Review of Sketches of Frank Gehry (2006) by Elliot P — 11 Jun 2006

Before I saw this documentary, everything I knew about architect Frank Gehry I learned from an episode of [i]The Simpsons[/i]. In this particular episode, the Simpsons spend the day hanging out in culturally rich Shelbyville. Upon learning they're from Springfield, a group of Shelbyvillians point derisively at them and say "Hoot! Hoot! Hoot!". This prompts Marge to send a letter to Frank Gehry asking him to come to Springfield to build them a fancy concert hall that will put them on the map. Gehry's so charmed by her Snoopy notepaper that he agrees. Initially his design looks like a standard rectangular building, but then a wrecking ball bashes it until the frame is all mangled. That's the joke, see? Gehry doesn't do straight lines.

The only other thing I know about Frank Gehry, I didn't actually know I knew until I Googled him after the movie. He apparently designed the wacky looking new concert shell in Millennium Park in Chicago. Though I've checked it out on strolls through the park, I have to admit that my fascination was more with the special quick drying lawn which supposedly allows you to sit on the grass shortly after a rain storm and not get wet. Hmm.

In[i] Sketches of Frank Gehry[/i], director Gehry's pal Sydney Pollack follows him around with a camera, filming him at work and interviewing him about his life. Unlike most documentaries where the filmmaker stays behind the camera, Pollack spends a lot of time on screen talking to Gehry, not just about architecture but about his own career in filmmaking, as well. I found this a little distracting but Gehry doesn't seem to mind.

I'm not quite sure what I think of Gehry's work. His Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain looks so incredibly cool that I left the theatre wanting to see it. But most of the other buildings featured look a bit too chaotic for my tastes. Almost as if Gehry was trying to see how much he could get away with.

I'm a big fan of symmetry and order and Gehry apparently is not. Much of the filming takes place in his office, a room in which the walls are covered with photos. Almost none of the photos are parallel to the walls or to each other. That sort of thing drives me nuts. I was so distracted by his crooked photos that I could barely listen to what he was saying; Gehry probably wishes that the frames were curvilinear.

The most interesting part of the film is when we see Gehry at work building models for his projects. He's like some sort of mad architectural scientist designing whatever suits his whims. He decides he'd like a wall to be corrugated instead of flat so his sycophant assistant dutifully bends it into an accordion shape. Then he wants it flatter, so the assistant cuts off a couple of the folds. Then flatter still, and so on.

Watching Gehry and his team of obedient model-builders, I was reminded a bit of the story of [i]The Emperor's New Clothes[/i]. Working for Gehry has to be one of the best jobs ever, just building whatever crazy thing he tells you to. Kind of like getting paid for playing with Legos. But do Gehry's underlings really think these designs are brilliant or do they go home every night and have a laugh about what the eccentric old coot asked them to make today?

As is the norm in this sort of film, there are dozens of interviews with other people talking about Gehry and his work. Most of these people are artists or architects [font=Times New Roman]?[/font] one guy wears a white bathrobe and sips a martini [font=Times New Roman]?[/font] but there are a few notable exceptions. These include Gehry's ancient therapist who he's been seeing for the past 35 years; Dennis Hopper, who lives in a Gehry-designed building; and Bob Geldof (of Boomtown Rats fame), who once [i]saw[/i] a Gehry-designed building. Really. He tells the camera that he was somewhere in Germany looking out the window and he saw some strange building in the distance and he later found out it was designed by Frank Gehry. End of story. Sheesh. They should've interviewed [i]me[/i] about the time I walked to Millennium Park to look at the new bandshell and then put one knee down on the lawn to see if my pants would get wet. (And they did! Special drainage system, my foot.).

Gehry seems like a nice enough guy, but despite everyone blabbing about him for the entire movie, I didn't really end up getting a strong sense of who he is. I often really enjoy documentaries about people and subjects that I initially know nothing about, but not so much in this case. Perhaps Gehry just isn't quite as interesting as his buildings are.

After my recent experience in which my mediocre review of [i]An Inconvenient Truth[/i] was interpreted as being indicative of me hating the earth and all of its living creatures, I'm a little nervous about giving this film less than a glowing recommendation. So let me just state for the record that I don't hate Frank Gehry, Sydney Pollack, architecture, Legos, the Millennium park drainage system, the Simpsons, or the good people of Shelbyville. Hoot! Hoot!