Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman | |
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Directed by | Eric Bricker |
Written by | Eric Bricker Phil Ethington Jessica Hundley Lisa Hughes Deborah Dietsch |
Produced by | Eric Bricker Babette Zilch |
Starring | Julius Shulman Frank Gehry Dante Spinotti Kelly Lynch Richard Neutra Ed Ruscha Tom Ford Barbara Lamprecht Benedikt Taschen Thomas Hines |
Narrated by | Dustin Hoffman |
Cinematography | Aiken Weiss Dante Spinotti |
Edited by | Charlton McMillan |
Music by | Charlie Campagna |
Distributed by | Arthouse Films |
Release dates |
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Running time | 84 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Visual Acoustics: The Modernism Of Julius Shulman is a documentary film by Eric Bricker that explores the life and career of the much lauded architectural photographer Julius Shulman. His iconic photography shaped the careers of some of the great architects of the 20th century and helped define Modernism for the general public. [1]
Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, Visual Acoustics is a documentary film that explores the life and career of the architectural photographer Julius Shulman, who died at age 98 in 2009. [2] Shulman was widely considered to be the world's greatest and most well-known architectural photographer. [3] The film highlights his iconic photos which were frequently populated with human models and striking landscapes, often combining the organic with the synthetic and melding nature with contemporary design. The film highlights how these images shaped the careers of some of the great architects of the 20th Century, notably Richard Neutra, John Lautner and the Case Study Architects. [4] His iconic image of Case Study House #22 is one of the most well-known and widely distributed photographs of Modernist architecture. Still working until his death, Shulman continued his celebration of modern architecture with striking images of the work of modern greats like Frank Gehry. [5] His work in particular brought Southern California Modernism to life and made modern architecture accessible to many. His larger than life personality was a driving force in his work and in this film. Exploring Shulman's art and uniquely creative life, Visual Acoustics forges an all-encompassing portrait of Modernism's most eloquent ambassador. [1]
Variety's Robert Koehler writes in his review:"The modernist ethic receives its due in "Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman." Eric Bricker's handsome, functional if not very cinematic tribute to Shulman emphatically argues for his place as the most important of architecture photographers, and the person who has directly conveyed the titular style to a wider public. Something of a missionary statement for a missionary, this is nirvana for lovers of mid-century modern and fine-art photography, and a solid bet for wide-ranging and specialty fests along with arts-oriented cablers..." and
Shulman, now 97, is responsible for photographing many of the mod masterpieces in meticulous detail, particularly in the movement's Southern California epicenter. As the film helpfully explains, Shulman's eye for one-point perspective (though not noted here, a considerable influence on Stanley Kubrick's films from "Paths of Glory" on) accommodated the style's emphasis on open, airy space; long, geometrical lines; panoramic use of glass and windows; and the visual blending of exterior earth and sky with interior comfort zones." [6]
Review Aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 94% of reviewers gave the film positive reviews, based on 17 reviews and with an average score of 7 out of 10. [7]
Frank Owen Gehry is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions.
Richard Joseph Neutra was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for most of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect. His most notable works include the Kaufmann Desert House, in Palm Springs, California.
The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to functional and utilitarian designs and construction methods, typically expressed through minimalism. The style is characterized by modular and rectilinear forms, flat surfaces devoid of ornamentation and decoration, open and airy interiors that blend with the exterior, and the use of glass, steel, and concrete.
Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, was an architectural movement and style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco and later postmodern movements. Modern architecture was based upon new and innovative technologies of construction ; the principle functionalism ; an embrace of minimalism; and a rejection of ornament.
The Case Study Houses were experiments in American residential architecture sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine, which commissioned major architects of the day, including Richard Neutra, Raphael Soriano, Craig Ellwood, Charles and Ray Eames, Pierre Koenig, Eero Saarinen, A. Quincy Jones, Edward Killingsworth, Rodney Walker, and Ralph Rapson to design and build inexpensive and efficient model homes for the United States residential housing boom caused by the end of World War II and the return of millions of soldiers.
Postmodern architecture is a style or movement which emerged in the late 1950s as a reaction against the austerity, formality, and lack of variety of modern architecture, particularly in the international style advocated by Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock. The movement was introduced by the architect and urban planner Denise Scott Brown and architectural theorist Robert Venturi in their 1972 book Learning from Las Vegas. The style flourished from the 1980s through the 1990s, particularly in the work of Scott Brown & Venturi, Philip Johnson, Charles Moore and Michael Graves. In the late 1990s, it divided into a multitude of new tendencies, including high-tech architecture, neo-futurism, new classical architecture, and deconstructivism. However, some buildings built after this period are still considered postmodern.
Mid-century modern (MCM) is a movement in interior design, product design, graphic design, architecture and urban development that was present in all the world, but more popular in the United States, Brazil and Europe from roughly 1945 to 1970 during the United States's post-World War II period.
Edgar Jonas Kaufmann was an American businessman and philanthropist who owned and directed Kaufmann's Department Store, in Pittsburgh. He is also known for commissioning two modern architectural masterpieces, Fallingwater, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and the Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs, designed by Richard Neutra.
American modernism, much like the modernism movement in general, is a trend of philosophical thought arising from the widespread changes in culture and society in the age of modernity. American modernism is an artistic and cultural movement in the United States beginning at the turn of the 20th century, with a core period between World War I and World War II. Like its European counterpart, American modernism stemmed from a rejection of Enlightenment thinking, seeking to better represent reality in a new, more industrialized world.
Julius Shulman was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph "Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect." The house is also known as the Stahl House. Shulman's photography spread the aesthetic of California's Mid-century modern architecture around the world. Through his many books, exhibits and personal appearances his work ushered in a new appreciation for the movement beginning in the 1990s.
Arts & Architecture (1929–1967) was an American design, architecture, landscape, and arts magazine. It was published and edited by John Entenza from 1938–1962 and David Travers 1962–1967. Arts & Architecture played a significant role both in Los Angeles's cultural history and in the development of West Coast modernism in general. The magazine's significant cultural contributions include its sponsorship of the Case Study Houses design-build-publication program.
Early architectural photographers include Roger Fenton, Francis Frith, Samuel Bourne, Inclined Studio (India) and Albert Levy. They paved the way for the modern speciality of architectural photography. Later architectural photography had practitioners such as Ezra Stoller and Julius Shulman. Stoller worked mainly on the east coast of America, having graduated with a degree in architecture in the 1930s. Shulman, who was based on the West Coast, became an architectural photographer after some images that he had taken of one of Richard Neutra's houses in California made their way onto the architect's desk.
The Kaufmann Desert House, or simply the Kaufmann House, is a house in Palm Springs, California, that was designed by architect Richard Neutra in 1946. It was commissioned by Edgar J. Kaufmann, Sr., a businessman who also commissioned Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Bailey House, or Case Study House #21, is a steel-framed modernist house in the Hollywood Hills, designed by Pierre Koenig. It was registered as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #669, with the endorsement of then-owner Michael LaFetra, the Los Angeles Conservancy, and Pierre and Gloria Koenig.
Neutra VDL Studio and Residences, the home of architect Richard Neutra, is located in Los Angeles, California. It is also known as the Neutra Research House, the Van der Leeuw House, the Richard and Dion Neutra VDL Research House II, or the Richard and Dion Neutra VDL Research Houses and Studio. It was designed by Richard Neutra and his son Dion Neutra. The house is currently owned by California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and is maintained by its College of Environmental Design. The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, and was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2016.
Juergen Nogai is a German architecture, art and documentary photographer.
Roger Lee (1920–1981) was a Chinese-American modernist architect who designed more than 100 houses and other projects in Northern California, Nevada, and Hawaii. Most of his work was done during the 1950s and 1960s, and mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been referred to as an architect who "designed high style for the middle class," and is today considered one of "the forgotten mid-century modernist" architects. Lee was also one of the few Chinese American architects in the nation when he first received his license in 1947.He was regarded as one of the most brainy architect of his times because of his unconventional modernist way of designs.
The Modesto International Architecture Festival was an architecture festival.
Soto-Michigan Jewish Community Center was a community center located at the corner of Soto Street and Michigan Avenue in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles, California. The building was notable for its architecture and cultural legacy, it has since closed and the building was demolished in 2006.
Julius Ralph Davidson or JR Davidson was a Mid-century modern American architect known for advancing modern architecture in Los Angeles and participating in Arts & Architecture magazine's Case Study House Program.