Last December we visited Louis Kahn's Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The museum is an architectural gem, a sublime structure that defies categorization. The building's style is somewhat formal, but together with the grounds it creates a serene space that is as much a shrine to the elements as an exhibition space for art. Kahn's passion and preoccupation with natural light, seductive curves and the incorporation of arches punctuate the building with classical underpinnings and make it an atypical modernist structure.
We recently learned more about Kahn's passion, mystery and monumentality in classic architecture through the documentary film My Architect, which was released last November and directed by Kahn's son Nathaniel. The film received an Oscar nomination, and 250,000 people have since seen it in theaters. There's a reason for this. It is a superb documentary that deals with issues at once personal and universal, a study in the design of Louis Kahn's life as much as his work.
We spoke with the executive producer of the film, Andy Clayman of Mediaworks, to get some facts and to learn more about the design of the documentary. Very few documentaries receive such broad critical praise, and fewer still receive Oscar nominations. The film took five years to make, which is typical, and in the case of My Architect, the span of time allowed the movie to transcend the genre of biography. It achieves a special honesty and directness, both through having Nathaniel Kahn as the protagonist interviewer and through the intelligent mixture of documentary footage. The directors did not have to speculate much about the past. The film toggles between the parallel stories of Louis Kahn the father and Louis Kahn the architect, with the themes simultaneously developing. It's your choice as to which is the more compelling element.
Despite the lengthy production time, there's a spirit of freshness and honesty about the film. It becomes apparent that the producers did not really know how things would evolve or be concluded until they had the opportunity to visit Kahn's National Assembly Building in Bangladesh-one of Kahn's grandest and most poignant works. A progressive exploration of the architect's life and the extraordinary range of interviews give the film suspense and a good dose of spontaneity. And you are treated to emotionally charged encounters like the one between Edmund Bacon and Nathaniel over the urban plan of 1960s Philadelphia. Bacon (Kevin Bacon's father) and the elder Kahn had diametrically opposed ideologies about the possibilities and pragmatics of the urban plan, tensions that seemed to grow over time with Bacon, as is apparent in this exchange between him and Nathaniel.
EB: Well, I tell you one thing. It's . it would have been an incredible tragedy if they had built one single thing that Lou proposed for downtown Philadelphia. They were all brutal, totally insensitive, totally impractical. The whole idea of doing circular garages up on Vine Street ..
NK: Yeah, but the idea of leaving the cars outside of the city and then letting people walk into the city was a great idea, don't you think?
EB: No. It absolutely wasn't. It wouldn't have worked for a damn.
NK: So ultimately, isn't it just two strong men, two strong egos that don't get along together?
EB: Goddammit, NO. It's absolutely pure ignorance on Lou's part, and it's the same damn ignorance as the American Institute of Architects is based on now, that you have no responsibility to preparing the way for any system on the larger order and you only do the little things that come along. So you simply have not understood a word I've said.
A nomad, a dreamer and an idealist, as much as a revered architect, Kahn was something of an anomaly in the formal and rational world of modernism, just as he was in society at large. Kahn was juggling three families through much of his life, something that may seem socially irresponsible to many of us. He was always broke, despite receiving sizable commissions, which, again, might seem socially irresponsible on some level. But conceiving of urban plans that promote pedestrian exchange over cars and creating museums that deal with light as much as artwork and having a conversation with a brick-these might also be considered socially irresponsible. There is always a place for idealism in the world, and kudos to Nathaniel Kahn for making this documentary.
To find out more about My Architect, visit http://www.myarchitectfilm.com/.
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