Projections

Date: 06.10.2011 / Thursday 

Directed by F. Lang

 Place: DKF (Film Discussion Club) Wrocław University of Technology, A1, room 329, 27 Wyb. Wyspiańskiego St.

Architecture plays in movies various roles. Often directors use sophisticated and subtle tricks which give a new meaning to the space surrounding the characters of their movies. It’s not seldom that architectural structures illustrate the complex and confusing psyche of a film character and this is from where the character starts a journey into their mind, like in Dante Alighieri’s, searching for their own identity. Buildings and neighboring urban space often symbolize the place where the main character’s internal conflict is located, the place of their battle against the demon, besieging city. Filmmakers use architecture as a metaphor of the social hierarchy, physically separating its castes, as in the case of ”Metropolis“ by Fritz Lang, 1927. 

Futuristic visions of cities are considered as an exemplification of fears and concerns resulting from civilizational and technological development. Architecture can be easily used to build a proper scene setting just by implementing correct light techniques. The contrast or chiaroscuro techniques - originating from expressionism - make it possible to highlight the gloom and anxiety of realized scenes. The multitude of ways how architecture could be used in cinematography makes it difficult to approach the subject from only one perspective. In our projections we wanted to present at least a tiny part of it. 

Wojciech Wodo

Curator of DKF Wrocław University of Technology