Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926) designed some of the world’s most astonishing buildings, interiors, and parks; Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara constructed some of the most aesthetically audacious films ever made. In Antonio Gaudí, their artistry melds in a unique, enthralling cinematic experience. Less a documentary than a visual poem, Teshigahara’s film takes viewers on a tour of Gaudí’s truly spectacular architecture, including his massive, still-unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Família basilica in Barcelona. With camera work as bold and sensual as the curves of his subject’s organic structures, Teshigahara immortalizes Gaudí on film.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Interview from 2008 with architect Arata Isozaki
- Gaudí, Catalunya, 1959, footage from director Hiroshi Teshigahara’s first trip to Spain
- God’s Architect: Antoni Gaudí, an hour-long documentary from 2003 on the architect’s life and work
- BBC program from 1961 on Gaudí by filmmaker Ken Russell
- Sculptures by Sofu—Vita, a 1963 short film by Teshigahara on the sculpture work of his father, Sofu Teshigahara
- Trailer
- PLUS: An essay by art historian Dore Ashton, a 1986 reminiscence by Hiroshi Teshigahara, and excerpts from a 1959 conversation among the Teshigaharas and others about their trip to the West