Post 9

The film, Belly of an Architect, was not my favorite film we have watched this year in class, but it was, however, entertaining. I found that the film, like Pollock, Frida, Basquiat, and Camille Claudel, shows another example how genius can transform into sickness or madness. Because this film is about a make believe architect, Stourley Kracklite, the director plays into the stereotype of the “crazy artist.” After the reading and the movies we have seen about Artist’s real lives, I have learned that this stereotype is not far fetched after all.

Artistic Creation: This film promotes ideas about artistic creation in many ways. The main character, Stourley Kracklite, is an architect who admires the famous French architect Boullée. He travels to Rome to lead the creation of an art exhibit and installation in honor of Boullée. This exhibit is his baby. He is the one who has started the planning for years and his passion for Boullée’s work makes him extremely attached to the creation of this exhibit. Like a mother, he takes care of the exhibit, making sure nothing goes wrong and everything is done exactly the way it should be. His role as an artist is to make a perfected and flawless creation. When one of the other men working on the exhibit, Caspasian, wants to do a kitschy light show for the exhibit, Kracklite becomes extremely defensive. He doesn’t want anyone interfering, especially if he doesn’t agree with what they want to contribute. This film shows that when an artist has a vision or a creation, they put their all into it. It consumes them and takes over their life. The exhibit and thoughts of Boullée devoured him, driving away his wife and leading to his ultimate demise. He becomes sick with cancer, and the stress of the project isn’t helping his ailment. As his health decreases, other men working on the instillation decide that Kracklite is too sick to continue his work. They take his baby away from him, which destroys him. He ends of committing suicide the night the exhibit opens, and he does it at the exhibit. Just like a mother being taken away from their child, he can’t live with the separation.

Creation According to Gender: While Kracklite is working on his “baby”; his wife Louisa is pregnant with his child. Kracklite does not even notice that she is pregnant. He is too consumed in his own work. The film shows the man as a creator and the female of creator of life. They say that with every birth, comes a death. The film shows this by having Kracklite commit suicide while Louis is giving birth.

The influence of the past in the present: Kracklite is extremely influenced by the past. His role model Boullée, is dead and yet Kracklite let’s this architect affect and control his present. He becomes too obsessed with this deceased architect that he begins to write letters to him. He asks Boullée if his life was similar to what he is going through in present day. He shares his thoughts and feelings with Boullée as if he was a friend. The problem with looking to the past is Kracklite forgets to live in the present.