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Living Proof
As a child Nathan Kahn rarely saw his father. In fact, he says, he "barely knew him." At the time, he lived in the outskirts of Philadelphia and his father would visit at odd times, mostly at night, and rarely with any kind of warning.
"I remember the time my father bought me a pitchback – one of those things where you throw a baseball at the pitcher and it bounces it back to you. It's the kind of thing that you have to play by yourself. It served as a kind of metaphor for our relationship," says Kahn.
In seeking out the story of his father's life, Kahn interviewed a veritable who's who of the architecture world – Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei, Frank Gehry and more. In attempting to set up interviews, the director was pleased to find that the mention of his father opened doors to conversation with some notoriously difficult to reach modern masters of architecture.
"This isn't like Hollywood, where it's all about name-dropping and power brokering. These were people who picked up the phone because they knew I was Louis Kahn’s son and they admired and respected him," says Kahn.
The director started with Philip Johnson, a man whose distinctive work on the AT&T headquarters in New York, International Place in Boston, and Crystal Cathedral in California have made an indelible mark on the modern architectural landscape.
In the film, Johnson calls Louis Kahn "the most beloved architect of our time."
"Well of think of anybody else," says Johnson. "Frank Lloyd Wright was too cantankerous to love, Mies Vand der Rhoe, well you just couldn't even talk to the man, Le Corbusier was mean, but Lou - now there was a man. All of my buildings combined don’t add up to his three or four buildings... He was his own artist."
Renowned designer I.M. Pei joins Johnson in praise, particularly highlighting the oceanside majesty of Kahn's finest work, the Saulk Institute. Standing stark and flawless on the California coastline, the structure integrates seamlessly with its aquatic surroundings.
"Now that building will stand the test of time," says Pei. "The teakwood may fade, but the spirituality of the project will always remain."
Facing Reality
With the notable (and highly vocal) exception of architect Edmund Bacon, most in the film agree that Kahn's work was exceptional. Yet there's no denying the Kahn was in many ways a bastard to the people who loved him.
The architect says in the film "how accidental our lives are really and full of influence by circumstance."
While the quote was most probably intended as a statement on the fickle nature of inspiration, it might also explain how Kahn justified his inexcusable behavior. How did Nathaniel Kahn deal with the inherent contradictions of his father's life, with the fact that he had three families, a secret he hid for most of his life?
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002: Nathaniel Kahn
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