1. Nostalgic Architecture in postmodern Movies, using the example of
"The Lord of the Rings", against the background of 19th Centuries`
Historism
Charly Morr (Saarland University, Saarbrücken)
Revival, Retro-Look and „Back-to-the-Roots“ Nostalgia is everywhere. If you look at fashion, music, the movies or architecture you
see „old stuff“. The same is true of post-modern architecture. Charles Jencks, author of „The Language of post-modern
Architecture“, speaks of “double-coding” as an attribute of post-modern buildings. One part refers to modern construction methods,
whereas the other refers to historical design elements, for example the Sony Building by Johnson.
It’s time to pose a question: why do people look to the past? Perhaps an answer is to be found if we
look back to the historicism of the 19th century. The Bavarian palace Neuschwanstein, a prototype
for a romantic castle and a highly nostalgic object, was built in this time. For this reason,
Neuschwanstein was used as a model for Walt Disney’s Fairy Tale Castle in Disneyland, Anaheim
and is similar to the castle in the animated movie “Sleeping Beauty“.
The main topic of my work is nostalgic architecture in post-modern movies. Big-budget movies are the perfect playground for
nostalgic fantasies. I will show that with the aid of “special-effects”, every vision can be realised.