architecture

Architecture in film is used for illustrative purposes; as an embodiment of human social institutions and social structures. In reality architecture satisfies a functional need but in film architecture must satisfy a narrative purpose. In the dystopic film the style of architecture serves the purpose of a sign, conveying information about the structures and values of the protagonist's environment. The style of architecture largely makes references to stages of development within the modernist movement, as part of a larger social criticism.

architecture of dystopia

Dystopic films are concerned with portraying a conflict between the protagonist and their environment. “The character must realize, however vaguely, that their problems are not individual but part of the social structure they are in, and attempt to engage that source of their difficulties.” The architecture portrayed in a dystopic film is used to shed light on these social structures. Architecture, in film and in reality, expresses the values of its society. The architecture of a dystopic film is a concrete manifestation of the social structures in which the protagonist is found. In the case of an anti-utopian film architecture is also used to express the positive achievements of its society. “A dystopia does not pretend to be good, while an anti-utopia appears to be utopian.” Logan’s Run, for example, spends the first half hour of the film developing a picture of a utopian society before exploring its inherent flaws. However a dystopic film will choose to focus more clearly on the flaws of its society. Terry Gilliam’s Brazil spends the entire length of the film developing the conflict between Sam Lowry and his post-apocalyptic world. The architecture portrayed in these cases embodies the flaws of its dystopian society largely through references to architectural styles.

dystopia

The term dystopian is used to describe a utopian society which has, at it core, one fatal flaw. The dystopian film is a social criticism; portraying the future society and its mechanisms largely as a means of exploring the flaws of present day society. The idea dystopia is largely a reaction against the modernist concept of progress, where man through his his powers of rationalization and machanizatin able to improve the functioning of society. However, thorugh the lens of dysopic narratives, the experiements of modernism are percieved as artificial, mechanical and, ultimately inhuman visions ofthe world. In this sense, the styles and themes of modern architecture are taken out of the context in which the were origionally concieved, and used instead as signs and emblems of an inhuman society in which a basic sense of humanity has been subverted.