Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
The Griffith Observatory in Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955): mystical temple and scientific monument
Los Angeles's Griffith Observatory (1935) is the centrepiece and terminus for Nicholas Ray's film Rebel Without a Cause where its philosophical truths are housed and disseminated.1 Situated atop the Hollywood Hills, the classically styled, domed edifice serves as the site of some of the film's most important scenes, including the planetarium lecture (foreshadowing its pendant, the pivotal ‘chickie-run’ sequence), the knife fight between Jim and Buzz, and the Christ-like martyrdom of Plato. This article considers the manner in which the Observatory is invested with the task of structuring time while simulating the traumas of war, natural catastrophe, thermonuclear conflict and familial dysfunction. Its exterior and interior spaces are further enlisted by the director, Nicholas Ray, and the screenwriters, Irving Shulman and Stewart Stern, to foreshadow events and underscore thematic intent. The Observatory serves three major functions in Rebel. Its planetarium show creates a parallel between celestial and terrestrial events, especially its ‘end of the world’ lecture, which parallel the rebellious teenagers and their chaotic familial relationships. It is the setting for Plato's isolation and finally, at the film's conclusion, the existential loneliness of all humans. Lastly, its architectural properties—temple-like appearance and domical structure—serve as a microcosm of the universe and ultimately as an image of stability, underscored formally by the grandiose spectacle and elongated horizontal expanse of CinemaScope.
The Griffith Observatory in Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955): mystical temple and scientific monument
Los Angeles's Griffith Observatory (1935) is the centrepiece and terminus for Nicholas Ray's film Rebel Without a Cause where its philosophical truths are housed and disseminated.1 Situated atop the Hollywood Hills, the classically styled, domed edifice serves as the site of some of the film's most important scenes, including the planetarium lecture (foreshadowing its pendant, the pivotal ‘chickie-run’ sequence), the knife fight between Jim and Buzz, and the Christ-like martyrdom of Plato. This article considers the manner in which the Observatory is invested with the task of structuring time while simulating the traumas of war, natural catastrophe, thermonuclear conflict and familial dysfunction. Its exterior and interior spaces are further enlisted by the director, Nicholas Ray, and the screenwriters, Irving Shulman and Stewart Stern, to foreshadow events and underscore thematic intent. The Observatory serves three major functions in Rebel. Its planetarium show creates a parallel between celestial and terrestrial events, especially its ‘end of the world’ lecture, which parallel the rebellious teenagers and their chaotic familial relationships. It is the setting for Plato's isolation and finally, at the film's conclusion, the existential loneliness of all humans. Lastly, its architectural properties—temple-like appearance and domical structure—serve as a microcosm of the universe and ultimately as an image of stability, underscored formally by the grandiose spectacle and elongated horizontal expanse of CinemaScope.
The Griffith Observatory in Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955): mystical temple and scientific monument
Schleier, Merrill (Autor:in)
The Journal of Architecture ; 16 ; 365-385
01.06.2011
21 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Unbekannt
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