Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future

I saw this in a 6K high-def on a big screen during Palm Springs' Modernism Week in 2017. There is a good amount of family history (Eero's father was also a great architect) that gives this film more depth than a typical documentary. Eero's son Eric was director of photography and his sensitive portrayals of Saarinen's buildings made with modern drone cameras is as close to "dancing with architecture" as you're going to find. A must for architecture buffs. The only quibble I have is with the narration, it is a little heavy-handed at times.

The filming is excellent and some shots are very high quality.

However, it would be a much better film to spend more time on Architecture and theory. This easily could be a 2 hour film if there was a review of the design theory and in depth look at some projects; and a much better film. The house projects was scanned over in seconds with nothing to say about design.

There is not much on film about eero; and PBS doesn't know much about architecture; eero is on the cover of Time, but not in history since the filming of his work and review is so scant. Remembered in his time and known, then forgotten. Better than nothing, this is a small start.

It claims some family history but leaves much out. what about the relationship with knoll? Still what about design? Eero's connection to jorn Utzon?

I made my contribution by having the local library buy a copy of this film.

I give this an 8 out of respect for eero, however it could be a 10, and lack of understanding about architecture and what is important to discuss could make it a 5. My frustration with it is 0.