Title Creator Date Era City Country Emotional Sum (Sense of Life or emotional World View) Theme
Johnson Wax Building Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright 1939 1900 - 1950 Racine United States

Day to day life can be exalted and pleasurable.

To Work should be a condition of grandeur and joy.

Othello: the Moor of Venice Playwright: William Shakespeare 1603 1600s Stratford-on-Avon United Kingdom

Malevolence and horrible tragedy is unrelieved.  Evil is potent.

A great man can be gullible and controlled by an evil character.  Or, an evil character can have potency in the world, because of the weakness of a good man.

Chariot of Apollo Sculptor: Jean Baptiste (1630-1700) Tuby 1668-1670 1600s Versailles France

The world has thrilling powerful men of action.  There are no limits to what can be achieved.

Elegant, physical power.  The fantasy ability to fly through water and air with grace and ease.

Trustee from the Toolroom Author: Nevil Shute 1960 United Kingdom

A feeling of gentleness, kindness and generosity towards good people in the world.

The importance of pursuing one's personal values.

Psyche Author: Phyllis Brett Young 1959 Canada

Optimistic, Hopeful, even under terrible circumstances.

We are beings of self-made soul

Etudes Choreographer: Harold Lander 1948 Pre-1950 Ballet/Dance New York United States

Thrilling pleasure at beautiful movement and great success at developing the best within you.

Hard work results in great achievement in life -- and that results in beauty and excitement in life.

The Samovar Painter: Emil Carlsen 1920c. 1900s

The world is full of textural richness worth looking at.

The richness of light and the objects it caresses.  This is a paean to the richness of visual experience, but with the simplest of materials -- just a light source and two kinds of simple unadorned objects.

Merry Widow (Die Lustige Witwe) Composer: Franz Lehar 1905 1900s Vienna Austria

Love brings gaiety and joy to life.

Love can be gay and tender, solemn and lighthearted, painful and joyous.

Dangerous Beauty Director: Marshall Herskovitz 1998 United States

The world is a horrible split of conventional marital morality vs. honest but promiscuous morality. The way to live requires one sacrifice one's body for one's soul.

  1. The importance of accepting your own rules for living, your own morality.
  2. The grim metaphysical conflict for a Venetian woman of being a slave to a husband or a free woman requiring sexual work.
David Sculptor: Michelangelo Buonarotti 1504 1500s Florence Italy

Man is a strong, indomitable creature who has the intelligence to overcome terrible odds.

[requires assumption of some context of this work -- not a "cold" introduction to it]: A man able to face a daunting task, with tremulous calm and determination. This is the depiction of the David/Goliath story of the Bible in which David takes on the much more formidable Goliath and wins.

Die Hard Director: John McTiernan 1988 July 15 United States

The way to beat evil is to give no quarter, no compromise. Life is hard, but fighting for the right is rewarded.

Giving up in life is not an option.

Dirty Dancing Director: Emile Ardolino 1987

Life is passionate and meaningful.

The joy and passion of love and life and dancing, while learning integrity and independence.

Black Stallion Director: Carroll Ballard 1979 Sardinia Italy

Everything is possible between boy and beast, between an innocent human and mother nature.

Man and nature in harmony. At least this is the theme of the first half of the movie. See "Description" and "Context" info below for more on this comment.

Vitus Director: Fredi Murer 2006

If you have the will, you can find the way to live the way you want.

Living your life your own way is the only right way.

Romeo + Juliet Director: Baz Luhrmann 1996 1991-2010 United States

Tragedy is central to life.

Romantic Love is doomed and we don't control our own lives.

Sainte-Chapelle Architect: Anonymous 1248 Paris, Ile de la Cite France

The world is brilliant, light, colorful, orderly.

The world is brilliant, light, colorful, orderly.

Chocolat Director: Lasse Hallstrom 2000 United Kingdom

Pleasure is good; religion and conventional thinking is bad.

Follow your dream and disregard convention.

Niobe Sculptor: unknown c. 200 BC Rome Italy

Human action is beautiful.

Life is movement.

Real Adventure, The Author: Henry Kitchell Webster 1915 United States

Life is wonderful as long as you realize that life has to be earned the hard way.

Creating your self is the only way to live.

Burgos Cathedral Crossing Architect: Unknown 1569 circa 1500s Burgos Spain

God is order and reason and light.

The spirit of god is rational, uplifting and rich in detail

Atlas Shrugged Author: Ayn Rand 1957 1951 - 2000 New York United States

Life can be good; Men are competent to live happily; The world can be a shining, happy place to exist, if one is free. But novel also presents a dark, dystopian world to help make real that positive view.

The crucial value of the human mind.

Blue Steps of Naumkeag Landscape Designer: Fletcher Steele 1937-39 1900 - 1950 Stockbridge, MA United States

elegance and grace

The man-made enhances nature -- it is what makes nature beautiful

Wall Street Director: Oliver Stone 1987 1971-1990 United States

There are bad people in power who use ordinary people as pawns in their endless pursuit of money. Those who are not ruthless are sheep to be slaughtered by the rich and powerful. Greed is bad.

Financiers are amoral money-grubbing backstabbers, i.e., desire for money corrupts

Camelot Composer: Lerner and Loewe 1960 1951-2000 New York United States

One must attempt to live by values, even though virtue is powerless and hopeless.

Camelot: a medieval place of goodness and justice, and its inevitable failure.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams Composer: Warren and Dubin 1933-34 1900s United States

Weariness & Sadness

Life is loss of dreams and sadness