A story built around building a new house
IDEAS: Film explores the tensions between competing visions
As long as there are artists and accountants in the world, the struggle between art and commerce will always exist.
It’s that clash between the creative and economic that it is a central theme of The Architect, which is getting its international premiere here at the 35th annual Vancouver International Film Festival, on now until Oct. 14.
Written and directed by the Bay Area’s Jonathan Parker, the film, shot in the Seattle and Everett areas, tells the story of a Colin and Drew and the architect they hired.
Played wonderfully by Eric McCormack, Parker Posey and James Frain, respectively, the trio embark on the construction of a dream home located on the water in the Seattle area.
From the get go, the husband and wife have different ideas for the home.
He, like their real-estate obsessed friends (sound familiar, Vancouverites?), sees it as an investment and worries about resale value. She wants to nest and settle in a creative cocoon.
The self-important, blathering architect (straight lines are for the uninspired and the term bedroom is for the narrow-minded) of course has a lofty plan for the build. He tells the couple in order to realize their vision, their dreams (or his, actually) he must embed himself in their lives. That of course leads to a building lot full of issues.
“It’s an unsolvable dilemma because an artist is driven to create art whether it is art or it is writing or it’s architecture or any creative field. Yet there is also this problem that you need to make a living,” said Parker.
“It’s simply an unsolvable dilemma, which makes for a very good story. It’s nice to have that kind of a problem at the root of your story.”
Parker, who enjoys another life as a real estate developer, knows firsthand about this type of friction. He also adds that this type of test of wills hit home for one of his leads.
“I remember when I was talking to Eric McCormack about the project and he had just read the script and he was like, ‘Wow this exact thing happened to us, and my wife is going to think I wrote this dialogue,’” said Parker.
“It, I think, is something that happens not infrequently.”
So this fictional couple want the house of their dreams. But of course their wants are not all structurally symbiotic. He wants TVs in the bathrooms and she wants to live inside a sculpture.
So who wins, the artist wife or the budget-conscious, financial-adviser husband?
“I don’t take sides when I am writing,” said Parker. “I never like the audience to think the filmmaker is telling them that one angle is better than another angle. For me it is fun to just present these characters and write them like they are and like I have experienced people who are that way and then let the audience decide how they feel about them.
“I just kind of like to put the argument out there and let the debate go and then let the audience react to it.”
So if you check out this entertaining film at VIFF (it will hit Video on Demand later in the year), maybe make time for a drink or two afterwards because you will have plenty to discuss.