Modern Architecture and Spatial Experiences in Film

Modern Architecture and Spatial Experiences in Film

Rizka Fitri Ridayanti

Advisor: Diane Wildsmith

Architecture International Program

Faculty of Engineering

University of Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Architecture and film in this modern era are inseparable concerning the generation of

perceptual spaces. Architecture is built in and around spaces, which may provide the setting

for a film, whereas film stands as a two-dimensional medium to explore and present

architecture as a narrative framework. Architecture is a fundamental component in order that

film can deliver its narrative. This paper discusses how architectural representation is

conveyed to encase the spatial narrative of a film and the important role they hold in

conveying messages, underlying narratives, and the spatial experiences in a film. It discusses

the workings of real to reel, borrowing Nezar AlSayyad‟s term in reference to the reality and

the cinema, using the modern architecture in Jacques Tati‟s Playtime (1967) as a case in point.

Architecture in the real and reel stand as the main focuses of this paper. Finally, it observes

the concept of reel to real, how the architecture and film can affect our perspectives in life

and be used as parameters for design.

Keywords: architecture; architectural representation; film; narrative; space

INTRODUCTION

Since the late 19th

century, film developed as a medium that has allowed increased awareness

and appreciation of the 3D representation of architecture as well as urban spaces.1 Film

captures motions, sounds, and sequential narratives of a city‟s architecture that allows an

experience of 3D architectural spaces through 2D medium. No other medium has had the

power to present an exploration of real or virtual 3D architectural spaces as boundlessly as

film.

The versatile camera positions and the cinematography enables all kinds of angles and

perspectives that present a rich visual treat of architecture and enhances the virtual

experience. This rich representation of architecture through the medium of film stands as the

initial idea of commencing the study of architecture and film.

AlSayyad (2006, p. xii) suggests looking at the world of cinema and reality

simultaneously, in that, “Both real and reel become mutually constitutive to a point that

renders the study of one without the other incomplete or ill-informed.” Real being the reality,

and reel the screen. This research uses this statement as the basis in structuring the writing

1 Boake, Terry M. Architecture and Film: Experiential Realities and Dystopic Futures, 2005/2006.

http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca/faculty_projects/terri/pdf/boake_arch_film_colour.pdf (accessed February 17, 2013)

Arsitektur modern..., Rizka Fitri Ridayanti, FT UI, 2013

http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca/faculty_projects/terri/pdf/boake_arch_film_colour.pdf

materials, the reel world opening a window to the real world, revealing the latter being an

inspiration for the former. Thus, this paper questions the story behind architecture in the real

affecting the reel, and the architectural representation and spatial experiences in a film.

The film that inspired this research was director Jacques Tati‟s film Playtime (1967)

and is used as a case study, for its rich representation of architecture. Both of Tati‟s films

discussed in this writing, Mon Oncle (1958) and Playtime (1967), bring forth strong themes of

modernity, 1950‟s-1960‟s modernism, and modern architecture. They portray architecturally

significant make-believe worlds based on real life narratives of modern architecture, as can be

seen in the artificial set of a city built exclusively for Playtime known as Tativille, or the

modern house of Villa Arpel built for Mon Oncle. Since these films represent rich displays of

modern architecture, this research selects modern architecture as the focus for discussing

architecture in the real and reel. Playtime will have more focus in the paper because Tati

applied a larger design scale of modern architecture in this film, in the construction of

Tativille.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Architecture utilizes knowledge on human behavior, perception, and culture to create spaces

that support and accommodate the way of life of those who inhabit it (Ching & Eckler, 2012).

As architecture is built for people to occupy its spaces, “The priority of architecture is

habitation – a design of the way people will occupy and use an environment.” (Ching &

Eckler, 2012, p. 5). In determining the relationship inwardly with people, the architect

configures the spaces in a building for specific functions that follow people‟s activities to

effectively carry out the human functions. In designing these spaces, besides understanding

the human behavior and flow, it requires the understanding of proportion, organization, light,

and material (Ching & Eckler, 2012). This is why the juxtaposition of architecture and people

is important in architectural representation, to understand the position of the human and their

sequence in space, the human scale that meets the architecture, and the humans‟ reaction to

space. Firstly one needs to identify with the architecture and its spaces.

One of the ways to convey and study this identification process is through 2D

architectural representations. The discovery of the perspective technique in the Renaissance in

the 15th century was crucial in conveying information about depth, distance, proportion, and

flow, in discovering the 'meaning'. Perez-Gomez & Pelletier cite El Lissitzky's observation in

that, “the temporality of embodied experience was crucial, that for architecture the meaning

could appear only „in action‟, for the issues were „time‟ and „space‟.” (1997, p. 322) As


Perez-Gomez & Pelletier also write, architecture allows meaning to present itself. This

meaning can be discovered through architectural representations, but primarily, architectural

experiences through temporal dimensions. The early twentieth century has provided us with a

2D medium that has enabled both this representation of the real and also the chance to

experience, virtually, these dimensions in the reel. Filmmaking introduces us into a dimension

where we are able to identify the meanings of our spaces, between the world with its

representation, and between the human and the world.

David Bordwell (1985) explains the narrative film containing a syuhzhet (plot) and

fabula (story), in which these are related by three types of principles: narrative „logic‟, time,

and space. These are aspects that are connected with the factors of building, representing, and

experiencing architecture, which can be used as the basis for understanding the correlation

between architecture and film. In summary of these aspects, this paper presents space,

narrative, and temporality as the basic elements that reside in architecture and film and

connect them.

Architecture and film both deal with the most crucial element in their production:

space. Ching (2008) writes that space consistently surrounds our presence, and through the

volume of space, we are able to see, identify form, respond to sound, and feel our material,

physical surroundings. Ching explains that generating form in a space begins with a dot,

where the elongation forms a line, in which the extension forms a plane, and finally this

plane‟s extension forms a volume. Humans exist in this volume of space, where architecture

is capable of being realized, known also as the three-dimensional space. Architectural

representation happens through 2D medium, with the series of frames in a film shot that

creates the illusion of people moving within a space. Although film projects space in a 2D

medium, while architecture in reality is a direct 3D space, film provides an opportunity to

experience places and spaces virtually, without actual physical presence or being limited by

gravity or physics.

Meanwhile, architecture realizes the potential of narrative as “the structure of human

life, a poetic vision realized in space-time.” (Perez-Gomez & Pelletier, 1997, p. 392) Built to

encapsulate the spaces that we occupy, architecture defines form and spatial sequences. The

narratives of our daily lives contribute to the forming of the sequence of architectural space.

Narratives in film are also built based on observations of human lives. In film, the issue is to

determine which architectural spatial setting fits which narrative. Herein lies a parallel with

reality, in that architecture is derived from spatial sequences in daily life. This is where design

comes in. We can compare and relate the process to designing in real time and space for real


life with real people. When designing the set for a film, filmmakers need to consider the

appropriate scenes, the types of characters, the choice of dwelling types for the characters,

basically fitting the whole theme to complete the film‟s physical frame, with real life as their

reference, in which they may choose to parody it, exaggerate it, or portray it as realistically as

they can. Therefore, the narrative connects architecture and film.

To experience narratives, occurring in both real and virtual 3D spaces, the required

medium is temporality. In order to actually experience the spaces that result in a sequence of

mental frames, or in the case of film, film shots, temporality suggests the activity of moving

within these spaces. In these sequences our movement within the space is measured by time.

In speaking of mental frames we recall the picture plane, the plane which is located between

the “eye point” or the Oculus as the station point and the object being viewed, upon which

plane or image of the object is then transferred to a 2D medium.2 We can create a parallel

between architecture, art, and film, in that the picture plane is a frame of reference in

architecture, art, and film to position a person in space. The picture plane we hold in our

occupied positions in experiencing sequential architecture is similar with the experience of

going through a series of film shots projecting a film space. These picture planes in a sense

become our film shots in real life. Through sequence temporality meets with narrative and

architectural spaces.

METHODS

The research was conducted by watching and analyzing Mon Oncle (1958) and Playtime

(1967), besides collecting reading materials about architecture, film, and architectural history.

One research question relates to how a reality affects filmmakers to design the architectural

sets for their films. The method used to uncover this was deconstructing the real projected in

the film itself, to de-center the reality in the film and find the binary opposite, which is the

absolute real of modernism and modern architecture. Therefore this paper begins with

discussing modernism and modern architecture. Then, to answer how architectural and spatial

experiences are presented in the narrative film, this paper studies the architecture and spatial

experiences through a selection of scenes, re-imagination and illustration of the architectural

sets in Mon Oncle and Playtime, and the projection of the characters within the spaces.

Finally, to answer the question of the reel affecting the real, this paper observes the way films

impact our perspectives toward real architecture, and the workings of architecture in film to

architecture in reality, from reel to real. 2 Merriam-Webster Online. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/picture%20plane (accessed May 9, 2013)


http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/picture%20plane

RESULT

Modern architecture started gaining popularity after World War II, being a derivative of

modernism that began to appear in the late nineteenth century. Modernism is seen as an

aesthetic and cultural reaction that represented those who felt that the traditional forms of art,

architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming

obsolete in the new conditions of an emerging industrialized world.3 Modern architecture

removes any traditional architectural elements or details and old styles.

The themes of modern architecture include: 'Form Follows Function' which is a notion

coined by Louis Sullivan in 1986, the simplicity of form and elimination of needless

ornaments, and also, the use of industrially-produced materials in the adoption of machine

aesthetics, and an emphasis on horizontal and vertical lines, particularly in the International

Style.

Le Corbusier was one of the most influential architects of modern architecture,

famously stating, “The house is a machine for living.”4 Such mechanical aesthetics can be

seen in his design for Villa Savoye in 1931. The scope for his principles of design expanded to

be implemented on an entire city in his urban design projects. In the 1920s, housing issues

had troubled the French government for decades. The population was booming, but the

availability of space remained the same, if not strained by the incoming residents. Le

Corbusier sought ways to deal with the housing of the large number of people of the Parisian

slums. He proposed ideas of urban design projects to redefine the idea of the city, one of them

the Voisin Plan for Paris in 1925.

In the Voisin Plan, housings are stacked one on top of the other in cruciform high-

rises. These buildings are set in exact linear rows. The streets are arranged in such an order

that they represent a grid, acting as a mechanical artery for the functioning of the whole urban

machine. Housings in the form of smaller buildings of apartment blocks are located outside of

this central group of cruciform high-rises, resembling a maze. This plan was never brought to

actualization by the French government.

The plan has its credit in bringing forth aesthetical values and has the potential in

creating a productive atmosphere. However, the Voisin Plan represents a working machine, an

overwhelming, mechanical city, consisting of horizontal and vertical lines, angular planning

3 Childs, Peter. Modernism. London ; New York: Routledge, 2000. 4 http://www.archdaily.com/84524/ad-classics-villa-savoye-le-corbusier/ (accessed May 9, 2013)


http://www.archdaily.com/84524/ad-classics-villa-savoye-le-corbusier/

design, and a mechanical grid for parts of a whole machine, not to mention uniformity and

anonymity in its buildings.

Figure 1 The Voisin Plan, Le Corbusier, 1925

(Source: http://aftercorbu.com/2007/08/12/plan-voisin/)

Le Corbusier‟s simple, functional, uniform manifestation of his architectural designs

are seen through his mechanical urban planning projects. He believed this would be the best

way to organize society to be efficient and effective along the lines of industrial production.

His practices left footprints which is related to the bottom line he aimed to achieve in the era

of modernism, that led to the modernism of the1950's and 1960's in Paris.

AlSayyad (2006) explains the situation of the mid-1950s in Paris in that there had not

been enough housing stock in Paris since the nineteenth century, and that the situation was

exacerbated by World War II. The influx of migrants, as a result of World War II, added to

the housing issues the government had been dealing with since the economic crisis in the

1930‟s. As economic recovery advanced in the 1950's, the city began to improve. The

government proposed large-scale apartment projects on the outskirts of the city, which were

influenced by the ideas of 1920's and 1930's of the garden city (AlSayyad, 2006). The French

government was in a state where it endorsed modernists and modernization through urban

renewal and industrialization.

According to Iain Borden (2002, p. 217), "This correlation of modernism and the state

was common in the 1950's and 1960's, and provides much of the context for the second of

Jacques Tati‟s films to feature his famous invention, Monsieur Hulot." Apparently, Jacques

Tati, too, as a filmmaker was concerned with housing issues and the urban 'transformation' of

Paris, which would then become the main reference behind the idea of the design of the

modern housing of Villa Arpel, in contrast to the old part of Paris in Mon Oncle (1958),

leading to Tativille as a modernist set in a city scale in Playtime (1967).


Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (Mr. Hulot's Holiday) in 1953 was Tati's first film

that introduced the character of Hulot. His second film to feature Hulot was Mon Oncle (My

Uncle) in 1958. Hulot‟s character represents a person who is in opposition with the world of

modernism and modern architecture where he is never seen to fit in.

In Mon Oncle he critiqued the mechanical and banal way of living in the modern

world, represented by the sterile, geometric, Cubist house in which Hulot's sister lives in,

contrasting it with the life in the old part of Paris where Hulot lived, untouched by modernist

culture. Playtime picks up where Mon Oncle left off and brings forth the same themes of

modernism and modern architecture, however we do not see any scenes taking place in the

'old Paris' at all. The themes in Playtime are emphasized by the presence of homogeneous

buildings and omnipresence of glass, concrete, and steel throughout the film.

Playtime was filmed from October 1964 to October 1976 with a 70 mm camera,

famous for the construction of the pseudo-city Tativille built solely for the film. The 70 mm

camera was used because Tati wanted to capture long shots to give time for the eyes to

wander and wanted every moment and movement to be clearly caught, which was also a

perfect format for capturing large panoramic views of architectural spaces.5

With everyone supposedly cast as stars, there are two main protagonists: Monsieur

Hulot and the American tourist Barbara. They act as the main agents in experiencing the

various spatial environments in the film. Starting off from the Orly airport in Paris, Hulot's

and Barbara's path crisscross throughout the film, where they eventually end up being in the

same group of people at a frenzied restaurant sequence, in which the restaurant scene acts as

the turning point of the rigidity of the series of movements and dullness of modern life in the

city of Tativille.

Tativille was built in 1964 on a vast wasteland outside of Paris near Vincennes. It was

a city of 162,000 sq ft that consumed 65,000 cubic yards of concrete, 42,300 sq ft of plastic,

342,000 sq ft of timber, and 12,600 sq ft of glass.6 It was conceived by Jacques Tati and

designed by Eugene Roman, a cinema town with big blocks of dwellings, buildings of steel

and glass, offices, tarmacked roads, and car parks.7 There were approximately 100 workers in

the 5-month construction of this city.8

5 Penz, Francois. Architecture in the Films of Jacques Tati. In: Penz, Francois, and Thomas, Maureen, Cinema and

Architecture. London: British Film Institure, 1997. 6 Borden, Iain. Playtime 'Tativille' and Paris. In: Leach, Neil, editor, The Hieroglyphics of Space: Reading and Experiencing

the Modern Metropolis, London ; New York: Routledge, 2002, p. 217 7http://www.tativille.com/uk/index.php?page=starter&anim=pt_playtime&width=800&height=600&titre=playtime (accessed

April 9, 2013) 8http://www.tativille.com/uk/index.php?page=starter&anim=pt_playtime&width=800&height=600&titre=playtime (accessed

April 9, 2013)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Vacances_de_Monsieur_Hulot

http://www.tativille.com/uk/index.php?page=starter&anim=pt_playtime&width=800&height=600&titre=playtime


The buildings seen in Tativille are based on the architecture of the Esso building at La

Defense, Paris, 1963, as a central business district that was flourishing in the 1960's, although

implicitly, these buildings were based on the Lever House in New York, 1952.9 The image of

the Esso building, the first office building at La Defense, is the very first one to emerge in the

film after the opening credits.10

The Lever House was designed by Gordon Bunshaft of the

architectural and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The building was

considered a pioneer in American architecture when completed in 1952. The 24-storey

building, with its glass façade of blue-green and stainless steel mullions, was one of the first

glass-walled International Style office buildings in the US.11

Figure 2 Tativille, Jacques Tati and Eugene Roman, 1964

(Source:

http://www.tativille.com/uk/index.php?page=starter&anim=pt_playtime&width=800&height=600&titre=playtim

e)

Figure 3 Esso building, Greber, Lathrop, and Douglas, 1963

(Source: http://vivesaintbobo.blogspot.com/2009/06/la-defense-jacques-greber.html)

9 Borden, Iain. Playtime 'Tativille' and Paris. In: Leach, Neil, editor, The Hieroglyphics of Space: Reading and Experiencing

the Modern Metropolis, London ; New York: Routledge, 2002, p. 217 10 Alsayyad, Nezar. Cinematic Urbanism: A History of the Modern from Reel to Real. New York ; London: Routledge, 2006,

p. 110. 11 http://www.emporis.com/building/leverhouse-newyorkcity-ny-usa (accessed Apri 23, 2013)




http://vivesaintbobo.blogspot.com/2009/06/la-defense-jacques-greber.html

http://www.emporis.com/building/leverhouse-newyorkcity-ny-usa

Figure 4 Lever House, Gordon Bunshaft, 1952

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lever_House)

The Lever House bears similarity with the Terminal Sud of Paris-Orly in 1961, and

the high-rise of the Europa-Center in Berlin, 1965. The International Style soon became

ubiquitous, spreading across Europe, then America, and then reaching Asian continents,

which can be seen in our Capital City of Jakarta as well. Hotel Indonesia, designed by

American architect Abel Sorensen, and built in 1962, is one of the best examples of modernist

architecture and the International Style.

Figure 5 Terminal Sud of Paris-Orly, 1961

(Source: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/56981469)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lever_House

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris-Orly

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa-Center

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/56981469

Figure 6 Europa-Center, Helmut Hentrich and Hubert Petschnigg, 1965

(Source: http://www.europa-center-berlin.de/en.html)

Figure 7 Hotel Indonesia Kempinski, Abel Sorensen, 1962

(Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/09/23/hotel-indonesia-kempinski-sukarno-s-trails-heart-

jakarta.html)

As can be seen from these images, the typical International Style high-rise consists of

a square or rectangular shape and form, windows are set in neat horizontal rows forming a

grid, with façade angles set typically at 90 degrees. In Tativille, these exact characteristics are

implemented in all of the buildings.

The International Style depicted in Playtime, can be observed as an uncanny

demonstration of Le Corbusier's ideals. Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson

identified three principles of the International Style, which are the expression of volume

rather than mass, the emphasis on balance rather than fixed symmetry, and the removal of

applied ornaments.12

Besides these principles, the common characteristics in the buildings

include a drastic simplification of form, a material preference for glass, steel and concrete,

and the deliberate expression of structure, using the basis of machine aesthetics and logical

design decisions to create a functional building. One of its major weaknesses in terms of

social and cultural factors is that it makes no reference to location or country, hence it

12 Hitchcock, Henry Russell, and Johnson, Philip. The International Style. W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.


http://www.europa-center-berlin.de/en.html

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/09/23/hotel-indonesia-kempinski-sukarno-s-trails-heart-jakarta.html

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/09/23/hotel-indonesia-kempinski-sukarno-s-trails-heart-jakarta.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=Wp1Sl8ZNKg4C&pg=PP1&dq

generates anonymity. There is no sense of place, resulting in spatial disorientation. These are

among the criticisms of modern architecture Tati expresses in his films.

Although the French government projects helped improve housing conditions,

AlSayyad noted, "The new modernist developments were criticized for their lack of such

crucial features of French life, such as cafes, markets, and street life." (2006, p. 98) Such are

the generally known characteristics of Paris that we identify with that fall under 'the real

Paris', which Barbara seeks in Playtime. Tati left out this typical 'Parisian life' on purpose so

that the audience could experience the same sentiment, a sense of longing for the past and a

connection with reality.

The stark reality of modernism was revealed in direct contrast with this nostalgic

sentiment. By the early 1960‟s, ownership of TVs had begun to flourish in French

households, as it had in American households in the 1950‟s, and 'French life' as we know it

began to falter amidst the wave of modernism (AlSayyad, 2006). Indeed, this is portrayed in

Playtime, when Hulot meets an old friend who brags about his new car and television set in

his uncanny television-replica of a 'home'. Furthermore, "Throughout the 1950‟s France was

flooded with American appliances, cars, fashion, music, films, and so on –simultaneously

provoking anti-American sentiments." (AlSayyad, 2006, p. 99)

Herein lies one of the real-life narratives that was evidently used by Tati as one of the

themes in his film Playtime. This can be deduced as a factor why Tati chose American tourists

as one of the major protagonists in the film. While the rest of the Americans feel comfortable

with a familiarity that makes them feel quite at home even in Paris, only Barbara is astute in

her observations of the dullness, resulting from the uniformity of buildings and finds comedy

in the pointless modern objects, and longs for 'the real Paris'.

DISCUSSION

In Mon Oncle (1958), we see two types of architecture that contrasts with the other; the old

building in which Hulot lives in, and Villa Arpel, the modern Cubist house Hulot‟s sister

occupies. Hulot seems to be constantly challenged by the modern architecture and appliances

of Madame Arpel's house. Hulot's old apartment is expressed as being 'good', while Madame

Arpel's house is presented as the 'bad'. Villa Arpel is used as an example of a mechanizing

modern architecture, designed by Jacques Tati and painter Jacques Lagrange, assembled as a

collage from images of architectural reviews.13

13 Penz, Francois. Architecture in the Films of Jacques Tati. In: Penz, Francois, and Thomas, Maureen, Cinema and

Architecture. London: British Film Institure, 1997.


Figure 8 A Replica of Villa Arpel in 2009, as seen in Mon Oncle, designed by Jacques Tati and Jacques

Lagrange

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mon_Oncle)

Hulot is featured as a likeable character, untouched by the modern-living mode

favored by his sister and brother-in-law. Hulot's nephew represents a universal conscience in

the film, as a human reaction to the modern Cubist house he lives in. He is, unsurprisingly,

the only one unhappy in the home, while his mother is occupied with cleaning and

maintaining the house and operating with the modern appliances, and his father is busy

working in a modernist factory. The mother and father try to enjoy the modernity of their

home. The boy feels restricted not only by the way his parents treat him, but also because of

the way the layout of the house restricts his freedom of movement. The boy cannot even play

soccer outside because of the rigid, strictly-patterned garden.

The house is functional. It is there as if to fulfill morning, noon, and evening activities.

The house and its garden are pleasing in terms of a machine aesthetic. However, for a home to

live in, it is a restricting, uncompromising machine, unsuitable for a child's sports.

Figure 9 Villa Arpel Block Plan

(Source: 3D Sketchup Model14)

14 Google Sketchup http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=94b5b4e7f7f4243610582ac1f07d1ac&prevstart=0


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mon_Oncle

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=94b5b4e7f7f4243610582ac1f07d1ac&prevstart=0

Figure 10 Villa Arpel Elevation

(Source: 3D Sketchup Model)

Figure 11 Villa Arpel Elevation 2

(Source: 3D Sketchup Model)

In Playtime (1967), we witness uniformity in the buildings throughout Tativille,

creating disorientation and a sense of anonymity of the architectural spaces, where we cannot

identify one place with the other. Through the agency of the American tourist, Barbara, we

see posters of exactly the same buildings from Tativille located in cities all across the world.

Unvarying shots in Playtime using architectural settings of repetitive sharp-angled

buildings throughout Tativille, omnipresent large transparent glass, a gray-and-blue pale,

monotonous color palette, and unvarying perspectives of adjacent modern office buildings,

juxtaposing with the characters in the film, present Tati‟s critique of the coldness and an

alienated modern society in a world of transparency, the monotony of a mechanizing modern

architecture, and insight into the industrial productions of the modern time. This is

architecture where people cease to be interested in other people, cease to be aware of their

built environment and live in it as parts of a machine.


Figure 12 Playtime still, 1967

(Source: Tati, Jacques, dir. Playtime. Les Films des Mon Oncle, 1967)

The glass architecture in the film presents an irony of how in a world of everything

being seemingly transparent in modernism, the people‟s senses become numb to other

people‟s presence and the surroundings. The television-replica flat of Hulot's old friend

consists of huge glass windows. This invites onlookers to peer into the inhabitants‟ activities,

yet a sense of privacy for these inhabitants prevails. These modern citizens merely pass the

buildings without curiosity as to what goes on inside these windows. It is the audience who

becomes the observers of the paradox.

Playtime portrays how architecture can affect the characters‟ actions, choices,

perceptions, and thoughts, either in tune with the goals of the characters, or against them,

constantly causing trouble for the characters or leading them into 'traps'. One example is when

Hulot arrives in a modernist office building for an appointment with an associate named

Giffard. The glass wall of the opposite building shows the reflection of Giffard. Confused by

the reflection, Hulot crosses the road to go after him, believing he was inside the building,

only taking him farther away from his objective.

Tati also shows us a spatial experience in the monotony, uniformity, and anonymity of

the modernist office building interior. The office consists of cubicles where Hulot gets lost in

it in search for Giffard. There is an irony of how an open office floor plan, capable of dividing

the spaces between workers to create a friendly working atmosphere with an equality of space

and engaging with human social experiences, works against these social purposes. Through

this scene, human senses are shown be disoriented with the homogeneous, repetitive spatial

arrangement of the office cubicles, and restricted in social engagements.




The open office plan is designed in a rigid, mechanical, and cold manner. Although it

might be conducive inside the cubicle in boosting productivity, it forces people to work like

parts of a machine. It results in a serious, exclusive, antisocial atmosphere, where the cubicles

block any view of activity within these boxes or beyond them, contrary to the main purpose of

an open office plan to provide easy access and open communication. This layout restricts

movement of people within the space.

Figure 14 The floor plan, illustrating perspective points shown in the sequence below


Figure 15 Reimagining Hulot‟s spatial experiences in the modernist office building: the receptionist sits in a box

in the middle of the room, and she is able to swivel in every direction that whenever Hulot walks past her she is

always facing him. This adds to Hulot‟s disorientation of the space.

Jacques Tati gives meaning to the architectural surroundings through the characters‟

movement in the film. It begins with rigid, sharp-angle turns of the people in the cold,

modernist, rectangular spaces with monotonous colors. This leads up to the restaurant scene,

where everything, including the interior of the restaurant, and the restraint of the people, falls

apart. Everyone seems to forget their predetermined roles and express themselves freely on

the dance floor. Finally, it ends with a circular flow at a roundabout, where Tati presents

vibrant colors that have been missing since the first scene, and livelier, natural movement of

the people. Through this alteration, Tati implies that the emergence of the new is inevitable,

and this is how he expresses compromise (AlSayyad, 2006).




Observing Villa Arpel from Mon Oncle reminds us of Le Corbusier‟s statement about

the house as a machine. To counter the statement by its literal meaning, humans are not meant

to live inside machines. People cannot be living in machine-like places because they have

senses. Our senses define our relationships outwards with our surroundings, and inwards, in

terms of perception. These senses enable people to be aware of the architecture and spaces

around them. These senses include visual perception, memory, sound, touch, and even smell.

To apply the design principles of Le Corbusier in his favor of machine-aesthetics would

produce a rigid, limiting, mechanical architecture.

Modern architecture in Playtime shows us how it created a uniformity of architecture

contrary to each country‟s own cultural and geographic identities, reflected in architecture and

national landmarks. This uniformity wipes out any sense of place, diminishes any sense of

belonging, includes no sense of history, and ultimately, leads to anonymity. Particularly, in

the case of the International Style, the architectural experience is reduced to a dull experience,

with these similar looking buildings everywhere, causing disorientation. This experience

generates insensibility towards the expressionism, experientialism, and identity in architecture

and space. Juxtaposition of architecture and people results in an absence of variation in spatial

temporality, thus creating monotony, resulting in a case of void-of-meaning in spaces.

Through his films, Tati demonstrated awareness of the potential of modern

architecture to create a sense of spatial disorientation. In Mon Oncle, Tati attempts to bring in

the worlds of the new and the old in contrast, presenting this in a way that shows the new

threatening the existence of the old. In Playtime, Tati imagines a world where there is no real

Paris at all. Modernity is shown to conflict with the past through reflections of visible

landmarks on glass doors, whose reflections include the Eiffel Tower, Basilique du Sacre

Coeur de Montmartre (Basilica of the Sacred Heart), and Arc de Triomphe (Arch of

Triumph). Tati criticized the homogeneity of buildings, uniformity and dullness of life


encased in spatial environments and consumerism in his films, which generate a sense of

anonymity in the city of Tativille. Tati presents the spaces in angular forms, and places the

humans to move in the same angular, mechanical motions in the modern architecture, as seen

in the open office plan.

CONCLUSION

Through architectural representation in film, it is this perception of the projection of the

people in the spaces through a series of spatial, temporal sequences through a series of frames

that verify the validity and the meaning of an architecture and its spatial configurations. Tati‟s

underlying message in his films, through his portrayal of the effects of modernism and

modern architecture on people, is an endorsement of a living that reflects the cultural

identities of Paris instead of getting carried away by the wave of modernism.

Thus, studying architecture and film begins with the reel world, which reveals the

absolute real, and hence we learn the translation of spaces from this reality to the cinema. Tati

rendered his visual perception of his real surrounding to the reel. This marks the impact of

visual perception on the holder. In return, the real benefits from the reel in the context of this

visual perception of the reel. Because people tend to quickly absorb input from visual

perception of the surroundings, representation of architecture projected through a 2D medium

such as film is able to become the basis in generating the imagination of the construction of

space in real 3D space for architects and architecture students.

We are able to conjure spaces from a scene or, in fact, reproduce, the architectural

spaces projected in the reel through architectural drawings or models as interpretations of the

spaces in the reel, as seen from the earlier representations from the office in Playtime. The

aim is to figure out how the arrangement of spaces configures the characters‟ flow in the reel,

to re-imagine inhabiting such spaces, and also, to deconstruct these spaces and come up with a

new design. Moreover, the reel world becomes a reference in how to project our own

architectural representations. The reel already provides us with directions where and how to

look at the spaces based on the occupation of humans in it. Architecture students, especially,

are able to learn from the cinematography and analyze how it conveys information about the

space, narrative, and temporality.

Film, particularly Playtime as a case study, has a potential to contribute to the cycle of

observing, designing spaces, and experiencing them. The architectural representation in a 2D

plane can be procured again in real life, on our own 2D plane, based on our own analysis, and

in its deconstruction we are capable of discovering new forms of spaces, and realize them in


3D. This links to Ching‟s earlier explanation about the extension of a plane forming a volume,

in which the volume of space is where we realize architecture, analogous to the reel and the

real. The wide-ranging architecture from modern architecture to futuristic architecture in

films can become references for designs.

The reel is capable of shaping new perspectives of real life. In Tati's films,

modernization and industrialization is seen to take place on top of the sacrifice of traditions

and cultures, as it causes people to be consumerists and be focused on material achievements,

affecting the relationship of people and architecture. Tati‟s films of portraying the old versus

the new makes us question the function architecture holds in society, whether it is only there

to encase human spaces, or more importantly, to secure a sense of home, a sense of belonging

to a space.

Hence, the linkage of architectural spaces and cinematic spaces lies in our visual

perception, as a picture plane that is analogous to a film shot. Through this perception, we are

able to deconstruct the spaces of modern architecture in the film and find the truths of the reel

and real.

REFERENCES

Alsayyad, Nezar. Cinematic Urbanism: A History of the Modern from Reel to Real. New

York ; London: Routledge, 2006.

Alsayyad, Nezar. The Cinematic City: Between Modernist Utopia and Postmodernist Utopia.

Built Environment, 26(4), 268-281, 2000.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/23287791 (accessed April 7, 2013)

Borden, Iain. Material Sounds: Jacques Tati and Modern Architecture. Architectural Design:

Architecture + Film II, 70(1), 26-31, 2000.

Borden, Iain. Playtime 'Tativille' and Paris. In: Leach, Neil, (ed.), The Hieroglyphics of Space:

Reading and Experiencing the Modern Metropolis. London ; New York: Routledge, 2002.

Bordwell, David. Narration in the Fiction Film. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,

1985.

Ching, Francis D.K. Arsitektur: Bentuk, Ruang, dan Tatanan. Jakarta: Penerbit Erlangga,

2008.

Ching, Francis D.K., and Eckler, James F. Introduction to Architecture. New York: John

Wiley & Sons. 2012.

Penz, Francois, and Thomas, Maureen (eds.) Cinema and Architecture. London: British Film

Institure, 1997.


http://www.jstor.org/stable/23287791

Perez-Gomez, Alberto, and Pelletier, Louise. Architectural Representation and the

Perspective Hinge. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1997.

Perez-Gomez, Alberto, and Pelletier, Louise. Architectural Representation beyond

Perspectivism. Perspecta, Vol. 27, 21-39, 1992.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1567174 (accessed June 24, 2013)

Internet References

Boake, Terry M. Architecture and Film: Experiential Realities and Dystopic Futures,

2005/2006.

http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca/faculty_projects/terri/pdf/boake_arch_film_colo

ur.pdf (accessed February 17, 2013)

Playtime (1967), Interiors Journal,

http://www.issuu.com/interiorsjournal/docs/interiors0912 (accessed February 17,

2013)

Playtime,

http://www.tativille.com/uk/index.php?page=starter&anim=pt_playtime&width=800&

height=600&titre=playtime (accessed April 9, 2013)

Films

Tati, Jacques, dir. Mon Oncle. Les Films de Mon Oncle, 1958.

Tati, Jacques, dir. Playtime. Les Films de Mon Oncle, 1967.


http://www.jstor.org/stable/1567174



http://www.issuu.com/interiorsjournal/docs/interiors0912



Documents

Modern Architecture and Spatial Experiences in Film