Architecture Cinema

Plan de cours – séminaire

Architecture and Cinema Presentation

From L’Inhumaine and Metropolis to Blade Runner , and beyond, this lecture course will endeavour to sketch the main thrust of both the history of architecture in films and the creation of an architecture in films that later becomes an imaginary model sometimes even taken up by reality. By creating sets in which architecture is fundamental and constructs the main space of a film, the great directors, together with their set designers, have brought “models” to the public’s notice that have very quickly become part of the collective memory. The street in a western, the dreamlike palace, the city symbolising the industrial age, the mythical city, the historical city or even a real city recreated as a set, are just some of the many references. Cinema has also, time and time time again, used real cities – New York, York, Paris, Rome, Rome, London, Vienna and Madrid, and many others – as a set, or even as the “protagonist”, such that sometimes our memory confuses the image on the screen and that which we ourselves might see. And sometimes in recreating a city in a set, it points out the essential part or cliché of that city. Moreover, the cinema has aggrandised the major architects either by giving them a leading role in a film or by turning their key works into the main setting of a scene, thereby enhancing the architecture itself. And make it a common use. As architecture is part of an everyday life and part of a political, philosophical, social, cultural ideals, and cinema so much essential for our imagination and our history and memory … so architecture in cinema belongs to our historical, political and cultural mind. Architecture cannot be dissociated from the cinema – or is it the other way around? Pierre Léglise-Costa ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Syllabus

Each student has to do an exposé chosen among the topics for each lesson. Any other good suggestion will be welcome. At the end of the semester, an examination on comments of photos will be an important part of the final credit; but oral debates, and students’ involvement will also be considered. 1–

Preliminary approach. Cinema - beginnings. The The first studios. France, Italy, U.S. The first architectures. The first images of cities, real or invented.

2-

Invention of historical cities – from Roman Empire and to the “western”, that is the beginning of how cinema influences American history and American memory, and “world vision”.

3-

Architecture, Fashion – 1925 famous “Arts Déco” exhibition and it influence in German and French cinema : Pabst. L’Herbier Arts Déco and luxury in American films. Stars and interiors. Dream and identification.

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4-

Metropolis

and M . : Fritz Lang and modern cities. Future. Expressionism and

politics. 5 -

Paris : from the studio - Hotel du Nord , An American in Paris - to real A Bout de Souffle. What cinema shows. Why? How French want us to see Paris, connected to a cultural and historical moment, or how and why Americans chose clichés that sometimes seems more real than reality?

6-

New York – King Kong to Manhattan and the notion of the city. New York center of the world. How cinema contributes to that notion. Our vision is still the same nowadays?

7-

Hitchcock : Rear Window, staircases, palaces, houses, churches… From Painting (for example Hopper) to Film ( Psycho). Studio more real than reality. And reality almost unreal.

8-

Architects in movies. A great example : Frank Lloyd Wright and the cinema : Fountainhead and North by Northwest. The role of architects. And now?

9-

Jacques Tati – architecture as a prime part of the movie. Architecture as the main character in the movie. Philosophy and politics behind his choices.

10-

Urbanism through cinema : San Francisco, Chicago, Rome, Berlin… is the “vision”? Connection between History and theses cities.

11-

Historical architecture and its use in cinema : Octobre, L’Année dernière à Marienbad, Charade, Ludwig II, Eva…..films in S. Petersburg, Rome, Venice, and other places.

12-

Exceptional buildings, exceptional architecture in movies : Le Mépris and some others. Aesthetics or other reasons? How does it influence everyfilm later on and even publicty?

13-

Industrial architecture : Il grido, Deserto rosso, Richard III…. Non communication, neo-realism, social criticism.

12-

Science Fiction or future reality : Blade Runner and so son. P.L.-C. December 2007

NB : Bibliography will be given during the lectures





EXPOSES Choose a topic in the syllabus and among all these films and evntually

New York Safety Last - Harold Lloyd 1923 Downtown – Murnau – 1926 King Kong – Schoedsack - 1933 The Rope – Alfred Hitchcock 1948 The Naked City – Jules Dassin - 1948 West Side Story - Robert Wise - 1961 Manhattan – Woody Allen – 1979 Smoke –Wayne Wang and Paul Auster

Chicago Scarface – Howard Hawks - 1932 Some like it hot – Billy Wilder - 1959

San Francisco Vertigo – Alfred Hitchcock – 1957 Los Angeles

– 1995 (Brooklyn)





American architecture Western, many films Citizen Kane – Orson Welles 1941 The Amberson – Orson Welles – 1942 Fountainhead – King Vidor – 1949 Rear Window – Alfred Hitchcock - 1954 North by Northwest - Alfred Hitchcock - 1959 Psycho – Alfred Hitchcock – 1960 Strangers when we meet – Richard Quine -1960 The Birds – Alfred Hitchcock – 1963 Gloria – John Cassavetes – 1980 Barcelona Profession : reporter – Michelangelo Antonioni – 1975 All about my Mother (Todo sobre mi Madre) – Pedro Almodovar - 1998 Food of Love – Ventura Pons – 2002

Madrid Mourir à Madrid – Frédéric Rossif – 1963 Mujeres al bordo de una crise de niervos – Pedro Almodovar - 1988

Rome Roma, città aperta – Roberto Rossellini – 1944 La Dolce Vita – Federico Fellini - 1960 Mamma Roma – Pier Paolo Pasolini – 1962 Roma – Federico Fellini -1972 Una giornata particolare – Ettore Scola – 1977

Milan Miracolo a Milano – Vittorio de Sica – 1951 Rocco ei suoi fratelli – Luchino Visconti – 1960

Venice Trouble in Paradise – Ernst Lubitsch - 1932 Senso – Luchino Visconti - 1954 Eva – Joeph Losey - 1962 Mort à Venise – Luchino Visconti – 1971

Italian Architecture Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa – Luchino Visconti – 1965 Il Gattopardo – Luchino Luchino Visconti Visconti - 1963 1963 Le Mépris – Jean Luc Godard – 1963

Paris Le Coupable

– André Antoine - 1917





Hotel du Nord – Marcel Carné – 1939 Les enfants du Paradis – Marcel Carné - 1945 Monsieur Verdoux – Charles Chaplin -1948 An American in Paris - Vicente Minelli – 1951 French Cancan – Jean Renoir – 1954 A bout de souffle – Jean Luc Godard - 1959 Paris nous appartient – Jacques Rivette – 1960 Zazie dans le métro – Louis Malle – 1960 Irma la Douce - Billy Wilder – 1963 Charade – Stanley Donen – 1963 Last Tango in Paris – Bernardo Bertolluci – 1972

Nantes Lola – Jacques Demy – 1960 Classical French Architecture Si Versailles m’était conté – Sacha Guitry – 1954 L’année dernière à Marienbad – Alain Resnais 1962 Arts Déco L’Inhumaine – Marcel L’Herbier – 1924 Die Büchse der Pandora (Lulu) – G.W. Pabst - 1929 Lost Horizon – Frank Capra – 1937

and many films Lisbon Dans la ville blanche – Alain Tanner - 1982 Lisbon Story – Wim Wenders – 1995

Berlin The Last Laugh – F.W. Murnau - 1924 A Foreign Affair – Billy Wilder - 1948 Germania, anno zero – Roberto Rossellini - 1948 Wings of Desire – Wim Wenders – 1987 Good Bye Lenin – Wolfgang Becker - 2003

Brême Nosferatu – F.W. Murnau – 1922

Vienna The Third Man – Carol Reed – 1949

Or… Sissi - Ernst Marischka – 1955-1956-1957 Welcome in Vienna – Axel Corti - 1986

Bavarian Palaces (for the « revival »)





My Fair Lady – George Cukor - 1963 The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes – Billy Wilder - 1970

Russie Octobre - - Sergueil Eisenstein – 1927 Ivan – Serguei Eisenstein – 1945

Industrial Architecture M – Fritz Lang – 1931 Il Grido – Michelangelo Antonioni – 1956 Deserto Rosso – Michelangelo Antonioni - 1964 Richard III – Richard Loncraine – 1995 Middle Ages… Niebelungen- Fritz Lang – 1924 Faust – F.W. Murnau – 1926 Robin Wood – Michael Curtiz – 1938 Henry V – Laurence Olivier – 1944 Othello – Orson Welles – 1952 Hotels Grand Hotel – Edmund Goulding – 1932 Shining – Stanley Kubrick – 1980

and many other films Roman Empire Cabiria - Giovane Pastrone – 1914 Intolerance - D. W. Griffith - 1916 Ben Hur - Fred Niblo – 1925 Quo Vadis – Merwin Le Roy - 1951 Ben Hur – William Wyler – 1959 Cleopatra – Joseph Mankiewicz – 1963 The Fall of the Roman Empire – Anthony Mann - 1964 and many « peplum »… Imagination Future and Reality James Bond Films as Goldfinger – Guy Hamilton – 1964 Metropolis – Fritz Lang - 1927 Scarlett Empress - Joseph von Sternberg - 1934 Thing to Come – W.C. Menzies – 1936 Mon Oncle – Jacques Tati – 1958 Playtime – Jacques Tati – 1967 Blade Runner – Ridely Scott – 1982 Brazil – Terry Gilliam - 1985 Batman – Tim Burton – 1989







Bibliography ALBRECHT, Donald , Architecture in the Movies , Harper and Row, New York, 1986 BERTHOMÉ, Jean-Pierre, Le décor au cinéma , Cahiers du Cinéma, Paris, 2003 DOUY, Max et Jacques, Décors de cinéma , Le Collectionneur, Paris 1993 GRENIER, Lise, Ciné-Cités, Ramsay, Paris 1987 JOUSSE Thierry & PAQUOT, Thierry, La ville au cinéma , Cahiers du Cinéma, Paris, 2005





and of course, any good History of the Cinema , in English or in French. PLC

It is undeniable that cinema has a marked influence on modern architecture, on the other hand, modern architecture contributes its artistic share to cinema. Modern architecture does not just offer cinematographic decor, but it leaves its imprint on the mise-en-scène, it overflows its frame, architecture plays. Modern architecture is essentially photogenic : large plans, straight lines, sober ornements, unified unified surfaces, clear contrast between light and shade. Lost Horizon 1937

James Hilton – 1933

Architecture Cinema

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