Film

Sketches Of Frank Gehry + Short

Cert: 12A

Description: Frank Gehry is one of the most celebrated and also enigmatic architects, revered for his visionary designs and inventive use of titanium and glass in buildings such as the Bilbao Guggenheim and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. This documentary attempts to shed light on Gehry's creative process, intercut with interviews with some of his admirers and detractors such as one-time New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp and musician Bob Geldof.

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Dir: Sydney Pollack.

Country: US.

Year: 2005.

Duration: 83mins

Sketches of Frank Gehry

Bosom buddies: Frank Gehry and Sydney Pollack

By Derek Malcolm
28 Jun 2007

Sydney Pollack is an old friend of Frank Gehry and he chose the great architect of the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, as the subject of his first documentary.

It is not an entirely objective study, allowing only one brief voice of dissent among the chorus of praise. But, assuming we know little or nothing about architecture, Pollack provides a fresh and intriguing primer.

There should, perhaps, have been more about the therapist who persuaded Gehry that he wasn't a failure. But otherwise Gehry himself talks eloquently to his friend about what makes him tick and how his work has developed.

The result is a persuasive movie which proves beyond doubt that at least some geniuses are intensely practical as well as intuitive.