"Architecture projects space into this world. Cinemaphotography translates that space into pictures projected in time. Cinema then is used in a completely new way: as a space to meditate on buildungs", writes Heinz Emigholz. His film Schindlers Häuser shows 40 constructions by the Austrian-American architect Rudolph Schindler (1887–1953) in and around Los Angeles.
Emigholz has added a new encyclopedia of real spaces to his encyclopedia of mental buildings. Like in his earlier architectural films, he manages to let the perceptions of the screen surface become an experience of space in our heads – where the projection of the architect becomes that of the spectator. You could think that this structure would allow the parts to be reversible. But the opposite is the case. We are constantly surprised by the new, very cinematic dimensions gained by the individual spatial designs: If it was the noble glass block for Goff, the function of the ornament for Sullivan, and the promise of the bridge for Maillart, here it's the complexity of the perspectives in the private sphere in the middle of the Los Angeles public space. But also the formation of the cats on their scratching post.
Stefanie Schulte Strathaus
Production: Amour Fou Filmproduktion, Vienna; Heinz Emigholz Filmproduktion, Berlin
Concept, Cinematographer, Editor: Heinz Emigholz
Format: 35mm, Color
Running time: 99 minutes
Language: German
