Publication: “Evil People in Modernist Homes in Popular Films”

Have you ever considered the architecture favored by movie villains? Yale graphic design student Benjamin Critton has. In his newsprint publication Evil People in Modernist Homes in Popular Films, Critton explores one of filmdom’s curious coincidences: Bad guys often reside in modernist structures. (That’s Ernst Stavro Blofeld at left, holing up in a John Lautner–designed house in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever.) Critton’s treatise-of-sorts is strengthened by essays from Joseph Rosa, director of the University of Michigan Museum of Art; Guardian journalist Steve Rose; and Jon Yoder, a scholar of modern architecture. It’s a cheeky take on an amusing coincidence, but Critton’s publication also raises a trenchant question: How do we really feel about modern architecture, if that’s where we put the evildoers? • $10 at printedmatter.org