During Modernism Week 2017 in Palm Springs, California a series of interesting films will be shown, many of them U.S. or West Coast premiers. Here’s the first one we would like to recommend:
West Coast Premier of Neutra Film, “Windshield: A Vanished Vision”
February 21, 2017 | 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm |
Camelot Theatres
2300 E. Barista RoadPalm Springs, CA 92262 United States
In the mid-1930s, a scion of one of New England’s oldest and wealthiest families, John Nicholas Brown, and his wife Anne boldly embrace modernism and select the young and ambitious Richard Neutra to build them a 14,510 square foot summer house on Fishers Island, NY that they name “Windshield.”
Through an enormously detailed correspondence, patron and architect discuss every detail of the house’s design and together pursue cutting-edge technology, much of which had only previously been used in commercial architecture. Then, just weeks after the Browns move in, tragedy strikes when the hurricane of 1938 devastates the East Coast.
“Windshield: A Vanished Vision” explores the pivotal impact of the house on Neutra’s career and takes us on a journey with a couple caught between the values of their upbringings and their evolving social ideals.
Directed by granddaughter, Elissa Brown, the film lovingly weaves fascinating home movies taken by her grandfather of his wife Ann and himself traveling with Neutra in California to view his recently commissioned residences, the construction of Windshield and scenes of family life there, together with son J. Carter Brown’s inspiring lecture about the summer house of his youth and the voices of architectural historians Thomas S. Hines and Dietrich Neumann. A moderated panel discussion follows with director Elissa Brown, Richard Neutra’s son Raymond Neutra and Barbara Lamprecht M.Arch., Ph.D, author of “Richard Neutra – Complete Works” (Taschen) Elissa Brown, Director 46 min.
To view a trailer of the film please visit, http://windshieldmovie.com/#trailer
Images: modernismweek.com, windshieldmovie.com, archidiap, Los Angeles Conservancy
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