I.M. Pei - First Person Singular/The Museum on the Mountain
by Peter Rosen
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DVD details
Director: Peter RosenBrand: PEI,IEOH MING
Producer: Peter Rosen
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 49 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-07-29
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Homevision
DVD Reviews of I.M. Pei - First Person Singular/The Museum on the Mountain
DVD Review: Learning To See In a New Way
Summary: 5 Stars
I.M. Pei is someone I would kill to have as a dinner partner, a man so gracious in manner and diversified in conversation that any time spent in his company would simply fly by as I sat enthralled. And so it is with this documentary.
The talented son of a well-to-do Chinese banker, Pei received the best education his family could arrange and ultimately ended up in the States studying architectural engineering because he lacked confidence in his drawing skills. "Nonsense," said his professor. "All Chinese people can draw. If you want to be an architect, then be one!"
At the time when Pei was a student, the Beaux Arts stylistic school was in vogue, but Pei's eyes were opened by the Bauhaus school of thought with its clean lines and "form follows function" philosophy; the work of Walter Gropius who taught at Harvard where Pei was a student; LeCorbusier's freedom and plasticity of form borrowing heavily from sculpture; Aalto's insistence that the design conform to the use of the building; and Marcel Breuer's fascination with sunlight and the play of light upon the planes of a building.
Thanks to his education in architectural engineering, Pei could never forget that structural elements go hand in hand with architecture, and the architect must always be aware of the forces in play upon a structure. Pei likes to push the envelope where the two disciplines intersect.
Virtually unknown until Jackie Kennedy selected him to design the Kennedy Library from the creme de la creme of the then architectural giants, Pei is responsible not only for the Kennedy Library but also for the Pyramid at the Louvre, the addition to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., his signature Bank of China Building in Hong Kong, the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Dallas Orchestra Hall, to name just a few.
Of his life partner, his wife Eileen, whom he married when she graduated from Wellesley, Pei likes to say he bounces all his ideas off her first because she is his best critic.
His personal philosophy for architecture touches on the following points: start with the complex and reduce it to its essence; like Bach, find a basic theme and repeat it many ways in that particular project; never duplicate projects because each project brings is own space, setting, use, and history; the simpler the solution, the more powerful the structure appears; persist and never sacrifice principle; make the space move as the people move easily within the space; and travel, travel, travel as you learn to "see" in a new way -- don't just settle for reading books or copying someone else's work.
If you enjoy classical music, you (like me) will immediately try to find the soundtrack to this documentary. Sadly, there is none, so I've had to collect the individual works as listed in the end credits. The music is so integral to the visual that it's easy to understand why Pei finds classical music stimulating to his creativity.
I purchased this DVD with one on Frank Geary (who brings more of the sculptural to his architectural style), and "My Architect" a thoroughly engrossing documentary about the search for I.M. Kahn's true nature and greatness as discovered bit by bit through the eyes of his illegitimate son with whom he couldn't spend nearly the amount of time he should have. The final scenes of the movie brought tears to my eyes. I highly recommend it as a riveting testimony to both the frailty and the greatness in human nature.
I highly recommend all three of these DVDs.
Description of I.M. Pei - First Person Singular/The Museum on the Mountain
Featuring two full-length documentaries, this special edition DVD grants the viewer unfettered access into the mind and artistic philosophy of one of the greatest living legends in architecture: I.M. Pei. Pei?s childhood, education, and experiences reveal a life dedicated to the mystery and poetry of structural geometry in First Person Singular, while The Museum on the Mountain tells the intriguing story of the conception, design, and building of Japan?s majestic Miho Museum in the mountains near Kyoto. The disc also features a project archive with detailed photos, drawings, and descriptions of twenty I.M. Pei structures.Bestsellers in DVD
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