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.
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.