Would you like to contemplate time, continuity, community, creativity, and spirituality while seeing beautiful images of an architectural marvel? If yes, have I got a film for you: Sagrada: The Mystery of Creation, directed by Stefan Haupt.
Sagarda Familia, the cathedral that began its life in 1882 and is still under construction in Barcelona, has bore witness to a civil war and two world wars. It survived the death of its creator, the destruction of most of its models and plans (there were very few drawings by Gaudi, he preferred to work with large scale models), a petition by prominent architects and artists (including Le Corbusier, Gropius and a host of others) advocating a cessation of construction, an arsonist, and, so far at least, a high-speed train that runs under its foundation.
Sagrada the film tells that history efficiently, relying on some stalwart documentary devices, a voice-over narrator, archival photos, and people reminiscing about people. But Haupt recognized that Sagrada the building’s story was more than just a bunch of dates and a biography of its brilliant, devout, and eccentric architect. It is the story of the people who worked and continue to work on it. We’re talking thousands of people over the course of 130 years, so choosing who to focus on was no small feat. Haupt chose wisely: a construction foreman speaking about Catalan pride and kinship; the chief architect accepting the fact he won’t see the cathedral completed in his lifetime; an architect-modeler explaining how those constructing the cathedral are a community working together to interpret Gaudi’s vision.
But the key to the film is interviews with two sculptors who worked independently on two facades. Etsuro Sotoo, obsessed with stone and all things Gaudi (he converted from Zen Buddhism to Catholicism in order to better see the way Gaudi saw), followed the architect's aesthetic while working on the statuary for the Nativity facade. Josep Subirachs created a stir when he followed his own vision for the statuary of the Passion facade, one that is angular, almost cubist, rejecting the flowing, natural shapes that inspired the architect. But Subirachs, an agnostic, experienced his own conversion: he was one of the artists that signed the petition that tried to halt construction on the cathedral.
“What must be preserved” Gaudi said, aware that he wouldn’t live to see the finished building, “is the spirit of this work.” Sagrada Familia welcomes zealots and nonbelievers. As chief architect Jordi Bonet, a second-generation architect on the project says, “Everybody is welcome.”
Sagrada: The Mystery of Creation is not a perfect film. The inclusion of a mute character (dancer Anna Huber) that turns up from time to time to walk through the cathedral or do a yoga pose overlooking the city, is unnecessary and mostly distracting. But that’s a small complaint. The film accomplishes something sublime: by examining what goes into the construction of such a massive, multigenerational project it does nothing less than show the human desire to serve, to pick up where others left off, to contribute to something larger than themselves, to leave something for others to carry forward.
One final note: if you watch this film and have never seen Sagrada Familia, you might find yourself looking at airfares to Barcelona. You have been warned.
Sagrada: The Mystery of Creation is now playing at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. If you love Gaudi, be aware that the Film Society is also screening the excellent documentary Antonio Gaudi by Hiroshi Teshigahara. They'd make a great double feature.
