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ARCHITECTURAL movies

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abyssinian

me and my buddies have started a discussion group and we have descided to watch movies twice a month and discuss them architecturally.

what movies do y'all suggest,(they dont necessarily have to be about architecture). Movies that spark interesting discussions!!!

 
Aug 25, 05 11:04 pm
vado retro
http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=P20822_0_42_0_C

start here dude

Aug 25, 05 11:07 pm  · 
 · 
sharpie.

i just saw MY ARCHITECT- a son`s journey a week back and i`ve been trying to locate that discussion thread ever since.

Aug 26, 05 1:03 am  · 
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Carl Douglas (agfa8x)

Tarkovsky - Solaris

Aug 26, 05 1:39 am  · 
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guiggster

King Kong

Aug 26, 05 1:58 am  · 
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BOTS

Snake is back

Aug 26, 05 4:15 am  · 
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b3tadine[sutures]

One Hour Photo

Aug 26, 05 5:21 am  · 
 · 
db

I second One Hour Photo.

also:
Until the End of the World
The Straight Story
Fight Club

Aug 26, 05 6:55 am  · 
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SuperHeavy

Brazil

12 Monkeys

Blade Runner

5th Element

Wicker Park had surprisingly good visuals.

I'll third One Hour Photo

Aug 26, 05 8:29 am  · 
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dragthelake

too easy...

"life as a house"

Aug 26, 05 8:56 am  · 
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JordantHarris

Cemetary Man (Dellamorte Dellamore)
Dogville
In The Mood For Love
and uh... Labrynth?

Aug 26, 05 9:01 am  · 
 · 
JordantHarris

Life as a house would definately spark a conversation...

about what a terrible movie it was.

Aug 26, 05 9:02 am  · 
 · 
abyssinian

some of the previous movies that we have seen in the discussion group include

in the mood for love
breathless
irreversible
i stand alone
etc.

Aug 26, 05 10:28 am  · 
 · 
MysteryMan

Blues Brothers.

Aug 26, 05 10:36 am  · 
 · 
larslarson

i think the movie is called 'cube'?..
a horror movie about five or six people stuck in a
maze in a cube....but each room is really interesting

people from school always used to watch 'vertigo'

along the lines of irreversible...'momento'?

Aug 26, 05 10:50 am  · 
 · 
MysteryMan

Lars, I saw that cube thing - disturbing because I never caught on to that 'New Math' that was part of the plot. Also, it would really suck to be in that situation.

I also think you're onto something w/ Vertigo, or almost any other Alfred Hitchcock movie.

Aug 26, 05 10:53 am  · 
 · 
Elimelech

I cant believe no one is said:
2001 Space Odyssey
Amelie
The city of lost children
Delicatessen
Lost in Translation
The eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
ADAPTATION!!

I second:
Brazil
In the mood for Love

Aug 26, 05 11:00 am  · 
 · 

KOYAANASQATSI
WAKING LIFE

Aug 26, 05 11:03 am  · 
 · 
darkred

TRON

Last Year at Marienbad

Rear Window

The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D

Aug 26, 05 11:12 am  · 
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larslarson

m.man...
yeah i'd forgotten the plot of cube...and i'm not a big
fan of horror movies, typically..but there's something
in that movie that i liked...i found the whole thing
disturbing..but i think there's an interesting point made
in who actually survives...that and the one room where
with the criscrossing wires...my architecture mind tries
to figure out how that would be detailed..

melquiades...i second almost any charlie kaufmann movie...
those you mentioned as well as being jon malkovich,
human nature and confessions of a dangerous mind...

Aug 26, 05 11:12 am  · 
 · 

Akira (yes, the anime)
Easy Rider

Aug 26, 05 11:14 am  · 
 · 
MysteryMan

Melquiades,
Gotta check Vado's link @ the top of this page.

Come on, somebody second the 'Blues Bros.', or at least take me to task.

Aug 26, 05 11:14 am  · 
 · 
ac.kee

vanilla skies
6th sence
stargate the movie
the mummy
hero w/ jet li(quite poetic)
there is more.................................

Aug 26, 05 12:20 pm  · 
 · 
MysteryMan

Reservoir Dogs?
For the cramped nature of the scenes.

Aug 26, 05 12:29 pm  · 
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liberty bell

OK I'm feeling a little grumpy this morning so I'm going go on a rant:

Emindarch is looking for movies that would spark an architecture-related discussion. Rather than a list of cool movies, how's about explaining why these movies are architecture-related?

Maybe emindarch isn't interested in the incredibly minimal and orchestrated stage-set like production visuals of Dogville, but would be crazy to see a movie rife with elaborate Rube-Goldberg-esque suicide machines a la Delicatessen.

I realize people have to post at work and thus can't always elaborate on their opinion, but a list of ten movies simply isn't as helpful as a brief paragraph about one movie. This is a discussion forum, yes? Let's hear some discussion!

OK end of rant, and someone please take away my bold tool.

Aug 26, 05 12:32 pm  · 
 · 
liberty bell

Mystery! You read my mind and posted a brief description right as I was writing my rant! You rock, Man!

Aug 26, 05 12:33 pm  · 
 · 
MysteryMan

Liberty Bell,
If you're feelin' grumpy today, I dare not even expound on 'Reservoir Dogs'. I like my ears too much.

Aug 26, 05 12:43 pm  · 
 · 
Geoff Manaugh

*Code 46* has some great landscape urbanism shots in it, as it de-westernizes the metropolis in an interesting way; the movie's badly cast and only so-so, however.
And I missed it if anyone mentioned *Die Hard*, but come on: *Die Hard*! It's the architectural film to take all... Who cares if it's any good. Skyscrapers, police infrastructure, LA sprawl. Starts in an airport, even.
Then there's that – what's it called: *The Towering Inferno*! Aka 9/11 30 years early. And *Papillon* even (prison escape film, with its island penitentiary and its exquisite rotting cellblocks at the end).
*The Poseidon Adventure*, with its overturned cruiseship and its passengers battling upward/downward through the inverted infrastructure, is at least vaguely architectural... In a kind of *2001* sort of way. Adventures in architecture. Well, maybe.
And *Panic Room*! One house, three floors, an elevator and a kick-ass surveillance system...

Aug 26, 05 12:44 pm  · 
 · 
OlDirtyArchitect

Koyaanasqati for sure - top of my list too

Ghost Dog, Way of the Samurai
Lost Highway
Pink Flamingos


Aug 26, 05 12:45 pm  · 
 · 

The Island = Blade Runner + Minority Report

Aug 26, 05 12:46 pm  · 
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abracadabra

'short cuts' by robert altman,director

Aug 26, 05 12:50 pm  · 
 · 
Elimelech

descriptions are for wusses

Aug 26, 05 12:54 pm  · 
 · 
job job

hmmm,

hitchcock has a good movie based on a kafka novel - joseph k lost in a bureacratic nightmare. names of movies are also for wusses i guess

wim wenders, paris texas

greenaway, cook thief wife cowboy

film from this decade...... touching the void? anyone else feel that?

Aug 26, 05 1:10 pm  · 
 · 
JordantHarris

Liberty Bell,

"what movies do y'all suggest,(they dont necessarily have to be about architecture). Movies that spark interesting discussions!!! "

-emindarch

Aug 26, 05 1:13 pm  · 
 · 
JohnProlly

Kubrick, anything Hitchcock... Delicatessan, Andelusian Dog, Powers of 10, Debbie does Dallas.

Aug 26, 05 1:22 pm  · 
 · 
A

I've got MY ARCHITECT on dvd.

Screenings to start tonight at 9pm sharp.

Aug 26, 05 1:30 pm  · 
 · 
liberty bell

Jordan - my first thought was Gattaca - architecture plays an enormous role in that movie, the prison of good DNA is sci-fi future sterile minimalist spaces. Lots of bleak concrete walls, smooth shiny surfaces, and structured clothing to match. And wasn't it filmed in part at the Marin County Building?

Tati's Playtime is a humorous critique of Modernism. The steel and glass boxes and orthagonal grids are characters throughout the film. Very little dialogue and an extended scene in a nightclub with blaring bossanova music (atually a little overlong - you can't wait for that damn music to turn off by the end of the scene) make it a good movie for viewing while drinking lots of cocktails and laughing with your buddies.

Delicatessen features the suicide machines mentiond above, it all takes place in one apartment building in a post-apocalyptic (crap what's that word?) Paris with brief forays into the sewers to visit a group of revolutionaries. It is one of the visually richest films I've ever seen - the colors and textures of each apartment are gorgeous, and it's ridiculously funny. It's not a movie that would spark debates about its "meaning" or anything, but it would give you a lot to talk about because in any one scene four different people would focus on four entirely different details that the others didn't even notice.

The new Solaris was IMO more engaging than the original. Again, blindingly clean and sterile sci-fi interiors, and poses questions about the nature of time and love - lots to talk about in terms of what the film is "about".

Aug 26, 05 1:37 pm  · 
 · 
jitter12

Memento, Following, Pi, um.... The Matrix, maybe?

Aug 26, 05 1:37 pm  · 
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liberty bell

OK, Memento - now what exactly is architectural about this movie? It deals with time and memory, I don't remember anything about the spaces or places in this film. There was a groovy mid-cen scummy hotel - would the plot have been any different if the main character had lived in a highrise apartment building in Chicago?

Aug 26, 05 1:42 pm  · 
 · 
Elimelech

liberty you are a strict constructionist, don't want you in the supreme court

Aug 26, 05 1:44 pm  · 
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JordantHarris

So solaris is more "about" architecture because it has a more extensive set? I'm sorry you're feeling grumpy today, but all that was asked for were movies that spark interesting discussion. Movies are a mainly visual medium to begin with so the set design and location is always important, whether it's sleek and modern or minimal and orchestrated. Were you suggesting more movies which have better designed sets? More elaborate sets? Or just movies where the sets, architecture, and inanimate objects play more of a central role to the plot, or as characters themselves?

Aug 26, 05 1:51 pm  · 
 · 
dragthelake

"what movies do y'all suggest,(they dont necessarily have to be about architecture). Movies that spark interesting discussions!!! "

Aug 26, 05 1:59 pm  · 
 · 
liberty bell
Or just movies where the sets, architecture, and inanimate objects play more of a central role to the plot, or as characters themselves?

This is closer to what I think of when I think of a movie you might be able to discuss "architecturally" as requested above..

But what I really want is for people to tell me why they like or dislike something so that I can better judge whether I would like it too.

Memento is just an example, truth is I barely remember anything about that movie beyond the bad bleached blonde hair on the otherwise good-looking leading male. If someone can explain to me why they think Memento is a movie that might spark an architecturally-minded discussion I'm all ears.

Aug 26, 05 2:00 pm  · 
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Elimelech

you can search on-line/watch/make your own opinion/mine, i dont even like.

Aug 26, 05 2:02 pm  · 
 · 
paper tiger

toy story 1 and 2. the change of scale, how different the world becomes, the landscape of everyday life becomes something else, andin doing so, the mundane becomes fantastic again. in a way it reminded me of a calvina and hobbes skit where calvin is at the zoo and he's holding on to his mon's knee or pant leg or something and looks up to see that it's not his mom but a different woman and he says something like "from the waist down, everybody lookslike my mom....or something like that....it's been a whille, but it's his perspective, his scale....
you could also say the same about honey i shrunk the kids. you may have to get so high you'd be swimming in stoned to really enjoy it again(though i also like it sober) but the ojbects that they inhabit, from bowls to spoons to walking in a forest of lawn....
they work because they change our perspective, and makes us look at the everyday in a different manner, which i think is very important when designing the space.

Aug 26, 05 2:13 pm  · 
 · 
larslarson

memento...
trying to come up with a good argument for why
it is 'architectural'...for me i like the movie for the way
it's structured and it's uniqueness...of course, having a
movie go in reverse is not unique..irreversible has the
same technique. what i think is unique about the character
in momento is his inability to remember anything new long
term and the potential of that.

i don't think it's a stretch to say that how a character/person
relates to space, time etc. can be seen as an architectural
discussion. especially a character as unique as this one..
seems like it would be a possibly unique thesis project
possibly...how do you design a space for someone that
can't remember the day before...


Aug 26, 05 2:17 pm  · 
 · 
paper tiger

Sin Noticias de Dios, or "don't tempt me" with penelope cruz. first, the jump between languages is just great, but the depiction of heaven and hell, the moods in each, is just really clever set design. and it leads one to think along the lines of what is good architecture, pure, vs. bad architecture, evil, and how the person, or even better, the "spirit" roams and floats between both worlds/designs/spaces. plus i'm in love with penelope. but it really is a great little film.

Aug 26, 05 2:21 pm  · 
 · 
Louisville Architect

lars, that means we should include '50 first dates'.

Aug 26, 05 2:23 pm  · 
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paper tiger

holy shit, i was thinking the same thing. actually, i was thinking that one doesn't need to design a space for a person who can't remember the daybefore, just give them a dvd and a tv and buy them 50 first dates and they could watch it everyday.

Aug 26, 05 2:29 pm  · 
 · 
3dGraffiti

Slaughterhouse-Five
Saw it for the first time the other night and was quite impressed by the non linear sequencing of events.

Aug 26, 05 2:36 pm  · 
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larslarson

npc...
valid point i guess...
as i said i was trying to come up with an argument..
i may have failed...i think there's something a bit
more reasoned/thought out/more relevant to the
discussion about momento than 'fifty first dates'..
but who knows. honestly i haven't seen '50 first
dates'..

Aug 26, 05 2:45 pm  · 
 · 

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