Brian Dennehy in "The Belly of an Architect"

Brian Dennehy as Stourley Kracklite
Lambert Wilson as Caspasian Speckler








American architect Stourley Kracklite comes with his young wife Louisa to Rome to supervise an exhibition devoted to Etienne-Louis Boullée, a French architect of the 18th century. Suffering from severe abdominal pains, Stourley doesn't pay much attention to his pregnant wife, and she finds consolation in the arms of suave Caspasian Speckler. Built from rigidly symmetrical images, the film has quite an unusual subject: the belly -- both the sick one of the architect and the pregnant one of his wife, the rounded forms alluding to the spherical constructions designed by Boullée, the architect whose visionary projects seldom materialized. Beautifully shot on location in Rome, this ironic fable wittily examines the issues of artistic creativity.
~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide



If I have learned anything from the last two movies, its that only American architects are allowed to have fun. Anyway, I added the plot summary from Yuri above because I couldn't have said it better myself. Again, this movie is loaded from beginning to end with studio settings, quotes on working, living and thinking like an architect, that I can't sufficiently summarize it in a few paragraphs. As the movie progresses, Kracklite becomes more and more insane. He writes postcards to the dead architect he is celebrating, he photocopies pictures and sketches of stomachs endlessly, he punches a lot of people in the nose, starts to believe that his wife is trying to poison him and his colleagues are plotting against him.

Of course, during all this insanity, his wife does nothing to make him feel better.
Architect: Tell me please, what does 'oh-ahhh' mean?
Wife: Stourley, you've built six-and-a-half-buildings. And now you're spending nine months putting on an exhibition in memory of another architect who also built practically nothing.
F3!


Of the whole movie, there is one thing that I have to comment on because of its originality. When Kracklite goes to visit a doctor about his stomach pains, the doctor asks what symptoms the architect has.
Not wasting even a moment, the architect says "Why yes, I've been documenting the symptoms."
Here, we would expect a verbal account of whats going on, the sensations that are being felt, an emotional expression of the pain that is spoken. However, the architect proceeds to take out a folder and hand the doctor more than a dozen sketches over photocopies of stomachs, frenzied drawings of red, orange and yellow. Images that are grotesque yet beautiful,images that convey the silent suffering that the architect endures throughout the last months of his life.

Kurt Naumann in "Die Architekten"

Kurt Naumann as Daniel Brenner








In 1990, the film Die Architekten (for those of you who don't know East German, its "The Architects") was released. This project was planned and filmed in the months right before the fall of the Berlin Wall, an event which most probably diminished its impact. Daniel Brenner is a 38 year old architect who has never built anything. Even with a wife and a child, he considers himself a failure. Early on in the film, I spotted a huge difference between the way American and European architects work. At a meeting with the architect Daniel works under, the modest Daniel admits that he has won first place in two competitions, coming in second a few times and earing an honorable mention in many more. The head architect congradulated Daniel on these achievements, but Daniel will have non of it. These days, you'll be hard pressed to find a firm that is willing to allocate a substantial part of its budget to a time consuming project that might go nowhere, but in other parts of the world, the chase seems to be as important as the catch. Its here that Daniel stands alone, he seems to want to be part of the western world. He values his work as long as it produces something tangent, something that can be used. He is alone, apart from his society, he goes so far as to deny his association to the communinist party even when confronted with the fact that his joining would lead to a number of commissions.

In an odd chance, Daniel is given the opportunity to design a huge building, one that would contain housing, movie theaters, resturants, a bowling alley, parks... A whole city in one block. He accepts on the condition that he can choose his dream team, a team consisting of the best students that he worked with during his days at the university.

The Seven Samuri at the Site

Throughout the movie, the important themes of design and construction are as important to the plot as the relationships the characters have with one another. At every turn, the communist party bureaucrats try to negate the design of the complex, and Daniel tries to find ways to covertly include real, unique ideas into his masterpiece.

This movie is worth much more than I can express in a few paragraphs. No matter where you work, find someone in your office who has Netflix, set up the projector on a rainy Tuesday afternoon, get a few bottles, watch it and discuss amongst yourselves. Then go see Click with Adam Sandler to lighten the mood.

Tom Selleck in "Three Men and a Baby"

Tom Selleck as Peter Mitchell








Three bachelors live by themselves in this 1980's showcase of absolutely no style and horrible situational comedy. Peter Mitchell is the architect who in the same day gets mixed up both in sudden single parenthood and illegal heroin trafficking. Hilarity ensues.

Like all comedy architects, we see Peter as he:

Deals with a baby on his Construction Documents

Cant find his Construction Documents

Points to something important on the job site

The best line of the whole movie is when Peter is trying to change the baby and he states, "I'm an architect for Christ sake, I build 50 story skyscrapers, I assemble cities of the future, I can certainly put together a goddamn diaper." The 50 story skyscraper in question is located on 56th btw 6th and 7th, as ascertained by the above picture. In the background, we see Phillip Johnson's AT&T building, which lead me to believe that the building he is building is this masterpiece:

Charles Bronson in "Death Wish"

Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey
William Redfield as Sam Kreutzer
Jack Wallace as Ives







Urban violence reached its peak in the mid 1970's. In New York, people were afraid to walk the streets at night, muggings were a common, and white flight was in full swing. Paul Kersey is an architect who takes to the streets and pursues vigilante justice after his wife is murdered and his daughter is placed in a coma by thugs.

"Bang Pow!"

However, Paul didn't start out as a violent man. He was a Consciencous Objector in the Korean War, a bleeding heart liberal who has finally had enough. As an architect, he is fighting to reclaim the city that he helped design. Charles Bronson has taken on vigilante roles before, most notably as a cowboy in the Magnificent Seven. However, Death Wish is one of the first films to depect an ordinary citizen taking up arms in a modern urban setting.

Early in the film, Paul's boss sends him to a job in Arizona to get his mind off the attack on his family. It is here, where Paul meets Ames, a local developer. Mind you, this conversation takes place a good 20 years before 'sustainability' was a key word for the in-crowd.

Ames: I wanted you to see this country before you see the drawing back at the office. Give you a better idea. I don't want to change these hills. Don't want to bulldoze them flat.
Paul: You waste a lot of building space.
Ames: Wastin' space. Now those are some words you big architects have got to change for something else.
Paul: Such As....
Ames: Well... Space for life! (pointing at a man on horse at the top of a ridge) Like old Judge up there, space for people! Horses! Cows! I got funny ideas about building things.

The Conscientious Objector and the Cowboy

Later on, Paul is working late at night in the Arizona office. Ames is about to take Paul to the gun club where. A brief conversation about all-nighters takes place.

Ames: When do I get a look-see?
Paul: In a couple days.
Ames: Guard said you were here till after midnight last night.
Paul: Yeah, thats the way I work.
Ames: Somebody once said, I forget who, that he never looked back because something might be gaining on him. Whats gaining on you Paul?
Paul: 20 million dollar investment. What else?

Woody Harrelson in "Indecent Proposal"

Woody Harrelson as David Murphy








In 1991, a recession hit America. As a result, architect David Murphy and his wife Diana, a realtor, both loose their job. They are $50,000 in debt because the architect is in the middle of constructing his 'dream house', a structure that "sums up everything he believes about architecture." After a trip to Vegas, David makes a deal with a billionaire: one night with Diana for one million dollars.

This is the house that sums up everything Woody Harrelson believes about architecture.

The movie starts out with dual voice over narrations, David and Diana desribe their love for each other, their past, the whole set up for the movie. In one scene, Diana says of her husband...

"We never had much money, so for entertainment David would show me architecture that moved him. But sometimes I'd have to ask, 'Why are we looking at a stupid car wash.' And he'd reply, 'No, not stupid. Don't just use your eyes.' He made me look at things differently."

The writing is on the wall

After the breakup, with the recession in full swing, David goes back to USC to interview for a job as a professor. Here, it seems like the dean really doesn't want good, experienced teachers to shape the minds of the future of architecture:
Dean: You've done alot since USC. First in your class. AIA award. Why would you want this job?
David: Well, I want to work.
Dean: Overqualified.
David: Fine, exploit me.

Woody and brick.

The scene quickly moves on to David giving a lecture to a group of students:
David: Great architecture is only going to come from your passion. And even that won't assure you a job. Louie Kahn, died in a men's room in Penn Station for days noone claimed the body. (slide shows the Salk Institute) Look at that, is that beautiful? The money men did not weep, because the great ones are impossible to deal with, they're a pain in the ass because they know that if they do their jobs properly, if they just once get it right they can actually lift the human spirit, take it to a higher place. (holds up a brick) What is this?
Student #1: A brick!
David: Good. What else?
Student #2: A weapon.
David: Louie Kahn said that even a brick wants to be something. A brick wants to be something. It aspires. Even a common, ordinary brick wants to be something more than it is. Wants to be better than what it is. And that is what we must be. See ya on Friday.

During the lecture, David shows slides of some pretty iconic architecture. The complete list is: Guggenheim New York Interior, Barragan House, Guggenheim exterior, A house that looks like Ghery's moms house, but isnt, Salk Institute, Phillip Exetor Library, Salk Courtyard, Salk again, Gaudi's Casa Mila rooftop, Eygptian Pyramids, Panthenon, Notre Dame, Ronchamp, Sagrada Familia, Chryster Building

Interesting not, today we get our first crossover, two time architect...
Student #2, played by Art Ghudabala, also played an employee of the firm in Life as a House.

I know alot of you out there are worried about the economy, some of you may have been laid off, some might be worried about mortages... I'm not saying that selling your spouse out is a surefire way to make it through the next year, but, its always an option.

Michelle Pfeiffer in "One Fine Day"

Michelle Pfeiffer as Melanie Parker
George Martin as Smith Leland







A day in the life of two single parents, George Clooney is a writer, Michelle Pfeiffer is an architect, both of whom didnt make it to drop off their kid at a field trip, so now they have to trade off kids while they do their business. Inbetween work and falling in love, George has to expose a political scandal and Melanie (Pfeiffer) has the biggest presentation of her life. As she lands the big account, the empowered woman learns that she can't do it all on her own. This film runs like a golden age romantic comedy and has some great, memorable dialoge between the two leads. Hilarity ensues and they kiss in the end.

This is the first film ArchitExploitation reviews with a woman as an architect. Quite an important point in a field that is mostly male, mostly white, and very control oriented. Watch Melanie as she ...

Sketches infront of clients at a bar!

Puts Hilariously out of scale toy cars in a model!

Awkwardly carries the model! I hope she doesn't drop it!

The best lines from One Fine Day come from the scene where the architect takes a model to be repaired at the model shop her firm runs. The model was damaged after Melanie was carrying the model, steped on a dinosaur her son was playing with and smashed the whole thing.

Melanie:How bad is it?
Model Shop Guy: Well, it modulal, so its concievable that I could life out the damaged portion and replace it with the same piece from the mock up so i wouldn't have to start from scratch. It wont be perfect. I know you Melanie, you won't be happy with less than perfect.
Melanie: Today, I will.

That today should be everyday for us all.

In life, I mean. Perfect your work you lazy fuckers.

Helmut Bakaitis in "The Matrix Reloaded"

Helmut Bakaitis as The Architect









Hello Neo, Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah, blah blah. Blah Blah. Ergo, Blah Blah Blah. Blah blah...blah. Blah blah. Blah, Ergo, Blah blah blah. Blah ... blah blah, Vis-à-vis: blah.

Its my guess that hes a posh retail architect.