Antonio Gaudí (1984)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Hiroshi Teshigahara

Release Date:

5 March 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Hiroshi Teshigahara's camera takes us over, under, around, and into buildings and a park designed by Antonio Gaudí (1852 - 1926)...

Plot Keywords:

Building | Architect | City | Cathedral | Tour

Cast

Isidro Puig Boada	...	Himself
Seiji Miyaguchi	...	Boada (voice)

Directed by
Hiroshi Teshigahara

Produced by
Noriko Nomura	....	producer
Hiroshi Teshigahara	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Shinji Hori
Kurodo Mori
Tôru Takemitsu

Cinematography by
Junichi Segawa
Ryu Segawa
Yoshikazu Yanagida

Film Editing by
Hiroshi Teshigahara
Eiko Yoshida

Production Companies

• Teshigahara Productions

Distributors

• Aniplex (2000) (Japan) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Kino International (1986) (USA) (subtitled)

Runtime:

USA:72 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Teshigahara Productions

Beautiful film about a great artist

I just watched this film in a very nice DVD edition, and found it fascinating. It's a documentary by Hiroshi Teshigahara showcasing the works of the Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi (1852-1926). In Chicago, where I live, the city has always taken pride in its heritage of great architecture. These works by Gaudi, however, make the familiar architecture of this city, and most other American cities, look aesthetically bland and timid in comparison. Gaudi's designs were apparently tested for their stability before being built, but on seeing them, I could barely believe my eyes. They remind me very much of buildings depicted in the illustrations to Dr. Seuss stories. They seem to bulge, twist and writhe like living things, and Gaudi did indeed base his designs on organic models such as trees and plants, as well as natural geographic formations like caves. It must be fascinating to see them for real, and I imagine the people who live and work in and around them feel fortunate.

The cinematography of this documentary is beautiful, and shows us the buildings from afar, and up close in exquisite detail. Mercifully, the film is almost entirely free of taking-head commentary, and there is no narration to distract the viewer from the bizarre and beautiful subject matter. The interiors are as fantastic and surreal-looking as the exteriors. They must be seen to be believed. A haunting musical score by Takemitsu nicely compliments the eerie beauty of the buildings.

The film ends with Gaudi's monumental last work, the Templo de La Sagrada Familia (a huge cathedral), which was still under construction when this film was made in 1984, almost 60 years after Gaudi's death. I seem to recall that its completion was finally announced just a few years ago. This is a beautiful film about a great artist.