Eames: The Architect & The Painter Page #9

yearning to communicate

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the complex beauty

of everyday objects.

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[Jazz playing]

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CHARLES EAMES:
We've never used

film as an art form.

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We just use film as a tool.

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[Mariachi music playing]

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SCHRADER:
They were, at heart,

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a kind of mixture of vanity

and self-expression.

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They only had one obligation,

and that was

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to satisfy Charles.

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CHARLES EAMES:

Much of our energy

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is like the guy in Vaudeville

that has

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the plates going, and he's

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intent on getting 30 plates

spinning at one time,

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but part of the process is

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quickly being aware of the ones

that are winding down,

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and keeping them spinning.

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ASHBY:
One of the titles

that began to circulate

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between all the employees

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was the Eamery,

because it was like this place

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where everyone was driven

to work all the time.

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SUSSMAN:
It was 24/7,

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365.

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JOHN NEUHART:
Going

to the Eames Office

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and watching people

at their desks

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was like watching people

take their brains out

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and knead them like dough.

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People that came

from the outside

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couldn't believe that this was

the way things were done,

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but it was a delicious agony.

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It was like a temple for me.

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OPPEWALL:
Many of us

understood very well

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that we were very poorly suited

for employment

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in certain kinds of jobs.

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We were very well suited

to be ithere./i

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ASHBY:
Charles had a terrible

time interacting with people.

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Several times, I hired people,

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and they would be there

like three days,

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and he'd come to me and say,

"I just can't stand that guy.

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Get him out of here."

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And I never did know what it was

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that he saw in that person

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that he could just not

work with them.

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ROCHE:
I happen to have

a sort of interest in language

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as a means of communication,

which I like to believe

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can be simple and direct.

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Charles, I would say,

didn'tsubscribe to that.

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Uh, no, we have to... you know,

the only thing is, uh, Perry,

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we have to have some sort of

a background before we do this,

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because one sort of begins to...

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SUSSMAN:
His speech wasn't

yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda.

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It was stop and go,

and stop and go.

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No, you... you let me... cut

this, let me re... let me...

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ROCHE:
He had

this incredible ability

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to surround every subject

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with a little cloud of words.

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We... we were hoping to...

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there were two...

there were several things.

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There was, uh...

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ROCHE:
You finally

got the message

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at the end of about

15 or 20 minutes of wondering,

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"Whatthe hell is he

talking about?"

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It finally dawned on you

that he was telling you

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you were an absolute clown

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because there's something wrong.

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CHARLES EAMES:
This one is

going to have something to do

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with what I think of

as the new cove tables.

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JOHN NEUHART:
He appeared

one day at a conference at UCLA,

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and he started to speak, and it

just ran right off the track.

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Looked up, and he said,

"I'm sorry.

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I just...

isn't going to work today."

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And somebody said, "No, no!"

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So he said,

"Well, give me a minute."

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He put his head down.

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And everybody waited.

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And it took about two minutes.

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And he raised up.

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And he just took off.

Boom.

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CHARLES EAMES:
Reams of paper.

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What you do with a ream of paper

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can never quite come up

to what the paper offers.

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[Cheers and applause]

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JOHN NEUHART:
He knew

where his center was.

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And there are not a lot of

people that can do that.

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I... I have buttons

that get pushed,

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but I don't know

where my center is.

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FRANCO:
For Charles,

knowing where his center was

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meant working

for powerful clients

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without compromising his ideals.

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And making a film to represent

the United States

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in communist Russia in 1959

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would put that philosophy

to the test.

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ALBRECHT:
At the height

of the Cold War,

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the American government

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