Modernist Design and Films

            Out of every movement comes another movement that rejects it. It’s an endless cycle of one generation carving out a concept of reality different from the one before it that will ultimately be replaced by another concept in the future. The film documentary Monterey Pop and Jacques Tati’s satire Playtime both reject the concepts behind modernist design. At the core of both of these films is a focus on individuality and democracy. Where modernist design upholds neutrality, simplicity and hierarchy Playtime and Monterey Pop (especially) encourage personality, expressiveness and spontaneity.

            Although these two films are similar in their motives they are presented differently and react towards the principles of modernist design in different ways. Playtime directly pokes fun at modernist design by emphasizing the fallacies behind it. Tati shows the viewer a highly modernized city that appears orderly and structured but at the same time confusing, unemotional and inhuman. It’s this lack of humanity that Tati emphasizes as the film switches between scenes of modern Paris and old Paris (which still retains its charm and liveliness). Where modern Paris is a wash of dark and light greys with cold geometric shapes old Paris is a cacophony of vibrant sounds and colors.

            The film documentary Monterey Pop (named after the festival it details) does not directly object to modernist design like Playtime however the way it was filmed and the culture emphasized in the film separate it from modernism. Monterey Pop is a documentary about the legendary Monterey International Pop Music Festival held in Monterey, California in the summer of 1967. Boasting a number of well-known folk, blues and rock artists as well as up and coming acts like The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Janis Joplan this festival was a focal point for the hippie counter culture that was emerging alongside modernism.

            The film was shot in a raw unedited fashion that focused on the crowds watching the bands as much as the bands themselves. D. A. Pennebaker (the director of Monterey Pop) captures the chaos and energy of each band as they perform coupled with candid shots of the crowd and fairgoers. It is all at once spontaneous and frenzied, which differentiates itself from the controlled and clean rules of modernist design. Monterey Pop comments on modernism not by bringing it into question but by existing as an alternative.

            There is one other theme that unifies the two films and that is the democratic way in which characters are portrayed. There is no one thing to focus on in both Playtime and Monterey Pop because the action is always moving from person to person and scene to scene. There is no formula or guideline (like in modernist design) it’s just a stream of events. It is this disregard of convention that sets these films apart and that is why they are a breath of fresh air. There are many advantages to establishing rules and after the turmoil of WWII order and stability were highly appealing. But too much order kills individuality and in response to this loss of humanity films like Monterey Pop and Playtime rose up in defiance.