Feb 24, 2010
Breaking: Was Sacha Baron Cohen inspired by Concert of Wills?
Top: Architects Thierry W. Despont and Richard Meier discuss the pros and cons of carpet in art galleries. Clip taken from Concert of Wills–Making the Getty Center.
Bottom: Sacha Baron Cohen as Jean Gerrard in Talladega Nights.
As my boyfriend noted, Talladega Nights–The Ballad of Ricky Bobby has become my family’s It’s a Wonderful Life at the holidays. Over the past three Christmases, we have seen the Will Ferrell Nascar movie five times, and my parents own two copies. Our familiarity with the material had us cracking up during the recent MoMA screening of Concert of Wills. Perhaps you have to experience the tension of the movie to find the humor in the above comparison.
For anyone who has struggled with design-by-committee and/or control freaks, I highly recommend this documentary about the making of the Getty Center, which is available here: http://www.getty.edu/bookstore/titles/concert.html.