VHS : Frank Lloyd Wright:Falling Water

Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9781559745376
Format: Color, NTSC
ISBN: 1559745371
Label: Tapeworm Video
Manufacturer: Tapeworm Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Tapeworm Video
Release Date: March 23, 1999
Running Time: 146 minutes
Studio: Tapeworm Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1995
Sales Rank: 46965

Related Items:

Editorial Review:

Description:
Fallingwater, the Edgar J. Kaufmann house, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright between 1934 and 1937. Considered the greatest American house of this century, it is sited on a spectacular waterfall in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. The remarkable history of Wright's masterpiece is presented in this new hour-long documentary, which premiered at the Museum of Modern Art. Produced and directed by Kenneth Love, FALLINGWATER features rare home movies of Mr. Wright and Mr. Kaufmann and describes in detail the extraordinary building as well as the events that led to Mr. Wright's commission. Based on an extensive interview with the client's son, who was also a Wright apprentice, FALLINGWATER is the definitive film on the greatest creation of America's greatest architect.

Amazon.com:
The beauty of Frank Lloyd Wright is that aside from telling a long and often melodramatic story lucidly, it deals with issues of art and architecture in ways that are approachable but not simplistic. (It's also surprisingly scandalous, although this is seen as part of his art.) Wright was first and foremost a rebel who took his cues from nature, though, as one commentator points out, this is not to say his approach was natural. What he was rebelling against was the clutter and claustrophobia of Victorian architecture. The rooms he designed opened up on each other, and his exteriors seemed to grow laterally out of the landscape. All of these ideas are neatly illustrated--although it perhaps could have been explained how Wright's later, whimsical designs related to his earlier, earthbound ones--with some marvelous footage of a Wright lily pad column supporting a load of sandbags and quiet Steadicam shots of Wright interiors that give the viewer a feeling for his sense of light and harmony. The filmmakers have wisely kept the technical talk to a minimum, but they are also not afraid to step back and let the experts ruminate on the nature of his genius, even when these experts are at a loss for words. Burns has made stars of some of his commentators in previous films, and in this one the late critic Brendan Gill shines. Wright himself comes across as a man who never doubted himself, a lousy father, and self-consciously Byronic. His vitality and larger-than-life persona seemed to belong to the 19th century, making him--and this is perhaps a mixed blessing--the last of his kind. --John Clark

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Good but there are much better Burns works out there
I don't know if it is because it wasn't just Ken Burns or what but it wasn't A+ like his most of his other works. It left out some details that seemed needed for the story. I own most all of Ken Burns work but this is one I just rented and didn't buy.

Rating:

- THE "LIFE" OF A GREAT ARCHITECT IS THE MORTAR THAT HIS DESIGNS SPRANG FROM!
IN A NUTSHELL:

Any way one looks at, this was a very well done documentary. Yes, it did stress his life and misdeeds. Apparently, his deeds and misdeeds were the mortar that his designs sprang from.

WHAT IT IS:

Essentially, through this chronological biography of a sort, we see the development of the man being mirrored by the development of his ideas of how to make interior space for living, worshipping, and working more civilized and, in many ways, more functional ... Read More

Rating:

- A superb if not all inclusive documentary
In watching this marvelous documentary on the life and career of Frank Lloyd Wright I was reminded of an equally unpleasant creative artist. After Robert Frost spent several days of abusing and attempting to humiliate the poet Archibald McLeish, the historian Bernard DeVoto told him, "Robert, you are a great poet, but a bad man." Contrary to one myth, not all geniuses are jerks. Marcel Proust was exceedingly quirky, but by every account he was a generous and caring friend. Albert Einstein was by accounts ... Read More

Rating:

- Ya Gotta Like Ken Burns
The reviewers below are right about this DVD: if you want to see Wright's work, you'd be better off looking elsewhere.

Burns is obviously fascinated by the person. We learn so much about a self-promoting genius who succeeded in such a uniquely American way. Perhaps his most fascinating characteristic is Wright's apparent complete absence of self doubt, carried to such an extreme as to allow him to reinvent himself over, and over, and over again.

Wright was a hornswoggler in the best ... Read More

Rating:

- This Is Not a Movie Picture Book
I bought this dvd thinking that I wanted to see homes that Frank Lloyd Wright built, but this dvd does that no justice. This is a documentary of Frank Lloyd Wrights life, not a movie about his work. I do not suggest buying this unless you want to know about the man, not his work.

Browse for similar items by category:

Genres - VHS - Video - General