though the comment can be directed at the abstract thought capability of our “higher intelligence”. The better we get at reproducing and surviving, the more screwed we are globally, as an over populating species.

Our lives are dominated by a search for that illusive and fleeting emotion or state known as happiness. Post-modernism and the American Dream in combination have helped destroy a part of this search for happiness.  What was perceived a pursuit of happiness in actuality has lead to more problems than successes from a longtime view point.  Media has aided this ‘dream’.  Marketing, publicity, commercialism, radio and film have all pushed forward this concept.  In film, movies like Avalon, An American Tail, America’s Heart and Soul, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Pleasantville and Rocky all celebrate the American Dream and the notion to world in which we live is focused around time and efficiency.

As time continues on, this phenomenon will eventually spiral out of control.  The scary thing is it already has begun to unwind.  The problems facing society today spurred from years and years ago, but now finally is when people are starting to come to reality with the fact.  The problems we face now a days are overpopulation, pollution, global warming and many more. [And from my own personal view, I think the meaning of ‘architect’ has changed and is desperately calling for new up and coming architects to redesign how we live… but that is a whole separate essay].

The film I chose to try and take on to create began from my studio project.  The project began with the focus of the idea of Aerotropolis, which focuses on travel and life surrounding the airport.  This a city or an economic hub that extends out from a large airport into a surrounding area that consists mostly of distribution centers, office buildings, light manufacturing firms, convention centers, and hotels, all linked to the airport via roads, expressways, and rail lines. A good example is FedEx and Memphis, one would not exist without one another.

You may wonder what is the problem here.  Design, humanity, and reality have become forgotten.  Aerotropolis focuses itself on the economy, money and capitalism.  Besides the scale of profit, airports and plane travel have destroyed the art of travel.  The humanitarian and poetic aspects have been thrown out the window.

Train travel is a lost art. Train travel offers a window to a world that is usually not seen by the everyday traveler.  Trains once stretched across the country, people come and go, and are able to enjoy the sensory of their journey.  You actually get to set foot in the country.  You can miss your train and still get the next one – meaning you are not a prisoner of circumstance and can explore a little if you so wish.  It slows down the rush and commotion that passes us by when traveling in a car or plane.  This is where the premise of my film comes into play.  It will focus on the separation of speeds [with a focus on architecture] of fast and slow.  There are so many things around us that go fast and orient themselves around a strict schedule, that we miss the details in life.  Details are what make things worthwhile.  Through my film I will try and visually portray the differences of the two and how the slower, easy pace should not be forgotten.

My film will focus on the separation of fast and slow while maintaining the principal theme of architecture.  Depicting these ideas will be most useful in the process of making my film.  Theme music, the speed of the takes and the angle of the camera are what will digitally help enhance this idea, the things we miss in the fast life. Which will sustain my idea of my studio project and why we should focus on train travel while not highlighting the airport and the evil of aerotropolis it can create.

First, I have begun to break down shots and instances in and around Bozeman that will help deteriorate the fast pace society in which we live.  Here is a list of things that can help this idea: buying cell phones, traffic jams, drinking/making coffee, media, shopping malls/checkout lines, suburban housing, ambulance, checkerboard [dullness/repetition/square], and computers.  There are experiences that emotions that can be evoked from the idea of fast and the rush of these things; panic, pressure, and the fear of failure.  Also, since this is a film AND architecture class I will hopefully be able show forms of architecture that can be choreographed into this film.

Next, is highlighting the elegant things in life that people tend to miss when they are on the fast pace track.  This second part of my film will make the point clear and hopefully showcase the beauty in life and things that we may take for granted.  Like: falling leaves, reading, walking, lighting, scenery/landscape, family and more.  These things may not directly depict architecture, but have direct links into the design and art world.  They are the things in architecture which making the poetry of design unique and inventive.  To properly film these things I hope to aim for candid shots with angles, movement within the take, in hoping to capture the essence for focusing on the details.  The overall scheme of this movie will then the end will point out the little things in life and hopefully create a sensation amongst its viewers that will want to make them relax, take a hike, travel on a train and allow them to think about the things they may be missing.  All of these ideas and sensations can be linked to train travel and the experiences that train travel can reveal.  And in turn, can perhaps use my project as a final wrap up to the entire idea.  The speed of the train shows freedom, power, and choice; all emotions that we might miss, unfortunately, in the chaos of life.

Works Cited

 Devine, Maryann. Fast vs. Slow.  Smarts and Culture. http://smartsandculture.com/blog/2011/september/fast-vs-slow 14 October 2011.

Rasmussen, Kris. Top Five Movies That Depcit the American Dream.  BeliefNet. June 30, 2008. http://blog.beliefnet.com/idolchatter/2008/06/top-five-movies-that-celeratet.html 14 October 2011.

Week 7_ Poetry, Film Architecture

Pallasmaa was an architect that I studied closely when traveling Europe and got to go to several of his buildings.  The Kamppi Centre in Helsinki Finland is the most memorable.

Juhani Pallasmaa is one of Finland’s most distinguished architects and architectural theorists.  He also has several published works, one in specific, The Architecture of Image where he analyses and describes the techniques used in the film making process.  His expertise of his theoretical and design practice which includes architecture, graphic design, urban planning and exhibitions he places a consistent emphasis on the importance of identity, sensorial experience and tactility of architecture/image to film.

The Architecture of Image opens up an unexplored territory of architectural expression, while simultaneously revealing the essential role of architectural image of cinematic expression. The third chapter of Pallasmaa’s work showcases the 1983 Nostalhia by Andrei Tarkovsky while he explores the shared experiential ground of architecture and cinema through the notion of existential space.

“This is another haunting film by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky–his first made outside of the Soviet Union. Like all of his films, Nostalghia has a mystical quality, as it follows the spiritual journey of a poet on a research mission in Italy. While traveling with his beautiful Italian interpreter in a Tuscan village, the poet suddenly becomes transfixed by memories of Russia and his family. A local mystic helps him see the right path in his life. Once again, Tarkovsky’s imagery is gorgeous, and the narrative insightful. The past and the present collide in existential angst. Truly a cinematic feast for those interested in exploring life’s deepest concerns.” –Bill Desowitz

Much variety comes with each director’s unique way of telling a story, their formal qualities, techniques, lighting, settings, and other inherent film variables.  Pallasmaa emphasizes on the shared qualities of architecture and film, and, as an architect, what the former can learn from the latter towards an increased quality of our being-in-the-world.

This chapter weaves architectural and cinematic experiences with images of paintings, literary descriptions as well as philosophical views in this fascinating area of contemporary theory.  Pallasmaa states, “poetry is an awareness of the world… when I speak of poetry I am not thinking of it as a genre (p. 68).”

Pallasmaa’s streams of simple and memorable ideas will repeatedly stimulate memories of other films, and it is entirely to his credit that one is often provoked into questioning his assumptions.  This idea of memories and symbolism is enforced through screen shots of water, fire, earth, wind, fog, trees, horses, dogs and mirrors.  To Tarkovsky these are all iconic symbols that can be derived from concepts of religion and beliefs.

[This makes me wonder what ‘iconic’ images and screen I can show to help enforce the concept and idea I will be trying to portray in my short film for class]

Through analysis of the film Nostalghia by Andrei Tarkovsky, the writer illuminates the directors’ use of architectural imagery in evoking and maintaining specific mental states. Whereas the actually built architecture of today tends to confine emotional response to the realm of utilitarian rationality, the writer suggests that the architectural imagery of poets, painters and film directors could revisit how the architectural profession to the inherent poetics of architecture.