Title Creator Date Era City Country Emotional Sum (Sense of Life or emotional World View) Theme
Johnson Wax Building Architect: Wright, Frank Lloyd 1939 1900 - 1950 United States Day to day life can be exalted and pleasurable.

To Work should be a condition of grandeur and joy.<br>
Othello: the Moor of Venice Playwright: Shakespeare, William 1603 1600s Malevolence and horrible tragedy is unrelieved.  Evil is potent.

A great man can be gullible and controlled by an evil character.&nbsp; Or, an evil character can have potency in the world, because of the weakness of a good man.<br>
Chariot of Apollo Sculptor: Tuby, Jean Baptiste (1630-1700) 1668-1670 1600s The world has thrilling powerful men of action.  There are no limits to what can be achieved.

Elegant, physical power.&nbsp; The fantasy ability to fly through water and air with grace and ease.<br>
Trustee from the Toolroom Author: Shute, Nevil 1960 A feeling of gentleness, kindness and generosity towards good people in the world.

The importance of pursuing one's personal values.<br>
Psyche Author: Young, Phyllis Brett 1959 Optimistic, Hopeful, even under terrible circumstances.

We are beings of self-made soul<br>
Etudes Choreographer: Lander, Harold 1948 Pre-1950 Ballet/Dance 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.<br>
The Samovar Painter: Carlsen, Emil 1920c. 1900s New Britain, CT United States The world is full of textural richness worth looking at.

The richness of light and the objects it caresses.&nbsp; 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.<br>
Merry Widow (Die Lustige Witwe) Composer: Lehar, Franz 1905 1900s Love brings gaiety and joy to life.

Love can be gay and tender, solemn and lighthearted, painful and joyous.
Dangerous Beauty Director: Herskovitz, Marshall 1998 pre-1910 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: Buonarotti, Michelangelo 1504 1500s 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: McTiernan, John 1988 July 15 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: Ardolino, Emile 1987 Life is passionate and meaningful.

The joy and passion of love and life and dancing, while learning integrity and independence.
Black Stallion Director: Ballard, Carroll 1979 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: Murer, Fredi 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: Luhrmann, Baz 1996 1991-2010 Tragedy is central to life.

Romantic Love is doomed and we don't control our own lives.
Sainte-Chapelle Architect: Anonymous 1248 The world is brilliant, light, colorful, orderly.

The world is brilliant, light, colorful, orderly.
Chocolat Director: Hallstrom, Lasse 2000 Pleasure is good; religion and conventional thinking is bad.

Follow your dream and disregard convention.
Niobe Sculptor: unknown c. 200 BC Human action is beautiful.

Life is movement.
Real Adventure, The Author: Webster, Henry Kitchell 1915 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 God is order and reason and light.

The spirit of god is rational, uplifting and rich in detail
Atlas Shrugged Author: Rand, Ayn 1957 1951 - 2000 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: Steele, Fletcher 1937-39 1900 - 1950 elegance and grace

The man-made enhances nature -- it is what makes nature beautiful
Camelot Composer: Lerner and Loewe 1960 1951-2000 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 Weariness & Sadness

Life is loss of dreams and sadness
King in Khaki, A Author: Webster, Henry Kitchell 1909 1900 - 1950 Honesty is a noble and practical way of life.

Business acumen produces both material wealth and moral right.

The success of the entrepreneur in this story, along with his relation to all his staff and secondary and tertiary folks on the island who work for him -- makes him into a "king" based on important human relations and the rightness of his decisions that result in a successful business enterprise.

A subsidiary theme might be termed the power of morality over physical power or economic "power".