AIA UK Film Night:
'Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future 'ere...
A Film by Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine
When: Tuesday 07, February 2017 at 7:00pm
Where: BFI Screening Room, 21 Stephen Street, London W1T 1LN
Tickets: AIA Members: £3, Non-Members: £5
1.5 CES credits available
Peter Rosen Productions, Inc. & The AIA UK proudly present Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future, which explores the life and visionary work of Finnish-American modernist architectural giant Eero Saarinen (1910-1961).
Best known for designing St. Louis’ iconic Gateway Arch and New York’s TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Saarinen also designed Yale University’s Ingalls Rink and Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges, Virginia’s Dulles Airport, and modernist pedestal furniture like the Tulip chair. His sudden death at age 51 cut short one of the most influential careers in American architecture.
Saarinen’s son, director of photography and co-producer Eric Saarinen visits the sites of his father’s work on a cathartic journey. The documentary also features rare archival interviews with Eero and his second wife, The New York Times art critic Aline Saarinen, as well as letters and quotations from Aline’s memoirs voiced respectively by Peter Franzén and Blythe Danner.
“Closure was something I didn’t have with my dad. But I forgive him for his genius,” said Eric Saarinen, ASC. “He figured out a way to be important across time, so even though he died young, he is still alive.”
The son of prominent Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen and textile designer Loja Saarinen, Eero was surrounded by design his whole life, as was his son Eric, whose mother Lily Saarinen was a sculptor, artist and educator. Immigrating at the age of 13 to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan USA, Eero attended Cranbrook Academy of Art, designed by Eliel, who taught there and became the school’s first president, as well as the chief architect of the Cranbrook campus, with Eero designing details like gargoyles and chairs. Eric also grew up at Cranbrook with his parents, grandparents, their friends and collaborators, including his godparents, designers Charles and Ray Eames.