Objectified

A toothbrush, a chair, a razor. The documentary asks how they were designed. It talks to designers: one describes how many hands an object passes through, another explains why a tool weighs what it does. In a studio in Japan it shows how many variations of a product were tried. Then another question comes: if this many objects are made, where do the old ones go. Whether design itself speeds up consumption is asked as well. Gary Hustwit directs. Paola Antonelli, Chris Bangle, Erwan Bouroullec and other names from the field speak in it. It is an American production. The film is the second in Hustwit's trilogy about design; the first was about a typeface. The documentary builds no argument; different views are set side by side and some contradict each other. The matter it treats is our relation to objects; the film shows design not as aesthetics but as a process of decision. It shows the production line too and the factory scenes are inside the narrative. The narrative leaves sustainability to the end and its register changes there. The visual language is plain; the camera looks at the object and adds little comment. Its limit is depth; the interviews are short, the subject wide, and the narrative stays on the surface. Who it is for: viewers who like design documentary and are curious about how things are made. Who it is not for: it is scattered, the subject broad, and the ending closes on a question.