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The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema,
by Juhani Pallasmaa
Rakennustieto Publishing, 2008
I am interested in the ways cinema constructs
spaces in the mind, creates mind-spaces, thus reflecting
the inherent ephemeral architecture of the human mind, thought
and emotion. The mental task of buildings and cities is
to structure our being-in-the-world and to articulate the
surface between the experiencing self and the world. But
doesn't the film director do exactly the same with his projected
images?
This snippet from Juhani Pallasmaa's introduction to his analyses of five films by four directors (Rope and Rear Window by Hitchcock, Nostalghia by Tarkovsky, The Shining by Kubrick, and The Passenger by Antonioni)
paints a clear picture of the architect/writer's intentions. Much variety comes with each director's unique way of telling a
story, their formal qualities, techniques, lighting, settings, and other inherent film variables. The differences, for example, between the controlling hand of Hitchcock or Kubrick and
the improvised and location-inspired approach of Antonioni lead to different analytical approaches. (I should fess that having not yet seen this or any other Tarkovsky film I did not read Pallasmaa's essay on Nostalghia; seeing each film, to me, is necessary for understanding and appreciating the author's ideas, though others may disagree.)
Both of Hitchock films, for example, include architectural drawings by the author, responding to the director's reliance on precise sets, framing, lighting and camera movements to convey
the appropriate meanings and emotions.
A consistent thread through the book, even though the essays span close to ten years and most were previously published elsewhere, is painting. This stems from
the author's personal history but also from the overlap with film in that each artform illustrates architectural space, be it
real or imaginary. Some of the most enlightening moments in this highly enjoyable book stem from comparisons of the films to
specific paintings, in some cases clearly intentional on the part of the director. This influence and overlap of different forms
of expressions is ultimately what the book is about, though Pallasmaa does not push the cross-disciplinary borrowing or rationalizations
prevalent in the nineties. His emphasis instead is on the shared qualities of architecture and film, and, as an architect, what the former can learn from the latter
towards an increased quality of our being-in-the-world.
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