Filmmakers like architects take a unique look at their environment. Do those who have the task of drawing up the plans of our homes or our gathering places allow themselves to be influenced by cinema? Do films represent a source of inspiration for them? The duty goes to meet architects to talk about their profession, but through the filter of the seventh art.
A graduate in architecture from Laval University in the early 1980s, Pierre Corriveau first worked for the firm Tétreault, Parent, Languedoc et associés, known for projects such as the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau (named the Canadian Museum of civilizations when it opened in 1989) and the transformation of the Olympic Vélodrome into a Biodôme more than 30 years ago. In 1995, he founded his own architectural office, Archi-, a firm whose motto is “minimum means for maximum effects”. This vision is embodied in projects such as the recent expansion of the Nouveau Monde theater, the modernization of the Verdun hospital and the library of the École de Technologie Supérieure. In an open letter published on July 5 in The duty as president of the Order of Architects of Quebec, Pierre Corriveau pleads for greater “collective sensitivity with regard to the built environment”.
What place does cinema occupy in your life? Are you a amateur or a voracious movie buff?
You used the right word, “amateur”! Unlike architecture, and even though I really like cinema, I’m really an amateur when it comes to talking about it.
Do you have trouble putting aside your architectural perspective when watching a film?
One of the things I love about cinema and television series is the possibility of discovering places, or when space becomes a character. This is why Quebec cinema attracts me, because you feel at home there. Viewers see places they’ve always seen, and suddenly they see them from the director’s point of view. I really like drawing, I often do it outside and in other countries: when I sit down to draw a public square, the people who were in front of me all end up settling behind, driven by curiosity . They say to themselves that my point of view is valid, that the place is beautiful enough to be drawn. Cinema produces the same effect.
Which films impressed you architecturally?
The first that comes to mind is Inception [2010], by Christopher Nolan. The way the filmmaker manipulates the settings is fantastic, for example when the city of Paris folds in on itself and rushes towards us. The points of view are multiple, a bit like Cubism, like in a painting where several looks are on the same person.
I also like Wes Anderson’s overflowing imagination, as in The Grand Budapest Hotel [2014], which presents us with a totally deconstructed world on an architectural level, filled with saturated colors, displaying a pasteboard side. The filmmaker doesn’t even apologize for it! I adore The young ladies of Rochefort [1967]by Jacques Demy, for the same reasons.
Sometimes space is an integral part of the plot. I noticed it recently while watching the series Fragments [réalisée par Claude Desrosiers et écrite par Serge Boucher], with these two young characters living opposite each other in a building on Avenue de l’Esplanade, opposite Jeanne-Mance Park. If their front door had opened directly onto the street, they might never have met! This is a great example of a building created to promote connections.
It can also arouse voyeurism, as in Rear Window (1954), by Alfred Hitchcock!
The window of the apartment that the photographer with the broken leg spies on was designed as if it were a cinema screen: the character played by James Stewart seems to be watching a film, and the viewer with him. There is also a nice contrast between a rather modern building, precisely with its large window, and all the others which are a little dated.
If one of your creations, or that of another Quebec firm, could be found in a film, what would your choice be?
I am particularly proud of the renovation in 2012 of the Assembly Hall of the University of Montreal, a very small space located in the Roger-Gaudry pavilion, designed by Ernest Cormier [et inauguré en 1943]. The rector at the time, Guy Breton, asked us to revamp this place, which had been radically transformed in the 1970s. In the past, this place required confrontation; Guy Breton wanted it to exude transparency and conciliation, because it welcomes not only the University’s board of directors, but all the other groups and professions of this establishment. We had to keep the concrete stands, but we made it a hemispherical room where everyone can see each other, where all eyes can meet, with phenomenal acoustics. [Des scènes du téléfilm américain Gothica (2013), d’Anand Tucker, y ont été tournées.]
My other choice, we already see it a lot on television and in the cinema, and with good reason, is the Jacques-Parizeau building of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, in Montreal. At the time of its construction, many claimed, wrongly, that the architects “had paid themselves a trip “. We kept talking about cost overruns. But everyone who was involved in this project [Consortium Gauthier Daoust Lestage/Faucher Aubertin Brodeur Gauthier/Lemay et associés] wanted to make it a great success. They spared no effort. Result: the building has not moved a bit since its inauguration [en 2003] and we won’t need to do it again in 40 years. Quality costs more upfront, but afterward, when it comes to maintenance and functionality, it’s much less.
Do you have any architectural criticism to make to the filmmakers?
We always see houses of rich kids, often for one reason: filmmakers want space! The houses where everyone lives are not used enough in the cinema. This is what disappoints me about the cinema-architecture alliance, this lack of interest in domestic architecture, these small places of great quality. My house, located in the Mile End district, is 20 feet wide [environ 6 mètres], I transformed it on my own, without a huge budget, and people find it beautiful. At one time, I was asked to shoot commercials or series there. But as soon as the filmmaker arrived, he always said the same thing: not enough perspective for the camera!
Of course, you can reproduce this type of interior in a studio, and I imagine that in many cases it is almost impossible to do otherwise. Maybe it’s a professional distortion, but I feel studio sets right away!
As an architect, what films would you like to recommend to moviegoers to promote your profession?
I would simply tell people to attend the Montreal International Art Film Festival (FIFA). It’s a real meeting for me, and not just professional. Of course, when I see films dedicated to architecture, I come across a lot of colleagues from the architectural community, which is not that big, because the order has around 4,600 members. That of engineers, 70,000!
FIFA now programs films throughout the year. This festival deserves to be supported and encouraged. We discover many documentaries there, on all subjects, sometimes resembling novels, which present us with a multitude of lives… and places.