Architecture Here and There

Readers of this blog recall several weeks ago my response to a friend's e-mail wondering whether living in downtown Providence was "feasible." For those readers who don't remember, my column on Thursday will seem fresh. And yet unlike the blog entry, the column does not quote my reply to her directly but spins a web of enticement to reel potential residents into downtown. Will it succeed? We may never know, but you, reader, may judge whether it should succeed.

Meanwhile, did I make the right choice of what photo to place on top of the column? The one with the blog, above, is perhaps prettier, but the one with the column, below, says more about the liveliness of downtown.

I can slide a lot of stuff into the blog that wouldn't fit in the column, or that would have made it a different column. I could, for example, go further into the charming details of the new projects under way downtown. But I won't, at least not for now, as that would put at risk one of the charms of blogging itself - the ability to shoot off a little bit of stuff without having to do a full production number as with a column.

I guess that's what "Extended" and "Excerpt" features are for. Maybe I will try to figure them out and stuff all those juicy details in. Or, I could go watch the rest of Jacques Tati's "Playtime" - a send up of modern architecture in Paris. Fortunately, he built the whole horrifying set back in 1969 or whenever it was filmed. He was looking into the future of Paris a la Le Corbusier, which fortunately has not arrived yet. (This sort of thing is what is so great about Netflix - which allowed me to ... jeez, will you get on with it!)

Below, by the way, is a scene from "Playtime." And by the way, I will watch the rest of it because I can also eat the rest of my Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

I can see that this really should be two blog entries. Anyway, here is the caption of this scene of Tativille, which according to the BLDGblog site where I got it, was built in a wasteland of Paris suburbs: "[Image: Tativille; a scene from Playtime. As Jacques Tati later explained, "there were no stars in the film, or rather, the set was the star, at least at the beginning of the film. So I opted for the buildings, facades that were modern but of high quality because it's not my business to criticise modern architecture" - it was only his job to film it]."

Fascinating. Of course, the scene itself and indeed the film itself is a sharp critique of modern architecture whether Tati wanted it to be or not. It could not not be.

 Tags  Brussat Paris Providence RI Tati Westminster Street

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