Antonio Gaudi

This near-speechless appreciation of the work of Gaudi, the great Catalan architect, directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara (best known for Woman of the Dunes), certainly inspires awe for buildings that seem to have been grown instead of built, that look like none other, though designed in direct response to the specific history and culture of Barcelona. But more than anything else, it demonstrates that film is not architecture, that you cannot experience one medium through the other. I would have been happier if the film had been about the architect and his work, rather than trying to render physical movement through space and time, from 3-D to 2-D (or from four dimensions to three, as the case may be), reducing the body to an eye. Perhaps the big screen would improve the sense of scale, but this film does not become a prime candidate for the film series about architects that I am mulling over for next fall at the Clark. (1984, dvd, n.) *6*