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.