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Eames: The Architect and the Painter

★★★

Director: Jason Cohn, Bill Jersey
Year: 2011

So I had high hopes for this film, anticipating it’s DVD release. It was only okay. It relied too heavily on interviews from people who worked at the Eames studio and didn’t give a bigger picture, only hints at it. I wanted to know more about Charles’ philandering ways; how and why big name companies like IBM first started selecting them; and more into Ray’s personality, she’s fascinating.

The cool takeaway is that Charles Eames actually attended my alma mater, Wash. U. Architecture! I had no idea. They never taught us that in architecture school or I was sleeping. He’s more aligned to Cranbrook so I was shocked and happy.

Also it would have been great to cover their popularity in depth. I remember in grad school, their furniture and their influence was just starting it’s renaissance. And I have a feeling the dot-com offices might have led to their now mainstream status. That’s not to say they weren’t mainstream before, but it’s grown exponentially in the past 10 years. The documentary already interviewed Dwell editors, so it feels like a missed opportunity.

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