BEHIND-THE-SCENES GETTY COMES ALIVE IN `CONCERT'.

Not since ``Moby Dick'' has a white leviathan received the kind of scrutiny heaped on the new Getty Center.

On Tuesday, Richard Meier's $1 billion hilltop complex finally opened to the public. But in a way the event was anticlimactic. As the world's richest arts institution, and a monument to L.A.'s cultural status-seeking, the Getty already has been subjected to torrents of verbiage and numerous thumb-sucking essays about ``what it all means.''

Perhaps the most succinctly eloquent overview of the Getty's architectural and aesthetic significance comes in the form of a new documentary film, ``Concert of Wills: Making the Getty Center.'' A trim 100 minutes in length, it will have its world premiere at 8 tonight on KCET (Channel 28).

Twelve years in the making, ``Concert of Wills'' bears the welcome imprint of Albert Maysles, who, with his late brother David, crafted such landmark cinema verite-style documentaries as the Rolling Stones' concert film ``Gimme Shelter'' and ``Salesman,'' a portrait of four door-to-door Bible salesmen.

Collaborating here with Susan Froemke and Bob Eisenhardt, Albert Maysles shows his trademark ability to find rich, thematic substrata beneath a compelling human drama.

The key players in this drama were Richard Meier, the esteemed New York architect; and John Walsh, erudite director of the Getty Museum, the most prominent of the six entities that make up the J. Paul Getty Trust.

Fundamentally, the story told in ``Concert of Wills'' is the story of the strained yet fruitful relationship between these two remarkable, very temperamentally different men. But several other fascinating secondary characters also emerge.

Far from receiving a fat blank check to do whatever he wanted, Meier had to appease many constituencies during the 13 years it took to clear a Santa Monica Mountains hillside and erect the Getty acropolis. Meier's first adversaries were Brentwood homeowners, fearful that a massive, all-white modernist building would mar both their views and their property values. (In the end, Meier settled on an off-white travertine marble).

However, the juiciest creative tension emerges between Meier and Walsh. Meier, passionate and expansive, wanted to sculpt a wide-open, free-flowing architectural experience, with white interiors and as few walls as possible. Walsh - a cooler, more ironic personality - favored a more traditional approach to the actual gallery spaces. Eventually, much to Meier's chagrin, Walsh brought in another architect, Thierry Despont, to ``salonize'' the decorative arts galleries by coating them with color-coded fabric.

Meier also came to philosophical blows with Robert Irwin, the gung-ho, bright-eyed San Diego artist charged with designing the Getty's ornate central gardens. ``Concert of Wills'' hits a dramatic high point when Irwin responds with a choice one-word expletive to the Meier team's suggestion that his plans are ``irresponsible.'' This is followed by a very long silence.

Presiding over this symbolic struggle is the benign yet firm presence of Getty Trust president and CEO Harold Williams, weighing in judiciously whenever Meier and Walsh (or Meier and Irwin) reached an impasse. We also hear thoughtful words from architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable, a member of the Getty's design advisory committee.

The filmmakers do a fine job of laying out the competing visions, foreshadowing the outcome without overstating it. And there are many beautiful shots of the architecture itself, bathed in the rapturous Southern California light.

``Concert of Wills'' takes what might've been an insider-ish, esoteric subject and turns it into an absorbing narrative. The Getty's decision to commission such a frank, self-critical piece bodes well for the center's future as a showcase for all Angelenos.

Toward the documentary's end, Meier compares the project to a long marriage in which both parties start out thinking they'll change the other. Great arts advocates, like great lovers, sometimes have to agree to disagree.

THE FACTS

What: ``Concert of Wills: Making the Getty Center.''

When: 8 tonight, KCET (Channel 28).

Our rating: Three and One Half Stars.

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Photo

Photo: ``Concert of Wills: Making the Getty Center'' lays out the competing visions of the $1 billion hilltop complex in the Santa Monica Mountains, foreshadowing the outcome without overstating it.