First Person Singular: I.M. Pei

I am a fan of I.M. Pei and if you are a fan of Pei, I highly recommend that you see this dvd !I see Pei thru John Hancock Building in Boston. This glass skyscraper has a blade-like black strip niched along the entire height of building. Seeing it from the ground level, one cannot but be amazed at the thickness/size/amount of steel panels used to make that simple strip perceivable from afar. The glass tower contrasts strikingly to the brick context of Back Bay and the strip turns the building into a razor-like crystal. Such intensity of focus on the essence of a problem is the nature of Pei. This amazing DVD, orated by Pei himself, portrays such character.Early in his childhood, Pei lived in Suzhou (regarded as Venice of Asia) and he was exposed to rock farm artists. Pei provides a great anecdote on the practice of these artists. He claims his base of practice follows the heritage of those rock artists. To combine the man-made and nature-made and to regard "time" element as an quintessential aspect of creative enterprise.Pei's life in Cambridge is a testimony to the exciting encounters with modern masters at MIT and Harvard. Life in NY with Zeckendorf, Donald Trump equivalent of that era, is an experience of seeing architecture from the real estate perspective. Finally, his own practice that ignited the blast of winning major competitions. All of these stories are well orchestrated in the film.His major projects, such as Louvre and JFK museums, have great hidden stories. Miterand's vision for Paris was only possibly perfected by Pei's talent. Jacquiline's election of Pei among heroic Mies and Kahn is a contemporary drama.Unlike a typical boring documentary film, oftentimes a person depicting divorced from his/her works, this DVD performs as a companion to his actual buildings. The film is a verbal oration of his spatial creation. Sometimes, the camera pulsates with light and texture of space, othertimes, the camera jazzes with background music to the tonal rythym of his space.If there is an American Dream in architecture, here is a man who achieved it. If you liked this film, I highly recommend a film on Louis Kahn, 1996(?) version.

This documentary provided an excellent 90-minute overview of I.M. Pei's career and main works, such as the Louvre Pyramid in Paris, the addition to the National Gallery of Art in D.C., the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, TX, among others. There isn't much discussion of Pei's collaborators. His (late) wife provides valuable insights, but is the only person interviewed about him. The rest of the movie is Pei talking about his works, giving us a tour of his works, etc. The documentary doesn't go over Pei's personal life, except quickly about his wedding and one sentence about his taking the US citizenship in the 1950s and his children all being American. It would have been interesting to be given more insights into his creative process. In any case, I.M. Pei is definitely one of the leading architects of the 20th century.

I've been an admirer of I.M. Pei's work since the early 1980's. "First Person Singular I.M. Pei" is a really good PBS documentary video produced in 2011, of his work and life. Some parts of the video documentary are grainy in appearance because of the splicing together of film clips, but for me that adds to the authenticity of the work.

There is a longer version of this on YouTube which includes the Miho Museum. This DVD does not cover the long version of Miho Museum. I bought this because the DVD quality is much better than the YouTube streaming. Highly recommend this if you are an I.M. Pei fan.

Most people pass by buildings everyday and rarely wonder about the stories behind them. This production reveals wonderful stories about the architectural legend, I.M. Pei, and his thinking style, design philosophy, and remarkable buildings.The quality of the interviews is good and has this personal approach. It makes the viewer feel emotionally connected to the architect. Well, his character plays a big part in that manner, actually.If you are involved in any form of art, even if it's not architecture, you will find this production worth the money.

This is a wonderful video about a fascinating man. It is well-written and the photography is captivating. Throughout the video, the writer includes history of Pei and his works, which is truly inspiring and detailed enough to serve as an excellent reference for anyone who wants to learn more about Pei, architecture and style.Thank you for your contributions Ieoh Ming Pei!I also recommend the books "I. M. Pei Mandarin of Modernism" and "I. M. Pei: a Profile in American Architecture".

Enjoyed the book very much. Easy to read and very informative. Glad I purchased it.

About architecture and a man whos got what it takes to sweep those commissions his way! I M may be from the old architecture school, but its good to watch him talk about how he interacts with his clients. I didnt know much about his work apart from the Louvre, and its rather nice to see his other projects. Pristine, clean with a slight technical twist, I M's work is quite a legacy. If youre not from the design and architecture backgrounds, the DVD might be a bit boring and long drawn for you.

Lo avrei comperato comunque perchè I.M.Pei è un mio mito, ma non si tratta affatto di una edizione europea (tedesca) del dvd americano, infatti è codificato region 2 e non si può vedere se non sul computer e comunque cambiando le impostazioni. Quindi occhio: non potete vederlo alla tv se non avete un lettore region free. Per il resto PEI è un mito e il dvd merita