For those unschooled in
the work of Antonio Gaudí—the radical Catalan architect responsible for
the Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona, among other beguiling
masterworks—Hiroshi Teshigahara's 1984 documentary will offer little
context. So the best place to start on the new two-disc DVD is with the
supplemental materials, specifically the an hourlong BBC special Visions Of
Space: "God's
Architect," which clarifies Gaudí's
connection with nature and the sensual structures (flowers, tree bark, spider webs,
mountain faces) that influenced his spectacularly ornate designs. With that
knowledge in hand, Teshigahara's almost entirely wordless tribute to Gaudí's
achievements becomes a place to get lost, a hypnotic travelogue that's radical
in a way that's completely symbiotic with its subject. Though Gaudí died nearly
six decades before the film was made, it nonetheless feels like a true
collaboration between him and Teshigahara, whose camera caresses the Seussian
curves and painstaking flourishes that made Gaudi's work so otherworldly.
