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Radiant City
Author: Simon Sellars • Sep 22nd, 2007 •Category: architecture, Ballardosphere, suburbia
Annoyingly, I missed the doco Radiant City, with its Corbusier title and Ballardian aesthetic, when it played at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival. I’d actually bought a ticket but double-booked myself like a simple-minded fool.
I just knew it would be right up my alley, based on this synopsis:
Sprawl is eating the planet. Across the continent the landscape is being levelled – blasted clean of distinctive features and overlaid with zombie monoculture. Politicians call it growth. Developers call it business. The Moss family call it home. While Evan Moss zones out in commuter traffic, Ann boils over in her dream kitchen and the kids play sinister games amidst the fresh foundations of monster houses.
A chorus of cultural prophets provide insight on the spectacle. James Howard Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere, rails against the brutalizing aesthetic of strip malls. Philosopher Joseph Heath fears the soul-eating burbs but admits they offer good value for money. And urban planner Beverly Sandalack dares to ask, Why can’t we walk anywhere anymore?
The dark era of resource scarcity is looming fast, threatening to strike suburbia “off the menu of history.” But like a juggernaut, it sails intractably forward, flattening all in its path.
…
Something’s happening on the edge of town. They call it Radiant City. Welcome to the neighbourhood.
This New York Sun review of the film makes the links explicit, referencing Ballard’s novella Running Wild.
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