Monday, June 6, 2011

Day 12 - Bibliotheque Nationale de France & Cinematheque Francaise

Today we went to the 13th arrondissment to the Biliotheque National de France to look at the design of the building by Dominique Perrault (built in 1989-1995). At first approach I thought...NO!!! this is too modern, I don't like it!


But as we walked up the tall staircase to the entrance of the buildings I started to change my mind. There are several reasons:



1. The unique gardens that we came to once we got to the top of the tall staircase.
2. The forest that is in the middle of the the 4 tall buildings is so unexpected with large trees that seem as though they have been there for centuries.
3. The materials of the building seem hard and unapproachable from afar but when you get closer you see that between the metal and glass are large wood panels that swing open for light. When the wood panels were closed it made the metal and glass feel warmer and more inviting. I also felt like it encouraged me to be a voyeur by being able to peek in to the spaces when the wood panels were open.




We also went to Cinematheque Francaise to look at the building design of Frank Garry but I was much more interested in the movie that we saw inside. The film was called L'ANGE by Patrick Bokanowski. Although I don't think I fully understood what he was trying to say to us...it was visually stunning and disturbing at the same time. I did a little bit of research on Bokanowski and I found a review of him by another filmmaker, Pierre Coulibeuf, who said that Bokanowski was concerned with "warping" the camera lens and distorting reality. I felt that I was in a dream and parts felt surreal and AVANT GARDE. Strange camera movements and repetitive scenes create this dream like feeling.

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