Philip Johnson Movies
Acclaimed film director Sydney Pollack took a five-year break from the realms of fiction to assemble a lovingly crafted tribute to longtime friend and acclaimed architect Frank Gehry in this documentary born from the sketches of its talented subject. A notoriously shy craftsman whose impressive body of work includes the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Ghery is shown working in his studio unobstructed as Pollack attempts to capture the very essence of the artist's bold works through use of film and digital video. Driven by an intimate but informal series of discussions between Ghery and Pollack, Sketches of Frank Gehry uses the subject of architecture as a launching point to discuss the creative process, and paints a fascinating portrait of how one humble man was able to create some of the world's most awe-inspiring structures. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Frank Gehry, Sydney Pollack, (more)
- 2001
This is a documentary chronicling the life of Charles Henri Ford (now in his nineties and still as alert as ever), a pivotal figure in the European and American avant-garde scene from the late '20s through the present. Born to a Southern family that owned a hotel and included sister Ruth Ford, an actress who is best known for the U.S. debut of Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit, Charles moved to New York City in 1930, where his unmistakable male beauty sparked interest in the city's burgeoning gay scene. In the 1940s, he founded the literary journal Blues and the later View, which provided space for future notables such as Jean Genet and Vladimir Nabokov. The filmmakers made this motion picture over the course of ten years, lining up -- in the process -- a number of legendary avant-garde figures to discuss Ford, several of whom died by the time directors James Dowell and John Kolomvakis finished the picture. These include: William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Johnson, Paul Cadmus, Paul Morrissey, Ned Rorem, Paul Bowles and Gerard Malanga. Ford relates several anecdotes about them as well. The filmmakers spent over a decade creating this picture, tapping various historians, critics, and curators for additional details. ~ Jason Clark, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Dowell, Charles Henry Ford, (more)
