Film Review: ‘City Visions’ #1
Magdalena Melon | 29 September 2014 ‘Cathedrals of Culture’ If buildings could talk, what would they say about us? Under the direction of Wim Wenders, Cathedrals of Culture attempts to throw light on this question by offering six renowned filmmakers a chance to select a building that means something special to them, and allowing them to pose as the narrators who communicate the soul of their buildings. This could have proved...
Film review: “Rebel Architecture” #2
Magdalena Melon | 4 September 2014 “Greening the city” “If the current way of thinking does not change, sooner or later citizens will actually live in concrete jungles. For a modern architect, the most important mission is to bring back green spaces to the earth.” “Urbanisation is threatening our green spaces in Ho Chi Minh City” – a quote from Vo Trong Nghia, the Vietnamese architectural subject of this short film –...
Film review: “Rebel Architecture”
Pedro Calmon | 29 August 2014 “The Pedreiro and the Master Planner” “The favela is unplanned, it arises spontaneously, with no help or design from government”, Luis Carlos Toledo, Master Planner. Arbitrariness, especially in urban settlements, is a rare feature. From Berlin’s Wall to the plazas of Spanish cities, the question “why is something where it is” – seems to be fundamental to any analysis of a determined...
Whatever happened to Utopia?
FILM: ‘Utopia London’ by Tom Cordell, 2010 Reviewed by Rowan Morrice | 14 September 2012 It’s not often we hear about Utopia these days. An idea which used to be identified with the future, is now a purely historic phenomenon. Today when it seems we can only imagine a dystopian future, this film presents a nostalgic look back at the Modern movement in 20th Century London. The film charts, through a series of key...
FILM: Urbanization
‘Urbanized’ directed by Gary Hustwit, 2011 Reviewed by Michael Owens | 25 June 2012 Urbanized is the cinematic delight one might expect of Gary Hustwit, the director of this, the third in a trilogy of studies in design, following Helvetica (modernism in a typeface), and Objectified (industrial and product design). Each deals with a dimension of design’s intimate relationship daily life. Here, we look at design...
The housewife that changed the world?
‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’ by Jane Jacobs; Random House, 1961. 458pp Reviewed by Alastair Donald | 31 July 2011 “From this house in 1961, a housewife changed the world.” When she died in 2005, the tributes and flowers on the pavement outside Jacobs’ former flat in Greenwich Village suggested the high esteem in which she is held by many designers who see her as having played a pivotal role in altering how we...
East vs West
Comparing the post-war literature & cinema of East and West Germany (1945-1990) Martha Williams | March 2011 On May 8th 1945, the war ended for Germany with the signing of the unconditional surrender for German forces. On the June 5th, the Allies signed a treaty proclaiming their authority over German territory: the country would be governed through four occupied zones belonging to Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United...
THEATRE: A New World
‘A New World: A Life of Thomas Paine’ by Trevor Griffiths, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London. September 2009 Reviewed by Thomas Gartrell | 25 September 2009 In 1791, Tom Paine began the Rights of Man – his defence of the ongoing French Revolution – with an address to George Washington, the first President of the newly founded United States of America. Paine presents him with “a defence of those Principles of...
FILM: Milk
‘Milk’ directed by Gus Van Sant, 2009 Reviewed by Thomas Gartrell | 20 February 2009 Hands up… until the film opened, I didn’t know what Milk was about – let alone who Harvey Milk was and what he stood for. So I was annoyed when a friend gave away the ending just before I went to see it. But rest assured, it takes nothing away from Milk to know in advance that its main character, American gay-rights...
FILM: Slumdog Millionaire
‘Slumdog Millionaire’ directed by Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan, 2008 Reviewed by Siddharth Rajan | 8 February 2009 Danny Boyle has created a masterpiece in “Slumdog Millionaire”. With some great technical work and a rather unique storyline (based on the novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup), Danny has created what some are suggesting the best movie of 2008 worldwide. The movie is set up in the slums of Mumbai. It...
Listen in
Next meeting
Publications
NEW TITLE
