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As We Saw It – Part 7: Emotional Rome

By Rick Meghiddo on January 2, 2019 in Architecture, Art, Film

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Coming back to Rome is always emotional. It triggers pleasant memories of our days as students of architecture, of lifelong friendships, of great teachers, of great art, architecture, lifestyle. To link the central theme of “As We Saw It,” ‘what makes a city great,’ with what we chose to document through film and photography, we focused on ‘the city’s emotional intelligence’ and its connection to our own emotions. To do that, we decided to record streets and piazzas rather than buildings, with few exceptions, such as the Pantheon, the MAXXI and the church of Sant’Andrea Della Valle.

Photo: Rick Meghiddo
Piazza di Spagna
Photo: Rick Meghiddo
Pantheon – Panoramic view
Pantheon’s Dome

Photo: Rick Meghiddo
Pantheon detail
Campidoglio. Architect: Michelangelo
Photo: Rick Meghiddo
Piazza Farnese

Photo: Rick Meghiddo
Bridge over street
Photo: Rick Meghiddo
Photo: Rick Meghiddo

Photo: Rick Meghiddo
Photo: Rick Meghiddo
Photo: Rick Meghiddo

Photo: Rick Meghiddo
Photo: Rick Meghiddo
Photo: Rick Meghiddo
Bernini’s Elephant and Obelisk

Rick Meghiddo with parents. 1956 – Fontana di Trevi
Photo: Rick Meghiddo
Reflection at Sant’Andrea della Valle
Photo: Rick Meghiddo
Reflection at Sant’Andrea della Valle

Formative Past: Architecture and Cinema

We were “adopted” by Bruno Zevi soon after we joined his History of Architecture class. Besides tutoring our theses, he also invited us to his home to have lunch with Carlo Scarpa and connected us with Edgar Kaufmann Jr. in New York, who opened for us the gates of Wright’s Fallingwater.

Our relationship with Pellegrin was also unique. He co-tutored our theses, and we worked for him on important projects: many competitions for schools, the University of Barcelona, Goree Island’s master plan in Senegal, Palazzo Aldobrandini’s restoration in Rome, and research on futuristic habitats.

Professor Bruno Zevi – Photo – Photo: Elisabeth Catalano
Some books by Bruno Zevi
Books by Bruno Zevi

Architect Luigi Pellegrin
Duplex house, Rome, 1964 – Architect: Luigi Pellegrin
Duplex house, Rome, 1964 Architect: Luigi Pellegrin

Drawing by Pellegrin
Drawing by Pellegrin
Last meeting, 1998

When we moved to Rome to continue our studies in architecture, going to the movies was an essential way of learning Italian fast. We were also lucky.

In the vicinity of where we first lived, in the Parioli neighborhood, there was a cinema club at a church that showed every week movies followed by a Q&A with the directors. Among many others, we treasure having listened to Roberto Rossellini (Rome, Open City; Paisan; Stromboli ) and Gillo Pontecorvo (The Battle of Algiers; Kapò; Burn!).

After graduation, we moved to Rome’s Historic Center, minutes away from the Trevi Fountain and from Pellegrin’s studio. Our same-floor neighbor was Adriana Chiesa, who, at the time worked at La Medusa, one of Italy’s leading film distributors. We were friends when Adriana met and fell in love with cinematographer Carlo Di Palma (Divorce Italian Style, Red Desert, Blow-Up, Hanna and her Sisters, Radio Days.)

Carlo had a rich experience with directors like Michelangelo Antonioni (he shot Antonioni’s first color film, Red Desert) and with Woody Allen. He also worked for Bernardo Bertolucci, Lucchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini, Francesco Rosi, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. I remember his comments about Igmar Bergman (“he worked like a scientist”) and about Federico Fellini (“a magician; he ‘hypnotized’ his actors, shooting without sound and talking to them while shooting.”)

Rome, Open City. Director: Roberto Rossellini
Fellini’s La Dolce Vita – Marcello Mastroiani and Anita Ekberg
Monica Vitti

Carlo Di Palma, Adriana Chiesa and Woody Allen
Adriana Chiesa’s Posters
Water and Sugar Poster – Documentary on Carlo Di Palma

The MAXXI – Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo

Coincidentally with our visit, Zaha Hadid’s-designed MAXXI held two exhibitions that we wanted to see: one dedicated to Zevi’s 100th birthday, titled “Zevi’s Architects. History and Counter-History of Italian Architecture 1944-2000.” The other, “Tel Aviv the White City,” dedicated to the Bauhaus architecture in the city.

MAXXI – Lobby Architect: Zaha Hadid
MAXXI – View of ceiling
MAXXI – Shop

MAXXI
MAXXI – Igloo
Asse Attrezzato – Plan for Rome, 1960s

Italian Pavilion, Montreal 1967
Italian Pavilion, Montreal 1967 – Plan
MAXXI – Projections Hall

MAXXI – Projections Hall
MAXXI – Tel Aviv White City Exhibition
MAXXI – Floor Aerial photo of Tel Aviv

As a historian and critic of architecture, Zevi’s influence in Italy during the second half of the 20th Century was impacting. He published several pivotal books, such as Architecture as Space, The Language of Modern Architecture, A History of Modern Architecture, Erich Mendelsohn, was the editor of the magazine L’Architettura for over fifty years, taught history of architecture in Venice and in Rome, and was  militant in the Radical Party, which he represented in the Chamber of Deputies from 1987 to 1992.

Zevi brought Frank Lloyd Wright’s ideas of Organic Architecture to the Italian peninsula, which influenced many architects, such as Carlo Scarpa, Luigi Pellegrin, Paolo Soleri, Marcello D’Olivo, Giovanni Michelucci and Aldo Loris Rossi, to name just a few.

The exhibition on Tel Aviv’s Bauhaus architecture, although very compact, provided an idea of the city’s rich past, which includes over 1500 buildings of the period.

Rome’s beauty is the ultimate urban beauty because it has been shaped by time, uninterruptedly, over more than two thousand years.

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TagsAdriana ChiesaArchitectureartBauhausCarlo Di PalmaemotionalfilmmakingItalyPellegrinRomaromeTel AvivTreviZevi

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About the author

Rick Meghiddo

Rick Meghiddo

Website

Rick Meghiddo Rick Meghiddo is an architect and filmmaker. Through ArchiDocu - see www.ArchiDocu.com - he brings his "architect eye" to help architects to convey their concepts and vision, institutions to convey their social and environmental goals, and educators to express the meaning and value of architecture, design and art.

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