E.1027 – EILEEN GRAY AND THE HOUSE BY THE SEA – Review by Yael Friedman (Guest Post)
The erasure of women from the annals of history is usually figurative – they are overlooked, conveniently forgotten, somehow missing from the picture. But Eileen Gray (1878-1976), the pioneering modernist Irish designer and architect, was almost literally removed from the architectural record by one of its most looming figures – Le Corbusier himself. A lovely new docudrama, “E.1027 – Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea,” by Beatrice Minger, revisits a chapter that sounds like a parable of how the great men of history can ensure they alone receive credit for shaping it.
“E.1027” is the name of the house in the Cote d’Azure that Gray built in 1929, for herself and her romantic partner, the Romanian architect and journalist, Jean Badovici (the name of the house is a play on their names). The film relies on some archival footage for historical context, but mostly it’s guided by original texts and quotes and the house itself. The three main (human) players, Gray, Badovici, and Le Corbuiser, are portrayed by three actors, sometimes on a set, sometimes in the actual house, moving through it like a narrated ballet. ”Gray was a glamorous and determined polymath who lived through some of the 20th Century’s most dramatic arcs, including those of interwar Paris, where it felt like the world was being invented anew until it all came crashing down.
A filmmaker might be tempted to luxuriate in the excitement and tragedy of the era and lose sight of Gray’s achievements. Minger gives us glimpses of this broader context but wisely focuses on E.1207 to tell this story.Continue reading on THE FEMALE GAZE
ABOUT YAEL FRIEDMAN
Yael Friedman is a journalist based in New York. She covers art and culture and their intersection with economics, politics, and history. She has written extensively about urban history and urban planning, particularly New York’s, analyzing its past and assessing its present and future. Her articles have appeared in Bloomberg CityLab, 1843, The Conversationalist, The Economist, The Daily Beast, Haaretz, Forward, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Urban Omnibus.
