REVIEW Son's documentary is tribute to father
The award-winning architect designed buildings on a global scale.
By MILAN PAURICH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
A child's devotion to a parent fuels Nathaniel Kahn's gripping and richly contemplative Oscar-nominated documentary "My Architect: A Son's Journey."
Kahn, the illegitimate son of influential American architect Louis I. Kahn, barely knew his father when Louis Kahn died of an apparent heart attack in a Penn Station restroom 30 years ago.
"My Architect" chronicles the filmmaker's poignant attempt to reach out from beyond the grave to the man who was little more than a stranger to him when he was alive.
Nathaniel's only memories of his father were the irregular nighttime visits Kahn made to him and his mother, landscape architect Harriet Pattison, when he was a young boy.
It wasn't until years later -- he was only 11 when his father passed away -- that Nathaniel grew to comprehend and even love this profoundly enigmatic and, in many ways, tragic figure.
The movie takes a long view of Kahn's life, work and times. It traces his roots as a Jewish immigrant in North Philadelphia -- his family moved there from Estonia in 1906 -- to becoming one of the 20th century's leading architects.
His buildings
Kahn's buildings included the Salk Institute in California; Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum; and the Bangladesh capital, a decades-long undertaking that wasn't finished until 1983, after Kahn's death.
Also duly noted is the man's odd personal history. He stayed married to the same woman (Esther) his entire adult life, yet fathered children with two other women. Workaholic Kahn traveled the globe in a Quixotic quest to leave his mark.
His greatest personal failure was that his plans to help redesign downtown Philadelphia in the 1950s and '60s -- the masterpiece he hoped would become his legacy -- were rejected as "impractical."
Through archival footage and revealing chats with Kahn's colleagues, critics, friends and family (only Esther declined to be interviewed for the film), Nathaniel has crafted an intimate, kaleidoscopic portrait of his dad which serves not only as a fitting testimonial, but as an honorarium and benediction as well.
The massive concrete blocks Kahn favored in his architecture (the ruins of ancient Rome were among his primary influences) gave his structures a heft and weightiness he believed would make them immortal.
This eloquent, acutely moving film -- as obsessive and haunted as Kahn himself -- deserves a comparable legacy.
XWrite Milan Paurich at milanpaurich@aol.com.