Architecture

One of two circus twins is cheated of an inheritance by his double, who sets himself up in a chateau.Only to be threatened by a sinister black hooded sect. Rollicking adventures follow, culminating with a big chase on the Eiffel Tower.Read More »

James Stirling takes us from Germany, to London, to Boston, guiding us through three of his widely famed museums. Though the buildings designed and created by the established architect contain some of the world’s most notable works of art, Stirling reminds us that architecture serves as its very own long standing piece.Read More »

A documentary short film by Ferdinand Khittl on Munich’s 800th anniversary.

Ferdinand Khittl was born on the 20th of January, 1924, in Frantikovy Lázně, Czechoslovakia. As a ship’s boy he signed on for a training vessel and for six years until 1945 he was a sailor with the merchant marine. After his release from two years as a POW in Italy he tried his hand at various professions (labourer, bricklayer, poultry-breeder, barman and baker) and first came in contact with the film business in 1951, when a friendship with a cinema owner led to a job as the representative of a film rental agency. Between 1952 and 1955 he worked as a trainee in Robert Sandner’s Olympia-Film company and became a cutter for Luis Trenker.Read More »

Take a journey through legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West — an architectural masterpiece housing his home, his studio and a school of architecture in the Arizona desert — with this documentary and interactive tour. The longtime director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, discusses Wright’s life and career, exploring the ways in which Taliesin West reflects his values of organic architecture.Read More »

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The architect, a contemporary master, Renzo Piano. The filmmaker, another contemporary master, Carlos Saura.Read More »

Reifarth relates the history of the Tugendhat House and family from the perspectives of the Tugendhat children. The Tugendhat House is also presented in the social, political and cultural context of the modern Republic of Czechoslovakia formed after World War I; the German occupation; the communist regime; and the Czech Republic, whose formation was made public in a broadcast from the Tugendhat House. The descendants of Fritz and Grete never repossessed the house but always fought to have it restored and open to the public. In 2001 the Tugendhat House was designated a UNESCO World Heritage. From 2010 until the opening in 2012 a laborious technical and aesthetic restoration was realized.Read More »

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1963’s Salut les cubains is a collaboration with Yves Montand that compiles Varda’s photojournalism from Cuba, ten years after the revolution, into a celebratory ode to the island, its people and culture, and the still-very-young socialist state. The images are striking from a historical standpoint, although they don’t hint quite yet at the more poetic direction toward which Varda’s work will evolve. Her photo-montage style recalls both Soviet revolutionary film and the Cuban documentaries of Santiago Álvarez, whose career was just beginning at this time. Moments are poignant, such as seeing Cuban director Sara Gomez cutting up around the ICAIC studios shortly before her death. But Salut les cubains’ dominant impression is one of boundless energy and the nation’s great hope in trying to forge a new way of life.Read More »

“Wim Wenders was bitten by the 3D bug when he made his 2011 dance docu, “Pina,” and he expands the possibilities of the format still further with “Cathedrals of Culture.” Giving all new meaning to the expression “if these walls could talk,” this conceptual six-part omnibus invites half a dozen international helmers to imagine the personalities of various cultural institutions, lending voices to their unique designs while allowing cameras to explore the buildings’ unique architectural features in all their multidimensional glory. Such an overlong and only intermittently absorbing project wouldn’t suffer in the slightest if broken up across several nights for non-3D arts TV, where the otherwise taxing presentation will likely find its broadest audience.Read More »

A Machine to Live In is a hybrid documentary linking the cosmic power structures of the state to the mystical architecture of cults and utopian cities in the remote hinterlands of Brazil.Read More »