Pantalla Pavelló | Blue Diversity film series: Moby Dick, by director John Huston

On the occasion of the appointment of the city of Copenhagen as World Architecture Capital 2023, the director of the Copenhagen Architecture Festival, Josephine Michau, presents the Blue Diversity film series, which will include films set in seas and oceans in order to talk about their biodiversity, and our current relationship, conception and management of water as a vital resource.

The first film in the series is Moby Dick, by director John Huston.

In John Huston’s cinematic adaptation of “Moby Dick” we are plunged into a world of sensory excess; the harsh textures of the ship’s wooden timbers, the tumultuous sounds of the waves and the stirring rhythms of the sailors’ sea shanties. As the crew hurtles towards an inevitable confrontation with the titanic whale, we are invited to consider the aporia of our power and the fragility of our existence. At its core, “Moby Dick” is a modern myth of humanity’s insatiable desire to assert our will over the natural world, even in the face of inevitable failure and self-destruction.

We will enjoy the live connection with Professor Søren Frank, who is an expert in comparative literature, renowned author of “A Poetic History of the Oceans,” Chair of the esteemed advisory board for the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award, and a highly knowledgeable scholar in maritime literature and culture. He has played a significant role in establishing the field of blue humanities. He will be able to contextualize the Moby Dick myth within a broader historical and philosophical framework, exploring the deep entanglements between habitation, art, and the oceanic realm, and discuss topics such as what is the current state of biodiversity in the ocean, how our cultural conceptions of nature influenced its degradation, and how we can develop alternative, non-instrumental relationships with the natural world.

You can buy tickets here.

Film file

Title: Moby Dick

Director: John Huston

Year: 1956Timing: 116′

Place: United Kingdom

Language: OV subtitled in english