“The evaporation or the centralization of the self. Everything is there.” —Charles Baudelaire A sensorial approach to landscape In the deep contemplation of landscape the senses are altered. We feel a sublimation experience where the mental image of landscape undergoes a metamorphosis. The actual space is distorted, time flows in a different way: it stops in our consciousness. It is the connection at the “full instant,” the idea of “durèe” of Henri Bergson, where the intensity of the experience makes the image of landscape expands.

Frederick Law Olmsted designed New York City’s Central Park with Calvert Vaux over 150 years ago, and it remains an undisputed haven of tranquility amidst one of the largest, tallest, and most unnatural places on earth. This film examines the creation of America’s great city parks in the late 1800s through the enigmatic eyes of Frederick Law Olmsted, visionary urban planner and landscape architect. In his own words, Olmsted and America’s Urban Parks weaves together Olmsted’s engaging and poignant personal story with those of the lasting masterpieces he left for us today, featuring Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Kline as the voice of Frederick Law Olmsted.