Description

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.

Special Features

High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray

Interview with architect Arata Isozaki from 2008

Gaudí, Catalunya, 1959, footage from director Hiroshi Teshigahara’s first trip to Spain

Visions of Space: “Antoni Gaudí,” an hour-long documentary from 2003 on the architect’s life and work

BBC program 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 between Hiroshi and Sofu Teshigahara on their trip to the West

Cover by Sarah Habibi