MY ARCHITECT: A SON'S JOURNEY ------------------------------
When famed architect Louis I. Kahn died unexpectedly, his son, Nathaniel, searched his obituary to find some reference of himself, but only a wife not his mother and a daughter Sue Ann were mentioned. Decades later, Nathaniel is still trying to find evidence of his existence in the life of his father in his searching documentary, "My Architect: A Son's Journey."
It's not unusual when Hollywood studios come up with the same idea all at once - two films being prepared about "Alexander the Great" at the same time, etc., but how odd that two independent filmmakers have both attempted to reconnect with an absentee father who was a prominent architect via a documentary within two years! Even weirder is Kahn's admission that the real family name is Schmalowski, a foreign version of Lucia's surname? Lucia Small's "My Father, the Genius" was a well directed, wildly original use of the form, although she also benefited from having her subject participate in her film. Kahn, in trying to explain his present by revisiting his father's past, goes a more conventional route with a father who has passed into history.
Kahn interviews his dad's colleagues and contemporaries and visits his most famous buildings - the Salk Institute, the Kimball Art Museum, the Capitol of Bangladesh, although they shed little light on the man. Philip Johnson dubs him 'the most beloved architect of our time,' while another associate marvels that Kahn was married, let alone had two additional families with mistresses. The architectural kudos are tempered humorously by present day inhabitants of the Richards Medical Building who say it is not a good place to work and that birds fly into its windows.
In reconnecting with his past, Kahn is more coy when his interview subject, in fact, knew him as a young boy. He has an emotional reunion with the man who operates a music barge that opens into a hall, a project that Kahn can trace to a childhood book, 'A Book of Crazy Boats,' made for him by his dad. A fascinating bit of kismet is captured when Kahn locates the last man to see his father alive (Kahn collapsed in the men's room at Penn Station), who reveals that he hasn't seen his own son in ten years.
Kahn tries to build suspense by working his way through his father's women by leaving his mother until the film's end. Harriet Patterson is finally introduced 1 hour into the film, still beautiful with a rich, youthful voice, Although her contention that Louis was returning to her and Nathaniel at the end because he had crossed out his address in his passport is poo-pooed by Kahn's legitimate offspring, when she poses her questions to her son - 'So what do you think Nathaniel? Do you think it's a myth?' - her words are poignant and oddly reflective of her son's film.
Kahn ends up with a conflicted portrait of his father - a man with a badly scarred face who was irresistible to woman, an 'in the trenches' professional revered by Frank Gehry, a Utopian dreamer of impractical designs who nonetheless created practical solutions. One never quite gets a sense of Kahn has accomplished his person goals, either. 'Are we family?' he asks his two half-sisters. He does, however, convey a sense of loving connection to his father when he includes a shot of himself rollerblading in the courtyard of the Salk Institute. His musical accompaniment? Neil Young's "Long May You Run."
B
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