我的建筑师 (2003)

My Architect is a tale of love and art, betrayal and forgiveness—in which the illegitimate son of a legendary artist undertakes a five-year, worldwide exploration to understand his long-dead father. Louis I. Kahn, who died in 1974, is considered by many architectural historians to have been the most important architect of the second half of the 20th century. A Jewish immigrant who over came poverty and the effects of a devastating childhood accident, Kahn created a handful of intensely powerful and spiritual buildings—geometric compositions of brick, concrete and light—which, in the words of one critic, “change your life.” While Kahn’s artistic legacy was an uncompromising search for truth and clarity, his personal life was filled with secrets and chaos: He died, bankrupt and unidentified, in the men’s room in Penn Station, New York, leaving behind three families—one with his wife of many years and two with women with whom he’d had long-term affairs. In My Architect, the child of one of these extra-marital relationships, Kahn’s only son Nathaniel, sets out on an epic journey to reconcile the life and work of this mysterious, contradictory man.

The riveting narrative leads us from the subterranean corridors of Penn Station to the roiling streets of Bangladesh (where Kahn built the astonishing National Capitol), and from the coast of New England to the inner sanctums of Jerusalem politics. Along the way, we encounter a series of characters that are by turns fascinating, hilarious, adoring and critical: from the cabbies who drove Kahn around his native Philadelphia, to form...

My Architect is a tale of love and art, betrayal and forgiveness—in which the illegitimate son of a legendary artist undertakes a five-year, worldwide exploration to understand his long-dead father. Louis I. Kahn, who died in 1974, is considered by many architectural historians to have been the most important architect of the second half of the 20th century. A Jewish immigrant who over came poverty and the effects of a devastating childhood accident, Kahn created a handful of intensely powerful and spiritual buildings—geometric compositions of brick, concrete and light—which, in the words of one critic, “change your life.” While Kahn’s artistic legacy was an uncompromising search for truth and clarity, his personal life was filled with secrets and chaos: He died, bankrupt and unidentified, in the men’s room in Penn Station, New York, leaving behind three families—one with his wife of many years and two with women with whom he’d had long-term affairs. In My Architect, the child of one of these extra-marital relationships, Kahn’s only son Nathaniel, sets out on an epic journey to reconcile the life and work of this mysterious, contradictory man.

The riveting narrative leads us from the subterranean corridors of Penn Station to the roiling streets of Bangladesh (where Kahn built the astonishing National Capitol), and from the coast of New England to the inner sanctums of Jerusalem politics. Along the way, we encounter a series of characters that are by turns fascinating, hilarious, adoring and critical: from the cabbies who drove Kahn around his native Philadelphia, to former lovers and clients, to the rarified heights of the world’s most celebrated architects—Frank Gehry, I. M. Pei and Philip Johnson among them.

In My Architect, the filmmaker reveals the haunting beauty of his father’s monumental creations and takes us deep within his own divided family, uncovering a world of prejudice, intrigue and the myths that haunt parents and children. In a documentary with the emotional impact of a dramatic feature film (including an original orchestral score), Nathaniel’s personal journey becomes a universal investigation of identity, a celebration of art and, ultimately, of life itself.

这是美国费城著名建筑师路易斯·I·康的儿子纳撒尼尔·康对父亲事业和生活的回忆，路易斯生前设计了许多著名建筑，其中有沙克学院、孟加拉首都达卡的国会大厦，1974年他在潘站的浴室里由于心脏病发作而去逝，是位共认的上个世纪最有影响的建筑师之一。路易斯有着三个不同家庭的生活，他和妻子及和妻子的女儿生活在一起，同时他还有两个情人，每个情人有一个儿子，其中一个就是纳撒尼尔·康恩，当父亲去逝时，纳撒尼尔只有11岁……