Art Journal

ISSN: 0004-3249 (Print) 2325-5307 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcaj20

Films on Architecture

Sally A. Chappell

To cite this article: Sally A. Chappell (1973) Films on Architecture, Art Journal, 32:3, 301-304

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00043249.1973.10793130

Published online: 16 Oct 2014.

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Download by: [University of Sussex Library] Date: 11 May 2016, At: 15:52

Films on Architecture
Sally A. Chappell
Recent collaborations between art his-
torians and film makers in the production
of films on art has opened the field of art
history and its teaching to innovative new
dimensions.
Several questions come to mind at once.
What can the film do that books, slides,
and the lecture cannot do? Can a film
supplement these traditional vehicles in a
meaningful way? Can it become a me-
dium that not only supplements standard
teaching methods, but transcends them,
leading to wholly new understanding? Is
it possible that the cinema will affect our
perceptions in the way that Andre Mal-
raux claims the photograph did? The an-
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 15:52 11 May 2016
swers are yes to all of the questions, if
the film is a good one.
The use of slides for reproducing paint-
ing and the graphic arts to accompany
lectures is time-honored and adequate for
most purposes, but the frustrations in-
volved in dealing with architecture and
sculpture in these ways are manifold. The
choppy use of front view, side view, back
view, interior and exterior angles, et cet-
era, often reduces the original experience
so woefully that conscientious professors
more often than not overweight the sylla-
bus of any art survey with the history of
painting.
Short of a field trip, the film offers pos-
sibilities worth exploring further. This ar-
ticle will deal with films on architecture,
(I shall discuss films on sculpture in the
next issue). After some remarks on the
cinematic treatment of architecture in
general I will add some capsule reviews of
some of the better films on architecture
that have come to my attention.
But on the whole, let it be said at the
outset that the cinematic opportunities in
the field have been victims of a kind of
commercial strip-mining, and only a few
explore the subject with an appropriate
sensitivity to the art form backed up by
solid research.
No film that I have seen, for example,
has captured that joy in architecture that
is the experience of the powerful effect of
different masses and shapes at varying dis-
tances, yet this aspect of viewing architec-
ture seems to demand the slow changes of
scale, experienced in space and time that
only the cinema can simulate.
From five miles away Mont St. Michel
is a powerful silhouette, rising out of the
water, reaching toward the skies. Once on
the estuary the silhouette is gone, but the
separation of town and tower delights the
eye with its complex interplay, and later,
near on, this is replaced by an intricate
fabric of walls, buttresses, windows and
spires. Close-up, of course, the details be-
coming teIling-the sculpture and the
glass. But the experience is a gradual one,
it has grown in us with each step forward.
The experience of scale, to name just one,
deserves an uninterrupted, flowing visual
account.
Reading Heath Licklider (Architec-
tural Scale, Braziller, New York, 1966, pp.
120-22) on the experience of seeing a
Frank Lloyd Wright house is akin to
reading the directions to the cinematogra-
pher by a sensitive film director. The
following paragraph is an example.
"At a distance they [Wright's houses]
look quite large, and this impression is
reinforced by a great feeling of bigness.
As you approach them, they diminish
somewhat; and standing before the en-
trance door you find that the eaves and
the door above you are quite low and
very small in size, as measured by the
bricks, boards, and your own eye
height. I suspect that this small scale is
often the consequence of a kind of
greediness on the part of the designer:
the desire to crowd many architectural
elements into a small building. But as a
plan of approach, the sequence can be
gently disarming. The deflation of pre-
tentions to size contributes to the un-
mistakably domestic character of the
house, which 'softens up' as you walk
towards it."
The dynamism of the changes in scale
at Mont St. Michel and at Falling Water,
are different, of course, but the point is
that such sequences cannot be conveyed
or appreciated by fast changes of slides,
even if enough were readily available.
But to talk about the potential of the
cinematic treatment of architectural scale
is just to scratch the surface of the possi-
bilities of this medium. Some other appro-
priate subjects that come to mind include
the changing patterns of lights and shad-
ows, such moving elements as the exposed
elevators in the Chicago Regency-Hyatt
House, or the dripping icicles in Taliesin
at Spring Green. The superimposition of
drawings of groundplans, elevations and
cross-sections on the actual buildings
make history lucid and technology more
understandable when presented in chro-
nological sequence. Subtitles keep dates
and other information steadily in view.
The split-screen is a logical device for
comparisons. The use of appropriate mu-
sic is an enriching overtone, and if the in-
structor has more to say than the narrator
he can always turn the volume down and
talk above the soundtrack. These possibil-
ities are mentioned merely to indicate
some of the ways in which film can give
architecture a more meaningful viewing
in the average college classroom.
Many of the techniques I have sug-
gested have already been used, of course,
and some of the best examples are re-
viewed below. More will be mentioned as
tirne and space permit in later issues.
A is for architecture (National Film
Board of Canada) Animated, color, 30
minutes. Sound. 16 mm.
An illustrated history that evokes the
aesthetic feelings appropriate to the
spirit of the building. In Egypt, for ex-
ample, it is the reaction to that long,
slow walk down the avenue of the
Sphinxes, through the courtyards and
the halls that is symbolic of Everyman's
journey to the other world. The rest of
the film is devoted to selected monu-
ments appropriate both to the symbolic
content and the historical importance
of the work. There are limitations to
animated films, especially in architec-
ture, and this one is marred by some er-
rors in scholarship, but the other merits
of the film redeem it. It succeeds partly
because it pays more attention to over-
all effects than to details. Most impor-
tant of all: it evokes a feeling for his-
tory and tradition in architecture.
Chartres (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Color, 30 minutes. Sound. 16 mm,
A classic synthesis of cinematic beauty
and impeccable scholarship, this film
should be a part of every University li-
brary. It succeeds in evoking the atmo-
sphere of the thirteenth century
through the superb photography of the
exterior of the cathedral, the lovely me-
dieval music and the wise narrative.
John Canaday, art critic for the New
York Times, was the consultant and
sometime narrator. John Barnes di-
rected.
Medieval Castles (J. Arthur Rank) Black
and white, 30 minutes. Sound. 16 mm.
An early effort by the distinguished di-
rector, this is in the best British docu-
mentary tradition. Historically accu-
rate, it traces the development of the
castle in England from the Normans to
the Renaissance. The Bayeux Tapestry
finds its way into the animated techno-
logical explanations, and military sci-
ence is included as a sub-theme. The
film is a model of lucid exposition, but
is large enough for human interest and
humor.
Man and Masonry (Allied Masonry Cor-
poration) Black and white, 30 minutes.
Sound. 16 mm.
(Continued on page 1(4)
301
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5. Vittore Grubicy (1851-1920). Pecore can Fonda di Montagna, 1891·1913, oil on canvas, 13';' X 22';''', Col-
lection of WeI freda Toscanini, New York, formerly in collection of Arturo Tosconini, Milan.
collectors possibly missed the more vivid
forces of Ottocento art, that they chose
the academic tradition Over the most in-
novative aspects; but the observer must be
aware that this possible aesthetic lacuna
can be partIy explained by the fact that
many of the works have since been re-ac-
quired by discriminating Italian dealers.
1A touring exhibition organized by Dr. Annie-
Paule Quinsac and the Columbia Museum of Art,
(Continued from page 301)
This film is a sensitizing experience,
but there is little historic value in it,
due to the reticence of the narration.
Architecture: Mexico (Av-Ed Films)
Color, 20 minutes. Sound. 16 mm.
Only for special interest groups, this
film is more like a travelogue than a
documentary, or a confusion of the two.
Frank Lloyd Wright: A Conversation
(NBC). Black and white, 30 minutes.
Sound. 16 mm.
Wright dynamites the rigid format of
this static series by caricaturing his own
personality. A glimpse of his "honest
arrogance as opposed to hypocritical
humility" and a look at his talent for
show-biz (not his genius in architec-
ture) redeem the half hour.
Note: there are other films in this same
series of interviews with living archi-
tects, but on the whole they are more of
interest to the biographer or the anti-
quarian than to the architectural histo-
rian.
The House at Lobster COve (Orpheus
Films, Inc.) Color, 26 minutes. Sound. 16
mm. Available from the producers at 8
304
Columbia, South Carolina, made possible by a
grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The show is a presentation of 59 paintings by 33
artists. Nineteen leading museums of America (in-
cluding the Museo de San Carlo in Mexico) and
seven private collectors have generously loaned
their works. Exhibition dates: New York Cultural
Center-November 15-December 31, 1972; Colum-
bia Museum of Art-January 9·February 4, 1973;
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg-February 26-
March 25, 1973; Cummer Gallery Of Art, Jackson-
ville-April 3-April 29, 1973; Massachusetts Insti-
tute of technology-May 5-June 15, 1973. For a
Altair Avenue, Braintree, Mass., for $25
rental, purchase $145.
Weaton A. Holden, architectural histo-
rian, and Samuel S. Bishop, film histo-
rian and filmmaker, have collaborated
in making a documentary of three dif-
ferent houses that had been built at
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. It
shows the remarkable results that can
be achieved by intelligent co-workers in
solving the problems of working with
still photographs in motion pictures,
but the film also includes some breath-
taking views of the seaside site. But it
was the spirit of the film that sets it
apart from most others. The pace is lov-
ing and leisurely, like a visit to a beau-
tiful spot in the company of two sensi-
tive, informed and companionable art-
ists.
In the hope that more efforts of this
kind will occur I will conclude with some
observations on the College Art Associa-
tion meeting last January:
A few young students crashed the Film
Committee meeting, and were warmly
welcomed by chairman Bernard Hanson.
The generation gap closed and the result
was a promise on my part to offer my of-
fices as a temporary liaison between film
6. Giovanni Segontini (1859-1899), Ritrotto della Sig-
nora Torelli (18a7-SS?), oil on canvas, 39 3/ 4 X 29 3/ 4 " .
Collection of Mrs. Franziska Morris.
complete bibliography on Ottocento painting see
the book published in conjunction with this ex-
hibition: Ottocento Painting, Annie-Paule Quin-
sac, 1972, Library of Congress catalogue card
number 72-80056.
makers on art subjects and the potential
audiences in college and university class-
rooms.
Specifically the committee felt that a
logical place to begin was to express the
need for films on sculpture and architec-
ture with a basis of sound scholarship.
Another problem faced by college
teachers wanting to use films as teaching
aids is the difficulty of booking, obtaining
projectors, and relying on mail service for
prompt delivcy. Experience has taught
me that most distributors are reliable
businessmen. Films arrive three or four
days ahead of the agreed upon showing
date about 95% of the time. At De Paul
we keep a record of our orders and if a
distributor fails us twice we no longer use
his services. Distributors keep records too,
and if films are not mailed back promptly
the borrower is likely to lose his privi-
leges. Geographic proximity, while not
necessary, is helpful. For a listing of films
and distributors near you a good start is
The Landers Film Reviews, 4930 Coli-
seum (sic) Street, Los Angeles, Cal.
(90016), but the Sixteen MM. Guide to
Educational Films (known as "The
Green Bible") or Audio-Visual Market-
place should be in most libraries and are
equally helpful.