It was great to see so many Eames alums (former staff) at the screening of Eames: The Architect and the Painter at the Laemmle last night. Jason Cohn (one of the directors of the movie, along with Bill Jersey, who I had appeared with in NY) and I did a Q and A afterwards. The response was very positive towards the film–the only caveat being some concern over things left out–which is inevitable in an 85-minute movie. Nevertheless, I think it is an important point and I’ll post about that in the future. But afterwards people asked what I thought about the personal aspects of the film.
And, actually, that was the first question to me at the movie’s premiere at the Architecture and Design Film Festival in New York. My answer was that in my experience, “No one knows what happens in another person’s marriage—indeed most folks barely know what is happening in their own marriages.”
The followup question was basically asking if the relationships were well known and I pointed out that for those very interested in this, Pat Kirkham writes about it in some detail in her 1995 book, Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the 20th Century.
And, though I think saying “most people would be lucky to know what is happening . . .” would have provided a higher margin of error for the married community, I really think my initial answer still kind of sums up my feeling about all this. It is what it is and it was between Charles and Ray. They had a rich, robust and extraordinary life in work and love together—-it is difficult to believe it would not have had its share of complexity.
Both were charismatic—-to use the film’s word of choice. And, as attractive and compelling people–they could have done anything. But, as John Neuhart says in the movie,”Charles knew where his center was.” And another friend, Julian Blaustein told me something similar, “Charles knew who he was.” And it is hard to imagine that if he or Ray truly wanted to do something, or go with someone else, that they wouldn’t have.
Charles and Ray stayed together to their deaths. And, in the end, they created a rich life together and if that connection were not deep and transcendent, it is hard to imagine that Ray would have passed away in peace 10 years to the day after Charles.
Deborah Sussman, who also, appears in the movie, told me in an Oral History interview that there was a “current” between Charles and Ray. And you not only see that in the pictures, we as the family also saw it when it was just all of us. We weren’t articulate enough to call it a current, but we knew it was there. You could truly sense it–it was vividly present.
But, as Jason Cohn, one of the filmmakers, explained to the NY Times, “There’s a tendency to talk about [the Eameses] like they’re on Mount Rushmore.” So my guess is that it was important for them to have this in there. And that is part of why the Eames family didn’t want to have any creative involvement in the film. This is Bill and Jason’s take on the Eames legacy and it is great they put so much passion and effort into sharing what they learned. They have paved a great path into the Eames world–I’ll have another post soon on some aspects of the Eames ideas that people who enjoyed the film might like to explore.
And the beauty of the Eameses’ life and work is that it is almost infinitely compelling the more you go into it. Both Jason and Bill have talked about how much fascinating stuff they had to leave out (and what they have is quite interesting). As with other major figures, there will be many Eames biographies (there have been something like 50 of George Washington this century I read somewhere) and, we hope, each will teach us something valuable about how all of us can take the Eames ideas to places that deeply enrich the world.
