Antonio Gaudí (1984)

Director:

Hiroshi Teshigahara

Release Date:

5 March 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Tour | Career | Building | Architecture | City

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

Serene yet hauntingly beautiful

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.