Filmmakers, like architects, take a unique look at their environment. Are those who have the task of drawing up the plans for our homes or gathering places influenced by cinema? Do films represent a source of inspiration for them? In the series “The Architecture Lesson”, The Duty meets architects to talk about their profession, but through the filter of the seventh art.
It was in his “second home” that the architect Martin Houle had given an appointment to Dutymore precisely at the School of Architecture of the Université de Montréal. He studied there after a time at Polytechnique Montréal, where he often goes to comment on the projects of those who are learning their trade on the same benches as he once did. This role of mentor is perfectly suited to the one that many describe as a bridge builder. And where can we admire them? They are not visible to the naked eye, because Martin Houle’s passion is both to bring together the driving forces of his profession, and to bridge the sometimes great gap between his peers and engineers. While still a student, he collected a wealth of information on events in the architectural community to share them with his classmates, a passion that would become a news platform, Kollectif, in 2006; he is its founding director alongside his acolytes, Marc-André Carignan and Grégory Taillon. This trio multiplies initiatives to promote the talent of local architects. At the same time, for the engineering firm Elema, he serves as a link between the ambitions of architects and the constraints of engineers. “I often repeat the same saying: architects know little about many things, while engineers know a lot about few things,” says with a laugh the man who describes himself as “a bridge between the world of generalists and that of specialists.” And, according to him, there is nothing better than watching films to broaden one’s horizons, regardless of one’s profession.
How would you describe your relationship with cinema, from yesterday to today?
I remember very well the very first film I saw at the cinema with my father and sister: Who Framed Roger Rabbit [de Robert Zemeckis, 1988]. But it was not a decisive experience, because as a child, I had very little interest in cinema. It was only once I arrived here, at the School of Architecture at the University of Montreal, that my relationship with cinema changed, thanks to my classmates who really liked watching films. My sensitivity and curiosity about the seventh art were finally able to develop.
Was it also at this time that you discovered the existence of the International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA)?
As a student, I already had a list of contacts and, through a blog, I distributed information to my colleagues about everything that was happening in the world of architecture. That’s how I discovered that FIFA offered a program dedicated to architecture, which is always very popular. Even today, I consider that there is no better event, no better organization, to celebrate this art. When Philippe U. del Drago, director of FIFA and architecture enthusiast, asked me to be part of the Club of 40, a group of ambassadors of the festival to ensure its sustainability, I didn’t hesitate for a moment. Every year, we are given the opportunity to rethink our practice, to be inspired by what other architects accomplish, but also to be in contact with what is being done in dance, music, or literature. If there is one thing an architect must do, it is to get out of his comfort zone. What makes a good designer strong is being able to let himself be inspired… and destabilized!
What do you think about the representation of the architect as a film character?
I often find it caricatured, far from our reality. Take for example the character of Numérobis in the animated film Asterix and Cleopatra [de René Goscinny et Albert Uderzo, 1968]. He is idealistic, but above all solitary, anxious, and neurotic. A good architect knows how to work in a team, and with his clients! At the moment, I confess that I am dreading the release of Megalopolis (2024), by Francis Ford Coppola. I watched both trailers, and we see another architect character [interprété par Adam Driver] visibly obsessed, megalomaniac, narcissistic… and with a T-ruler! No architect draws by hand anymore, or works with this instrument! These are clichés, and we continue to perpetuate them, including the one that architecture “is about making beautiful things”, when it goes far beyond that. It is a discipline at the crossroads of art, engineering, psychology, accounting and sociology. Basically, the architect is like the filmmaker: an architectural project and a film are never accomplished alone.
Since the beginning of this series, all the architects who participate in it declare that they worship Wes Anderson’s cinema (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch, Asteroid City). Is this also your case, and can you explain this fervor?
Architects always work on perspectives and axes, looking for purity and balance. This is what Wes Anderson does, and succeeds in, in all his films.
Basically, he talks about architecture, but without ever using an architect character to do so.
Exactly. To be honest, I don’t care about the fact that we don’t see many architect characters in cinema. What is essential is that cinema can celebrate architecture as an artistic discipline, that it presents it as a creative process. That’s why I love science fiction cinema, whether it’s the universe of Star Wars, Star Trek, The Lord of the Ringsor Denis Villeneuve’s films. In any case, regardless of the genre, the filmmaker must ask himself in which city, in which landscape, a character evolves. With his own materials, he too can build a city. Basically, in a good fiction film, the best architecture is the one that we don’t see because the characters are perfectly integrated, even intertwined. Cinema artisans must not ask themselves how architecture can be highlighted, but how it serves the story to be told.
When The Duty asked you to participate in this series, you quickly mentioned your favorite film, My Architect (2003), by Nathaniel Kahn. What does this documentary inspire in you?
I will first emphasize the strength of the premise: the filmmaker, who is not an architect, seeks to know a little better his father, the famous Louis Kahn (1901-1974), through his architectural work. He discovers the fundamental, and human, influence of his architecture on people, societies. Yes, it was quite an issue [Louis Kahn a fondé trois familles différentes en cachant à ses conjointes l’existence des autres, et il est mort lorsque Nathaniel n’avait que 11 ans]but what a brilliant and visionary man! At the end of the film, when Nathaniel is in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and people understand that it was his father who designed the National Assembly, it is particularly moving. They understand that an architect of Jewish origin believed in this country, in its citizens, and that he offered them a building in perfect harmony with their culture. The whole film is a process of reappropriation, but above all of reconciliation. It is one thing to lose your father, but when he is a celebrity in his field, and the son goes to meet his father’s other wives, it is another…
Since you regularly watch FIFA, do other documentary filmmakers inspire you?
I really like Joseph Hillel, a very talented Quebec filmmaker who has made several films on architecture, including City Dreamers (2018), MTL: views from the heart (2022), and Ordinary or Super. A Look at Mies van der Rohe (2004). In this documentary, Ramachandra Borcar’s music is very successful, because it harmonizes perfectly with the subject of the film. It is not only to see… but to listen to!