Eames: The Architect and the Painter

Eames: The Architect and the Painter is a vividly detailed, fascinating look at Charles and Ray Eames, whose groundbreaking furniture pieces were only one small part of an influential career that pushed the boundaries of architecture, graphic design, and filmmaking. Interviews with former assistants and art historians, in addition to a wealth of archival images, animate the mid-century design revolution sparked by the couple's complicated story of love, ambition and idealism. Their freewheeling California office, known as the Eamery, along with their idiosyncratic beachside home, serves as the film's geographic and emotional center and provides a glimpse into the obsessive, imaginative world created by the charismatic Charles and introverted Ray. As the film traces the populist threads in their work as mass-market furniture designers (their motto was "the best for the most for the least"), experimental filmmakers, and corporate design partners, it also highlights Ray, a trained abstract expressionist painter, as a key partner in everything Eames. In the patriarchal 1950s, Ray was viewed as little more than Charles' assistant, so it's gratifying to see her mastery of form and color recognized as an essential counterbalance to her husband's scientific, analytical style. It's a vibrant reminder of how one couple's love of art and design changed, not just themselves, but the constructed world.