Andrzej Klimek, Feature-Length Documentaries as an Example of a Media Popularity of the Star-Architects
Mladá Fronta Dnes daily and announced he would do anything to prevent its construction due to esthetical reasons. Then political party of the president – ODS12 – changed front and started obstructing the project, despite the previous acclaim for it shown for example by Pavel Bém – the mayor of the city. Kaplický and his supporters had not managed to change this situation and the project was abandoned. The picture presents also the biography and the current private life of the architect, who would finally suddenly die. The presented point of view is not openly, but definitely subjective; although the film has been directed by Olga Špátová, its screenwriter and producer is Eliška Kaplický Fuchsová, widow of the main protagonist and one of the main characters of the picture herself. Therefore the point of view very close to her own is presented as an impartial one. Same as in How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster?, the biography of the architect and the image of his private life is flawless and in consequence not convincing. The film not only shows the good ones, but also literally picks who is evil. The villains are the opponents of the project, among whom the most significant are President Klaus, Mayor Bém ‘the traitor’ and Milan Knížák – director of the National Gallery in Prague who was probably the most notable person from the art world who overtly stood against this proposal. Books written by the former and the latter were caught with a blow-up, discarded by the crowd participating in a happening of building a model of the library of disused tomes. Such a juxtaposition is not the only difference between Eye over Prague and ‘Western’ works about star-architects. Obviously Kaplický cannot be classified as belonging to this category, however due to the fact that he was an author of such an iconic contemporary building as Selfridges in Birmingham (2003) and generally an architect positioning himself in an aesthetic avant-garde the movie about him may be compared to the film biographies of stars. There is a lot of reporter footage of events, several conversations and only few architecture as the main controversial object existed only in form of models and visualizations. Generally the visual style of the picture reminds a TV reportage. There are not many international celebrities participating, although Špátová managed to persuade Sir Norman Foster, a former employer of Kaplický, to take part in the film and praise him. Zaha Hadid as a member of the jury which chose the discussed project is visible only in an archive footage and she refrained from speaking about the scheme in front of a camera. Amongst the non-architectural celebrities there is late Václav Havel, probably the most recognizable Czech post-war politic, who advocated for the new building. Gradually leaning towards similarities it should be mentioned that there are also several 12
ODS – Cz. Občanská Demokratická Strana, Eng. Civic Democratic Party.
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