Sketches of Frank Gehry

Part documentary, part dialogue between filmmaker and subject, Sketches is a modest, personal look at one of the most innovative, controversial architects of our time. Director Sydney Pollack (The Interpreter) alternates artless shots of a shambling Gehry (driving his car, talking about his wife and his therapist, etc.) with beautifully composed images of his inspired sculptural constructions, such as Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum and L.A.’s Disney Hall. Seattle’s Experience Music Project—whose shell was designed by Gehry, though not all of its interior—rates only about a half-dozen shots among the hundreds of images here. And most of those appear in the portion of the film devoted to the architect’s critics, reminding us once again that Seattle is the owner in perpetuity of a second-rate building by one of our era’s only truly first-rate architects.