‘Sketches’ a fine portrait of a master architect

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, June 1, 2006

A good companion documentary to “My Architect,” if less emotional an experience, “Sketches of Frank Gehry” is an entertaining attempt at the “why” and “what” and “how” of buildings.

Frank Gehry is today one of the world’s great architects, a position cemented by the unveiling of his art museum in Bilbao, Spain, a few years ago. That swooping, glimmering edifice is the kind of grand statement attempted by someone at the top of his game.

“Sketches,” directed by Oscar-winner Sydney Pollack, follows Gehry around in his workplace and features interviews with colleagues and clients. That most of the clients are famous people (Dennis Hopper, Disney chief Michael Eisner) only underscores Gehry’s level of success.

More interesting are Pollack’s own onscreen conversations with Gehry. The two men have been friends for years, and Gehry seems comfortable trusting Pollack with revelations about his life and work. Gehry is cagey, though; someone refers to him as “Columbo,” and his amiable shuffling does seem to hide a more complex character.

Pollack himself, by professing to know little about architecture, neatly serves as the audience’s surrogate. In fact, Pollack is a literate and engaging person. He’s a little more interesting as a talker (and actor, in things such as “Eyes Wide Shut”) than he is as the director of big, sleepy movies.

Pollack’s crowning touch is to include rapturous shots of Gehry’s buildings, which he carves up with a good eye for their shiny surfaces and curving forms.

The film acknowledges that not everybody loves Gehry’s stuff. Even one of his admirers talks about the way Gehry’s style has resulted in some “ugly” buildings.

And yes, all of you who are pointing fingers in the direction of the Seattle Center and the kooky Experience Music Project, you have been heard. That lopsided, multicolored folly (which some of us rather like) is not specifically discussed in the movie, although it appears unidentified in some of Pollack’s montages.

Even a building like the Bilbao museum is not unassailable. As one talking head observes, the museum itself is so spectacular that it arguably overshadows the art it is supposed to showcase.

This appealing film is at its best when showing Gehry and his associates brainstorming over a new project. Pencil doodles and pieces of silver construction paper become, under Gehry’s furrowed gaze, something that might just resemble a building. This film makes that process seem practical and magical at the same time – no small feat.

Director Sydney Pollack (left) with Frank Gehry in “Sketches of Frank Gehry.”