We watched “Sketches of Frank Gehry” by Sydney Pollack (DVD rental) the other night, quite an inspiring movie with the sole except of the “gush and awe” campaign unleashed Sydney towards Frank. One critic put it this way … “Pollack is too friendly with his subject (almost to the point of having a man crush on Gehry), so the theme of Sketches of Frank Gehry is reduced to, ‘I think Frank Gehry is super awesome, and you should, too’” which is going as bit far – but I was not alone in feeling that way to some degree.
That said; the movie is well worth watching. Some of my favorite shots are of his smaller projects including his own home in California. Frank has a good attitude towards his critics and the films contains one viewpoint critical to Frank’s vision – although it’s not a very well presented one as it feels a bit dry and non-detailed. I felt it really tried to get deep into that wonderful line that Gehry’s mind/hand draws when he’s creating …
“One of the hardest places for a movie — or anything else — to go is into the mind of an artist. You can point the camera at the work that is the tangible product of how that mind operates, and you can record interviews that try to explain and interpret, but the creative process remains a durable mystery.” (source – NYT)