Swimming Against The Stream

We just watched a fantastic documentary (from Netflix) entitled "Sketches of Frank Gehry". This is yet another one of those films I would never heard of if it weren't for the movie review section of Tokyo Metropolis. I'm still barely half way through the recommended movies that were reviewed on their site over the past two years. This film is an intimate look at the architect Frank Gehry, a true visionary and artist in his field. Directed by close friend/director Sydney Pollack, we see the creative process of Gehry's masterpieces from crude ink doodles to paper models to 3-D computer illustrations to finished product which include a multitude of public buildings. But more than that, we take a ride on Gehry's psyche and learn where he is coming from and why he does what he does. His buildings are stunningly breathtaking in their bizarre, otherworldly organic shapes and materials, and even if you don't like them you can appreciate their grand scale and absurdist approach. As with many documentaries, there are the prerequisite talking heads giving commentary, including Dennis Hopper, director Julian Schnabel, Bob Geldof, and a handful of others including Gehry's therapist! These kind of documentaries fascinate me not so much in the specific topic or media being discussed but in the fact that people like Gehry base their livelihood on generating a product which is purely from their own creative instinct. In other words, they don't show up at an office or work space from 9 to 5 and produce a known and given item or service, no more no less. What they do is almost selfish, pure self-satisfaction, and yet I'm totally envious of that. Not that they haven't worked hard to be where they're at, but there must be something magical about having that kind of freedom. Maybe the threshold to true happiness in your work is not in pleasing other people but in pleasing yourself - something to ponder. Unfortunately, most of us 'regular' people don't have the luxury or the means to do that kind of thing. By the way, if you enjoy this theme of the power of the individual creative spirit versus the norms and expectations of society, you need to check out the book "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. It's a fictional account of an architect, not unlike Frank Gehry, who pushes the buttons of everyone around him through his creative genius. I read this book about 12 years ago, and though it's hella looooong, it's well worth it. There was a movie adaptation made back in the 50s starring Gary Cooper, but an updated version is long overdue...

Here's a few pics of some of Gehry's buildings. In order, top to bottom, they are the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain; the Dancing House in Prague; the Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago's Millennium Park, and Fish Dance in Kobe, Japan.