Antonio Gaudí

Do you wanna see some REALLY cool architechture? Rent this movie. The structures and buildings on display are unlike anything else on Earth. Antonio Gaudi (1852-1926) was a believer in naturalism, and his structures utilized a lot of organic principles. The buildings showcased, (and their subsequent interiors), are almost otherworldly, and they often look like something from Tolkien or Giger. (Think Middle Earth). Almost all of the film is devoted to showcasing Gaudi's work, which included apartments, homes, offices, outdoor structures, and fantastic cathedrals. Hiroshi Teshigahara, himself a student of art and ikebana (i.e. Japanese flower arrangement), was a highly visual film director, and his treatment of Gaudi's work is brilliant. There is essentially no narration, but the film's ambient score and breathtaking visuals work to reinforce the true genius of Gaudi's architechture. I was awestruck by the magnitude of this stuff, and the film takes you very close to the work of this incredible genius. Gaudi and Teshigahara are both on high display here, and the result is an entrancing, memorable experience. Highly recommended.

Be warned that this is not your typical documentary. There is very little dialogue. If you are one of little patience like me, I recommend watching this movie on your laptop browser while simultaneously trying to get some work done, or while chatting with a friend and sharing a bottle of wine. But be warned: without any notice, your work will go mysteriously uncompleted, and the conversation with your friend will inexplicably go quiet as you are sucked into the screen.

I visited Barcelona over a year ago and saw many of Gaudi's works and projects for myself, and can definitively say that this film truly captures the sensation of being awed by something that cannot be described by words alone-- a sensation that one feels when encountering a work of Gaudi completely by surprise, after the layers of the city are peeled away. Gaudi's works are shown in the context of scenes of the hustle and bustle of Barcelona life, the haunting medieval churches, the Catalonian countryside, and the amazing forms in nature which impacted Gaudi's art. Occasionally, old black-and-white photographs of the city streets and people are presented, showing scenes of the Barcelona Gaudi lived and worked in. The wonderful, trippy music captures the shift in mood as the camera moves through a noisy, colorful crowd enjoying Parc Guell and then slowly zooming in onto the unsettling, hallucinatory giant sculptural forms that miraculously coexist with this everyday world.

I am not saying that watching this movie will be an adequate replacement for seeing the city of Barcelona and Gaudi's structures for yourself. But as someone who visited Barcelona but was discouraged from venturing into Gaudi's buildings by skyrocketing ticket prices and endless lines, I greatly appreciated this movie, which allowed me to glimpse the miraculous city and architecture through Teshigahara's eyes. Now go to Barcelona and make it your own.

A magical, one-of-a-kind movie--a near-wordless 1984 tribute by the late Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara to the 19th-century Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi, whose ingenious, sensual designs grace the city of Barcelona. To call Gaudi's designs unique is to belittle them: His buildings borrow organic shapes from nature--the whorl of a seashell, the gnarled rigidity of a tree trunk--to create free-flowing forms of almost surreal beauty. Teshigahara's camera prowls the streets of Barcelona seeking the buildings, then lavishing attention on their alien curves, vaulted ceilings, and bizarre portals. The movie sounds dry, but the buildings are so fanciful and voluptuous that you can scarcely believe your eyes: They erupt from the city like weeds through a sidewalk, and their entropic strangeness becomes hypnotic. The director delights in watching people interact with these forms, as when a little girl roller-skates placidly through a forest of vertical columns. In his WOMAN IN THE DUNES, Teshigahara made moonscapes of sand and glistening crystals, immersing us in their texture; here he shows a similar fascination with everyday forms made shockingly unfamiliar. And his frequent collaborator, the great composer Toru Takemitsu, fashioned Catalan folk tunes into a haunting score that's at once ancient and futuristic, just like Gaudi's designs. A must-see for architects, for anyone intrigued by the possibilities of public art--and for anyone who wants to be transported to another world for an hour.

Is this a documentary ?

Of course it is not, since there are no voice-overs, obtrusive commentaries and no polemics.

Yes, sure it is, because it gives a lot of background and insight to a unique artist, who, although legend has it, did not came out of the blue. Nature provided him with a lot of inspiration, and the movie shows some architects of the same epoque and generation, who try to go the same way Gaudi did.

With a handful of explaining subtitles and one interview director/producer/editor Hiroshi Teshigahara (don't miss his incredible WOMAN IN THE DUNES) shows it all in a wonderful way in this 'documentary or is it a feature', in which the music of Toru Takemitsu is never on the foreground but inescapable present.

Watching this picture will give the viewer the shortest 73 minutes of his or hers live. Is there nothing wrong then... Well, every now and then there are too many dark corners, but to paraphrase Cinematographer Nestor Almendros: Darkness stimulates the viewers mind, and maybe even his imagination. And camera-movements are neat but a bit crude. But of course, truely gifted camera-operators like Alessandro Bolognesi & Erwin Steen were too young in '84 to help the Japanese Maestro out.

Thank you Antoni Gaudi; thank you Catalunia. Thank You Teshigahara and Takemitsu.

A strange and occasionally puzzling experience, Hiroshi Teshigahara's avant garde documentary focusing on the fascinating architecture of Antonio Gaudí is a real hidden gem. In a way, it feels almost like a film that tells a "story" entirely through shots normally used to set UP a scene, rather than shots that make up of the scene itself. Due to the film's nearly dialogue free style, we familiarize ourselves with Antonio Gaudí's own unique vision as well as that of the filmmakers as the camera glides through the architecture. Sometimes there is use of slightly uneasily hand-held camera movements, while other times the camera remains entirely still. Behind this collage of technique and structure is a haunting soundtrack that further adds to the film's meditative and hypnotic atmosphere.

Instead of human beings, this film's characters are made up of buildings. Although it may not sound likely, the buildings themselves manage to capture enough personality to keep patient viewers entertained. Every now and then, the camera also focuses on visitors to these enigmatic structures, more voyagers to share this breathtaking experience with.