Jean Nouvel

A raw account of how some of the world's leading architects, giants such as Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid, struggle to beat the competition for the National Art Museum in Andorra.

A documentary focusing on the architecture in Jacques Tati's 1958 film MON ONCLE.

French architect Jean Nouvel has long been known in Europe for his bold, shimmering glass museums, concert halls, and high-rise towers. Now the much-acclaimed new Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which opened in 2006, is displaying Nouvel's remarkable talents to an American public. With a cantilevered lobby that extends 175 feet over the Mississippi River, the dark midnight-blue, aluminum-paneled structure has captivated the culturally conscious city and helped spur the rejuvenation of a once-industrial waterfront. In the tour, Nouvel takes us through three distinctive theaters he designed for the Guthrie, and out onto the cantilevered deck to view the legendary river that inspired the boldly elevated design.

Jean Nouvel is one of the most innovative and unconventional architects of our time. He owes his fame to projects such as the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the Opera House in Lyon, the Cartier Foundation Headquarters, as well as his spectacular design of the Tokyo opera and the boldness of his "Endless Tower". This film casts a fresh, explicit glance at the scope of this architect and his work as Nouvel explains what architecture means to him with footage from ten of his most recent creations. It is the portrait of a man who steadily confronts the world, and moulds it according to his own philosophy.

"Un film et son époque" se compose de 10 volets documentaires sur 10 films mythiques, avec des entretiens exclusifs et des archives inédites. Les films, a fortiori les plus grands, sont toujours des documents exceptionnels pour témoigner d’une époque. Raconter leur genèse, leur fabrication, leur accueil, les replacer dans leur contexte historique et culturel, permet de mieux les comprendre mais aussi de mieux appréhender la période de leur création. Pour paraphraser le titre d’une célébrissime émission de la télévision d’autrefois : la caméra du documentaire «?Il était une fois…?» explore le temps du film…