An analysis of the film, and a discussion of its political context.

For all Big Picture events we produce our own programme notes, with full cast and production information. They’re free with the price of your ticket and summarise some aspects of the film as a starting point for discussion. If you missed the film, or are just interested in finding out more, we make them available online after the screening.

On 25 August 2010, Align will be performed at the Museum of London in the City of London. It’s billed as “lay lines in the limelight” and runs from 6pm til 8pm. Tickets are £5 or £3 with concessions.

Advance booking is a good idea: book tickets here.

The Museum describes Align as follows:

“Watch a performance of Align – a fast-paced and mesmerizing audio-visual essay on the secret landscape of London. Part presentation, part performance art, Align brings together psychogeographers Robert Kingham and Richard Cochrane as they explore themes of imperialism, exploitation, prehistory and myth within the context of ancient lay lines.”

You can find detailed directions to the Museum here.

The last performance — at the Bridewell Theatre, also in the City — sold out and received an insightful review from The Londonist.

150 London Wall | London | EC2Y 5HN Tel: 020 7001 9844 | www.museumoflondon.org.uk

The Fountainhead may not be a film ‘about’ modern architecture at all, but it certainly features a lot of modernist buildings in the form of plans, maquettes and painted mattes. The architectural oeuvre of Howard Roark, a pastiche of the International Style (and presumably the actual work of art director Edward Carrere and set decorator William Kuehl) is one part Frank Lloyd Wright to one part Le Corbusier to one part Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Here, in pictures (screen grabs from the DVD, not production stills: click on any image to see the larger version), is the architectural career of Howard Roark.

Early Career

Two of Roark's first four buildings, illustrated on the walls of his office

Two of Roark's first four buildings, illustrated on the walls of his office

One of Roark's first four buildings, illustrated on the walls of his office

A maquette of Roark's first proposed skyscraper

Suggested classical modifications to the maquette of Roark's first proposed skyscraper

Mid Career

A plan of the Enright House, an apartment block built for self-made millionaire Roger Enright

The Enright House under construction

The completed Enright House

The completed Enright House

The completed Enright House by night

Roark's maquette for a gas station

Roark's plan for a store

Roark's store, built

Roark's plan for farm buildings

The farm buildings, built

Roark's plan for a residential building

Roark's finished residential building

Roark's plan for an office block

The completed office block

Roark's plan for a factory

The completed factory

Late Career

Roark's presentation of a drawing for the Wynand residence

Roark's work in the guise of Peter Keating's: maquettes of Cortlandt Homes

A larger maquette of one of the Cortlandt Homes blocks

Cortlandt Homes as built: decorative

Cortlandt Homes as built: with balconies

Cortlandt Homes as built: classical friezes

Roark's triumph: the Wynand Building, New York's tallest skyscraper

Life Without Buildings has a round-up of recent blog posts on The Fountainhead from an architecural perspective.

For all Big Picture events we produce our own programme notes, with full cast and production information. They’re free with the price of your ticket and summarise some aspects of the film as a starting point for discussion. If you missed the film, or are just interested in finding out more, we make them available online after the screening.

A few brief notes on the post-film discussion:

We began with architecture. America has in fact always been more open to modernism than The Fountainhead suggests, and indeed where successful European modernist architects like Mies van der Rohe chose to practice. Moreover, some architects moved between styles: the skyscraper architect Raymond Hood was mentioned. His career began with the kind of classicism and baroque despised by Roark, and ended in the international style of the Daily News building.

Comparisons were made between Rand’s source novel and the film (many people thought Atlas Shrugged was a better achievement by Rand). The film compresses much of the earlier part of the novel into a few scenes, and dramatically curtails the involvement of some of the characters, like Paul Keating. The lack of roundedness of some of the characters (Roark was described, aptly, as ‘a slab’) was seen as Rand’s deliberate strategy: picking extremes of character in order to demonstrate her Objectivist philosophy.

Though Objectivism might be apprehended through The Fountainhead as being fundamentally about independence and creative vision the founding principle of Objectivism is reason. (The idea of a system of ethics built on reason is close to the subjects of some recent Big Ideas events like Why should we do what we should do? and Is there an art to living?) The question of certainly was also raised: many systems of ethics claim to proceed from reason, but all reach different conclusions. How can they be reconciled?

Lastly, if you were slightly overwhelmed by the ideas and drama of The Fountainhead, you might find this summation of the film amusing.

Click on the button below to book now.

An analysis of the film, and a brief summary of the history of Wittgenstein’s thought.

For all Big Picture events we produce our own programme notes, with full cast and production information. They’re free with the price of your ticket and summarise some aspects of the film  as a starting point for discussion. If you missed the film, or are just interested in finding out more, we make them available online after the screening.

An analysis of the film, and some news stories examining contemporary genetic inequity.

For all Big Picture events we produce our own programme notes, with full cast and production information. They’re free with the price of your ticket and summarise some aspects of the film  as a starting point for discussion. If you missed the film, or are just interested in finding out more, we make them available online after the screening.

An analysis of the film, and some (after)lives of the characters who appear in it.

For all Big Picture events we produce our own programme notes, with full cast and production information. They’re free with the price of your ticket and summarise some aspects of the film  as a starting point for discussion. If you missed the film, or are just interested in finding out more, we make them available online after the screening.

Our screening, followed by a discussion, is at the Paradise by Way of Kensal Green: a characterful pub just off the Harrow Road, close to Kensal Green (Bakerloo Line) tube and Kensal Rise overland train stations. It takes its curious name from a poem by G. K. Chesterton and from its proximity to the local cemetery. It’s here. Click on the button below to book now.

Image ©1997 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Tickets are £5 each and available here:

So, when the Rough Guide repeats the ‘city of villages’ theme about London, it not only does so because it is a way to explain the infrastructure of the city (which is does, though not very well) and to provide a useful narrative in which to place a disparate set of sights (which I suppose it does), but it also feeds back into what London perceives about itself and does with itself (takes care of the Tube and markets different areas, like Camden, distinctly – which you might think is obvious but which was a strategy which alluded London’s planners for a long time). I’m not suggesting that Rough Guide, Lonely Planet and so on dictate city planning, but with their huge market of tourists they are certainly participants in a dialogue about how cities work and are developed.

South Bank Graffiti - James Nash (aka Cirrus)

Cities these days are developed and planned by ‘partnerships’ of developers, local authorities, residents and business groups, architects, and other interest groups. There are no longer, if there ever really were, city fathers who commission municipal works on a grand scale. Instead there is a Byzantine network of – brace yourself for this term – stakeholders who seek consensus about how an area should work. Since none of these stakeholders has an overriding veto on decisions (well local authorities and the Government actually do, but it is practised within the constraints of the partnership model), consensus tends to come together around concepts which have been seen to work before: a technocratic approach prevails. Consequently urban planning fashions can be seen across many cities across the globe. A newly regenerated urban centre these days is likely to require a modern art gallery (not necessarily filled with art, but more importantly a building which can be described as ‘iconic’), outdoor cafes (from Athens to Oslo) and a pedestrian-friendly layout. Nothing wrong with any of these things particularly, but a lot of European historic city centres are beginning to look very similar (even down to tolerated graffiti), and that’s before we mention international retail branding. I think that the guidebook depictions of these cities are the end-product of these partnership decisions in some ways.

Looking at the end of the Rough Guide to London which is form 1997 there is a rather interesting expression of hope for the city, laid out in terms of planning, development and building:

…the Royal Opera House is undergoing a major refurbishment, as is the British Museum, and there’s to be a new Tate Gallery on the South Bank, which is itself due to be radically redesigned. And to top it all, a god-forsaken slice of Greenwich has been chosen as the centre of the country’s Millennium Celebrations. The other good news is that if, as looks likely, the Tories fall from power, London seems at least set to regain a properly elected governing body. It has to be hoped that it is given the power to reverse the last two decades’ decline.

That dates it quite neatly and is a piece of text to contemplate in the light of the very different backdrop to the current General Election.

* A quote from Stanley Mintz

• Dr Amber Jacobs, lecturer in psychosocial theory at Birkbeck University
• Dr Mareike Kleine, lecturer in EU politics at the LSE
• Andy Wilson, director of L-Shift
• Chair: Dr Simon Glendinning, director of the Forum for European Philosophy

The panel will introduce and discuss the topic from 7:30-9:00, after which the audience will be invited to participate, take the emerging ideas forward and engage in an open, friendly and stimulating dialogue. You don’t need any specialist expertise to contribute; in fact we’re hoping to benefit from many different perspectives and your own particular experience and knowledge will give us a valuable insight. The event takes place in the upstairs room of the historic Counting House pub on Cornhill, 1 minute’s walk from Bank tube station.

the only way sensibly to be able to conform to the AHRC guidelines is to apply for money for research you’ve already done

If you’re interested in booking Align for your venue or event see the production details or email Rich to start the ball rolling.