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#biennaledaix #chiharu shiota #canon photography #blazedelacroix #aix en provence

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Debbie Harry photographed by Martyn Goddard, NYC, 1978

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Spider Woman Rock

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Monterey Cypress, California

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Max Yavno, Garage Doors, 1947

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Villa am Meer (Villa by the Sea) by Hermann Traugott Rüdisühli (1864-1944)

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Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Newspapers Blowing, Chicago, 1961

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Underwater love

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Ablin House, Frank Lloyd Wright, 1959

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT: ABLIN RESIDENCE (2020)

A nicely shot video exploring this project, which was the second to last house Wright designed.

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SUMMERTIME MOVIES FOR ARCHITECTURE / URBAN DESIGN ENTHUSIASTS

With a lot of us still limited in our holiday travel options, I thought I’d share last year’s list, with some additions, for those in the mood for some cinematic escapism.

1. BODY HEAT (1981) The tangibly sweltering Florida town with its wide porches, wooden blinds, and shaded, sultry, interiors is as integral to this movie as Kathleen Turner, William Hurt, and that 80′s soft-porn style saxophone soundtrack.

2. DO THE RIGHT THING (1989)  Spike Lee’s Brooklyn boils over on the hottest day of summer.

3. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (2000)  Some films are so atmospheric that watching them is as visceral as visiting a physical place, and they remain with you in the same way. Here 1960′s Hong Kong plays a central, mesmerising, role.

4. LE MEPRIS (CONTEMPT) (1965)  Adalberto Libera ’s Casa Malaparte on Capri stars as the island home of Jack Palance’s sleazy movie producer, and the venue for his summertime seduction of Bridgitte Bardot’s Camille.

5. LE GENOU DE CLAIRE (1970) / LA COLLECTIONNEUSE (1967)  All the films in this series by Eric Rohmer offer great retro virtual vacations. These two take place, respectively, at a house set amongst trees at the base of a mountain on Lake Annecy, and at a rural villa in St Tropez.

6. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (2017)  With a sultry beauty that permeates the characters, landscapes, and the vast 16th Century villa at the film’s centre, this movie totally embeds the viewer in summertime Italy circa 1983.

7. Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN (2001)  Though it’s primarily a (great) road movie, the opening and closing sections of this film take place in a simmering, socially restive, Mexico City, and set the scene for many of the cultural and political themes Alfonso Cuaron explores throughout.

8. SUMMER LOVERS (1982)  This SUPER cheesy 80′s erotic drama is never going to turn up on a Greatest Films of All Time list, but it does feature the architecture of Santorini in a starring role, along with some great retro summer style from Daryl Hannah :-).  

9. LA PISCINE (1969) and A BIGGER SPLASH (2016)  Jacques Deray’s super-stylish French thriller is set at a summer villa on the Côte d'Azur. The story was re-imagined decades later by  Luca Guadagnino, and moved to a picturesque house on Pantelleria, Sicily. However, the architectural stars of that film are arguably the structured, overscaled components of Tilda Swinton’s onscreen wardrobe, on which Dior collaborated.

10. PLEIN SOLEIL (PURPLE NOON) (1960) and THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY (1999) The Talented Mr Ripley has always been one of my summertime faves, a piece of immaculately - styled escapism to 1950s expat Italy. But an equally atmospheric adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel was filmed decades earlier, and the two movies are sufficiently different to enjoy back to back. It’s a matter of taste as to which version is more effective, but both offer an immersive cinematic escape to Mid-Century summertime in Southern Italy.

11. THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (1982) Peter Wier brings his customary lyricism to this atmospheric portrait of the Indonesian city on the cusp of a communist uprising.

12. I AM LOVE (2009) In Luca Guadagnino’s third entry on this list, a Jill Sander-clad Tilda Swinton is the matriach of a wealthy Milanese family, living in Piero Portaluppi’s 1935 Villa Necchi. Although the opening scenes take place at christmas, the rest unflods during a sensuous Italian summertime.

13. HEAT (1995) Amongst the countless movies filmed in LA, this is one of a handful in which the City itself it is a central character. Al Pacino gazes out at the ocean from his character’s Santa Monica home in Thom Mayne’s “deadtech postmodernistic bullshit house” (an insult apparently dreamt up by the architect himself) and plays cat and mouse with Robert De Niro through a series of iconic urban locations.

14. INGRID GOES WEST (2017) Some great summer vibes for those of us who don’t live in balmy sunshine year-round. Of all the movies from recent years about the perils of social media, this black comedy (about an Instagram stalker and her obnoxious target) is a favourite, and features a gorgeous mid century modern house by David Hyun. 

15. DR NO (1962) Along with its beautiful Jamaican locations, this classic Sean Connery Bond bought us the first of the iconic Ken Adam-designed villain’s lairs.

Photo: Casa Malaparte. The photo I used on this poster is by Francois Halard, from a series on the building.

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Villa Överby, John Robert Nilsson, 2009

This house in the Stockholm Archipelago appeared in THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (US) (2011). David Fincher helmed the english-language adaptation of the Swedish novel, but sadly the two intended follow-up films never materialised. While it’s an engrossing thriller, anyone familiar with the tradition of modernist architecture in fiction knew immediately where to look for the villain (spoiler): in the film’s (and book’s) one austerely beautiful minimalist residence.  The cinematic device of a spotless, contemporary lakeside house with a sinister concealed basement was also used in the series Top of The Lake, this time in New Zealand. The show took the familiar metaphor one step further, by providing a residence for the most trustworthy male character that was the absolute antithesis of that sleekly extravagant modernist lair: a tiny 2-man tent.

Villa Overby appears with violent associations once again as the location for the JOHN WICK INTRODUCTION trailer/short film for game PAYDAY 2. (Which I won’t link here because of said violence.) Like so many pieces of cinematic modernist architecture before it, the building ultimately succumbs to an explosive death. (Image via pinterest)

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Towards sunset

The streets of Rome - Via James Joyce/Via Virginia Woolf. Olympus Trip 35 on expired Kodak Color Plus film.

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Planetarium I, Canyon del Muerto in Canyon de Chelly, Gary Tepfer, 1994, Brooklyn Museum: Photography

© Gary Tepfer Size: image: 15 ¼ x 15 ¼ in. (38.7 x 38.7 cm) sheet: 16 x 20 in. (40.8 x 50.8 cm) Medium: Cibachrome print

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/156955

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