My Architect - 2003 - Nathaniel Kahn
Louis Kahn was a famous architect of the 60s and 70s, designing buildings as important as the Yale Art Gallery, and the Bangladeshi Parliament Building in Dhakar.
While his work was in the public eye, his private life was a mystery.
He had three families, three children, and practically worked himself to death.
But “My Architect” is not just a film about a famous architect and his buildings. It’s directed by one of his illegitimate children, Nathaniel. It was a five year journey into his own history, and it seems to have been fruitful.
Much in the same light as Jonathan Saffran Foer’s “Everything is Illuminated”, it explores the mystery that is our own parents.
Apparently they were once real people as well?
But, yeah.
My Architect is great.
Interesting architecture, interesting people.
Two hours well spent.
“How accidental our existences are … and how full of influence by circumstance.”
Interestingly, one of Kahn’s buildings is the Museum of British Art at Yale. This was built to house a collection of works put together by Paul Mellon.
Paul Mellon was one of the main benefactors of Clare College, Cambridge, where I studied for my degree.
Old boys’ network. SCORE!
