This Nearly Wordless Film Needs No Explanation, but Some Narration Would be Nice.

The film Antonio Gaudi, directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1984, provides viewers with an opportunity to take a leisurely trip around the city of Barcelona, Spain to witness the architecture of Antonio Gaudi in about 72 minutes.

What it lacks in dialogue it makes up for in 16 mm footage that includes highlights such as the Park Guell, Casa Mila, and La Sagrada Familia. The sometimes shaky camera explores doorways, archways, caverns, and crannies to portray the magnitude of Gaudi’s architecture up close.

A view from Park Guell in Barcelona

Some of the best shots in the movie are short clips of Barcelonians dancing in hypnotic circles in the town square, food being prepared in a kitchen- the influence of nature and our engagement with it. Gaudi is one of those architects whose creations remain engaged with its public. A girl roller skates around pillars in a outdoor corridor attached to one of Gaudi’s edifices, children look out into the city from a large open space from Park Guell’s mosaic-benched courtyard, a family sits under a cavern outside of Guell to watch people walk by. La Sagrada Familia looms in the background of many shots, the familiar industrial cranes (still present on the premises) angled behind it. It’s left as the crowning Gaudi achievement toward the end of the film- a surreal, skeletal edifice from some strange fairy tale. Empty and austere, La Sagrada Familia inhabits a blank slate for the future potential of Barcelonian architecture.

Without dialogue, the film renders itself in the category of a gallery exhibition, unlabeled, asking onlookers to draw their own connections within the highly edited clips of the film. Looking for a history lesson? Don’t go see this film. In fact, a little history and previous knowledge of Gaudi’s Barcelona work is essential to a fuller appreciation of the film.

The contemporary musical score by Toru Takemitsu keeps the film moving when the camera’s strange angles and exploration feel far too slow.

Interested in seeing what’s changed since 1984 in Barcelona? Check out this flickr account to get an updated perspective on Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

How Technology is Hurting Movie Theaters

The film industry has hit a major road bump. Accessibility of the home theater option has increased dramatically with new digital technology. American consumerism, backed by a culture of instant gratification and self-entitlement to free entertainment via the web, has made the experience of attending a film screening in a theatre much less worthwhile for a substantial chunk (the common denominator) of the movie market.

New television technology, such as Blu-ray, offers larger disc storage capable of higher definition viewing and more available DVD extras (like deleted scenes, interviews, etc.). Flat screen televisions with widescreen movie theater-style viewing and home theater laser projection, partnered with television’s On Demand option, make a variety of movies instantly available with more control at home. Less movie watchers are likely to head for the box office as a result. Streaming movies instantly to computers and televisions via Netflix is more of a reason for audiences to stay on their couches, considering a film ticket at the theater costs between eight and ten dollars, and it eliminates a large (sometimes irritating) audience. Free download websites such as YouTube, RapidShare, and BitTorrent are propelling the younger, hip-to-technology generation to steal, or “share” what they can’t afford to purchase elsewhere.

The Shaw, Scheider, Dreyfuss trifecta from the cast of Jaws

Movies up until 1975’s Jaws had small releases in New York and Los Angeles, and relied heavily on an age 25-and-over adult audience. Movie directors of the late 70s, Martin Scorcese, Francis Ford Coppola, Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, etc. were considered the “movie brats,” a generation that grew up learning how to make movies by watching movies. They attended the first film schools set to churn out Hollywood filmmakers. During that time, the younger generation was a direct profit stream for the movie industry. Teens with middle-class parents and disposable incomes were the first generation to purchase merchandise tie-ins with 1977’s Star Wars. Nowadays the younger generation is not as likely to spend their dollars on t-shirts or light sabers, and directors steer clear of the theatrical style of the first motion pictures.

America has become a hotbed for obsession over actors and actresses, an opposition from the “auteur,” or author-centric films of France and other European film industries that are more akin to literature. The United States is the only country with entirely bought-out corporate funding or private funding, whereas other countries have state-funded film industries. For example, Fox Entertainment Group is owned by News Corporation (fox.com), and Paramount by Viacom (paramount.com). The American film industry profits from movies with the most certainty of financial return; high budget action adventures and low budget romantic comedies that appeal to the mainstream masses of families and teens. This explains the high number of industry flops that gross little money at the box office, but don’t really harm the big name subsidiary film companies of large corporations.

The Schwartzman, Wilson, Brody trifecta from The Darjeeling Limited

Studios do try to fill the void for movies that appeal to more of a pensive, ticket-buying, New Yorker-style audience. Specialty divisions, like Paramount Vantage, fund offbeat movies that still provide the slick craftsmanship of a studio film by a niche market director (Like Quentin Tarantino or Wes Anderson). It seems the future survival of the movie theater will turn to a niche audience that requires that cinematic experience; the big screen, low lighting,  and community atmosphere.

Ticket sales really boil down to marketing and distribution, and if a movie is not well promoted before or during its release, people will not see it. Film critics can point their readers to more experimental cinema, but if readership is increasing on blogs and forums from people without a vested interest in film, then those pensive theater-worthy films just won’t be seen.

Shepard Fairey Tags Pittsburgh

This past Saturday I visited The Warhol Museum of Pittsburgh to check out the Shepard Fairey SUPPLY AND DEMAND 20 Year Retrospective Show.

From his large scale mural and poster techniques, to a glass-encased pair of sneakers he wore when working in his studio, two floors of the museum gallery space were dedicated to the Fairey show. Often compared to Warhol for his appropriation of pop culture imagery, Fairey creates visually striking works on wood, canvas, and paper (along with stickers, posters, skateboards, buttons, etc.) that create a dynamic relationship between a public space and its audience.

"Arab Woman"

"War by Numbers"

The works mix the silk screening Rubylith technique (a silkscreen stencil cut from a bright red vellum) with weightier stencils, newspaper and pattern collage, spray painting, and hand painting.

As a kid of the 1980s who grew up listening to punk and hardcore music and skateboarding the streets of South Carolina, Fairey’s first mediums for illustration were skateboard decks and t-shirts.

His “Andre the Giant has a Posse” sticker campaign took off while he was an undergrad in illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design. The sticker, featuring a cut-out, black and white image of the deceased WWF Wrestler Andre Rene Roussimoff, aka Andre the Giant (featured in the image above), with the word OBEY in large type below it, is the most recognized work of Fairey’s. Some of the pieces that include the Andre the Giant reference play off of the wrestler’s measurements and height. Although this renders the numbered measurements meaningless, it’s a critique on how value is represented in commodification culture. Obey Giant is even more widespread than the recent controversial Obama Hope image that Fairey created (Fairey was accused of illegally appropriating and reworking a photograph taken by Mannie Garcia of the Associated Press).

"Duality of Humanity"

The simple methods of construction form multiple layers of meaning with an undeniable aesthetic appeal. But Fairey is against art that is merely considered a pretty picture, and a closer look at some of his more political pieces reveal a mesh of materials; stenciled Eastern-style pattern motifs, international newspapers, letters, juxtaposed with human representations of war, violence, and death. Fairey is a prime example of how art has the power to challenge its audience.

Here’s short video of a clean-cut PR-version-of-Fairey explaining the message behind his work at the opening of his Supply and Demand show in Boston:

Stenciled collage murals (courtesy of Fairey and his tagging squad) are covering sporadic urban areas of ‘da burgh for the duration of the retrospective show. Check out a map of the twenty Pittsburgh murals with street view photos here.

Here’s a video of Fairey fully immersed in the printing process, with some tasty background music:

The Supply and Demand show is on view in Pittsburgh until January 31, 2010.

If Fairey’s work doesn’t impress you, the seedy, gruesome, humorously demeaning posters from B-Movies, Grind House, and Classic film are highlighted in the exhibit SuperTrash, on display as well:

A tame tidbit from the SuperTrash exhibition