Please join the Center for Architecture and hosts John DeFazio, AIA (Architect & Associate Professor @ Drexel University) and Nick Groch, Assoc. AIA, for an entertaining evening of classic film related to architecture. This ongoing, monthly series shows films that explore ideas and themes on architecture and architects, though not necessarily directly. Discussion is encouraged.

This month's film will be the Coen brother's classic "The Big Lebowski" (1998).

"Jeff Bridges stars as Jeff Lebowski, an unemployed Los Angeles Slacker and avid bowler, who is referred to and also refers to himself as "The Dude." The Dude is introduced to a millionaire also named Jeffrey Lebowski after a case of mistaken identity. When the millionaire Lebowski's trophy wife is later kidnapped, he commissions the Dude to deliver the ransom to secure her release. The plan goes awry when the Dude's friend Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) schemes to keep the full ransom. The film's structure has been compared to Raymond Chandler's novel The Big Sleep. (Wikipedia)

The Big Lebowski is a comedy in contrasts (economic, culturally and architecturally)-- moving from Venice Beach bowling alleys to Malibu hillside mansions. Architect John Lautner's Sheats/Goldstein house (Los Angeles, 1963), a tour de force in Organic Architecture is featured as the house of Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazzara)-- a wealthy pornographer and loan shark, who has the Dude beaten by two thugs at the very the beginning of the film. Why is it that the villains always have the greatest digs?"