Mark ed Lamster

If I had my way there would be a lot more books about film and architecture; not necessarily books about set design and the like, but books about the relationship between the two realms of expression. This book does a great job of covering various ways of looking at the intersection: There's an essay on architects (professionals in film), one on a documentary about a building, a couple on set designers in the early 20th century, one on opening credits, one on location scouting, and one on a film that acts as architectural criticism, among others. The last refers to Jacques Tati's "Playtime," many architects' favorite film. The modernist set design creates many scenarios for Tati's Monsieur Hulot while also drawing attention to the differences between the old and the new; in particular the latter is about reflections, voyeurism and the ambiguity of surfaces. The essay on "Playtime" is one of the highlights in a book with many of them.… (mer)