Antonio Gaudí

Hiroshi Teshigahara does not explain Gaudí's buildings in Barcelona, he looks at them. There is almost no narration, no talking heads, no history lesson: the camera climbs the towers of the Sagrada Família, moves across the facade of Casa Batlló, follows the curves of Park Güell, and Toru Takemitsu's score accompanies the images rather than interpreting them. Teshigahara was himself an artist working in ceramics and ikebana, so this is a maker's eye rather than a documentarian's. The film is content to show how stone comes to resemble bone and how tile fractures light. It conveys almost no information and still explains Gaudí better than most documentaries about him. Who it is for: viewers who love architecture and wordless documentary. Who it is not for: anyone who wants the life and the period, none of which is here.