By Linda Mahdesian
What do films like Metropolis, Dick Tracy and Blade Runner have in common? Architecture plays an important part. A new exhibition at the David Winton Bell Gallery chronicles the major starring roles set designs have played in these films and others - and how set designs helped shape modern architecture.
"Film Architecture: Set Designs from Metropolis to Blade Runner" opens Dec. 9 and continues through Jan. 21, 1996. The show then travels to the exhibition galleries of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif. (April 4 through June 9, 1996), and the Film and Architecture Museums in Frankfurt, Germany (July 1 through Sept. 1, 1996).
This expansive show features 140 set designs and models from the expressionistic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) to the experimental depiction of the anticipated modern city in films such as Asphalt (1928-29) and Sunrise (1926-27) to the dark, mechanistic view of the future urban landscape in Metropolis (1927). In the case of Caligari, the show will bring together a majority of the extant drawings for the first time. The Fountainhead (1949) will illustrate how the ideology of modern architecture was presented to a mass audience in the United States, while Blade Runner (1982) will present a postmodern view of the city as another response to the earlier cinematic discussions. Dick Tracy (1990) represents still another approach, in its nostalgic reflections on an imaginary historical New York City. The exhibition will also elucidate the role of the set designer in the creation of a movie and document the process from the initial sketch to the final product.
"Films have played a major role in the development of modern architecture," says the exhibition's curator, Dietrich Neumann, assistant professor of history of art and architecture. "They've helped pave the way for new ideas and popular acceptance of those ideas." In film, he adds, architects could do "pure" architecture, without worrying about things like weather-proofing, contract bidding, and building codes. "It is an ideal fulfillment of what architecture can be about - and is always aspiring to -without being hampered by everyday constraints."
Dec. 8: Opening Lectures and Reception
5:30 p.m., Salomon Center for Teaching
"Film Architecture" curator Dietrich Neumann will introduce the exhibition. Los
Angeles designer Syd Mead will discuss and present examples of his work in
films including Blade Runner, Star Trek, Tron, Aliens and 2010.
A reception follows at 6:30 p.m. at the David Winton Bell Gallery, List Art
Building, 64 College St.
Dec. 9: Film Program
Noon to 3 p.m., Cable Car Cinema, 204 S. Main St. (admission charge)
Two architecturally important silent films, The Last Laugh (1924) and a
newly restored version of Asphalt (1928-29), will be introduced by
Neumann.
Dec. 10: Metropolis (1927) with the Alloy Orchestra
7:30 p.m., Rhode Island School of Design Auditorium, Canal Street (admission
charge)
The Bell Gallery will present the recently re-edited version of Metropolis
with a new score composed and performed live by the Alloy Orchestra.
Dec. 13: Lecture
5:30 p.m., List Art Center auditorium
Arnold Weinstein, the Henry Merritt Wriston Professor and professor of
comparative literature, will speak on "Visionary Cities: Dream or Nightmare."
Jan. 19, 1996: Film Program
7:30 p.m., List Art Center auditorium
Virtually unknown in the United States, L'Inhumaine (1924) is considered
the most important modernist French film of the 1920s.