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‘Sketches of
Frank Gehry’
By P. Breckenridge
Special to the Rappahannock News
Director Sydney Pollack has taken time out of his commercial film-making to make a documentary about his close friend, the world-renowned architect. It’s a warm and low-key look at Gehiy’s creative process. RAAC brings “Sketches of Frank Gehry” to the Theatre on Gay Street, Washington, Virginia, Friday, November 3, at 8:00 p.m.
The film is structured as an intimate conversation between the two and the joy of the film comes from the unexpected revelations that only happen between friends. In particular, how Gehry broke with tradition at an early age to design wildly original buildings that people either abhor or revere. ,
Gehry began his career as most new architects do, designing bland buildings with which he had no connection artistically or personally, but which suited the desires of his clients and paid the rent. It was a conversation with a client that gave Gehry the courage to dump all his clients and take on only those projects he could design based on his own vision. “He doesn’t ask what you want,” says Barry Diller, CEO of IAC, whose Hollywood headquarters was designed by Gehry, “he smells and sucks up what’s happening in the room.”
Gehry hates the rules his profession has about what does and doesn’t work and says he would rather be a painter. He has an artist’s sensibility about space, light, form and color that informs his work. Gehry begins with an idea, oftentimes inspired by a painting, then works with cardboard models and adhesive tape, playing with the look of a new building until satisfied. He is aided in this endeavor by design associates and computer programs, both of which play a crucial role in bringing to life his most audacious and curvaceous designs.
Pollack is able to convey Gehry as a curious miv of self-effacing outsider and proud non-conformist and uses not only Gehry’s own musings but the perspectives of others to provide evidence of both sides of the man. The movie is rated PG-13. Run t.imo i8 83 minutes.
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