Trained architect-turned filmmaker Patrick Keiller is one of the most distinctive voices in cinema, and in this talk he talks to Nick Bradshaw (web editor, Sight & Sound) about his film Robinson in Ruins, which forms part of a collection of feature-length cine-essays setting out to examine a particular ‘problem’.

Following the journey of Robinson, an enigmatic, and esoteric intellectual who travels through Tory Britain, Robinson in Ruins examines the problem dwelling itself, focusing on the discrepancy between mobility and displacement in developed economies, and a widespread tendency to privilege and romanticise modes of dwelling that derive from a more settled, agricultural past.

Narrated by Vanessa Redgrave, the film is one of the outcomes of a three-year research project entitled The Future of Landscape and the Moving Image.

In this talk, Patrick Keiller discusses the origins of the film, his research, notions of landscape, economy, and ownership, and his wider body of work as a filmmaker and researcher.

Patrick Keiller studied architecture at University College London and fine art in the Department of Environmental Media at the RCA. His films include London (1994) and Robinson in Space (1997), the latter extended as a book in 1999. He is a Research Fellow at the Royal College of Art in the Department of Communication Art & Design.

Nick Bradshaw is a film critic and web editor at Sight & Sound, who has previously worked as Deputy Film Editor for Time Out. He has also written for the Telegraph, Guardian Online, Times, Independent on Sunday, Village Voice, and LA Weekly.

Related Links:
The Future of Landscape and the Moving Image
Patrick Keiller BFI
Robinson in Ruins Guardian Review

A Festival of Ideas event in partnership with Watershed.

Posted on Mon 16 May 2011.

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