ABSTRACT
The construction in height inspired by the desire to dominate the natural forces of gravity, symbols of political or religious power. Vertical buildings, besides their role as icons, are transformed in explicit representations of power and wealth, the result of an interaction of economic and real estate forces. The enchantment generated by these buildings leads to many metaphorical possibilities reaching space beyond the limits of the architectonical world, being pictured in cinema and literature. The article discusses the place this monument occupies in our imaginary through cinema. Icons of modernity, skyscrapers represent urban utopias. The tower, real or imaginary, becomes a metalanguage and cinema uses its dramatic and emotional potentialities abundantly. The modern movement, in particular, occupies a prominent place in this field, and to represent it, it is frequent for architecture to have a protagonist role in cinema, that discusses the aesthetic of towers through symbolic representation.
