MIES VAN DER ROHE AND THE MOVING IMAGE Lutz Robbers A ...

issues to the theme film/architecture. 70 Numerous articles, conference proceedings and
monographs were published on the subject. 71
This considerable body of research is mainly concerned with three aspects: architecture in
film, filmic architecture, and film in architecture. The first theme, architecture in film, focuses on
architectural objects that are part of film’s diegesis, i.e. which are visible in the virtual realm of
the cinematographic image. Architectural stage sets for fiction films or documentary recordings
72
of known buildings and recognizable cityscapes are the typical subjects of research.
The idea
that cinematographic stage sets can be revelatory for particular “moments of dialogue between
film and architecture” is taken up by Dietrich Neumann’s Film Architecture – From Metropolis
70
"Cinema and Architecture," Iris, no. 12 (1991); Architectural Design 64, no. 11/12 (1994);
"Film und Architektur (Special Issue)," Bauwelt 85, no. 9 (1994).
71
See for instance Vidler, "The Explosion of Space: Architecture and the Filmic Imaginary";
Giuliana Bruno, "Site-Seeing: Architecture and the Moving Image," Wide Angle 19, no. 4
(1997); Karl Sierek, "Vorschrift und Nachträglichkeit - zur Rhetorik von Bauen und Film,"
Daidalos, no. 64 (1997); François Penz and Maureen Thomas, Cinema & Architecture : Méliès,
Mallet-Stevens, Multimedia (London: British Film Institute, 1997); Helmut Weihsmann,
Cinetecture (Wien: PVS, 1995); Oksana Bulgakova, Sergej Eisenstein - drei Utopien:
Architekturentwürfe zur Filmtheorie (Berlin: Potemkin Press, 1996).
72
Donald Albrecht, Designer Dreams: Modern Architecture in the Movies (New York: Harper
and Row, 1986), VII. It is ironic that the first comprehensive genealogy of modern architectural
film sets of the 1920s and 1930s presented by Albrecht resulted from a project dating back to the
late 1960s when Ludwig Glaeser, at the time head of the Museum of Modern Art’s architecture
department, had the idea to conduct a study of the film-architecture affiliation by comparing of
the museum’s neighboring collections of architectural photographs and movie stills.
The scholarly literature that focuses on set designs in fiction film is vast. See, for instance:
Heinrich De Fries, "Raumgestaltung im Film," Wasmuth's Monatshefte für Baukunst 5, no. 3/4
(1920/21); Edward Carrick, "Moving Picture Sets: A Medium for the Architect," Architectural
Record, no. 67 (1930); Leon Barsacq, Caligari's Cabinet and Other Grand Illusions: A History of
Film Design (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1976); Wolfgang Greisenegger,
"Überlegungen zur Geschichte der Filmarchitektur," Filmkunst, no. 96 (1982); Michael Esser,
"Spaces in Motion: Remarks on Set Design in German Silent Film," Berlin 1900-1933:
Architecture and Design (New York: Cooper-Hewitt Museum, 1987); Brian Henderson, "Notes
on Set Design and Cinema," Film Quarterly 17, no. 1 (1988); Cinemarchitecture. Design Book
Review (Special Issue), no. 24 (1992).
32