Some people love some buildings. But a lot of people are a lot more passionate about familiar buildings, particularly iconic buildings that are centerpieces of classic films.
“What I discovered is that Hollywood had a great lesson,” said Christine Madrid French, author of ‘The Architecture of Suspense: The Built World in Films of Alfred Hitchcock.’ “They create a storytelling atmosphere around different structures that makes people passionate about the buildings that they see on screen.”
Whether it’s the Bates mansion from Hitchcock’s Psycho or the Preston, Idaho high school in Napoleon Dynamite, French says people are much more inclined to preserve the buildings of our dreams … and nightmares.
French visits with Morning Edition host George Prentice to talk about his passions for film and architecture, and how she’ll be the special guest of Preservation Idaho for an evening they’re calling, “Architecture of Suspense.”
“It all comes down to storytelling about a building and how that is an advantage to people telling history of architecture.”Christine Madrid French
Read the transcript below:
GEORGE PRENTICE: It's Morning Edition. Hi. I'm George Prentice. Think of some of the great architectural schemes in the history of film, and you won't get too far before you are in the worlds created by the Master of Suspense. Which brings us to a unique event coming up Saturday, November 11th. Hosted by Preservation Idaho, it includes a vintage fashion show, food, drinks and a presentation from Christine Madrid French - historian, leader in the study of American architecture, executive director of the Napa County Landmarks, and author of The Architecture of Suspense: The Built World in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock. And let's say good morning to Christine.
CHRISTINE MADRID FRENCH: Good morning.
PRENTICE: Talk to me about this intersection that this unique intersection of your work and your passion of architecture and history and film.
FRENCH: Yes, definitely. So why I got into studying film architecture? Because I am an architectural historian and a historic preservationist, and I was looking for ways to save more buildings. What I discovered is that Hollywood had a great lesson on this, which is they create a storytelling atmosphere around different structures that makes people passionate about the buildings that they see on screen. And I thought, how can I translate that to make people passionate about a historic structure, say, in Boise or Los Angeles or Salt Lake City? How can I get people to really get on board with that and want to preserve a real building by using these Hollywood lessons?
PRENTICE: And I think of all of the Hitchcock films: Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much. But I've got to ask… about the Bates Mansion… and how you say “that home is a bit of a metaphor.”
FRENCH: So, I write that when you look at the Bates mansion, Hitchcock himself talks about the mansion and the motel. But what was so compelling to me is how the two buildings are actually characters in the film. They're not just buildings anymore. The mansion represents the mother in all of her. You know, her evil oversight, right? The building is at the top of a hill. It tells you it's warning you before you even get there, that this is a dangerous place. And the motel… it really represents Norman. That's his space. But, you know, in the motel, they have the weirdest scene where he goes inside the office and it's all Victorian inside the office with birds and weird pictures. And to me, that means that's that part of the mother that's inside his head. That presence in the motel. Because I've been in thousands of these roadside motels, and I've never seen a Victorian sitting room in a roadside motel.
PRENTICE: I think we can all share in this…because people do gravitate to homes or buildings all across America that may be used in films, including here in Idaho.
FRENCH: Yes, I was doing some research, and I was happily delighted to find out that Idaho also has architectural pilgrims for films. Napoleon Dynamite, of course, was is one of the biggest ones that you'll find filmed in Idaho, up in Preston and there are a lot of YouTubers. They travel thousands of miles to go visit the little ranch houses that are shown in Napoleon Dynamite. But what's interesting about this is that if I talked about, you know, I think it's Preston High School, built in 1939, I believe it was a New Deal era structure, architecturally and historically significant. If I talked about it that way, people would be like, oh, yeah, that's all right. That's great. But if I said, you know, it's the high school that was featured in Napoleon Dynamite, I know that building. That's a great building. I'm really interested in that building. And that's how I translate… what storytelling, really. It all comes down to storytelling about a building and how that is an advantage to people telling history of architecture.
PRENTICE: Can we talk for just a couple minutes about North by Northwest? There's so much beautiful architecture in that film. The home... Is that a Frank Lloyd Wright home?
FRENCH: That house is completely fabricated. When I give lectures, people will say, oh, I just went to South Dakota and didn't go see the house, and I have to break their hearts and tell them, no, it was it's all set. It was based on falling water. And production designer Robert Boyle, who worked for Hitchcock on this movie and many other movies that you'd be familiar with, tells a stories about how they were inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's building. What was the interesting thing is, this is the first time in North by Northwest that you that Hitchcock paired a very handsome villain with a very handsome building. And ever after he created a, you know, he broke the internet, we would say now, but he actually, you know, ever after modernism was featured as the villain's lair. So North by Northwest is the first modern movie. There was one more earlier that had a modernist house as a villain's lair, and it actually had Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in. It's called The Black Cat. I don't know if you've seen that.
PRENTICE: I have.
FRENCH: It's a great movie. Okay. That is the very first time you'll see a modernist building as a villain. It was filmed in the 30s for the modern times. It's the first time a modern villain, modern house. And then after that you see Ken Adam using all of those kind of conventions. Now for the James Bond series. Right. So all those James Bond's villains lived in a beautiful modern place, not in a spooky old castle. Right. And this all started with North by Northwest.
PRENTICE: By the way, was that house ever used again in other films?
FRENCH: No, I. Found a quote from Hitchcock…a letter from Hitchcock to the head of MGM saying, “I heard that somebody using the Frank Lloyd Wright house for a commercial, and we shouldn't be doing that because we don't want to dilute its presence on screen.” So that house was not ever used again. But really interestingly, the Bates Mansion makes many, many appearances in you see it in the background of a of some old movies like Night Gallery. They filmed something there. They filmed cowboy movies up there, and you'll see it in the background, which really makes me kind of giggle, my film historian giggle, because you can see this Murder mansion appears repeatedly, and I think that's why that building has a complete hold on the worldwide imagination.
PRENTICE: So iconic. Saturday, November 11th, in the historic Shrine Ballroom in downtown Boise comes the event Architecture of Suspense. It is hosted by Preservation Idaho and the special guest is Christine Madrid French, author of The Architecture of Suspense: The Built World in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock, Safe journey to Idaho … we can't wait for this event, and thanks for giving me some time this morning.
FRENCH: Yes. Thank you. I can't wait to get there.
Find reporter George Prentice on X @georgepren
Copyright 2023 Boise State Public Radio
