The Irish Architecture Foundation is delighted to partner again with the Irish Film Institute on the return of The Fourth Wall in July and August. In a collaborative partnership with the Science Gallery’s ‘Hack the City’ initiative, this year’s event focuses particularly on reinterpretation of the urban environment. The relationship between architecture and cinema, particularly the role served by the city as setting and character, has been well documented. Cinema provides a visual history of urban development, giving an illustrated record of trends in styles and attitudes towards and within the discipline in a unique way. The films in this short programme give a particular twist to these ideas, presenting the cityscape in original and refreshing ways that cast it in an entirely new light.

July 28 (13.15)
London

The work of Patrick Keiller, himself a former architect, has centred on urban architecture, most often on what the director sees as its continuing decline and decay. Following a number of shorts, London, his debut feature, introduced what was to become the recurring character of the unseen Robinson, who in this case has invited the nameless narrator (Paul Scofield) to return to the city following an extended absence. Typically of Keiller, the visual style is minimalist – it is in the narration that the film’s value truly lies, as the narrator discourses on the city’s literary, economic and architectural history, building a unique portrait of the city’s existence.
85 minutes. U.K., 1994. Colour. 35mm.

Ticket purchase is through the IFI box office here.

July 29 (13.00)
Code 46

Director Michael Winterbottom sets his foray into science-fiction in a dystopian future where reproduction is strictly regulated. Travel is also restricted, with very firm boundaries existing between areas ‘outside’ and ‘inside’. Winterbottom’s Shanghai is what one writer termed an “architectural collage”; this city is made up of a patchwork of footage filmed in Dubai, India and London, as well as Shanghai itself, editing the urban space into a seamless whole that creates a timeless city. Starring Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton.
93 minutes. U.K., 2003. Colour.

Ticket purchase is through the IFI box office here.

August 18 and 25
Dublin Plays itself

A series of walking tours to locations where people can explore moments in the history of the surrounding built environment through films from the IFI Film Archive. For more information here.