Clip description
Griffin’s writings are read over a series of shots that show some of his architectural achievements. These include Newman College at the University of Melbourne (1918), the ornate ceiling of the Capitol Theatre in Melbourne (1921) and the incinerator at Willoughby (1934), and a still of the plans for Canberra, lithographed onto cambric by Marion Mahony Griffin, which formed part of Walter Burley Griffin’s winning submission for the design competition.
Curator’s notes
With little or no film footage available of Walter Burley Griffith, the documentary makes extensive use of historical footage, still photographs, drawings and interviews with experts, as well as an actor reading from Griffin’s writings. In this clip, we hear that Griffin believed that 'buildings convey the most truth of the mental and spiritual states of various people and times’. The new footage is simply but elegantly shot, and the cutting is quite slow, allowing us to dwell on the images, to take them in properly. The last third of the clip is without voice-over, music or any other sound elements, and this is very effective in drawing us into active contemplation of the design.