”The astounding images of more or less bizarre projects were intertwined with a fantastic interview material. This was also a documentary that treated the viewer seriously. We were assumed capable of following a train of thought, and understanding interviews without meddlesome guidance.” DN
”A vertiginous journey in the company of the most primary city planners and architects of modernism. A film that shows how much fun it can be with knowledge and education, as long as you have a good teacher, one of those who can “infect” you with curiosity and unexpected angles of approach.” SvD
This documentary provides an astonishing journey through innovative, futuristic, utopian and sometimes bizarre architecture projects-including concrete illusions of grandeur and Lego-like modular apartments to an Instant City Airship and round, grass-covered subterranean dwellings-from the beginning of the 20th century to today.
Since the end of the 19th century, due to industrialization and rapid technological progress, mankind has been confronted with new problems and possibilities. Visionary architects and artists, motivated by contemporary problems, including housing shortages, urban decay and pollution, set about to create changes in our ways of living that challenged conventional concepts of the good, the true and the beautiful. GREAT EXPECTATIONS introduces us to the most significant architectural movements and personalities of the 20th century, including, among many others, Le Corbusier’s functionalist cities, Buckminster Fuller’s lightweight geodesic domes, Moshe Safdie’s Habitat ’67 prefab apartments, Rudolf Steiner’s Goetheanum and other anthroposophy buildings in Switzerland, Oscar Niemeyer’s sleek urban designs for Brasilia, Paolo Soleri’s “archology” of crystal-like desert cities, Antti Lovag’s curved surfaces of Palais Bulles in France, Jacque Fresco’s utopian Venus Project in Florida, and Peter Cook and Colin Fournier’s biomorphic Kunsthaus Graz in Austria. Using archival and contemporary footage, animation and interviews, GREAT EXPECTATIONS tells the fascinating story of these grand architectural visions, both realized and unrealized, as explained by great thinkers with revolutionary, if not always successful, ideas.
Great Expectations
Documentary
Duration 52min.
Director Jesper Wachtmeister
Producer Jonas Kellagher
Co-Producer SVT AB, AVRO, SBS
© Solaris Filmproduktion, Eight Millimetres AB & SVT AB 2007
Distribution Icarus Films, DR TV International Sales, TWIN Co. Ltd.
SVT, NRK, YLE, AVRO, SBS, DR, RTE, Al-Jazeera,
Channel 8 Noga Communications Israel, AB Groupe, DCCV TV,
Czech Television, Metropolis Television Inc Taiwan ,
ERT Digital Greece,Kultura TV Russia etc.
FIFA Festival International du Film sur l’Art, 2008
The Swedish Architecture Museum 2008
The Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture 2008
Queensland Art Gallery 2008
Manitoba Cinematheque, Canada 2008
Visions 9th Int. Film Fest, Italy 2009
AIA Colorado, USA 2009
Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, Italy 2009
Ecofilms, Greece 2008
Museum London, Ontario, Canada 2008
Cinema du Parc, Montreal 2008
Centrum Architectury, Czech Republic 2008
Australian Cinematheque 2008
Architect Africa film Festival, South Africa 2008
Attitudes, Espace d’arts Contemporains, Switzerland 2008
Artecinema, Italy 2007
Festival dei Popoli, Italy 2007
Zeitgeist Multi-Disiplinary Arts Center, New Orleans 2007
Cinematheque, Winnipeg 2007
