Beyond Utopia: Changing Attitudes in American Architecture

1983 / 59 min. / color
Directed by Michael Blackwood

Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, Philip Johnson, Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi. Narration by Martin Filler and Rosemarie Bletter.

While visiting four architectural practices in 1982, we discuss the postmodernist movement through its meaning and motives. Beyond Utopia: Changing Attitudes in American Architecture features Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Frank Gehry, Michael Graves and Peter Eisenman, all of whom are protégés of Philip Johnson. Guided by their mentor, these innovators rejected the European modernism of Mies and Corbusier in search of alternative directions. The architects show and discuss their buildings of the time both in their personal offices and on location.