MTI Film Screening: The Belly of an Architect

Rothenberg Hall, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

Free; no reservations required.

In Rome, specters of the past are alive and well. Emperor's lovers float over domes and glide through fountains. Cardinals haunt niches and sneak under ruined arches. The city is a mausoleum, where bodies are not buried but unearthed and on display. Bronze, alabaster, marble. Porphyry, clay, glass. Materials give shape to eternal life. Peter Greenaway's seminal film, The Belly of an Architect (1987) explores the intersection of buildings and bodies, matter and spirit, unique to the city of Rome. Can a middle-aged American man compete with the specters? Will his aging body buckle under the weight of so much history?

Materialities, Texts and Images (MTI), a joint interdisciplinary program at The Huntington and Caltech, invites you to a special screening of Greenaway's film. The evening will begin with an introduction by Cora Gilroy-Ware, one of the program's fellows for the current academic year.