Frank Lloyd Wright

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's Frank Lloyd Wright, from 1988, is a solid and enlightening documentary. The first half suffers from vagueness in depicting Wright's developing architectural style. What trends Wright was reacting against and his debt to early mentor Louis Sullivan are not adequately explained. The film does a better job with Wright's response to the international style of Le Corbusier and Gropius that emerged after the First World War. Any study of Wright the man must grapple with his personal shortcomings and the doc's first half probably skimmed over the philosophical underpinnings of Wright's work because it had to detail the carnage of his private life. Brendan Gill and Philip Johnson, among others, offer wry assessments of his egotism and glowing testaments to his genius. One of the major treats of this film is watching the camera prowl around Wright's buildings, letting us revel in the play of light and color they offer. Edward Herrmann's crisp narration is a delight, with none of the patrician hauteur he used in portraying FDR or Richard Gilmore. He is missed.