Overall [Nathaniel Kahn's] attempt to find his father in his buildings, scars and all, is credible and well-paced, with neat visual rhymes that circle back to points raised earlier.
My Architect: A Son's Journey (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 89
Fresh: 83
Rotten:6
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Consensus: A moving and enlightening documentary about architect Louis Kahn.
Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins
Genre: Education/General Interest
Theatrical Release: Nov 12, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $2,672,377
Synopsis: My Architect is a tale of love and art, betrayal and forgiveness -- in which the illegitimate son of a legendary artist undertakes a five year, worldwide exploration to understand his long-dead father. Louis I. Kahn, who died in 1974,... My Architect is a tale of love and art, betrayal and forgiveness -- in which the illegitimate son of a legendary artist undertakes a five year, worldwide exploration to understand his long-dead father. Louis I. Kahn, who died in 1974, is considered by many architectural historians to have been the most important architect of the second half of the twentieth century. A Jewish immigrant who overcame poverty and the effects of a devastating childhood accident, Kahn created a handful of intensely powerful and spiritual buildings -- geometric compositions of brick, concrete and light -- which, in the words of one critic, "change your life." While Kahn's artistic legacy was an uncompromising search for truth and clarity, his personal life was filled with secrets and chaos: He died, bankrupt and unidentified, in the men's room in Penn Station, New York, leaving behind three families -- one with his wife of many years and two with women with whom he'd had long-term affairs. In My Architect, the child of one of these extra-marital relationships, Kahn's only son Nathaniel, sets out on an epic journey to reconcile the life and work of this mysterious, contradictory man. The riveting narrative leads us from the subterranean corridors of Penn Station to the roiling streets of Bangladesh (where Kahn built the astonishing Capital), and from the coast of New England to the inner sanctums of Jerusalem politics. Along the way, we encounter a series of characters that are by turns fascinating, hilarious, adoring and critical: from the cabbies who drove Kahn around his native Philadelphia, to former lovers and clients, to the rarified heights of the world's most celebrated architects -- Frank Gehry, I.M. Pei and Philip Johnson among them. In My Architect, the filmmaker reveals the haunting beauty of his father's monumental creations and takes us deep within his own divided family, uncovering a world of prejudice, intrigue and the myths that haunt parents and children. In a documentary with the emotional impact of a dramatic feature film (including an original orchestral score), Nathaniel's personal journey becomes a universal investigation of identity, a celebration of art and ultimately, of life itself. -- © New Yorker Films [More]
Director: Nathanial Kahn
Director: Nathanial Kahn
Producer: Susan Rose Behr, Nathanial Kahn
Composer: Joseph Vitarelli
Studio: New Yorker Films
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Reviews for My Architect: A Son's Journey
What makes this movie riveting is not its subject, but the huge hole evident in the biographer's soul, a space he desperately tries to fill by speaking with those once close to his father.
The film becomes a conversation between the living and the dead, trying to reconcile professional genius and personal failure.
We are powerfully gripped by Lou's life and work, but we're never as moved by Nathaniel's quest as we clearly should be.
The film would have been more powerful if it had conveyed a better understanding of what made Kahn's buildings great. If a bit long, the film is always intriguing.
makes its mark on the cinematic landscape as a fitting memorial—to Louis Kahn specifically, and to the artistic spirit in a more universal sense
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