This movie introduces us to selected works of one of the greatest American architects of the 20th and 21st centuries, Mr. I.M. Pei. From the National Gallery to the Loevre and Miho museum, Mr. Pei's works are among the greatest achievements of Chinese-Americans in the world.
3 Reviews
A documentary that also withstood the test of time
ruby_fff23 April 2005
The music of Bach starts as soon as you put the DVD into the player. And the voice of I.M. Pei saying he likes "to make comparison with the music of Bach - constant variations of a simple theme."
I was very fortunate to be given the DVD on my birthday. What a fascinating documentary on architect I.M. Pei, the person, his life: childhood in China, family upbringing and education at MIT and Harvard, how he came to appreciate architecture and working in America, showcasing project by project his portfolio (The Louvre in Paris, The Bank of China in Hong Kong, Miho Museum in Japan, various types of museum, structures, and sites across USA), and his viewpoints about his work and experience, the essential elements of architecture and its integral closeness to art and sculpture. There's a lot of wisdom conveyed in this documentary by filmmaker Peter Rosen. The selection of musical pieces accompanying the film in the background or in between is aptly innervating.
There's actually two features on the DVD: "First Person Singular: I.M. Pei" (1997, 84 minutes) and "The Museum on the Mountain" (1998, 49 minutes) documenting the 6-year project of Miho Museum near Kyoto, Japan. The second feature is a wonderful bonus to behold - it certainly made me want to visit this 'out of this world' museum site in the remote mountains in far away Japan.
Whether you're interested in architecture or not, check out this DVD. 'Architecture' will have a new meaning after you've viewed and appreciated these two documentaries.
I was very fortunate to be given the DVD on my birthday. What a fascinating documentary on architect I.M. Pei, the person, his life: childhood in China, family upbringing and education at MIT and Harvard, how he came to appreciate architecture and working in America, showcasing project by project his portfolio (The Louvre in Paris, The Bank of China in Hong Kong, Miho Museum in Japan, various types of museum, structures, and sites across USA), and his viewpoints about his work and experience, the essential elements of architecture and its integral closeness to art and sculpture. There's a lot of wisdom conveyed in this documentary by filmmaker Peter Rosen. The selection of musical pieces accompanying the film in the background or in between is aptly innervating.
There's actually two features on the DVD: "First Person Singular: I.M. Pei" (1997, 84 minutes) and "The Museum on the Mountain" (1998, 49 minutes) documenting the 6-year project of Miho Museum near Kyoto, Japan. The second feature is a wonderful bonus to behold - it certainly made me want to visit this 'out of this world' museum site in the remote mountains in far away Japan.
Whether you're interested in architecture or not, check out this DVD. 'Architecture' will have a new meaning after you've viewed and appreciated these two documentaries.
There's no there there.
onepotato227 June 2009
Warning: Spoilers
I had higher hopes for this after Pei managed to say such gracious, intelligent things about Louis Kahn in 'My Architect.' But Pei uses such glib terms to talk about his work that one gets the sense that he knows his work isn't very important or remarkable. I. M. Pei seems like a nice guy, but he does not manage to make his ideas very compelling. He's the classic MIT-er enamored of structure. Structure is nice (and important) but it's not enough to make a building interesting or to make a building valuable to its constituents. There's more than a few duds (R&R Hall of Fame, The Kennedy Center). The National Gallery or the Louvre pyramid are probably his best works.
His stuff is corporate and passionless from the get-go; a fault perhaps stemming from the voice-lessness of unknown constituents (speculative building for Zeckendorf). One wonders if Pei could be able to do something clever with no more than 100,000 bucks, if he can't make multi-millions interesting. It's pretty shocking that nothing of what should have been an outsider viewpoint or solution set (He's from China) is evident in his pursuit of big dumb American projects.
There is no Pei interior that fills you with awe; no mastery of space. And his work really fails to get down to a small level of detail, defaulting to broad strokes (atriums) and glass shapes way too much. Asking him to say even one word about low-income housing in the wake of the Pruitt-Igoe debacle (The tenants demanded it be blown up... their wish was granted.) is especially shocking and clumsy. Pei's work is currently passing into the old garde. The world has moved on from both Peis approach, and from documentaries like this.
His stuff is corporate and passionless from the get-go; a fault perhaps stemming from the voice-lessness of unknown constituents (speculative building for Zeckendorf). One wonders if Pei could be able to do something clever with no more than 100,000 bucks, if he can't make multi-millions interesting. It's pretty shocking that nothing of what should have been an outsider viewpoint or solution set (He's from China) is evident in his pursuit of big dumb American projects.
There is no Pei interior that fills you with awe; no mastery of space. And his work really fails to get down to a small level of detail, defaulting to broad strokes (atriums) and glass shapes way too much. Asking him to say even one word about low-income housing in the wake of the Pruitt-Igoe debacle (The tenants demanded it be blown up... their wish was granted.) is especially shocking and clumsy. Pei's work is currently passing into the old garde. The world has moved on from both Peis approach, and from documentaries like this.
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