Stardust is the story of the architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown – it is a journey across continents and decades into the ruthless world of architecture and a love affair and partnership that spanned over half a century.
Synopsis
It was one of the great, untold love stories of the 20th century. For fifty years, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown shared a life of profound tenderness, sharp wit, and creative joy. They also sparked a revolution in architecture, challenging the rigid modernism of the era with their embrace of complexity, symbolism, and the lessons of the everyday landscape.
Filmed with astonishing intimacy by their son, Stardust invites you to see the world through their eyes. It’s a road-movie journey to the places that meant the most to them—including Rome, Venice, Paris, London, Philadelphia, and Las Vegas. Along the way, you’ll witness their witty, subversive shorthand, quiet battles against a male-dominated establishment (including the infamous Pritzker Prize snub), and the enduring partnership that redefined architectural collaboration.
Praised by The New York Times and The Guardian, Stardust is a funny, moving, and deeply human portrait—a film to fall in love with.
Robert Venturi (1925–2018), born in Philadelphia to an Italian immigrant family, studied architecture at Princeton University. His first book, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, challenged the lazy orthodoxies of modernist architecture with the dictum “Less is a bore.”
His highly acclaimed projects include the Vanna Venturi House (built for his mother), Guild House, the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London, and the Seattle Art Museum. Robert Venturi was the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, including, most notably, the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1991.
who believe in mortality and the arts.”
Denise Scott Brown was born Denise Lakofski in 1931 to South African Jewish parents. She studied architecture and urban planning in Johannesburg, London and Philadelphia. At the University of Pennsylvania, Scott Brown met Robert Venturi, who served on the faculty with her. They married in 1967 and she became his partner at the Philadelphia firm, which later became Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. She has also taught at UC Berkeley, UCLA, Yale, Harvard, and Princeton.
A feminist icon, Scott Brown is an inspiration for generations of female architects and urban planners. She has written numerous books and lectured worldwide on architecture, urbanism, and popular culture.
THE FILMMAKERS
Jim Venturi (director & producer) and Anita Naughton (writer & editor) are the filmmakers of Stardust. Jim’s debut documentary offers a rare and personal look at his parents’ lives, informed by over a decade of filming and dozens of interviews with architects, artists and collaborators from all over the world. In addition to directing and producing Stardust, he also leads ReThink Studio, a think-tank based in New York City.
Anita is the writer and editor of Stardust and has been credited with creating an engaging and moving portrait of these two brilliant and subversive figures. Her book Tea & Sympathy is about her waitressing days in Greenwich Village. Naughton has just finished a rom-com set in Italy and is working on their next film, Denise Scott Brown: No Apologies.
CONTACT US
IG @STARDUSTFILMDOC
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